JACKSON CITY COMMENTARY: CITY GOES STATE-OF-THE-ART WITH NEW SYSTEM

The city council has approved the purchase of a state-of-the-art computerized system that will allow us to monitor our power plant more accurately and to identify the location of outages in a manner of minutes. This equipment will enable the city to identify an outage down to the block where it exists. Presently the city must go out and look for where a problem exists. This equipment will reduce the time the power may be off because of a storm or other reasons outside of our control. This new piece of equipment should be in place by early in the year 2000.

The annual asphalt overlay program is nearing completion. The city budgeted $70,000 for overlay improvements this year. These improvements are done on a priority basis and included over 8 blocks of existing street and quite a number of patch jobs.

Upgrades in our electric system will also soon be underway. With the growth Jackson is incurring we need to upgrade our sub-station transformers to insure our continued orderly growth and top notch reliable service to our present customers. These upgrades in our electric system will continue over the next two or three years.

Jackson recently hosted the annual band festival for high school bands in the Southeast Missouri area. This annual festival hosts bands from small to large and it is truly an honor to have this event every year in Jackson. I would like to thank Jackson R-2 for continuing to host this event and thank every band in the area who participated.. As usual it was a great parade and festival that was enjoyed by many, many people of all agesThe East Main Street extension (phase one) is now complete and open to the public. The city remains committed to the completion of phase two of this project which would go to and connect with 1-55. We will continue working with MoDOT to acquire funding and approval of an interchange at 1-55 which would connect with phase two of this extension and provide another direct route in and out of Jackson. The city stands ready to proceed with phase two of the project as soon as approval and a fm date of construction is given by MoDOT for the needed 1-55 interchange. Stay tuned. Several staff members, council members and I recently completed a tour of all 13 city departments. I can report to you that we have over 105 employees in the city who dedicated to serving you the citizens on a daily basis. Our city is progressive and proactive and a great deal of pride for Jackson exists among our employees and elected officialsThe council meets every Monday at 7:30 p.m., at City Hall in Jackson. Your ideas and suggestions on how we can improve Jackson are welcome.