JACKSON TO OPEN BIDS ON EAST MAIN EXTENSION

JACKSON -- Jackson Board of Aldermen will open bids July 11 on the first phase of the East Main Street Extension Project.

The work will include grading and bringing the right-of-way to grade. The paving contract will be let later. The first phase of the extension will go as far as Oak Hills.

The board also will open bids July 11 for the Brookside Park parking lot and handicapped access ramp to the Veterans of All Wars Memorial.

A public hearing was set for July 11 on a request for friendly annexation of most of the Grandview Estates subdivision, which is south of Jackson on Highway 25.

On Monday, the board approved the low bid of $79,250 from Danny Guilder for the Jackson Rotary Lake Renovation Project. However, work will not begin until sometime in July to allow the lake bed to dry out as much as possible.

The board also awarded a contract to Fronabarger Concretors for improvements to Missouri and Jefferson Streets at a cost of $159,000. City Engineer Rich Bowen said the contractor is ready to start immediately in order to have the job completed before the start of school in late August.

The aldermen also approved the Jackson's first ever five-year capital improvements program.

Mayor Paul Sander emphasized the program contains projects for which no funding exists, but he said the program is a good planning guide.

"This program will become a guideline for progress for the city of Jackson," Sander said. "It will be reviewed every year by this council and future councils to use as a measuring stick for setting priorities as monies for the projects becomes available."

The board approved a request from Boatman's Bank of Jackson for a second, three-month extension on their lease of the first floor of the former Exchange Bank Building. The city purchased the building and plans to move all city offices to the building beginning next year. The Jackson Utilities and Public Works Department already is on the second floor of the building.

Boatman's is preparing to build a new facility at the corner of West Main and Russell.

City Administrator Carl Talley reported the city's community development block grant application for the Greensferry Road residential area, in the northeast part of the city, was not funded this year by the state.

The mayor said he was told competition from other cities in the southern part of the state with much more blighted areas than Jackson was very intense again this year. "We'll just keep trying," the mayor said.

The board authorized the Jackson library board to have an architect prepare a feasibility study on the possible renovation of the old city hall into a library after the remaining city offices are moved to the new city administrative building next year.

Right now, the library occupies the first floor of city hall. A cost study already has been completed on work needed to move the library to the new city building.

Because of the July 4th holiday, the next board meeting will be on July 11.