City council is set to vote on elevating city government status to 'second class,' COVID cases are creeping back up, NexusPark is getting $6 million from the state's READI grant program, and the conference center study is in.
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: We have to get back to COVID levels that seem to be going back up, it seems like hospitals weren’t affected until more recently, was hoping you could fill us in more?
Lienhoop: You're right. I mean, the numbers are creeping back up. They're not back to where they had been, in terms of hospitalizations. We at one point saw numbers that were in the 50s, and now we're seeing numbers that are in the high single digits to the low teens.
It's disappointing, that we seem to be taking a step backwards. But I think it's kind of the natural progression, which is that we're just going to have to learn to live with this. And, so we need to be cautious when we're in and around crowds or with people that you don't know. And just make sure you're vaccinated when the time comes. And, and if you feel uncomfortable, excuse yourself or wear a mask, just be cautious.
Hren: The Governor kicked off the state's READI grant program with a visit to Columbus allocating $6 million to NexusPark - these are shovel-ready projects for around the state. What else is this region getting?
Lienhoop: We hope to break ground or begin demolition of what was the former Goody's space, sometime in August, and then hopefully be done with the field house by the end of 2023. And so we will hopefully be able to hire some people in anticipation of booking events, there in first quarter of 2024.
It's a partnership between Bartholomew, Jackson, and Jennings counties. And so we've got, I'll say, a half a dozen, but I could be mistaken about the number of projects in each one of the counties that sort of have a regional approach to them.
So in Jennings County, for example, there's an opportunity for a park in North Vernon that would come out of a former quarry. There's an old quarry that's downtown and there's an opportunity to make it into a really neat park with some wall climbing activities, rock climbing, younger people enjoy that.
In Seymour, there's a couple of projects associated with the hospital and some residential construction back here in Columbus again. And in addition to NexusPark, we've talked about the Hotel Conference Center that we hope to build downtown, we've talked about improvements with the riverfront and, some other housing related type activities as well. For the three counties, it's $30 million. When you take a look at it on a per person basis, it was the second highest award that the state of Indiana had. So I feel pretty good about what that says about their confidence in us and being able to deliver.
Hren: City council meets tonight to vote on a second reading of city government, so maybe you can explain the ’second class’ city status, and what this means if approved?
Lienhoop: Indiana divides its cities into three classes, they call them one, two and three, surprisingly. And there's only one 'class one' city in Indiana, and that is Indianapolis. Class two cities are those were the population above 35,000. And the class three cities are those with a population below 35,000. And Columbus crossed the 35,000 threshold in 2000. The census for that year indicated our population was around 39,000. And so we've had the opportunity for about 22 years now to class up if you will, and go from three to a two.
Our population now is about 50,000. And by best we can tell that makes us the largest class three city in Indiana, because we've never quite gotten around to make the switch. So we introduced an ordinance at the last city council meeting, it was approved six to one. And I anticipated similar result tonight.
The basic difference will be there'll be a change in some elected positions, we will go from seven, city council members to nine and we will change the clerk treasurer's role, it'll be split into a clerk's role and into a controllers role. The clerk will be elected. Much like the clerk treasurer is today. The comptroller will be appointed, there'll be hired.
Hopefully, that will provide us going forward with maybe the financial oversight that we're looking for. The City of Columbus has an $84 million a year operation. And that's just a lot of money. There's a lot of moving parts. And we need to make sure that we've got quality folks in that role.
Hren: City council is also hearing a first reading on a tax abatement to Meridiam to provide high-speed internet throughout the city. Bloomington has recently done this, do you worry the city is using tax money to provide infrastructure private companies are already doing?
Lienhoop: One of the things we learned during the pandemic was some of our students struggle to have adequate internet or to have internet at home. And then for that internet to be adequate in terms of speed, this will take care of that, the one gig will be available for a fee. But for a reduced fee, or no fee, you get to 50 megabytes up and down.
The second thing we talk about is remote workers, Columbus as well as Bloomington and the other communities I mentioned, are interested in trying to attract remote workers. And one of the things that will be a requirement is world class internet speed.
AT&T and Comcast, you know that we're glad they're in the community. And yeah, they provide 100% coverage in Columbus, you can get the internet wherever you are. Now, the price of the internet and the quality, the speed will vary based upon where you are in. And we've not been shared, though no plans have been shared with us, for those providers to address the areas that I would consider to be brown. We don't have black areas in Columbus, but we've got a couple of brown ones. And so Meridiam has come forward and is willing to do that. And so that's what their arrangement is what it is.
Hren: Columbus took a pause after the pandemic on building a conference center and hired a consultant to study the need and parameters for one that could succeed there - did that come out?
Lienhoop: Yeah, I thought we were pretty close to signing documents to get the developer and the hotel chain on board, and the pandemic intervened. And that all got set aside for about two years. We hired a consultant, the same guy we had talked to previously to come back and sort of help us reconsider, number one, whether a Hotel Conference Center still made sense. And then number two, what the appropriate size should be.
The consultant said, yeah, the world has changed, business travel has changed. But the convention business that we were talking about the number of visitors and so forth, would still continue to support what we want to do in the downtown area here. And in fact, he suggested that we build it a little bit bigger than what we had previously discussed. So we've taken that information and shared it with the developers that we had previously identified. And we're going to meet with them again tomorrow.
