Fondren and Belhaven account for about half of the neighborhood streets the One Percent Infrastructure Oversight Tax Commission funded for resurfacing, which is expected to begin in October.
The Jackson City Council accepted, during its Sept. 26 meeting, the $5.09 million bid of Dickerson & Bowen for the project.
Some members of the council were disappointed to learn that the 31-street project does not include all wards in the city. However, council member Virgi Lindsay could not be happier because most of the streets to be improved are in the Belhaven, Fondren and the Cottage Grove neighborhoods, which are part of Ward Seven that she represents.
“I understood the process that the commission used to determine the streets to resurface,” she said. “I know this is the first wave and that the entire city will eventually be covered. The commission and Neel- Schaffer engineering firm did a good job identifying the streets with the most critical need for repairs. The project has to start somewhere and there will be more to come.”
The streets in Fondren that will be resurfaced are:
- Taylor Street from State Street to the dead end (Oxford Avenue to Downing Street omitted)
- Lorenz Boulevard from West Street to State Street
- Council Circle from State Street to State Street
- Redwing Avenue from Council Circle to Council Circle
- Eagle Avenue from Council Circle to the dead end
- Glenway Drive from Old Canton Road to Woodland Circle
- Ridge Drive from Woodland Circle to Wood Dale Drive
-Woodland Circle from Glenway Drive to Glenway Drive
- Woodland Drive from Glenway Drive to Woodland Circle
In Belhaven and Belhaven Heights, the streets to be paved are:
- Peachtree Street from Poplar Boulevard to Woodrow Wilson Avenue
- Myrtle Street from Laurel Street to Riverside Drive
- Bellevue Place from State Street to Monroe Street
- Moody Street from Madison Street to Greymont Street
- Whitworth Street from Bellevue Place to Manship Street
- Quinn Street from Moody Street to Poplar Boulevard
The other streets to be resurfaced are:
- Main Street from Ridgeway Street to Walter Dutch Welch Drive
- Parkway Street from Ridgeway Street to Walter Dutch Welch Drive
- Avenue G from Parkway Street to Main Street
- Avenue H/James O Glass Drive from Parkway Street to dead end
- Holmes Avenue from Medgar Evers Boulevard to Bainbridge Drive
- Ashdown Street from Bainbridge Drive to Albermarle Road
- Aurora Street from Bainbridge Drive to Albermarle Road
- Bainbridge Drive from Holmes Avenue to dead end
- Albermarle Road from Larkspur Street to Oakland Avenue
- Eminence Row from Bailey Avenue to dead end
- Lawson Street from Eminence Row to dead end
- Cottage Street from Eminence Row to Collier Avenue
- Marion Dunbar Street from Ridgway Street to Mayes Street
- Ridgeway Street from Livingston Road to dead end
- James Hill Street from Ridgeway Street to Mayes Street
- Mobile Avenue from Randall Street to Lavernet Road
Robert Lee, interim public works director for the city, said the commission plans to resurface additional neighborhood streets and that the commission intentionally chose streets in close proximity so it could get the most bang for its buck and avoid additional costs for the moving of equipment.
Some council members questioned the process the commission used to determine the streets to be resurfaced and thought the council should have been more involved in the process.
Pete Perry, a member of the commission, said that Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba who serves as chairman of the commission, did not want to get input from the council about neighborhood streets to repave.
“A year and a half ago when we were figuring out the streets, he said he didn’t want the council to provide the names of streets,” he said.
In 2021, the commission asked neighborhood homeowners associations to submit the names of streets in their neighborhoods that they would like resurfaced and that began the commission’s selection process.
The commission took the names of the streets that the associations recommended and compiled a list for Neel-Schaffer to visit and visually inspect for condition. Neel-Schaffer is being paid $300,000 to evaluate streets and estimate the project costs and prepare bid documents for it.
Neel-Schaffer did what the commission asked and removed from the project the neighborhood streets that have been resurfaced by Hinds County since the associations provided input. Also removed were streets in need of sewer repairs and streets that JXN Water identified as having water leaks that it plans to repair.
The commission focused on the proximity of streets in need of repairs, a concern meant to make the most of the funding and reduce the expense of moving equipment, rather than intentionally making sure the number of streets to be resurfaced is the same in every ward.
While most of the work will be resurfacing, there will be some curbs repaired and some streets will be milled before being resurfaced. Manhole and water valve adjustments are part of the project.
The project does not include sidewalk repair, which the commission indicated it plans to tackle with another project.
Perry questions whether all 31 streets can be resurfaced by the end of the year before the temperature drops and makes it too cold for paving and asphalt plants shut down for the holidays.
Plans are for the commission to have a second phase of the project with streets included from the lists the associations submitted.
Hibbett Neel, who founded Neel-Schaffer and serves as chairman of its board, presented a timeline to the commission that called for the council approving a second round of neighborhood street resurfacing in December, awarding a bid in April and construction in June and July.
“We’ll sit down with you and say, ‘This is what we estimate, and you’ll have to decide how much you can afford,’’’ Neel said about a second phase of the resurfacing project.
To resurface all the streets that the associations suggested would cost $20 million to $25 million, he said.
The city collects about $1.1 million to $1.2 million every month from 1 percent of sales tax. That does not include sales tax related to hotels, bars or restaurants in the city. Jackson voters approved the sales tax on Jan. 14, 2014.
Until now, most of the road improvements the commission has provided funding for have been major thoroughfares such as North State Street, although the commission in its early days funded work on some residential streets scattered here and there.
