Hospital room supply is low - and so is the amount of healthcare workers. Enforcing the mask mandate is still a challenge. And the city is moving forward on a number of downtown developments.
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: I just saw on Twitter that hospital rates at Columbus Regional Health is at an all time high during the pandemic - almost triple than what it was back in August or April, can you give us a little bit of an update?
Lienhoop: I talked to the hospital folks, really not an hour ago. And so again, this is Tuesday. It's full, they really have reached pretty much a saturation point with respect to the number of COVID beds they have available. And in really, it's not so much beds, its staff - being able to treat the patients that they have there, because they've got their own quarantine issues that they have to deal with human, plus it's a holiday time and they've got some staff that need to get away and spend time with their families.
I had a similar conversation with the police chief, there's just a certain amount of COVID fatigue that has crept into our society, and it's particularly acute at places that deal with this day in day out and hospital being one of them.
The surrounding hospitals, Decatur, Jackson, and Monroe counties, Johnson County, they are not in a position to accept any patients from Bartholomew County. So it's concerning, particularly that be at this point, so closely after the Thanksgiving holiday. To get a spike on top of where we are right now is kind of concerning. So we never want to miss an opportunity to remind everybody to mask up physically distance and avoid crowds.
Hren: As of Tuesday, there are 69 new cases in Bartholomew County, the positivity rates are about the same as the state. Do you see any more local restrictions?
Lienhoop: Well, we're constantly discussing, what we could do on a local level. And, part of what we've got to do is gather some data. It's difficult, we get plenty of anecdotal stuff, you know, we get plenty of phone calls, emails telling us that, you know, yesterday at this store in Aisle 12, there was a guy walking around without a mask. And I appreciate the fact that it happens, and I don't dispute it, but it's really difficult kind of thing to be there at the right time to enforce that.
And you might say that, well, why don't you just enforce that with the businesses and close down a store that has non-compliance? Well, there are a lot of compliant people who get their groceries at these various stores. And so if you're going to close one down, you not only affect the folks who are not wearing the mask, but you also affect the folks who need that establishment.
I think that Governor Holcomb and his team have done an excellent job guiding us through this to this point. But, now when we sort of need some enforcement mechanisms to get a greater or higher degree of compliance, it's just difficult to arrange. We know we've got a country that's based on a lot of personal freedom. And, and so that tends to run counter to telling people how to behave when they're out in public. And so, again, we just find ourselves challenged in terms of trying to be able to do that.
Hren: You still have projects underway downtown, including acquiring some land and a new urban grocer development, could you fill us in on that and any update on the conference center?
Lienhoop: We've got several projects underway in the downtown area. And sort of central to that is what I've sometimes referred to as a property dance. We need to move the Bartholomew County Court Services Building from the location it's on, to allow us to build that hotel Conference Center. At the same time, that displaces another building, that's at 555 First Street. So we've got to acquire that property and then build a new facility on there. And the owner has indicated a willingness to sell that property to us.
But we'd like a trade for some other property that we've got. And at the same time, we've got some property that is east of there that we want to develop into a apartment complex along with a urban grocer. But we're going to put a little parking there that would serve the county's needs as well. And so these are several transactions that should take place here over the next month to two months to sort of bring all that into into focus.
The hotel conference center is on hold. But the driver so to speak, at this time is financing. There aren't any lenders out there who are prepared to invest in hospitality, at this time, they want to wait to see, the extent to which the business travel comes back. And when they're comfortable with that, then we'll be able to move forward. We don't have a timetable for that now.
For the latest news and resources about COVID-19, bookmark our Coronavirus In Indiana page here.
