In this week's installment of Ask The Mayor, Indiana Newsdesk's Joe Hren visits Greencastle's Sue Murray at City Hall. The mayor talks about the beginning of construction season for city projects and how the local homeless shelter has kept its doors open for a year after being closed.
Listen to their full conversation above. Here are some highlights:
Hren: Coming from more of a smaller city in rural Indiana, what's your take on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act?
Murray: I think it's unfortunate that our legislature spent so much time debating an issue that we shouldn't even be debating at this point in time. That we are a welcoming state that we see ourselves in Greencastle as a welcoming inclusive community and I think our courts have a good system in terms of protecting the rights of all individuals. I personally would rather have seen a concentration on school funding issues, on funding issues for cities and towns.
Hren: Are you feeling any trickle down from this legislation here in Greencastle?
Murray: Well I think there are implications for all of us who are surrounding Indianapolis in particular. Most certainly when we have a university that finds itself a top tier university across the United States it can raise concerns for people who are applying. We don't want that to become the case for DePauw or for plants thinking of relocating to Greencastle or bringing employees here.
Hren: It seems like most of this has centered around discrimination of the GLBT community, Greencastle doesn't have that as part of city code, is it necessary?
Murray: We have passed ordinances over the years and we do have a fair housing ordinance that certainly prohibits that kind of discrimination. We are compliant with what the department of transportation is requiring in terms of what we do with anyone who is different from ourselves and there are some changes in what they're asking us to have, but most certainly to have something that's completely separate dealing in generalities is something that we're working on.
