Transcript of Frank Melton Remarks in Short Press Conference Wednesday

JACKSON CITY HALL—Mayor Frank Melton called a press conference for 10 a.m. today to address plans for Maple Street Apartments, “new and ongoing economic development iniatives” and “continued/long-term focus on serving the City of Jackson.” His remarks lasted about three minutes, and he left without answering any questions from the media. A full transcript of his remarks follows.

MAYOR FRANK MELTON: I called you here today just so you’ll know what our priorities are for the next few months. The first priority in the city of Jackson will be jobs and employment for people who are not working and who need employment to sustain their families. We’re in a situation in Jackson where we’re in great financial health. Unlike some of the other cities around the country, we have a surplus in our general funds. We have $27 million to put to our streets, which we will start on shortly, if we can get weather to stay consistent, and I’m very pleased with that.

We’re in the best financial shape that we’ve ever been in, in the history of this city. We’re going to do a partnership between the public and private sector. The private sector will receive a 50 percent investment from the city of Jackson for training and employment of some of our citizens and this program will last for a year. After that year, the new employees and recruits will do such a good job that the private sector will be able to pick them up. We’re very excited about that.

We’re certainly going to continue our economic development efforts. The latest effort includes the purchase and development of the south Jackson strip mall. On yesterday Mr. (Louis) Armstrong and I met with a group of investors out of New York who are very interested in the strip mall there on Terry Road. We began discussion on that yesterday and we’re going to continue with those and I’m very excited that they want to invest, first of all, in the Capital City and secondly, in the South Jackson area.

I just recently left the Jackson Maple Street Apartments and they’re being demolished as we’re standing here this morning. We’re going to get with the current owners of that property and see if we can do a joint venture to put single family homes where the Maple Street Apartments once existed. In addition to that, we have investors who are interested in providing houses where the old Town Creek Apartments were located, right behind the football fields by Lanier High School.

In the Downtown area, we’re prepared to make another major announcement. In a few weeks we’ll announce the construction of two new hotels that will go in the Downtown area. And I think the point is being made here is that we have a lot of things going on in the inner city as well as in the downtown area, and I’m very pleased with that.
So these are the areas that we’re going to be concentrating on in the next few months.

I appreciate you taking the time to come over this morning. God bless Jackson and God bless all the citizens of Jackson. Thank you very much.

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