The Jefferson City Council met Tuesday night in regular session.

The meeting started with a proclamation by Mayor Craig Berry to make April the Great American Main Street Month in honor of Jefferson Matters winning the GAMSA Award.

Then, Cindy Wise spoke during open forum. She told the Council she did not like having her taxpayer dollars going to The Centennial for the upper story grant when there is going to be a drag queen bingo event happening in May. 

Then, the public hearing was held for the 2026 fiscal year budget proposal, after no public comments were made, the Council then voted to adopt the budget and certify city taxes, with the overall tax levy to remain the same at $14.88 per $1,000 of property valuation. The Council also held another public hearing on the plans, specifications, form of contract and cost estimate for the airport fuel farm project. It was mentioned that the cost estimate was $916,650 with the three alternates included with the project. After the Council approved the measure following the hearing, they also approved the resolution awarding the contract to the apparent low bidder from three submitted bids to Evora Energy from Grimes for $839,412 with the contingency of receiving the grants from the Federal Aviation Administration and another federal grant. 

Additionally, the Council approved the third reading to amend an ordinance about the types of trees that are allowed and not prohibited in the public easements and required spacing of those trees, a plat of survey from the Greene County School District to split the parcel of the former middle school from the attached gymnasium, and a facade grant for $47,500 to Art on the Fly owner Jolene Peters to match the rest of the building that she owns, as well as the 26th pay estimate for the Wastewater Treatment Plant improvement project of $226,321. 

The Council approved the concept by a 4-1 vote to move forward with a proposal for the former middle school apartment conversion project. Chris Deal gave an update on the project and said of the $8.5 million project, the final financing portion was requesting from the city a $300,000 forgivable loan, a ten year tax abatement. Another part of the proposal was including the area into the downtown Urban Renewal Plan to be tax increment financing eligible and then creating a special category for a blighted area within that plan. Council member Chad Sloan was the lone no vote as he voiced concerns with giving a ten-year tax abatement to an $8.5 million project that property taxes should be paid in full on something like that. Deal responded that the property is currently not generating any tax revenue being in the school district’s ownership, but if they take possession then there would be new tax revenue from the city and that this is the largest scale project that there has been.

Finally, the Council heard an update from Chad Stevens about the Rural Housing Readiness Assessment as he spoke about the action plan that the committee set up and are working on each of those items in sub-committees that will meet again in June.