By NELL LUTER FLOYD
Sun Staff Writer
Neighborhood organizations should receive a form from the city of Jackson by early April, requesting their input about residential streets that need improvement.
With suggestions from neighborhood associations, the One Percent Sales Tax Commission plans to tackle improvements to residential streets in Jackson.
Pete Perry, a commission member, is staying in touch with city leaders to make sure the forms are mailed to neighborhood groups it knows about.
There is no deadline for an organization to return the form and there’s no guarantee the streets an organization lists as needing improvement will be worked on because factors such as whether a street needs additional infrastructure repairs would come into play.
If an area lacks a neighborhood association, it wouldn’t be left out because the commission would go out and study those streets, Perry said.
The commission talked about hiring a consultant but decided members of the commission could form a small committee and select the residential streets to improve, Perry said.
Sally Birdsall, executive director of the Massena Heights Homeowners Association, is grateful that the commission is willing to focus on Jackson’s crumbling neighborhood streets.
“Pete Perry first proposed this undertaking to JXNUNITED in May 2018,” she said. “I appreciate his tenacity and desire to help.”
Andy Frame, a board member of the Jackson Association of Neighborhoods, plans to spread the word to neighborhoods throughout the city so they know about the commission’s plans.
“This is exactly the kind of news we feel like the Jackson Association of Neighborhoods can help with,” he said. “Any time there are public resources available to neighborhoods, we want to spread that news.”
Frame, who is the executive director of Revitalize Mississippi, an organization that focuses on cleanup and other improvements in low-income Jackson neighborhoods, said his work takes him throughout the city, including neighborhoods that have craters in the road that make it almost impossible to go around them.
“When one of those streets gets repaired, it changes the environment,” he said. “It makes you feel good. It’s great they’re going to do work in the neighborhoods and have repaired the main roads. That’s a great plan.”
Frame, who hopes the commission receives feedback from organizations throughout the city, recognizes the commission’s resources are limited. “There’s not going to be any shortage of streets to repair,” he said.
It’s good for neighborhood residents and leaders to assess their neighborhood streets and have that information on hand, Frame said.
“The Jackson Association of Neighborhoods wants that kind of thing to happen more regularly,” he said. “This is the carrot or an incentive for people to do that. Hopefully it will result in a lot of participation and new communication among neighborhood leaders and residents.”
The commission has overseen about 200 lane miles of improvements to the city’s 2,200 lane miles of streets, Perry said. A mile-long street with two lanes counts as two lane miles.
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.
Many years ago, the city once dedicated 12 mills from property taxes to street improvements, Perry said, noting that the decrease in the tax mills meant the city’s funding for maintenance decreased.
