Jackson Free Press

Construction has hit a snag on the new JATRAN facility at U.S. Highway 80 and Valley Street—a facility that the city considers crucial to the revitalization of the Highway 80 corridor.

The project is on hold at least partly because the contractor did not follow federal regulations tied to grant money allocated to build the terminal, said City Communications Director Chris Mims and Department of Public Works Director Dan Gaillet.

"That's federal funding that has a stipulation that all the materials have to made by American suppliers," Mims said Monday following a Jackson City Council meeting. "We've discovered that at least a couple of components are not American made. We're communicating with the Federal Transit Administration and found that problem. We're trying to work out a solution with both them and the contractor. It was the contractor who installed that equipment."

The $6.8 million facility is designed to replace the old municipal public transit office on Terry Road. The federal government provided the brunt of the funding, leaving Jackson to pay the remaining $743,000 qualifying match for the support.

The city hired a private contractor, Sumrall-based C Perry Builders Inc., to build the station. Reached by phone, project supervisor Danny Simon deferred questions to company lawyer Judson Jones of the Jackson firm of Mockbee, Hall and Drake. Jones did not immediately return a call to his office.

C Perry Builders has been operating in Mississippi since 1975, and the company is no stranger to the capital city. It is the same company that renovated the auditorium at the State Fire Academy off of North State Street, which was completed last year.

It is unclear whether the existing components in question, already built into the structure, will have to be removed.

"We're waiting on FTA," Gaillet said. "In some cases, they've allowed the equipment to stay. In other cases, they've made it come out. We've been waiting for them to give us direction one way or the other."

Ward 4 Councilman and mayoral candidate Frank Bluntson first raised questions about the project at Monday's special meeting of the city council. Bluntson asked why the project hadn't moved forward, and Gaillet responded that torrential downpours in January and February had left the building site a "big mud field."

Bluntson, who clearly knew the reason for project's setbacks, pressed for more information, and City Chief of Staff Sean Perkins defended the efforts that have gone into the project.

"We're working through several issues," he told the council. "The contractor has worked long and hard."

It is unclear how long the project could remain in limbo while the FTA decides what to do. There is also the question of who would pay for the renovations to the project if the questionable materials must be removed—or whether the city would have to repay the roughly $6.6 million it received if the federal government revoked the grant.

"That's the question that has yet to be answered," Mims said.

The station construction was expected to create 200 jobs over 18 months, and once operational, free up the land at the facility's old Terry Road location for potential development by Jackson State University.

Construction of the facility coincides with the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District's economic development strategy for the Highway 80 corridor, which stretches from Clinton to Rankin County.

"I know there has been some question as to whether or not the city of Jackson truly supports JATRAN," Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. told reporters and supporters in July 2011 when the new construction was first announced. "But this facility is a testament to the city's commitment to public transit here in Jackson."