City and County mayors reflect and look forward

"Thank you for giving me the honor of serving you this past year."

Jackson city mayor Jerry Gist and Madison County Mayor Jimmy Harris spoke at the First Friday forum, recounting the success and failures of 2017 and giving a look ahead to 2018.

Mayor Gist focused on a few key points in his speech such as the ongoing construction.

"This city is going to continue to grow. You either grow or die and you have got to prepare for the growth of the future. We are some experiencing some pain now and we'll continue to experience that for two more years or there about as we improve our infrastructure but we have to do it if we plan to keep on growing as a city."

Another point that Mayor Gist brought up was economic development. Including the development out here in east Jackson which is expected to be filled with different business by summer of 2018.

"We have one retail development underway at this point, we expect all that to be filled in by this summer and we are continuing to look for more development opportunities in east Jackson, 10th district."

As for County Mayor Harris, his big highlight was the hiring of Eric Jones as Jackson-Madison county schools superintendent.

"I think he has a depth of knowledge and experience with our system that is going to make a difference in the direction of our school system. That's a real highlight for me, Dr. Eric Jones."