Even though the city—and his administration—continued taking licks throughout the year, Yarber rattled off a long list of what he called wins for his team at his year-end press conference on Tuesday. Photo by Trip Burns.
If the city had a rocky year, it was due in no small part to the growing pains of scrambling to assemble a mayoral administration mid-year and jumping right into the morass of steering the city of Jackson through myriad challenges.
Mayor Tony Yarber has helmed that ship since April 24, and even though the city—and his administration—continued taking licks throughout the year, Yarber rattled off a long list of what he called wins for his team at his year-end press conference on Tuesday.
"Leadership takes a lot of things, especially when you deal with the beast of public service and, specifically, when it comes to municipal city government," Yarber told reporters in his office, before listing some of the highlights of his first mayoral term.
Among them was the city's so-called pothole blitz that resulted in the filling of 5,000 to 6,000 potholes in a span of about three months. Yarber acknowledged that those numbers are low considering that roughly 200,000 potholes exist in the city, but he believed the project represented an acknowledgement of what is perennially one of the top issues raised in city elections.
Yarber added that the five-member commission that will oversee the spending of the 1-percent sales tax, which Jackson citizens passed through a referendum in January, is close to completing the master plan that will guide how the money will be spent. The mayor serves on the commission and said he hopes that some projects can commence as early as the end of the first quarter in 2015.
Infrastructure remained a thorn in the city's side as well, particularly related to the Capitol Street two-way project, which hit several snags and has frustrated business owners downtown. In addition to continuing outreach to businesses on Capitol, Yarber said that as part of the legislative agenda for the upcoming session, the city would seek to create a special improvement district near the statehouse that could involve asking the state to share the responsibility of maintaining or transferring ownership of infrastructure near the Capitol.
Another frequent complaint of Jacksonians is the presence of abandoned and dilapidated housing and unkempt properties. Under Yarber, code enforcement authority moved to the Jackson Police Department from the Planning Department, and the city streamlined how contracts are doled out to clean up problem properties.
Other highlights included a successful International Ballet Competition that generated $10 million in economic activity during the two-week-long event and the launch of Tip411, an app-based program that lets people report information about crime to the JPD.
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