City Council approves street resurfacing contract

The Jackson City Council met for the third time this month to approve a contract with Ford Construction for street repaving. The money was originally allocated in this fiscal year’s budget, which ends June 30. The vote Tuesday prevented the council from having to move the money to the new fiscal year, then voting to approve the contract, which would have taken at least two months. 

The contract with Ford Construction is to repave 31 streets in Jackson City limits and the T.R. White Sportsplex parking lot. It is set to cost $3,343,978. 

The city did a study in 2019 to assess which roads are most in need of repairs. That study ranked streets from one to 10, with one being the worst and ten being the best.

“We were behind the eight ball really in 2019 on street resurfacing and deferred maintenance,” Mayor Scott Conger said after the meeting, “We’re just trying to catch up and trying to get to where we're doing preventative measures, as opposed to looking to streets that are ones and twos. Ideally we are repaving threes and fours. But we have a lot of catching up to do and we're still doing that right now. ”

Engineer Tom Wolf also recommended the City perform a new road study. This will allow the city to reassess the road repair schedule.

Julia Ewoldt, julia@jacksonpost.news