The Crump Theatre may open back to the public in a couple months, a new developer is looking at another site for a proposed conference center, and more pay increases to retain police and fire personnel.
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'm going to head over to the Crump Theatre to check out the work that's being done. A historic building that's not really been open to the public for quite a bit, can you tell a little bit of the history and what's being done to save it?
Lienhoop: The building dates back to the 1880s. And so you've got a very old masonry structure that is showing its age. I want to say in the 1940s, right before World War Two, it was renovated to what we call an art deco style, and pretty much made into a single purpose facility, which was to show movies. And it was a big, big theater at the time, and had a lengthy run. I remember going to movies later when I was a kid back in the 60s.
There were some concerns maybe 10 years ago, about the structural integrity, there were some issues with respect to some of the roof trusses, particularly those towards the the stage area. And that necessitated a closure of the building to the public, so there were still people inside working, to try to renovate the space. And they've got a committee now that is particularly energetic, that has scoured Indiana for spare seats, spare lighting and spare whatever you have.
And then there are a number of volunteers from around the community who have come in to help clean those seats, clean the floors, clean the balcony, just do a variety of fixed up repairs. I think part of what they're trying to do, is how do you get out in the case of an emergency, how easy or difficult is the egress if we have to empty the building in short time.
My anticipation is that they'll be able to host a ticketed event here in a couple of months. So it's kind of kind of neat to see it come back to life. It's going to be difficult to do a lot more in there than, you know, show movies and maybe have some entertainment. But yeah, it should be fun.
Hren: How about an update on the proposed conference center? That would be across the street from the Crump Theatre. Last time, we talked a couple months ago, the process of getting a consultant?
Lienhoop: We have reengaged the consultant that we had and part of that reengagement was to determine whether or not the Conference Center was still a viable amenity, something that we wanted here in Columbus, and he confirmed that yeah, it is, I mean, that's something that we really do want to do.
But we've had several discussions since with the proposed developers and reached a bit of an impasse in terms of how we would go forward. So we have begun to talk to Dora Hospitality, they had been our second place finisher several years ago. Dora has asked us to take a look at another location here in town. And we're gonna do that.
That may require us to reissue the RFP since we're looking at a different site. And that'll add several months to the project. So we're kind of taking that proverbial step backwards right now and try to take a deeper look or a broader look as as to just where this would go. And again, how much it's really going to cost? I mean, we had sort of penciled in, I want to say about 30,000 square feet. I don't know that we'll do that. We just need to rethink the numbers a little bit.
Hren: Where's that new site? And why?
Lienhoop: Towards the post office, and Dora is interested in it because he's already got a hotel over there, and there's an existing parking garage over there. The project that we contemplated would require the construction of a parking garage. And you know, why build one if you've already got one?
The one that we are referring to is over on Jackson Street already exists, but it's already being used. So, I don't know how many seats you're talking about trying to accommodate maybe 500 people, in a ballroom type setting. And so you've got to contemplate maybe 250 cars. And so where would you put them, and there's some room over there, not just in the existing garage, but some surface lots that exist.
The folks who were in that industry tell me that it's important for the hotel to connect to the conference center, all weather connection, little less important that it connects to the parking. But that's, really critical. So we've got to got to figure all that stuff out.
Hren: The City of Columbus is looking for updated information on housing needs. How will this help?
Lienhoop: It's interesting or important to us to be able to explain to any prospective developer, this is the kind of house or this is the kind of price range that we want you to target. And particularly if we're going to end up talking about any incentives. The city's Redevelopment Commission has authorized to pay for this study, or authorize payment of the study. And so their ability to use the results will depend upon the kind of information they get, and how well we can present that then to developers.
Part of what we know is coming on is continued annexation, but what we're particularly focused on is what happens out at the, what they call the Columbus Regional Hospital farm property, and the plan that they intend to present here in a couple of nights, that plan commission would contemplate about 1000 units. And so if the developer comes to town, and they want some taxpayer assistance, redevelopment assistance to construct those, then we want to be informed as to what kind of unit we want to get.
Hren: Will this also affect rezoning of the downtown for different kinds of housing?
Lienhoop: Well. I don't know. I don't think that our zoning at the present time is restricted - is too restrictive in terms of preventing the kind of housing that we want built. You've got, homeowners associations that have their overlay of so to speak of rules on whatever ground that they've got, but I don't anticipate any big changes to the zoning or building codes to come from this.
Hren: It's always budget time, you're always looking at money. But you mentioned to be earlier, the top thing of mind was police and fire pay.
Lienhoop: With respect to police, the state of Indiana has announced and begun to implement some significant increases to the pay for Indiana State Police. And they kind of drive the market, if you will, in terms of setting a standard that most of our officers try to get to. When the state of Indiana sort of dangles a 15-16 percent increase in compensation, we can't ignore that.
We've tried to put some numbers together now, because compensation is not as straightforward as you might think, they work a rather unique shift. They're working the weekends, most holidays. And, there are different types of incentive pays that are a percentage of what the base comp is.
And we're gonna see something similar with respect to fire. We do worry about what Indianapolis fire does, and they set the the standards. And, if we don't respond, our firefighters head up to Franklin, or Bargersville, or Greenwood or some other place so, we'll be responsive, we don't want to become a training ground for the bigger departments.
At the same time, the Indiana State Legislature in an effort to help people on their property taxes, placed a 4 percent growth limit on our levy. If you're trying to provide a 16 percent raise increase, and you can only raise your property tax levy by 4 percent. It kind of provides us with some choices that we've got to make, to try to squeeze a big number into a smaller one. And typically those don't go well. But we've got some thoughts in terms of how to make that work, at least make it work over a multi year period.
