Another round of road repaving is in the works, following a recent vote by Jackson’s one-percent oversight commission.
Recently, commissioners approved the city’s request to fund $4 million in road repaving and pothole repairs.
Members will meet on April 30 to determine what roads to include.
“We’re looking at less than a million (dollars) for pavement repair and $3 million for street resurfacing,” said Public Works Director Robert Miller.
The funds would come out of the remaining one-percent dollars on hand.
As of March 31, the city had $5.5 million in unobligated dollars.
Commissioners approved the request unanimously.
Work will be done by private contractors, and bid specifications for the project were expected to be drawn up by the end of last week.
Miller said private contractors will be used, because the department doesn’t have enough workers in-house to do it.
“I have 28 authorized (road) positions, 12 are filled,” Miller said. “I have a tough time recruiting and maintaining those positions.”
While no roads were chosen, public works presented a list of 63 streets for commissioners to consider for repaving, including 18 on the Northside.
In Ward One, the city is recommending repaving portions of Ridgewood Court Drive, Westbrook Road, Venetian Way, Kaywood Drive, River Thames Road, Briarfield Road, Lelia Drive, LeFleurs Square, Southerland Drive, Northtown Drive, Briarwood Road and River Oaks Boulevard.
In Ward Seven, streets include Museum Boulevard, St. Richards Street, Harding Street, Fondren Place, Henderson Circle and Office Park Drive.
Commissioners said they needed more time to determine which streets to include, and scheduled a special meeting for April 30 to make the final decision. At that meeting, public works will provide more details on the streets it’s recommending, including current street ratings.
“I’m not saying I’m against this list, I just got this list,” said Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the commission chair.
The $4 million would cover about a third of the recommended roadways, and allow the city to put a “sizeable dent” in the city’s backlog of potholes, Lumumba said.
About 400 large pothole areas are included in the backlog, Miller said.
Commissioner Ted Duckworth said the allocation should be increased to $4.5 million, which would give the city an additional $500,000 to allow the city to catch up on its pothole backlog entirely.
However, no action on his recommendation was taken.
“We generate a million dollars a month in revenue. If another half-million-dollar allocation would get us caught up, we can make the call,” he said. “I’m sure Public Works would love to get caught up on something.”
