Ask the Mayor
About
A weekly program where mayors from Bloomington, Columbus, and Terre Haute answer questions about your community. We also delve into new and long-term city topics.
The show airs on WFIU on Wednesday mornings at 6:45 AM and 8:45 AM
- First Wednesday of the month: Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon (R)
- Second Wednesday of the month: Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun (D)
- Third Wednesday of the month: Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson (D)
Submit a question or comment to news@indianapublicmedia.org and follow us on X: @AskTheMayor
Clayton Baumgarth
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WFIU/WTIU News
"Housing is definitely a challenge... but I'd put them as a top three priority. Housing, for sure, as we just discussed, but also public education." — Sakbun on Terre Haute's continued growth
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"Seminary Pointe is not in our ownership, and while I have laid out pathways to get some of those units preserved, which of course is a priority, the CIB it appears is not interested." - Thomson on land swap for convention hotel
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"The bulk of our improvements we believe that the business community can afford, and so their rate will be anywhere from $10 or $30 per month." - Mayor Sakbun on water rate hike -
"We're in the middle of our Columbus Downtown 2030 plan implementation. So, this will be a huge asset when it's completed and will help draw people to this side of the river." - Mayor Ferdon on the riverfront amphitheater -
"I decided I wasn't going to make a decision about whether to veto this or not until I heard thoroughly from the public. We have gotten a lot of outreach about carless Kirkwood." - Mayor Kerry Thomson -
"Why would we only target just seniors and just people who can afford to not have a mortgage? That's not really doing anything for our community's most vulnerable." - Sakbun on Gov. Braun's plan for property tax breaks. -
"Our major food bank, called the Love Chapel, over the past couple of years, has seen a significant increase in the number of people who are requesting help." - Ferdon on residents dealing with increased costs -
"I think Hopewell was a perfect example of it's really difficult to build in Bloomington. I was getting calls from developers during that process, saying, if the city can't get this through, who can?" - Thomson on building audits -
"I truly believe that when you look at the cost of housing, the cost of utilities, and frankly, a job market that hasn't took wages high enough to achieve this dream style scenario, that's what I wish the election would have been on." - Mayor Sakbun on the primary -
"That's, in fact, why you do PUD, is because you have something that will not fit into the UDO or the transportation plan. We needed some wiggle room with both of those in order to get this done." - Thomson on Hopewell -
"When you start targeting civilian infrastructure, you start really just creating more enemies. The people of Iran are going to be hit with famine, no power. That is not how you win a campaign and do regime change." - Mayor Brandon Sakbun -
"There's still some uncertainty around tariffs, now we're seeing higher fuel costs, energy costs, the uncertainty around interest rates. I think that right now, businesses are being very careful. We aren't seeing many hire and expand." - Ferdon on the economy
