(January 9, 2014) Jackson, Tenn.- Another year has come and gone. With the new year comes an outlook on the direction of the city, county, and small business.
Visitors to the Jackson Chamber’s breakfast business program “Business at 212°” were able to find out that information with speeches from three community leaders.
Jackson Mayor Jerry Gist, Jackson Chamber CEO Kyle Spurgeon, and Madison County Mayor Jimmy Harris. All three spoke to attendees about upcoming projects and small business statistics.
The first to speak was Jackson Mayor Jerry Gist, who outlined two of the responsibilities that the city has to small business owners.
The first responsibility is to make sure that people coming into the city feel safe. Mayor Gist says that they are making progress, but they are not where they want to be. Mayor Gist noted that crime was down 5% last year.
Mayor Gist also said that one of the crime prevention tactics that is to be utilized is overt security cameras. These cameras will have lights identifying them as security cameras, and will be paced in certain high density housing areas.
The second responsibility Mayor Gist said that the city has to small business is providing good infrastructure so people can get to the businesses. Mayor Gist said that the city has completed about $4 Million of street resurfacing and will do more at the end of the fiscal year.
Mayor Gist also noted three big infrastructure projects that will be worked on in the next four to five years. He spoke to us after the meeting to outline the three projects.
Using state and federal funding, Mayor Gist said, “The first one would be the correction of the U-Turn at Carriage House, right there at Casey Jones, that has been a nemesis for a number of years. That’s going to be corrected. That’s one of their first items to complete.”
“The second item,” Mayor Gist continued, “will be to 6-lane the interstate through our city from Highway 412 to US 70.”
“And the third one, which will probably take a little bit longer than the others and will probably be the last part to be done,” Mayor Gist explained, “ will be modifying the intersection of Highland and Vann Drive. That will allow us there, according to the design I’ve seen, that will allow us to carry a frontage road along the interstate, from Highland Avenue, continuing Vann Drive straight across Highland all the way over to Campbell.
Mayor Gist concluded, “That is going to be profound for a city for the next 10 to 20 years because of the additional area that will be available for commercial and retail development.”
Kyle Spurgeon, CEO of the Jackson Chamber, was the next to speak. He outlined the four pillars of the Chamber and where they stand on each one.
The first pillar is regional economic development. Spurgeon said that, “Jackson cannot survive and prosper unless the counties around us do well.”
Spurgeon says that cooperation between the counties has been better now than it has been. He said that there was still a “Friday Night Lights” mentality that is going away.
The second pillar is public education. Spurgeon noted that the landscape has changed from 3 years ago. Where they once were actively trying to change things, they are now in support of the current plans and leadership.
The third pillar is public safety. Spurgeon echoed the sentiments of Jackson Mayor Jerry Gist by saying that we’re not where we need to be, but working very hard to get there.
The final pillar is wellness. Spurgeon told the audience that when people come to look at Jackson, they are impressed by the wellness center.
We spoke to him after the speech as well about prospects to the area and the activity in that regards. Spurgeon said, “One of the jobs of the obviously, is to work with new companies looking at the community and and working with existing industries here.”
Spurgeon continued, “I can tell you, the last quarter of 2013, we saw a significant uptick in client projects both with new prospects looking at the area and existing companies considering expansions.”
He reminded us that, “As always, we can never promise that’s going to lead to an announcement, but what I can tell you is we’ve had a whole lot more ‘at bats’ in the last part of 2013 that should lead to some good news in 2014.”
Spurgeon also gave an overview into the types of industries looking into the area, “What we’ve seen traditionally is the automotive sector is extremely strong in Jackson-Madison County and throughout this region and in this state. The housing industry is continuing to make a comeback, you see those companies here continuing to add employees. Plastics, metalworking, those type companies looking at this community. And again, the types of companies that are already here have proven that they can be successful, and when that happens, that encourages other companies in that same sector to look at a community.”
The final speaker was Madison County Mayor Jimmy Harris. He spoke about the county budget and noted that this is the 21st year they’ve not had to raise taxes.
Mayor Harris also spoke about how he feels very confident about the school system now. He told us, after the speech why he feels so confident, ““The school board we have is a very engaged, very active school board and they bring a lot to the table from business background, banking background, and other things like that.”
Mayor Harris continued, “They are very focused on what we need to do within our system to turn it in the direction it needs to go and they’re very supportive of Dr. [Verna] Ruffin, but at the same time, they’re not trying to micromanage her which I think is very important.”
He went on to say, “They’re allowing her to do her job. I just feel very good about the school board and the quality of it and their work as well as Dr. Ruffin and her experience and I think what she brings to the table is a professionalism that can move our schools in the direction they need to go.”
