From construction projects to new retail stores, the city of Jackson has seen a fair amount of changes in recent months. KRCU’s Marissanne Lewis-Thompson spoke with city of Jackson Mayor Dwain Hahs to talk about the many happenings in Jackson. Listen to the interview below.
Lewis-Thompson: Last month, construction began for the new roundabout at the intersection of Route 61 and Main Street. Can you give us an update about how the project has been going so far?
Hahs: Yes. It's been going very well. They certainly have closed off the intersection and they've removed all of the old pavement that they had. And they've done a lot of the infrastructure and that's pretty well complete. You know wastewater sewers, all the lines, telephone lines, electric and things like that had to be buried underneath the new roadway, [which] is pretty well completed at this point in time. And now they're starting to work on the roadway itself--the roadbed and putting the new roadbed in. So, that's all progressing very well. You start to see the different elevations that the new roundabout will have. As of July 15, we will the first part of it complete, which will be Barton Street which they wanted to finish by Homecomers.
Lewis-Thompson: Since we're on the topic of construction, a few weeks ago the city of Jackson presented plans for the Downtown Revitalization and Economic Assistance for Missouri program--or the DREAM initiative. Can you tell us what those plans were?
Hahs: Well, the DREAM initiative was a long-term plan to first look at Uptown Jackson, look at the buildings that we had [and] the retail locations that we had. The living spaces that we had and come up with a strategy for improvement of that over the next few years. And that strategic plan is now coming to fruition. They will publish that during I believe the July time period and then the city council [and] the board of alderman will approve that as a comprehensive plan for the Uptown Jackson area. It includes best use of Uptown Jackson. A lot of suggestions on what type of retail would work best. The mixed ability to mix residential with retail in the Uptown area and some plans for what you can do to make the Uptown Jackson area look better, such as landscaping many of the area, the front of buildings to see if you can return them to their original look of brick and some of the old front ends that they used to have.
Lewis-Thompson: So, kind of like recreating a historic feel to the area?
Hahs: Yes it is. That's a big part of that. So that the Uptown area has a feel. Some of it historic and then you know most importantly having retail there that encourages people to come Uptown. A mix of residential, retail, and of course restaurants as well.
Lewis-Thompson: Let's talk about that water bond issue that you were telling me about earlier in Jackson.
Hahs: We are going out for bid now for the initial construction of our new waterlines in several parts of Jackson. We'll probably put in over a mile of new water lines over the next 3-4 years.
Lewis-Thompson: Is there anything else that's happening in Jackson that we should all know about?
Hahs: Our next major event will be our Fourth of July celebration. And we have a big one in Jackson. It starts at 7 a.m. with a 5K run. We have many activities during the day and we end with our fireworks at 9:30 in the evening after our municipal band plays. We also have the Southern Brothers concert at the end of the day.
