Mayor Jim Lienhoop gives an update on the remediation plan to reduce PFAS in the city water supply, the riverfront project is moving forward, and more on voluntary annexation.
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 heard a few weeks ago, progress is being made on the riverfront project.
Lienhoop: There's been a variety of governmental agencies whose permits were required to proceed on this project. And we finally got the last domino to fall. That was the US Army Corps of Engineers, they have an office in Louisville that takes care of this. And so they finally gave us their approval to complete the project as designed. So the next step is to try to get that bid. And to do that, we have to get the funding approved by by the redevelopment commission, and the Columbus City Council because the amount will be in excess of $500,000.
This has taken several years to get through all the regulatory hoops. We've been through the pandemic, we've been through significant inflation so we have retained the services of an urban economist. His name is James Lima, to give us a little bit of an update on the economic benefits that exist.
We believed when we proposed the project originally, that it had a sound business case, that it made sense for us to do this from an economic perspective, as well as a safety perspective, and amenity perspective, a recreational perspective. But we want to revisit the economic side of this. And so we will have a joint meeting of the Columbus Redevelopment Commission and the Columbus City Council that is now scheduled for November 14.
Hren: We're hearing a little bit more on PFAS, which are contaminants that were found in 30 drinking water utilities, including Columbus, I think we talked about this in September, that one water well was shut down. But there was another process that you wanted to pursue. And that was reimbursement from litigation from these companies.
Lienhoop: We're still pursuing the process that we'd outlined in there, basically four steps. One was to shut down the well with the highest reading in anticipation that the remaining wells would have an average that was below the detection limits. And we're still awaiting results from the sampling, there's only a couple of labs in the country that can sample to this level.
We anticipate in the short run to dig some more wells, it'll take a few months to get those online. The test wells that we've done have come back non detect. The third strategy will be to introduce some charcoal filtering. And I'm told that the charcoal will take out the activated PFAS out of the water. And then the fourth strategy will be to pursue reimbursement for the money we got to spend on charcoal filters - some of the large chemical companies. And so yes, we've joined some litigation that will hopefully result in some funding.
Hren: It looks like the NexusPark Fieldhouse is almost enclosed just in time for this cold weather and that white stuff that might be coming to down the road... how's progress on NexusPark?
Lienhoop: It's on schedule. There's two or three things going on all at the same time out there. Columbus Regional Health is completing its portion of the building. It's already opened one practice out there the OB GYN practice, they will have clinics, parts of what are their operations, if you will, that will open from between now and I want to say through April of next year.
We are completing the Fieldhouse, we anticipate hosting events, opening that up to the public in April of 2024. At the same time we're working on the park space, what had been the JC Penney space will become the offices for our parks department. And then they'll have some community rooms, fitness rooms and some other activities that would be more public in nature that would be similar to what you might expect at a park.
And then we've also just recently let the contract for the exterior landscaping, I mean, we're talking about repaving the parking lots, putting in new dry wells for the stormwater runoff, we're going to have a little park out in front of what had been the JC Penney space, trying to improve the signage, and then the navigation around, there's a ring road that will go around the exterior of the space. Want to complete that, and then want to tie it into the people trail systems that we already have.
Hren: I see City Council is looking at a zoning ordinance to prohibit solar farms. But I was trying to understand, it's not so much within the city limits. There's a jurisdiction area, so maybe you can explain that a little?
Lienhoop: What we're talking about is ground that is outside city limits. There is a what we call a two mile jurisdiction that starts at the city limit and goes out into the county. And then you've got what's beyond that, sort of say beyond the two miles, the beyond two miles part that came before the county some time ago. And the solar farms were approved with some stipulations. Now the developer has come before the City Planning Commission. And although this development is not inside city limits, City Planning Commission has control because it's within this two mile territory territorial jurisdiction.
And it came first before I want to say the Columbus Planning Commission, and it was approved, the solar farms were approved with some stipulations that then had to be approved by the Columbus City Council. And they, in their last meeting, denied approval, and denied it pretty emphatically - zero to seven. That will come before the city council one more time. And while I anticipate the result to be the same, you never know till you know, so I would encourage people, on either side of the question, to show up and make their feelings known.
