A steady line of Columbus voters cast their ballot at FairOaks Mall Tuesday, the city celebrated the opening of the railroad overpass, and Halloween should go on as scheduled with extra precautions.
On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop addresses these issues and more. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: Early voting begins and voters are lining up – I heard three blocks in line in Bloomington – I know we talked last month about voting during a pandemic and using FairOaks Mall. What’s the set-up like?
Lienhoop: Well, I've not been out to the mall. But I'm told that we've taken pretty much the whole Carson space. And it was the biggest store out there and used a good portion of it to provide for sufficient voting machines and for sufficient spacing, so the people who do come in to vote will be able to maintain the adequate spacing.
On Tuesday, October 6 we had about 250 people who had already voted, and the lines were steady. People were really happy that we were able to provide that venue because as we looked around town, there were other places where we had done early voting before, but there were none that were as centrally located, or as large as FairOaks.
Hren: I just wanted to get your reaction to President Trump contracting coronavirus. Now he's back at the White House. What are your thoughts?
Lienhoop: You know, I just follow along as best I can. But I will share with everybody that the single most effective tool we have to combat the spread of this virus is a mask. And we should wear them all the time when we are outside our houses when we're outside our private offices. The second most important thing you can do is maintain your distance. You know, mom always said keep your hands to yourself. I mean, it's a little bit of an extension of that. And just be smart about crowds.
Hren: Has the President and Vice President, Mike Pence, taking this seriously enough?
Lienhoop: It is a bit of a loaded question. My sense is that you know they have to take it seriously. Because they're trying to guide the country's response to it, and obviously we've had a couple hundred thousand people die as a result of this thing. But I do wish that they, would perhaps exhibit the behaviors they want us to use themselves. And then I suspect we'll get a little bit more adherence to that going forward.
Hren: A big moment last week, the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new railroad overpass on State Road 46, and it even hasn't been a year since construction started?
Lienhoop: That crossing held about 40,000 vehicles a day both ways. And just keep in mind, the population of the county is 80,000. So again, it gives you the impression there of a traffic funnel at State Route 46.
We were able to get to the governor's attention, which is always helpful in terms of, providing direction to the Indiana Department of Transportation. And and they took it on, I mean, they've got a number of different projects. It's just one of, and so they wanted to get this started and get it finished.
We think of professionalism oftentimes in context of professionals, attorneys or doctors, accountants, whatnot. But the guys at Milestone, they really do know how to build a bridge, how to move dirt, how to pour asphalt and to do so efficiently and safely. And so, yeah, from design to finish was right around three years.
Hren: I know Halloween is coming up and something every city is figuring out how to move forward safely. What's Columbus doing?
Lienhoop: With respect to trick or treat, we don't want to spread the coronavirus. That said, gets really hard to outlaw trick or treating, right? I mean, if an eight year old shows up at your front door, we're not gonna haul them off. But what we believe is that if we can give some guidelines that makes some sense, people can use those to go ahead and engage and trick or treat.
I think both the the trick or treater and the homeowner need to be wearing masks. Make it part of your costume, have some fun with it. Keep in mind that the average Trick or Treat transaction is like 30 seconds, and so it would make sense to wear gloves. If you don't want to open your door, but you still like to participate, you can put a bowl out there with some treats in it, or little packages ready made up with goodies in there. And the kids can take those when they stop by.
But I will tell you, one big caveat is that we pay attention to the metrics here in Bartholomew County. And if, those numbers were to take off on us, say a week before, we might come out with some different guidance.
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