Organization

Article about Armory Arts Village appears in Michigan Municipal League magazine

By Keith Roberts
Jackson Citizen Patriot
Saturday July 18, 2009, 12:17 AM

Jackson is getting more good publicity for Armory Arts Village and trying to dispel bad publicity about its budget.

An article on Armory Arts Village by Councilman Daniel Greer appears in the July/August issue of The Review, the Michigan Municipal League’s magazine, and on the league’s Web site, www.mml.org.

Greer, regional secretary of the league, said he was asked to write “Transforming a Prison into an Artists’ Village,” because the current issue of The Review focuses on arts and culture, and league members have been asking about Armory Arts Village since it won the league’s Community Excellence Award in 2008.

Greer wrote that the project took six years, and there were “many challenges, obstacles and setbacks” but “Jackson has taken the 16-acre site of the original state penitentiary and is redeveloping it and re-identifying our history and heritage.”

Greer said despite the publicity, Armory Arts Village remains a hidden jewel, and he hopes league members accept an invitation to discover it for themselves at next week’s Fourth Friday Art Walk.

“It will be a great opportunity for them to see ... some of the positive stuff,” Greer said.

As for the negative stuff, this year the Michigan Department of Treasury put Jackson on a list of cities at risk for fiscal distress because, it said, Jackson’s projected fund balance was less than 5 percent of its expenditures in 2007.

The Treasury Department said Jackson had a fund balance, commonly referred to as a rainy day fund, of $1.6 million.

In a letter to the department, City Manager William Ross said the city had an additional fund balance of $1.6 million, for a total of $3.2 million or about 12 percent of expenditures, and that’s what the city’s bond rating agencies use in analyzing the city’s financial position.

Ross said while he has concerns about the city’s budget, it’s not as bad as the list makes it out to be. He said he wrote the letter in June and is waiting for a response.

“We don’t want to stick our heads in the sand, but I’m not sure I necessarily agree we’re in danger,” Ross said.