The One Percent Sales Tax Commission is waiting for the city of Jackson to hire a consultant to assess the commission’s list of residential streets most in need of repair.
Last year, neighborhood organizations submitted lists of residential streets in their areas that needed repairs and a working group of the commission ranked the streets and produced the list of those in the worst shape.
A consultant is needed to study the streets on the list and check to make sure all that is needed is an overlay and not additional work such as sewer repair, said Pete Perry, a member of the commission.
A consultant will also provide the commission an estimate about how much it will cost to repair the streets on its list, he said, and prepare construction documents.
The city was supposed to issue a contract with a consultant about three months ago in order for the city council to approve it at its last meeting in May, but that didn’t happen, he said.
Perry is concerned that by the time a consultant is hired and goes to work there may be few residential streets repaired this year. Street repairs generally come to a halt in mid-November, if not sooner, because the weather is too cold, he said, and asphalt businesses shut down between Christmas and January.
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.
Most of the road improvements have been to major thoroughfares such as North State Street, although the commission in its early days funded work on some residential streets scattered here and there.
Neighborhood associations received no guarantee the list of streets submitted will be improved, Perry said, because factors such as whether a street needs additional infrastructure repairs would come into play.
Dana F. Robertson, executive director of the Greater Eastover Neighborhood Foundation, believes the commission’s plan to prioritize repairs according to specific criteria sounds fair.
“Some degree of subjectivity will come into play, but given the fact that the commissioners are appointed by the mayor, the governor and the chamber of commerce, I think they bring different skill sets and perspectives to the decision-making process, making it as fair as possible,” she said.
Sally Birdsall, who was executive director of the Massena Heights Homeowners Association when she was interviewed, said every street in Massena Heights could benefit from resurfacing.
“In many areas the asphalt is in an advanced state of deterioration leaving the subgrade, the dirt underneath the pavement, exposed,” Birdsall said. “Rainwater and vehicular traffic exacerbate the erosion.”
Portions of Crestwood Drive, Culleywood Road and Massena Drive are in terrible shape, Birdsall said. “I don’t believe the entire street needs to be surfaced in each case but certainly extended sections,” she said.
Robertson regularly contacts the city of Jackson and Hinds County about potholes and other infrastructure issues.
“Dogwood Drive needs some resurfacing, and there are areas where it has also eroded,” she said. “There is a section of Lake Circle near Dogwood Drive that needs resurfacing. There is a portion of Sandridge Drive that needs repairing and resurfacing due to tree roots that have caused large ridges in the asphalt. Also, Meadowbrook Road needs resurfacing from Ridgewood Road to the gates of Meadowbrook Lakes, which includes the portion of Meadowbrook that runs through Eastover as well as several other neighborhoods.”
Multiple streets in Ridgewood Park are in dire need of resurfacing, said Ken Wilson, president of the Ridgewood Park Neighborhood Association.
He believes the resulting work will pay off not just with smoother streets but with citizens expanding their knowledge of how funds are spent and even more.
“Resurfacing in our neighborhood would contribute to the beautification and ignite development ideas,” Wilson said.
Liz Brister, president of the Fondren Renaissance Foundation, agrees with Wilson that improvements to the city streets can make a difference.
“Resurfacing our city streets improves the quality of life and raises property values when combined with sidewalks, bike lanes and other traffic calming measures.,” she said.
Andy Frame, a board member of the Jackson Association of Neighborhoods 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.”
Members of the commission are Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, city of Jackson Chief Financial Officer Fidelis Malembeka, city of Jackson Chief Administrative Officer Louis Wright, Duane O’Neill, Wilson Hood, Jonathan Lee, Carlyn Hicks, Michael Boerner, Ted Duckworth and Perry.
Lumumba serves at the commission chair.
