Jackson’s Oct. 6 Agenda Shows the Casino Land Vote, a $1.3 Million Opioid Grant, and a Chicago Flights Deal

The Jackson City Council’s Oct. 6 agenda carried an item that would have let Mayor John Horhn negotiate an option to sell three city parcels near the Pearl River and Interstate 55. The council did not take it up. The agenda lists it as item 26: an order declaring parcel numbers 1008-1-2, 1008-4-3, and 1008-15 surplus and authorizing the mayor to negotiate an option for their sale.

That is the same land a developer, LeFleur Development, has pitched for a nearly billion-dollar resort and casino. WLBT reported the council held off on the vote Oct. 6, with members asking for more detail on what the land is worth and what a casino would generate. Councilman Ashby Foote, Ward 1, suggested meeting with the Mississippi Gaming Commission about a casino there, according to WJTV.

The money question is the reason the item stalled. WLBT reported the city cut its budget by roughly $26 million in 2026 because of revenue shortfalls, and Horhn said the ad valorem tax a resort would generate “could be something very substantial and it could not be.” The agenda packet does not show a dollar value for the parcels or a projected tax yield, so the council is being asked to price land whose value depends on a use the state has not approved.

The same agenda shows how much of the city’s operating money now arrives as grant applications rather than local revenue. Item 17 ratifies a Bureau of Justice Assistance opioid, stimulant, and substance use grant application for $1.3 million. Item 16 seeks $650,000 for crisis response training, and item 15 seeks $215,111 in Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant money. Together the three requests total $2,165,111.

Item 23 is the airport piece. It authorizes the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority to accept a U.S. Department of Transportation grant, FAIN 69A34524400070027, under the Small Community Air Service Development Program, to restore service between Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport and Chicago O’Hare. The Wire reported in a prior story that the council was weighing a $1 million grant to win back Chicago flights; the agenda confirms the federal award number and the program it runs through.

Two smaller items carry their own numbers. Item 18 ratifies a $7,000 payment to Peoples Place Enterprise, LLC for tree and limb removal at the Jackson Zoo. Item 22 authorizes a contract with Wescole Services, LLC for residential right-of-way and median maintenance through March 31, 2027. The agenda does not state the contract amount for the Wescole work.

The council also set a public hearing on the district plan for a Downtown Jackson Business Improvement District, item 12, under the Business Improvement District Act. A BID is a defined area where property owners pay an added assessment to fund services within it. The agenda does not name the assessment rate or the boundaries; those would come in the district plan the hearing covers.

What’s next: The surplus-land order is not dead, only deferred. Interim CAO Drew Martin told WLBT he hopes to get the casino land item back on track, and the council meets again in regular session. Readers who want to weigh in can watch the council’s posted agendas at jacksonms.gov and the meeting video, and can check the parcel numbers 1008-1-2, 1008-4-3, and 1008-15 in the Hinds County land records to see whether an option is ever recorded.

The airport grant and the three justice grants move on their own federal timelines, not the council’s. The Small Community Air Service Development award number is public, so readers can track its status through USASpending.gov. The next scheduled council zoning meeting is Oct. 19, and the next regular meeting follows the city’s posted calendar.