NexusPark is open with one grand opening to go - the city's Parks and Recreation Department in a couple of weeks. Also, where residents and tourists should go for the solar eclipse Monday.
In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon addresses these issues and more during a visit to Columbus City Hall. 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. Here are some highlights.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: We are not in the office at city hall today. We are at NexusPark. I was here back in December and at that time, the hardwood floor was just going in. And now it's all complete.
Ferdon: We've had a couple of grand openings. Columbus Regional Health had theirs in the last part of January, we had the grand opening at the State of the City address March 6 for the fieldhouse and then April 12, we will be doing a grand opening for the community and park space. And that's really it for a while until the exterior campus is done sometime early next year. And then then we'll be complete.
Hren: What are the initial impressions, how is it going?
Ferdon: We have heard nothing but rave reviews which doesn't happen very often. So I'm sure there are some complaints but nobody has been breaking them to me yet. Our local Express soccer teams have been practicing, we've had a couple of tournaments and everyone is just so pleased.
Retail who are here are very pleased with the traffic they're getting so far and we've got some new restaurants coming in. And we had our community-wide Easter Egg Hunt was here Saturday, and we had probably 2,000-plus kids and parents here. And it was great to be able to have it indoors.
The traffic on the Columbus Regional Health side, on the west side, they've opened all of their offices and the community has been very, very pleased with how that's going.
Hren: The fieldhouse portion is mainly a rental space though?
Ferdon: IU Columbus is using it for their baseball and softball practice maybe but this is their home court for basketball and volleyball. We are able to accommodate softball and baseball, volleyball, soccer, of course, basketball, pickleball, wrestling. We built it so that in the future, we could be very, very flexible. For instance, other fieldhouses might put aggregate under their turf, we put seven inches of concrete under both our turf and our home court so that you can drive a semi truck onto it. Our goal is in the future that we'll have trade shows here.
Hren: From what I remember, it was the rental of the fieldhouse that was going to help pay for the operation and keep it sustainable, right? I know it's only been a month, but are those numbers starting to even out?
Ferdon: They're looking very, very good. We're booked out already into 2025. And so yeah, our goal at the very beginning is that the sustainability of the fieldhouse will be paid for by rental fees. We've got an EDIT bond that's covering the cost of the borrowing that we did to pay for the rest of the facility, Columbus Regional Health pays for their piece. City parks will pay for the normal piece that they do through tax dollars. And then on the east end where we have our rental space, that will be sustainability from leases from restaurants and retail establishments. So if everything works out in a couple of years, so it'll be fully sustainable.
Hren: Let's move on to a big event about a week from now, actually, it's only about five days and that's the solar total eclipse. What more have you found that you had to prepare for?
Ferdon: I'm gonna preface this by saying I had lunch with Mayor Thompson from Bloomington yesterday. So we were kind of comparing stories. And I think both cities have been preparing for this for over a year. And we're getting to the place now where we're really just finally getting all of our security measures in place. Doing the final marketing blitz to make sure that we have people who understand that, we've got a lot going on in Columbus, and we'd love to have you here for the eclipse. So now we're just all watching the weather.
Read more: Eclipse 2024 (indianapublicmedia.org)
Hren: What would you advise, two groups of people, the residents of Columbus, but also tourists coming into town, where should they go?
Ferdon: So we have lots of websites, the Columbus area visitors website, all of our Facebook pages. They'll also give you information on events that we have. And then, potential traffic options for local residents. We've been encouraging them to understand that our traffic will really increase. And so we want them to enjoy all the events we have going on Friday night, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We have a big renaissance fair up at our airport.
But we really want them to, if possible, not get out in the traffic, if they can walk or ride their bike, we'd really appreciate that just to reduce the amount of traffic that we have. And we're also have been telling them to do grocery shopping early, go to whatever store that you go to get what you're going to need for the next three or four days, fill up your gas tank in your vehicle. Make sure that you have the medicine that you need.
Hren: Also heard a police chief was sworn in?
Ferdon: We did. Our former police chief, Mike Richardson just recently announced his retirement as of the spring. And so we were in the process of hiring a new police chief, which I announced about a month ago and this morning he was sworn in. His name is Steve Norman. And he's been with the city I believe for close to 30 years, longtime police officer with amazing credentials. So I was really thrilled to be able to appoint him.
The best part is that the former Chief Mike Richardson is taking some well needed time off for a couple months. And then he will return to city employment in June. And he will be the Director of Security and Risk, which is a new position that we created in 2024. It's not a law enforcement position, but his job is to help us analyze and assess all of our buildings, where our employees work, where the public comes looking for security issues, seeing how we can manage risk better how we need to harden our buildings, and then help with the training both with city employees as well as the public.
