Lienhoops says investigators haven't found the cause of Sunday's downtown blaze that destroyed a historic building, what projects he's focusing on before his final term ends, and the year in review.
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 spoke with you shortly after you announced you would not be running for third term as mayor, but wanted to start this show with some projects you're focusing on in your final year as mayor?
Lienhoop: We've got a Hotel Conference Center that we've talked about for a couple of years, that got pushed back, because of the pandemic, and still sort of suffers from that a little bit. I mean, business travel still hasn't returned to the point that it was pre pandemic. So we don't necessarily know what to plan for. But, we've explained to the developers that we've chosen, that we want to try to get this thing under contract as soon as possible.
The riverfront project continues to somewhat surprise us, in terms of the regulator's ability to continue to ask questions, cover the same ground, over and over again. But we feel like at this point that we are going to get what we need from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it's who we're in front of now. And but that may not come until sometime in January, maybe even early February at this point. I mean, they like it. But they say you got to check this box. Gotta check that box, we got to make sure that we run all the traps before we grant you the permit that you need to do construction.
And then we've got a variety of other little things around town that obviously NexusPark is not a little thing. We've got some housing projects that we're working on, housing continues to be an issue here in Columbus, I mean, we and across the country. We need housing units at all price points, and we've got a few people we're talking to.
Hren: Just came across an article about the 1821 Trail extension opening is going to be delayed a bit?
Lienhoop: We got some supply chain issues trying to complete the architectural elements, we've got some stones that you can see now in place along First Street, and we've got some markers that will be mounted on those and just trying to get those constructed.
Once those get mounted, then we'll be able to do a grand opening and, right now we're looking for sometime in February, maybe March. But candidly, we began to think that maybe we should just wait for warmer weather, you know that we might get a little better crowd.
But the whole notion behind 1821 is to do two or three things. It's a legacy project related to the Bicentennial that we celebrated in 2021. And it also serves as a connector between the riverfront project and the apartments that are being constructed at the corner of First and Lafayette. So so we're anxious to have that put in place because we feel like it will be a well used portion of the trail, the People Trail that we have here in town, as well as just a delightful amenity.
Hren: I did want to get this into because it just just happened I believe Sunday, the fire downtown 400 block of Fifth Street, a commercial building? Is it pretty much gutted?
Lienhoop: Yes. I was over there just at lunchtime today. And, I'm not structural engineer. But, you look up there and you say this has got to go to the landfill. I mean, there's just no hope of saving this. But yeah, it's a real shame that building dates from 1890s. It has a direct tie to Joseph I Irwin, who was one of the leading prominent citizens back in the 1800s. He built that building and used it as a rental facility for a number of years, sold it in 1945 to the family that owns it today.
It's somewhat unique in that it's only had basically two owners throughout its history. It was a unique design. There was a unique window treatment on the front. That was what they call Queen Anne. And, it was quite attractive. We all commented on it or remarked about the fact that it was somewhat unique for this city. I mean, it's not modern architecture.
It'll be removed and we're just now trying to sort of sort through the process and how you work with the insurance companies and the demolition contractors and so forth. But, in the meantime, Fifth Street in front of that will be closed. And that's probably going to be that way through the end of January.
Hren: This is our last show of 2022. I looked at this show a year ago, the number one thing we talked about, of course, was COVID numbers rising. The other two things were the Meridiam contract with high-speed internet and the READI grant preparations.
Lienhoop: With respect to Meridiam, we signed all the documents and the contractors are on site. I mean, they're beginning that construction process. Not sure exactly when we're going to be able to get people signed up, but I'm guessing that's going to be late first quarter, maybe early second quarter of 2023.
With respect to READI, we were really pleased with the way way that turned out. I mean, we'd submitted $50 million worth of projects when we got trimmed back to 30. But when you take the bigger picture view, we had a rather small region, just a three county region, most of the other regions were considerably larger than ours. And when you look at the award on a per capita basis, per person, we did extraordinarily well.
Hren: Thanks for doing this show - any holiday message before we go?
Lienhoop: I just want people to enjoy the holidays. I particularly would appreciate if you come downtown. You know, we put a lot of effort into the light show on Washington Street. We've got a couple of guys out at the Department of Public Works, who made it their mission to make that the best looking downtown in the state. And I think they've succeeded. So come on down and enjoy.
Come to Columbus and enjoy and particularly enjoy your family at the holiday time, take what time you need to get together and appreciate each other's company and we'll see you all again next year.
