City Council continues with project Cardinal and budget for nearly 7 million in federal aid

JACKSON, TN (WNBJ)-

While schools and many businesses were closed because of the snow, the Jackson city council held a special called meeting to conduct business.”

Part of that business was the passing of a proposed budget amendment that will allow the city to acquire some industrial land for just over $765- thousand dollars.

It's part of project cardinal,

A plan to purchase three separate property parcels along highway 223 off of interstate 40.

The properties will be sold to Georgia-Pacific

Also, at today's meeting, council members talked about what should be done with nearly 7 million federal dollars ($6,946,725.00) the city is getting from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

The council came up with projects in 5 different categories:

Public Health and Safety- $2,347,767

Economic Recovery and Resiliency -$125,000

Impacted Communities-$2,252,200

Infrastructure- $1,098,009

Operational Support (Lost Revenue)- $1,127,749

Total- $6,946,725.00

Councilman Paul Taylor voiced his concerns over the way the city was planning to divide up the federal money, “Specifically, the accountability and qualification of these proposed projects.”

Taylor wants to make sure that every item in these 5 categories meets the requirements set by the federal government, “Ultimately if it does not meet the qualification standards of the federal government per the act, we will be responsible as a city to repay those dollars back.”

After a lengthy discussion of how to budget the money is a transparent and appropriate way, council reached a compromise

“The compromise we came to today was the council approved the budget amendment to appropriate the funds. They haven’t been appropriated prior per our budget process we have to do that. Then my office will work on amending the preliminary resolution, which was the intent the entire time,” said Mayor Scott Conger.

Councilman Taylor said his goal is to make sure the city follows all the rules, “We will have another special called meeting, where we will be amending… the spend plan resolution that we approved at the last meeting to include the language that would require the council to be presented with the justifications for each item."

That special called meeting will be held on Tuesday to finalize the amendment to acquire that industrial land along highway 223, and to pass a resolution to justifying every project in the American Rescue plan.