Jackson Mayor John Horhn spoke to the Rotary Club of Jackson this past Tuesday.
First of all, it’s great to have a mayor who visits civic clubs like Rotary to engage with constituents, especially engaged ones such as club members.
Sadly, civic club involvement has declined over the last 30 years, just one more bad effect of the rise in social media and tribal inclusiveness.
Mayor Horhn’s take was encouraging. For starters, he’s located $150 million for street repairs using the special infrastructure tax and state and federal funds. It’s a great relief to see Jackson streets being repaired. We have a long way to go.
Horhn acknowledged that basic city services simply ceased normal functioning in the prior administration and that the priority is reinstating the normal functioning of these services.
For instance, the city audits were not even done for the last several years and as a result the city has no credit. Now the 2023 audit has been done and 2024 and 2025 audits are underway.
Horhn passed out the slick 16-page brochure titled “Jackson Rising,” which was sponsored by 17 foundations, businesses and organizations that want Jackson to thrive. The website is jxnrising.com.
The brochure states, “Launched in response to a call to action by Mayor John Horhn in Fall 2025, Jackson Rising was initiated as a collaborative public–private leadership framework designed to move investable ideas into action. Over the past several months, more than 30 working groups including 300 participants have convened to bridge gaps across sectors, identify shared priorities, and accelerate coordination around Jackson’s future.”
The plan is impressive and wide ranging, touching on almost every fundamental challenge facing the city. The plan details 53 projects totaling $184 million in cost.
First, thank you to each of the 300 people who gave their time and effort to create this plan. Before anything can happen, you need a plan. Mayor Horhn deserves leadership credit for getting this crucial step done.
But where does Jackson get $185 million to make it happen? In a perfect world, Jackson could get grants, state and federal money. The Jackson tax base, as it stands today, cannot produce this kind of money. Heck, a sizable percent of our population can barely afford their water bill.
The follow up to this $185 million plan should be a funding plan to secure the money to make the plan happen. As much or more effort should be put into that. Even the best plan is no good without execution.
Meanwhile, basic city functions are still defunct. Animal control is a good example. The city shelter is nonfunctional, and south and west Jackson are inundated with stray cats and dogs.
I attended an informational event hosted by a coalition of the local private organizations dedicated to human animal control. Included in the coalition are Animal Rescue Fund of Mississippi, Jackson Cares, Cheshire Abbey, Jackson Friends and other groups.
Boy did I get an earful. It was discouraging to realize the extent of the collapse of yet another fundamental city service. Chrissy Cheshire, founder of Cheshire Abbey, told me that she could fill up an 18-wheeler every day for months rounding up strays in south and west Jackson.
Chrissy has been working in Jackson animal rescue for years. It is nothing short of amazing the work she does on her own to save these poor animals. And she’s far from alone. Gena Horsby, Suzie Foote, Lyn Crawford and Pippa Jackson and many others have been actively trying to improve the suffering of thousands of Jackson strays.
A major problem in Jackson, and Mississippi, is the lack of neutering and spaying laws. Many cities and states require pet owners to spay or neuter their pets. And animal control shelters are required to do the same to all their animals. This greatly reduces the number of strays.
Unfortunately, Mississippi’s farm lobby, particularly the Farm Bureau, sees this as a slippery slope of animal regulation and fights any effort to pass such laws.
There’s actually a huge pipeline of Mississippi strays transported up north where neutering laws exist that has created a shortage of adoptable dogs.
During Horhn’s speech he spotted Locke Ward in the audience and said, “In my next life, I hope I come back as Locke Ward.” The mayor went on to heap praise on Ward’s one-man-band efforts to clean up Jackson.
The next day Ward called me frustrated about Jackson’s code enforcement division. He’s called three times about a burnt-out abandoned house and not gotten any result.
He’s not really happy about JPD. In contrast, Bo Luckey at the Capitol Police responds immediately when Locke reports abandoned cars and other eyesores.
Meanwhile, he keeps reporting code violations to the city officials, but so far, nothing much ever gets done, Locke says.
- Wyatt Emmerich is the president of Emmerich Newspapers. Contact him at wyatt@northsidesun.com.
