Morning Brief: Oct 27 · Airport Picks Carlyle Team; $6.6M Design Phase First
JMAA’s board voted unanimously Monday to negotiate a predevelopment agreement with a team led by CAG Holdings, Yates Construction and Gensler, with up to $6.6 million for design work and no construction price yet.
Airport board picks Carlyle-led terminal team
The Jackson Municipal Airport Authority’s board voted unanimously Monday to authorize negotiations on a predevelopment agreement with Jackson Forward, a team led by CAG Holdings (Carlyle’s airport-investment platform), Mississippi-based Yates Construction and the architecture firm Gensler, the authority announced. The plan would merge the east and west concourses into one departure hall behind a single security checkpoint, demolish the west concourse and expand toward the airfield. The Clarion Ledger reported the first phase costs up to $6.6 million and takes design to about 30 percent completion, with a proposed $16.3 million cap on reimbursable predevelopment costs. That is not the construction price. Carlyle and partners would finance construction and the airport would buy the finished improvements, with airline rates and charges helping support the bill.
Jackson is a finalist for a $125 million policing grant
Mississippi Today reported Monday that Jackson is one of a handful of finalists for the Justice Department’s Model Cities Initiative, requesting $125 million over three years. The application, obtained through a public records request, would spend $22 million rebuilding a forensic center the city says is “limited to testing green leafy substances,” $10 million on a victim advocate unit and $10 million on a reentry council, plus a gun crimes unit and expanded camera network. Unlike other federal law enforcement grants, it runs through a cooperative agreement giving DOJ a more active implementation role. Charlotte and New Orleans declined to apply. The ACLU of Mississippi asked the city to be transparent before any agreement is signed. DOJ has not named recipients.
NAACP asks judge to hold $12 million in water funds
At a status conference Monday before U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate, the Jackson branch of the NAACP asked the court to bar the state from spending or transferring roughly $8 million to $12 million left over from the city’s $35.6 million MCWI grant, WLBT reported. Figures given to the court show the city’s Capital City Water/Sewer Projects Fund held nearly $17.8 million on May 18 and was zeroed out by Sept. 30. House Bill 1571, passed this session, directed unspent MCWI money after Sept. 30 to MDOT for road construction. The state’s Stephen Schelver told the court “there is nothing to impound.” NAACP attorney Crystal McElrath said she expected to file for an injunction by Wednesday.
Hinds sales tax take slips as suburbs pull ahead
Jackson received $2,622,651 in sales tax diversions in September, down 0.2 percent from $2,628,600 a year earlier, while its fiscal-year-to-date total of $7,951,288 is up 3.9 percent, Department of Revenue diversion reports show. Ridgeland collected $1,557,911, up 14.0 percent, and Flowood $1,350,593, up 3.8 percent. Pearl fell 17.4 percent to $1,161,762. The gap matters for a city weighing a Nov. 3 tourism tax increase: Ridgeland’s monthly check is now about 59 percent of Jackson’s, against 52 percent a year ago. Jackson MSA nonfarm jobs stood at 302,600 in September, up 2,000 from a year earlier, BLS data show.
Canton charter school ordered closed Dec. 31
The Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board voted unanimously Monday to revoke the charter of SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy in Canton, Mississippi Today reported, the first time the board has ordered a school to shut its doors. Instruction must stop by the end of the year. Hearing officer Kim Turner, an assistant attorney general, found years of noncompliance with federal and state law and the school’s 2020 contract. The board had reviewed financials in December showing one day’s cash on hand, and the school once requested money for 150 students while enrolling 12. An administrator asked the board to release $300,000 in frozen start-up funding. The school could reopen as a private school.