Changes in Madison Academic project concerns officials

JACKSON, Tenn. — Concerns are raised about an ongoing project involving the city and one of the new schools to be built.

City officials, school officials and officials with Healthy Community, LLC. discussed some recent obstacles for building the new Madison Academic Magnet High School during Thursday’s city budget committee meeting.

“That resulted in a recommendation to the city council to defer consideration this month until we’ve had a chance to review all of the documents moving forward,” councilman and budget committee chairman Paul Taylor said.

Documents from Healthy Community say the original total cost to build the school was around $11,570,000, but that price has gone up because the groups did not get tax credits they needed.

The project will now need an extra $2 million for construction: $2.4 million for construction costs, $60,000 for engineering and architecture, and $313,000 for interest.

“We started having discussions about how that cost increase and the potential payment structure to finance that would affect the city’s budget not only at present, but in the future,” Taylor said.

“In order to mitigate some of the costs involved in the shortfall of the new market tax credits, the CRA has pledged a front end contribution of $300,000 to offset some of the shortfall from the new market tax credits,” Hal Crocker with Healthy Community said.

The budget committee is also worried about hitting project deadlines when they haven’t received the shared use agreement, West Tennessee Healthcare agreement and a cost analysis.

The closing date is March 1, but Taylor says they don’t anticipate having to reschedule.

“Here we are in January, and if we move through the process into February, I don’t think that pushes it back,” Taylor said.

The budget committee plans to hold a special called meeting February 6 at 10 a.m.