We will press the mayor on reactions to his State of City address last month. The mayor is already facing opposition from members of the Bloomington City Council to a proposed water bill hike.

In 2009’s SoC speech, Kruzan announced the Kirkwood “local businesses only” initiative, as well as a focus on expanding affording housing. We’ll get an update on those efforts.

This month we’re asking all our mayors how they see the stimulus package a year later. Columbus and Terre Haute’s heads didn’t have the best things to say about the process and payoff, so we’ll see if Mayor Kruzan shares these sentiments.

And as always, we’ll take your phone calls and emails. Thanks for listening.

This month we will focus on the city’s CSO (combined sewer overflow) problem. That’s right, that impending $130 million dollar project that will still (by the mayor’s own admission) plague the city for decades to come. We’ll get the latest on the story.

And us here at ATM also have another quandary on our minds: is Duke the mayor’s real name? Let’s find out! If its a nickname, an explanation will be in order. Duke, of course, could be a title in itself.

The discussion also covered recent layoffs announced by Cummins, who will furlough close to 200 at their Midrange plant in Walesboro at the end of the week. Armstrong speaks about how this trend could be the “new norm” given the prolonged sluggishness of the economy. And Cummins, coming off their most profitable quarter in company history, says the layoffs will continue because orders continue to be sporadic and intermittent.

Also, in vintage Armstrong form, the mayor rails against his naysayers — even sarcastically accepting blame for the global economic downturn. We spoke about his efforts to land foreign companies, highlighted in overseas trips last year, have yet to pay off. But, the mayor says, he’s trying to be optimistic through the rain.

Enjoy!

A note: I apologize to the two commenters. Your entries were not seen prior to the show. We promise to be more vigilant in including these in future Ask the Mayors. Please, comment again!

“I know this is very parochial and it is biased, but I think Vi Simpson is a natural,” Kruzan said. “She’s already raised a significant amount of money for the gubernatorial campaign and so that gives you somewhat of a running start — nowhere near what it would it would take to run a statewide campaign. She’s already made the connections statewide.”

Though he concedes losing Evan Bayh at the top of the state’s Democratic ticket has hurt candidates for lesser offices who had hoped to run on the junior senator’s coattails, Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan says he thinks his party could still field a candidate who would be competitive with whoever wins what’s shaping up to be a hotly contested Republican primary.  Simpson, the state Senate’s minority leader, has been mentioned as a possible candidate by others, but has not publicly announced whether she’d like to be considered for the post.

We will ask the mayor about the implications of  this and how it affects his annexation strategy moving forward. Also the city is renewing its push for a commuter rail line. We’ll ask Goodnight about his concerns about a curtailed state plan that could compromise certain aspects of the project.

As always, Mr. Goodnight here to take your questions. Please join the program on Wednesday January 27, 2010.

With regular host Stan Jastrzebski in Poland, WFIU Assistant News Director Daniel Robison guest hosts.

Later in January, Bennett will accompany Eva Kor and group from the CANDLES Holocaust Museum to Poland to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz. We’ll ask him about his preparations for that trip, as well as his plans during the week-long trek.

Bennett also continues to face problems with the city’s sewer system. What progress has been made on the estimated $130 million dollar project?