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Ask The Mayor: Kokomo's Goodnight On Conference Center, Housing

Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight at City Hall (Joe Hren, WFIU/WTIU News)

New conference center funding, one-way streets versus two-way streets, affordable housing project on the city's north side and road construction updates.

On this week's installment of Ask The Mayor, Kokomo's Greg Goodnight addresses these issues and more. 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.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

Hren: You've already introduced the new conference center and hotel for downtown, something we've talked about for a long time. What did it take for all of it to come together?

Goodnight: We did a study a few years ago. Kokomo was identified as a lack of available hotel space. We knew we had to put together an adjoining conference center. We had to find the right spot and that it's suitable for building that type of product. You only do these things once, so you want to do it right.

You only do these things once, so you want to do it right.

It's really four pieces if you add the Chamber of Commerce and the Visitors Bureau will also have their main office out of that. So we thin this will be transformative.

Hren: I wanted to know how you expect to finance the city part of the conference center without an additional tax, I assume the hotel part is a private investment.

Goodnight: Easily the biggest chunk is going to come from Dora Hotels. We have an estimated cost, hope the bidding will come close. The second biggest comes from the Convention and Visitors Bureau. They've been squirreling away some money over the past two or three years so they would have a large amount to put down for the down payment. And the city and county will come in helping to close that gap on the conference center.

We really put together a business model that does not include any increase in the Innkeeper's Tax. It probably did cause a few delays for a few months when we knew we weren't going to receive that slight bump (in the Innkeeper's Tax), but we made it work.

Hren: We talked with Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton last week about the controversy over a website that revealed addresses of overdose deaths. This comes as nearly 1,000 leaders from all 92 Indiana counties are attending a statewide opioid summit this week. How do you balance transparency versus good public policy?

Goodnight: Yeah, we do all the time on all kinds of subjects. Sometimes we have issues we can't talk about. They could be personnel issues and why we made changes. There are legal ramifications for indulging too much information, but there's also personal information that shouldn't be shared to protect people. It's something every city has to face. And you can be criticized either way.

Hren: The Kokomo Tribune reported on a four-story, 51 unit affordable housing project that would use some blighted land on the city's north side. Is this all part of a redevelopment plan for that part of the city?

Goodnight: I'm not sure we communicate this well, but most of the housing projects are either strictly private development or tax credit housing. And tax credits do not come from the city, they do not come from the state. They are federal tax credits that are administered by the state. So they're not getting any financial benefit from the city.

We want to focus on rehabilitating that area. It's an area that hasn't seen a lot of investment. It's right along the trail, it's a beautiful design and will really enhance that area. People say those areas need businesses, but what do those businesses need, people. We want to make sure everyone has an opportunity for quality housing regardless of their personal situation.

Hren: But the city owns the land so that goes to the development?

Goodnight: That gets transferred. It's part of our donation. And it puts it back on the tax roll. They pay property tax.

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