JACKSON COMMUNITY UPDATE

The city of Jackson is proud to host an open house at our new City Hall from 4 to 7 p.m. March 15. We hope everyone will stop by and visit our new City Hall and enjoy some refreshments.

The Jackson Police Department will sponsor a Community Police Academy. Its goal will be to educate the public on what the police department does and why it does it. Anyone is welcome. For further information or to sign up, call police headquarters.

The community has responded in a very positive fashion to our future K-9 unit. Donations and support continue to come in, and we hope to have our K-9 unit in full swing this year. Once in place, it will be a major deterrent to drug activity in Jackson. We want to do all we can to keep drug traffic down. The K-9 unit, our city D.A.R.E. program and other local programs are all steps in the right direction.

The community room in City Hall is now available to local non-profit groups at no charge. Guidelines for use of the room and reservation information can be obtained at City Hall.

Darrel Mayfield is our employee of the month. Darrel is another longtime employee who is loyal to our city and who serves you very well.

Congratulations to our Jackson High School wrestling team. Coach Wachter's troops finished in fourth place in the Missouri State Wrestling Tourney.

A few details remain to be fine-tuned, but we plan to offer a "budget utility billing" option soon to our residential electric customers. The concept of budget billing is that the customer can sign up and pay the same electric bill 11 of 12 months a year. The monthly amount will be based on previous history. I feel this optional program will be a great benefit to budget-minded families and people on fixed incomes.

I am sure many residents have noticed a Cape County ambulance in Jackson much more these days. The ambulance service agreed with city officials some time ago to have an ambulance in Jackson during peak use times. This increased service is a benefit to Jackson citizens' well-being, and we hope it will lead to a permanent ambulance located in Jackson in the future.

All of us in Jackson mourn the loss of Brian Miller, emergency operations director for all of Cape County. Brian's dedication to that position has made all of our lives safer.

The council meets every Monday night at City Hall in Jackson at 7:30 p.m. I welcome your input and ideas to make our growing city a better place. Remember, all of us in city government work for you!