Jerry Gist made his final appearance as Mayor of Jackson at First Friday Forum, which is held monthly at First United Methodist Church.
Gist joined Jimmy Harris, mayor of Madison County at the event sponsored by the Jackson Downtown Development Corporation.
Gist, who moved to Jackson in January 1976 after accepting a position as the director of Parks and Recreation, mentioned his accomplishments – and his biggest disappointments.
“We’ve added thousands of jobs, as we attracted major industries and many, many smaller businesses as the community grew,” Gist said, “We’ve seen a resurgence downtown … we prospered, and Jackson grew.”
Gist said three major developments have taken place during his time in office.
“The first is saving the Lambuth (University) campus,” Gist said, “The City, the County, Jackson Energy Authority and West Tennessee Healthcare each pledged $2 million to help the University of Memphis pay off Lambuth University’s debt and create its own campus in Jackson.”
Gist said that move saved the mid-town neighborhood, while giving Jackson its first four-year public college.
“The second development is the re-investment of downtown,” Gist said, “Every city is judged by the care of its downtown. Twenty-five years ago, we had empty store fronts. The area just northwest of downtown looked like an abandoned refugee camp.”
Gist said a developers like John Allen, Frank McMeen, Hal Crocker and Henry Turley found ways to re-purpose old buildings and turn abandoned lots into new homes, apartments and stores.
“The third major development is the $60 million in road construction that is underway on Interstate 40, the (Highway 45) Bypass and North Highland Avenue.”
Even in disappointment during his time in public office, something good evolved.
“My biggest disappointment of my public service career occurred when I was (Madison) county Mayor,” Gist said, “Toyota chose San Antonio over Jackson for the site of a new automobile assemble plant that would create about 1,800 jobs.
“Toyota later rewarded Jackson by building Toyota Bodine – one of this community’s best industrial partners.”
Harris recognized members of the Madison County Fire Department, which consists of “180 of the most dedicated, well-trained people wh volunteer their time, talent and their lives to serving people in our community.”
He also highlighted TEAMRead, a non-profit, which is also known as ARISE2READ.
“This organization which is made up of over 300 volunteers from 25- to 30 churches in our community who contribute over 350 hours per week teaching sight words to 425 second graders in high-poverty schools,” Harris said, “On average, the kids who are coached once per week show a 251 percent increase in sight word recognition, and the kids coached twice a week show a 262 percent increase.”
Harris said he believes the state of Madison County is in pretty good shape.
“I think you are all aware we had a property tax increase of 14 percent last year – for reasons I’m not going into,” Harris said, “That was the first property tax increase by the county since 1993. This year, we adopted another balanced budget without a tax increase, even though many of you here today had an increase in your property taxes for this year.”
Explaining, Harris said the state reappraises our property every four years, and some values are lowered, while some are raised.
Harris said the total budget for Madison County for 2019 is $228.6 million, with 68 percent going toward schools.
Harris also discussed the issue of the jail expansion, which has 303 beds at the Criminal Justice Center, 64 beds at the annex in the Madison County Court House, and 80 beds at the Penal Farm.
“As you are aware, we have been under a plan of action with the state over four years, because of overcrowding in our jail,” Harris said, “To give you an example of the overcrowding issue, on Monday of this week we had 523 total inmates with 397 inmates at the CJC.
“That day, we had 94 people sleeping a on a mattress on the floor. Today, we have a total of 544 inmates, with 417 at the CJC … so now, we have 114 sleeping on the floor.”
Harris said the cost of expansion is approximately $54 million, that does not include a $3 million grant.
(PHOTO: Jerry Gist, mayor of Jackson with Elizabeth Jones, 9, his granddaughter)
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