In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon addresses this issue and more at 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: Millions of people are losing SNAP benefits as the White House announces some partial funding during the government shutdown, what's the situation here in Columbus?
Ferdon: We've had a lot of work by agencies here in Columbus who are doing what they always do partner together to try to figure out how to help and so United Way is working with our food pantry. We have been talking with them almost every day, just trying to figure out next best steps. We've been talking to donors about how to back fill the food pantry until the SNAP benefit issue gets fixed, though, at this point in time, it's not going to be fixed enough to help everybody.
So as a community, I know that a lot of people are making donations again to food pantries. We have one major one, but there's some smaller ones, and to help alleviate some of the problems we're going to see until those SNAP benefits are back in place.
But that's one of the great things about communities in Indiana, generally, we band together to help our residents but just hoping that we can that the federal government can get their act together and figure this out quickly, because if it goes on too long, a lot of people are going to get hurt.
Read more: $50K grant for maintenance keeps art piece in downtown Columbus
Hren: For those looking for help, what can they do?
Ferdon: We have a local food pantry called the Love Chapel. Also, you can go talk to someone at United Way, and they can guide you in the best places to get food. We do have local agencies and churches who provide a daily meal. If their SNAP benefits run out and they're not able to feed their family, we do provide local meals.
Hren: Redistricting is taking center stage in Indiana with a special session scheduled for the first two weeks in December. What do you hope lawmakers do during that special session?
Ferdon: I know that there are also some state law changes that have to be made to match up with federal, so I think that that's going to get taken care of. You know, my preference, of course, is that redistricting is done every 10 years, like we've been able to do successfully throughout the past.
I really would like state legislators to kind of revisit Senate Bill One and really focus on the local tax issues and income tax and property taxes that were passed last year that need some focus. I'd rather they spend their time doing that than redistricting, quite frankly.
Hren: I've been hearing that a part of the "Our River, Our Riverfront" project is underway after years in the making. What would I see if I were to go out there right now?
Ferdon: You're going to see progress. And that's huge after eight plus years. The first piece is always the hardest. We've had to take down some old trees and start preparing the riverbank for some erosion control, some armoring of the banks so that we will be able to extend the trail.
Over the next year or so, you're going to see the old dam come out again. We're going to do erosion control on both sides of the river. We're going to extend the trail, we're going to plant non-invasive trees back that will help the riverfront.
We've spent many, many years talking about how difficult it was to get permitting. I applaud the governor's office for helping us kind of get through that a second time as we made some modifications to the riverfront to make it cheaper and quicker.
Hren: Will this kind of also work in conjunction with the entrance plaza project?
Ferdon: It really fits into the larger Columbus Downtown 2030 plan that we've been talking about, that we started a year ago July and got the final report this summer. The plaza is just one more amenity piece that we're looking at improving connection to the riverfront and finding a way to get people across Second Street in Columbus.
That 2030 downtown plan encompasses not only the riverfront, but also, how do we energize the downtown? How do we revitalize it, and how do we use a lot of the features that we already have and find ways to attract more restaurants? Obviously, downtown housing is a huge priority for us, so our plan talks a lot about, how do we add density to the downtown? Because density then brings in more amenities and retail and restaurants, and so it's kind of a vicious circle, and we think we're going to be able to take a big bite out of that.
