City council votes on redistricting, Airpark development and NexusPark update, Meridiam broadband installation begins soon, and the city will be honored this month as the state's community of the year.
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: Happy Halloween, what was the ' trick or trash' program that I heard about?
Lienhoop: Has to do with the wrappers that candy comes in. When I was a kid, a lot of the candy was homemade, we don't encourage that today. We encourage givers to go to the store, buy some prewrapped prepackaged treats. And then there's always a question about what you do with the wrappers. And so we've got a couple boxes around town that are set up to accept those wrappers and we'll see that they get put to another good use.
Hren: One of the main items is a follow up from last month where you explained redistricting City Council boundaries. There was a vote already a month ago, now there's a final vote for Tuesday night. What do you expect the vote to be tonight?
Lienhoop: Every 10 years in this country, we have a census as required by the Constitution. And so the 2020 census data is available to us. And so with each census, we take a look at the city council districts to try to make sure that they are as balanced as we can make them. We have more growth on the west side, which is in district two.
Sort of coincidental with that, we are looking to switch from five city council districts to six. And that'll be as part of our switch from a class three city to a class two city. We made that decision a month or two ago. And, and so we have to provide not only for a rebalancing of the existing districts, but the addition of sixth district. And we will go from two to three at-large positions.
This will take place January 1, 2024. But they will show up on the ballots in 2023. We'll also see a change with respect to the clerk treasurer's position, the clerk treasurer will go away, when that position goes away, it's replaced by a clerk position, the city will hire a chief financial officer controller. Today, the mayor serves as the chair of the City Council and prepares the agenda for those meetings. And that will change, the City Council will elect a president who will serve as chair and that person will be responsible for the agenda.
Hren: Meridiam broadband project is underway in Bloomington, they are moving into a central office in downtown Bloomington in the Fourth Street parking garage retail space. So I assume they're getting ready to break ground in Columbus?
Lienhoop: They're on schedule is what I know. They have appeared before the county council and city council and told us what the plans are. And I anticipate if we're lucky, people may be able to sign up early 2024. But yeah, this is a pretty big deal. But yeah, we've worked pretty hard and it'll put both of our communities Bloomington and Columbus among the most wired in the nation, and should make us all the more attractive to those people who wish to work remotely.
Hren: GigabitNow is the initial ISP and residents can actually pre-register online. But this is also to get broadband internet to low income residents too, right?
Lienhoop: Yeah because during the pandemic, we found out something that maybe we thought existed, but we needed a little bit proof or evidence, and that was that while all of Columbus was connected to the internet, we had some places that were dark, so to speak, the speeds weren't high enough to accommodate at home learning.
And many residences did not have internet because the household couldn't afford it. And so there are several programs available to accommodate broadband access to average at risk families and at risk students.
Hren: How about an update on Nexus Park? I thought the Republic did a nice feature a week or so ago that construction is underway on the former mall for a new recreation facility, but there are still open businesses inside.
Lienhoop: I think the businesses are doing pretty well, particularly those that are related to the sports industry. We've got a few other businesses in there too, restaurants and a couple of retail shops that tell us that they're continuing to do okay. But they all realize that something really special is headed their way. And so they want to hang around and and be able to participate in that when it comes.
We have done the demolition work that's necessary to make the area clear for the field house. And we expect construction on the field house to start sometime in February. We've got a ton of steel, they told us 115 truckloads that will build the field house that we're putting on the north edge of NexusPark.
With that we expect to see, maybe 40,000 users a month to come visit that space, that'll be on top of what CRH commerce Regional Health anticipates in their space, which is somewhere around 1000 visitors a week. So we expect the place to be very busy.
I think it's going to be a good place for retail, for restaurants and the like. We anticipate being able to host tournaments, softball, volleyball, and just about any kind of activity that needs a significant indoor space. And we're hopeful that we can put this all online about January of 2024.
Hren: I've seen snippets and heard about the AirPark development. I believe it's a project happening over at the airport in Columbus that the city is looking to for economic development.
Lienhoop: The city owns the airport, we've got a separate board that manages that property. Right now we've got runways, we've got a terminal building, we've got hangars, we've also got a fair number of commercial enterprises that have rented ground upon which they have built a building. Most of it is a little unusual for this part of the country. But most of the ground out here is owned by the airport board, and then made available to the tenants pursuant to a ground lease, that in many cases lasts for 99 years.
But the airport board wants to try to expand commercial activities out there. And so I think where we're headed here is that tonight at the city council meeting, we will review a resolution that would authorize the redevelopment commission has spent a little bit over a million dollars to extend Grissom drive. And and the whole notion would be to open it up for for further development in order to bring traffic to a few lots that today are that you can't access.
Hren: I know we're about out of time. But I did want to mention, the Indiana Chamber announcing Columbus as the 'Community of the Year' and you didn't even know you were nominated.
Lienhoop: There's all kinds of awards out there, and you often start the process by nominating yourself. And, I'm pleased to report that in this case, we did not do that. The president of the Indiana Chamber called me and he said, surprise, you're our award winner. And he said, it's just in recognition for all that's going on in Columbus.
We've got a variety of things that work very well here in Columbus. And so I think it's a recognition that all of us can share, and all of us need to celebrate. So yeah, November 16, there will be the annual meeting for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. They've said it's a black tie optional. So for the first time since my daughter's wedding, I'm going to go out and rent a tuxedo and go up there and and try to look the part.
