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: Exhibit Columbus kicked off - how is it going?
Ferdon: We have 13 exhibits. They're temporary, but they're outdoor. And so this has been great weather for people to wander around and spend some time with each. August was lots of activities and events, and then the exhibits will be up through November.
But Saturday night, under InterOculus, which was is the big dome downtown, we're having kind of a closing party, so feel free to come down and have a great time. But yes, it's a great exhibit. It really explores the community and combines our design heritage as well as our art and architecture. And it's just always interesting to see everyone's idea of art and design, right? You don't have to understand it to appreciate it.
Hren: Let's check in with the budget as we move into September. I know it's been through city council hearings. Anything change since we talked a month ago?
Ferdon: I don't think so. We had a pretty busy month, right? Trying to work through the changes, from the state perspective, with the property tax changes, I don't think we're going to be hit quite as hard as we thought we would. So that's a good some good news, but we tried to be judicious, and we were only adding a few new positions this year and trying to make sure that every dollar we spend is well spent on something that we need.
But as for any community, the biggest cost that we have is staffing, right? And so you want to make sure that you've got a good staff to provide the services that are critical for a city to run.
Hren: Any projects coming up before the asphalt compounds close in a few months?
Ferdon: I think we're doing some work on Second Street, which is if you're coming from Bloomington across the Robert Stewart bridge, that's what swings into town. We're doing some utilities work. There'll be some patching, I think we'll pave it in a couple of years, but we're doing what's called a road diet. We're reducing the width of the streets because people just drive way too fast.
We're doing some bump outs so that it's easier to get across Second Street, which is a State Road, which makes it very difficult. And so I'm hoping that work like that will get done before the concrete closes for the season.
Hren: I wanted to ask you briefly about redistricting in Indiana. We've heard about it in Texas and California - Indiana lawmakers visiting DC. As a Republican mayor, what's your take on whether Indiana should redistrict?
Ferdon: It's something that I think we've done every 10 years, and so we have a schedule, and typically you redistrict for a specific reason, like, if there's growth in a state. And this goes back in my political teacher days, right? We also have a two-party system, and so I think it's important for everyone's voices to be heard. We don't like the word gerrymandering, and so I think I'm hoping that the state legislature just chooses not to redistrict at this point and keeps to the schedule that we do. But I can't control the state legislators.
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Hren: I want to check in with NexusPark, we talked a month ago about some traffic and parking issues. How is that working out now?
Ferdon: We have spent more time as a city talking with the tenants and trying to understand some of their concerns, and hopefully we're trying to alleviate some of their concerns and continuing to get more tenants into the building.
Parking wise, we finally finished the campus, but we now have, I think, an additional 100 plus parking spaces. So it's going to be very rare when we have parking issues, and we've got some strategies for how to deal with those for big events.
Hren: We saw a Facebook comment, maybe August 5 or so, at a city council meeting where the co-owner of Mother Bear's Pizza talked about lack of foot traffic, use of the field house, that there haven't been many additional businesses, tenant representation, and so on. I'd love to hear your comments on that.
Ferdon: We have a leasing agent Veritas. We've started meeting with the parks department and Columbus Regional Health, started meeting with the tenants and understanding what their concerns are, and helping them understand who we bring to the field house and the timing.
We lost a big contract last year, which didn't help us this summer, but we've got more things in place to continue to add more events. We always knew it would be a three-to-five-year window before we would be fully activated. And so everybody's excited.
The field house has really only been open now for not even 18 months, so we feel like we're moving in a good direction, though I know it's not quick enough for the tenants.
Hren: I see Columbus Pride is this weekend, and I didn't realize how big it's growing. I think they have about 150 vendors and started with maybe 30. Are you supportive of what Pride has done?
Ferdon: It started as a senior project in the downtown, I think it may predate COVID. It's always hard to remember. And then eventually they moved to Mill Race Park because it's been so large and successful. And so we're excited to have them back this year. And then in the evening, we have a Rock The Block Party, which I'm sure we'll have guests still in the city from pride, and then people coming down for Exhibit Columbus. So it should be a lot of fun Saturday night.
Hren: I always like to leave the last minute to you any big announcements or anything else. I think you mentioned something about the Animal Care Shelter?
Ferdon: The one that we have is very small and was 40 plus years old and it's outgrown our need. We're starting the design and the plans for a new Animal Care Shelter. We hope to break ground sometime in late spring of next year, it's going to use a combination of city funding and hopefully some READI dollars, and then potentially economic development as well as some fundraising.
So we can talk more about that in October and November. We'll have an idea, but very excited to support the needs of animal care that continue to grow in every community, not just Columbus. And so trying to find that balance between being proactive and preventative, right? How can we prevent animals and so we always encourage people to spay and neuter, right?
