JACKSON FOCUSING ON INFRASTRUCTURE DURING NEW YEAR

JACKSON -- The 2000 budget includes millions of dollars for infrastructure improvements that will keep the City of Jackson busy in the coming year.

The work to be done is substantial, "more than we have seen in years and years in Jackson," City Administrator Steve Wilson says.

Plans and bids on the city's wastewater and water system improvements are expected in the first quarter of the year. The record $18 million budget includes $3.6 million in money the project qualified for from the State Revolving Loan Program. Voters approved a $10.5 million in sewer and water bonds for the project in 1997.

The city also is upgrading its electrical system this year with new transformers and a substation. A second transmission line also is being built into the city as a back-up.

Minus the $3.6 million pass-through of State Revolving Funds for the water and sewer projects, the 2000 budget stands at $14.6 million, about $1 million more than the 1999 budget. But Assistant City Administrator Larry Koenig said the numbers are misleading.

"Over the years we have projected revenues low and expenditures high, and they have given us a cushion," Koenig says. Actual and projected revenues this year are expected to be closer together.

City officials thought Jackson would set a record for residential building during 1999 based on the pace of construction through the early quarters, but building slowed toward the end of the year. The previous high was 160 residences, while the number of permits as of Wednesday was 141.

It may be a sign of stabilization the city could use at this point.

"We were on such a rush, and it gets expensive," Wilson said.

That is why the Board of Aldermen authorized the city to establish an industrial tract along U.S. 61 North to attract new light industry and revenues.

Jackson expects sales tax receipts of nearly $1.5 million in 2000. The city anticipates a number of new sources of sales tax revenue, including the Buchheit store expected to open in the spring, a Wendy's and perhaps some other stores opening near Buchheit's.

For 2000, the city has budgeted hiring a new wastewater treatment plant operator and another power plant operator and will pay 25 percent of the salary of a new police officer. The rest of the officer's salary will be underwritten by a grant.

Among other new expenditures will be raises for the city's volunteer on-call firefighters, a move Wilson says will enable the city to put off hiring more full-time firefighters.

An average 3 percent pay raise for all full-time city employees will cost the city another $100,000. Jackson has 112 full-time employees.

Part-time help at the Jackson City Library also will be increased this year.

Contracts for tree trimming and street maintenance also are part of the 2000 budget, along with a project to upgrade the city's 2-inch water mains to 4 or 6 inches depending on the area's needs.

Rather than dig a new well as previously planned, the city has decided to revamp its five wells. Last fall, rebuilding the pump on one of the wells and repairing cracks increased the well's capacity by 30 percent, Wilson said.

The electrical improvements are being financed with bonds approved in 1981 but not yet used.

Jackson spent $1 million last year extending East Main street toward Interstate 55, a project the city hopes will pay off eventually with an interchange. But that depends on the plans of the Missouri Department of Transportation, which has not given the project a high priority.

"We're going to spend our money on some of the older streets this year," Wilson said.