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: Workers are everywhere here behind city hall for a big festival this weekend. How's the set up going?
Ferdon: As you can hear, we've got a lot going on, as we are getting prepared for the 41st rendition of Ethnic Expo this weekend. Very excited, but it takes a village to get it set up. We start on Monday the week before, and now we're right in the midst of setting up tents and closing streets. We're expecting 20 to 30,000 people over that two-day period. We have 41 food vendors. I think we have 25 merchandise vendors, 15 or more performers on the various stages.
Hren: As I drove in today, I could see the riverfront project taking shape. We were here a couple months ago out front when they were working on the amphitheater. Now it seems they are working down the banks?
Ferdon: They're working on the banks, on the barricades, but the biggest difference you probably saw was that the dam has been removed. What they thought would take five or six days, they did in two and a half, and it certainly has changed the flow of the river.
We're told to expect it to take about a year before the river really finds its balance, but it does make a difference already, and so the project should be completed sometime around Thanksgiving, which means the trails, the erosion control with the barricades, and then the amphitheater. We had hoped to have a ribbon cutting this this fall. Probably won't happen until next spring, but very excited to get that project completed.
Hren: City officials are moving forward with a proposal for a redesign of an entrance into downtown. What that's going to be like and how will it be funded?
Ferdon: We're really looking at the gateway into Columbus, and so we have two entrance plazas. We have the Garton Plaza, and then we have the firefighters and police memorial plaza. They really haven't been touched in decades. So we're doing a redo of that so that our entrance into Columbus is much more welcoming and those places will be much more usable. In addition, either end of this fall or the first of next year, we're going to repaint the Stewart Bridge as you come into town.
Some funding will be TIF dollars. Some of that will be money that we didn't use when we did the overpass many years ago. So it's a compilation of a lot of different funds that existed, so we won't really have to appropriate new money for that.
Hren: Governor Mike Braun nominated downtown Columbus as an opportunity zone. What is that, and how does that help the city?
Ferdon: That's a huge financing tool for the city, and so it gives tax credits to people who want to invest in the downtown, and so very exciting because it goes hand in hand with our Columbus Downtown 2030 plan, as we're looking at the various developments that we want to bring into downtown. So we're really pleased that we were able to achieve that.
Hren: How about the 2027 budget? Is that coming together? And with all the gas tax suspension, are Indiana towns and cities still receiving revenue?
Ferdon: All of these things cost money, don't they? Yes. Tuesday, city council meets, and we'll have the second hearing on the 2027 budget. And so we've gone through the hard part, right? The negotiations, the compromises, and so hopefully, we'll go forward without any problems, and then we'll be all set for 2027.
And yes, by and large, we've been told that the state will make up from other funds any dollars that we would lose.
Hren: How is the DORA district working out here in downtown? Terre Haute just started one about a month ago, and it reminded me of talking about this when Columbus started this, maybe a year or so ago.
Ferdon: It's worked out really well. I think since we originally set up the DORA areas, we maybe have done one amendment to expand it, but I see that on weekends a lot, and with festivals having that DORA district designated allows people to have their beverage and carry it around during a festival or from place to place, and I think it's just added to the activation of the downtown area. We've been really pleased how it's worked out.
