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: I hear the city hired a service to manage the construction of the new animal shelter?
Ferdon: We have a project manager who's helping us kind of work through just logistics. It's it's currently on airport property. It's in a planned unit development which has a few more limitations.
So we've got to work on that, trying to figure out where the water and sewer lines go, and just working through all the logistics of using a build, operate, transfer process, and so our current shelter staff, the director and her staff, don't really have time to do this while they're trying to operate as a shelter, so having a project manager will move things along much quicker. So yeah, we're excited. Hopefully late next spring, we should have a groundbreaking on that.
Hren: I also see the airport is finally moving forward with the new control tower. This has been years in the making. I saw a render of the tower and it's looks like it's going to add another architectural element to the city. What's the reaction been?
Ferdon: I think pretty well. We had the groundbreaking, about three weeks ago, and as you remember, we have some pretty impressive architects, the Marlon Blackwell Architects, who designed it, and so we had a very good crowd at the groundbreaking.
The current tower dates back to the 1940s and so really needs to be upgraded. And we're looking at 120-foot tower, and it will be accessible to the public, which will be very, very unique. I think one of the floors has public spaces that we'll use for some specific things, but it will attract a lot of attention going forward, and it will be on the architectural tour.
We have a very supportive large aviation crowd that lives in around Columbus and have own airplanes, rent hangars, are very supportive of what we do out there. And so I anticipate that as it gets warm again, as the work progresses, that every day there'll be a line of chairs sitting out there with people watching what's happening.
Hren: I just saw yesterday the city is working with Hirons to help with crisis communication, Can you describe a little bit about what is Hirons and did something precipitate the need for that?
Ferdon: I will say that nothing particularly precipitated it, other than, we like every other city, we have crises that happen, and so we can handle day to day communications, and we're always trying to improve on that first of all.
Hirons was used by Greenwood when the Greenwood Park Mall had the shooting a number of years ago, and so we've worked with Hirons, and they've kind of walked us through some of our communications processes. And it's just having somebody who's on contract. We don't pay them unless we need them.
But the goal is if something major happens, we'll need help how to deal with a lot of media that we're not used to, or if somebody's out of town, how do we get them back and try to move forward?
One of the most important things we can do as a city is to be able to communicate well to the citizens about, if there's a shooting or a tornado or something of that magnitude, we want to be able to make sure that we can give all the needed information is accurate and timely, and that's something as a city that we struggle with, because oftentimes so many different things are happening at once.
Hren: We hear that the fiber installation for Columbus is also underway after trouble with contractors and installations. But Columbus, Bartholomew County, Bloomington, and I think there are a few others, are under this umbrella of Meridian to get broadband in places or pockets where it's potentially serving lower income people?
Ferdon: And that is to your point, it's very, very important. And we found that, particularly after the pandemic, just how important it is when kids are at home, dealing with school like today is an E-learning day.
Now, Columbus was fortunate, because we did not put any money into the system. It was totally being built out using private dollars. I know that Bartholomew County contributed some because it'ss much more expensive out in a county or rural area because there's a greater distance between homes.
But most recently, I think we're down to about 10 to 12% still lacking. So yes, there's been hiccups in the provider or in the construction piece, and we've continued to work with those individuals and that company, but I think we're continuing to move forward, but it is really important and you see it more and more kids that don't have access, or employees that don't have access, just don't have the benefit.
Hren: It's hard to believe another year has gone by. As you finish up the month of December, what are some of the top couple of things you're trying to sneak in before 2026?
Ferdon: We feel like it's been a successful year, but being able to complete the 2030 plan and get that moving forward is something that's been top of mind for me and my team for a while, just because, we've talked about what post pandemic logistics have done to many downtown communities, and Columbus is no different.
We're going to do a pilot later this winter, one of the recommendations in the 2030 plan is an indoor winter market building. And so we're going to be using the old Sears building downtown. Five different Saturdays, we're going to have a winter market kind of as a pilot. The test, if you bring in as much produce as you can, if you bring in artisans, if you bring in some other vendors and some food and some music and kids activities. Is it something that would attract people during those winter months?
We were also, as we've talked in past months, the riverfront is moving forward. And so, I just want to see that continue, so that this time next year we'll be in really good shape.
We're moving forward with a number of housing developments. Keep that moving as we talked our new Department of Public Works building, want to keep that on schedule. We've been really fortunate with, we've got great employees here at Columbus, and we have police and fire are some of the best in the state, so I have no complaints. I'm really proud of the work that's been done this year.
