For the city of Jackson, every monetary silver lining seems to come with a new cloud attached.
While still celebrating last week’s announcement that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had accepted Jackson and Hinds County’s appeal for disaster aid to pay for cleanup from the April 4 tornadoes, the Jackson City Council learned Monday that an anticipated $1.2 million reimbursement from the state has turned into a $387,000 bill.
City Administrator Rick Hill said the city recently received the news in a “surprise letter” from the Mississippi Department of Transportation regarding the Union Station project, the remodeling of the city’s bus and rail hub completed in 2003. Hill said the city requested reimbursements for the project two years ago but only now received MDOT’s answer.
In its audit of the project, MDOT declared some engineering costs ineligible and told the city some construction costs were to be paid by the wrong grants, he said. The city has been wrangling with problems from federal grants for the past year and last month was forced to repay thousands of dollars in misspent police grants to the federal government.
Magnolia Tribune
