Indiana Newsdesk's Joe Hren sat down with Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight to answer YOUR questions!
Listen to their full conversation above. Here are some highlights:
Hren: When you see a big ribbon cutting ceremony for what is Kokomo's largest downtown building (First Farmers Bank and Trust), that does trigger a domino effect for other businesses downtown?
Goodnight: It does. Right next door we had a restaurant that just opened and that was one of the things they considered when considering locations was this new group of business people that would be downtown on a regular basis and the visitors.
Hren: Considering a bank, a comedy club, a restaurant and community college are opening up downtown, how does a city keep up a diversified business climate?
Goodnight: Well, you have to have a plan. We've been working on this for the last four or five years. It's a pretty simple business plan. We try to create that destination area and hopefully they feed off of each others business plan and they all become successful at that process.
Hren: The Indiana Attorney General is investigating a GM recall of 2.6 million cars due to faulty ignition switches. There is a GM plant in Kokomo, will these recalls hurt the area?
Goodnight: Well, I don't know the recalls will have a direct impact on the facility here. Obviously the success overall of General Motors will have an impact on the plant here but I don't know that there is a direct correlation between the two, but I'm sure there is an indirect [impact].