Construction on the Russell C. Davis Planetarium is expected to be finished by July 2025.
The announcement was made Thursday by Mike Williams, Jackson’s deputy director of the Department of Human and Cultural Services; Kane Ditto, former mayor of Jackson; and a board member of the nonprofit Friends of the Russell C. Davis Planetarium Inc.
The nonprofit has been instrumental in raising money for renovations for the planetarium, which has a total budget of $21 million. Part of the fundraising was selling naming rights for a number of the planetarium exhibits, Williams said. For the city to use the money raised from the nonprofit, it first had to be approved by the Jackson City Council.
In a special meeting Thursday, council members unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding between the city and the nonprofit to accept the money and the naming rights.
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“Part of the fundraising was giving naming rights to the donors,” Williams said. “The interface between these public entities and the city had to be codified in this (memorandum of understanding) agreement that reflects the guidelines by which we’ll do the naming rights and accept the money.”