Business View Magazine - November 2016

Business View Magazine - November 2016 141 civic actors. The network serves as a platform that connects employers with individuals who possess the skills and motivation to be successful employees, but whose nontraditional pathways to acquiring those skills too often render them invisible to traditional re- cruiting processes. The $100 million initiative was an- nounced last year by President Obama at the National League of Cities annual meeting. “We’re committing to work with various organizations here in the City, be it educational, healthcare, etc., to come up with a plan to show how we’re going to increase the hiring of technology-driven jobs,” states Davis. “We’re excited about that and we are on our way to doing great things in that area.” “The City of Jackson has also received a TIGER (Trans- portation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant for our State Street area,” Davis adds. “This grant was competitive. We wrote the plan, submitted it, and were awarded the grant.” The TIGER monies will fund the city’s reconstruction of State Street including pre- liminary engineering services, environmental phase services, traffic analysis, right-of-way/easement acqui- sition, roadway design, construction, engineering, and inspection. “That, most definitely, is going to boost our economic redevelopment of State Street, so we are also excited about that.” While some parts of Jackson’s redevelopment are be- ing financed by grants, other parts of its infrastructure redevelopment are being mandated under a consent decree that the city has received for violating sections of the U.S. Clean Water Act and the Mississippi Air and Water Pollution Control Law. “So, we have, prob- ably, $1.23 billion worth of infrastructure that we have to do - roads, water, and sewer,” Davis says. “That’s