A judge Tuesday approved a request to set aside federal money for new billing software and other services for the troubled water system in Mississippi’s capital city.
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Ted Henifin, the federally appointed manager for the Jackson system, asked for a budget increase of more than $1 million to pay for the software, community outreach staffing and legal support.
U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate agreed to the request during a hearing Tuesday, court records show.
Henifin was appointed in November after the Justice Department won Wingate’s approval to carry out a rare intervention to fix Jackson’s water system, which partially failed. For several days in August and September, people waited in lines for water to drink, bathe, cook and flush toilets in the majority-Black city of about 150,000.
Henifin has said he hopes to wrap up his work as interim manager in one year or less. The federal order under which he was appointed sets 12 months for Henifin to implement 13 projects for improving the system’s near-term stability.
