Jackson Free Press

The Jackson City Council will have a special meeting at 11 a.m. this morning to discuss their recommendations to the state Legislature.

The council will discuss Senate Bill 2110, which will return control of certain roads inside the Jackson corporate limits to the Mississippi Department of Transportation, if passed.

The city has attempted to return control of several roads to the state for a few years, including State Street and Highway 49, but MDOT has required them to get the streets to state "A" standard first, something Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. said would cost the city "millions and millions and millions of dollars."

If the bill, authored by Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, fails to pass, the city will have to look elsewhere for the needed funding for upkeep on the roads. The current budget for road maintenance in Jackson is just over $2 million. Johnson said recent applications for federal funding to support the upkeep have been denied.

Other bills that will be discussed today include one that would add a category of attempted murder to the state law books and a bill that will require scrap metal shops and junk yards to record VIN numbers on automobiles they acquire and report them to local law enforcement. The committee was in favor of both bills when they discussed them at Monday morning's meeting.

Previous Comments

ID

167085

Comment

Correction by Jacob Fuller: Wednesday morning's special meeting was not a legislative meeting. It was a budget committee meeting. During the meeting, committee members discussed first-quarter earnings and expenditures with Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. Discussions of replacing and repairing city water and sewage lines highlighted the meeting, which was shortened because Johnson had a previously scheduled meeting to attend.

Author

Jacob Fuller

Date

2012-02-15T15:27:20-06:00