Speaker 2
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren. It's a new month. September is here, and that means we're with Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon, hello, welcome. Thanks for having us on the show today.
Speaker 1
thanks for being here. Yes, and welcome to you. It is September, so we start that late summer trek where we have cooler weather, lots of festivals, beautiful colors, but it's going to lead in the winter, so take advantage of September, right?
Speaker 2
That's right. That's right. Let's just get to write some city council news. Now, we know we do this show on a Tuesday. It airs Wednesday. City Council meets tonight, Tuesday night, right? So some of this will there'll be some updates to come in in the future, but city council members can talk about possible water sewer rate hike tonight. Why is it needed? What are you hoping happens in the meeting tonight?
Speaker 1
Right tonight is just a discussion the actual rate increase approvals will come later this fall. It's really just an opportunity for City Council and the community to understand the need for water and sewer rates. I spent, actually, over the weekend, spent a lot of time looking at the projects. Is probably close to a million, 100 million dollars worth of water and sewer projects that needed to be need to be done over the next 10 years. And so it's just really important that our our rates, keep up with the necessary improvements. You know, it's one of the most important services that, as a community, the City of Columbus provides, and we just need to make sure that we have the revenue to provide the safest infrastructure that that is needed. Yeah,
Speaker 2
we just talking with Bloomington Mayor Carrie Thompson about replacing big culverts, some of those 100 years old. But I'm sure you're not surprised to hear that. No,
Speaker 1
we have a number of we have the same infrastructure. It's under a lot of our major roads, and so anytime we tear up a road, we want to make sure that we get that particular that utility infrastructure replaced. It is aging, and we've been fortunate, because we have not had a lot of major collapses like some communities have. But when you think about the use 100 years ago, in the use now, we need to have updated equipment, larger sizings of our water and sewer infrastructure. So it's really, it's really critical, and I know it's it's always painful, but it's just necessary to keep up with what needs to be done. And
Speaker 2
you can just look at me like the cameras, not Oh, okay, it makes a little bit more. So just then, last question on that process, so for is this like an initial hearing tonight?
Speaker 1
Yeah, tonight's not really even a hearing, even I just a discussion, okay, and then we'll start the hearing process.
Speaker 2
Hearing by what couple hearings with public comments. Yes. Okay. Anything else on the agenda we should know tonight, tonight
Speaker 1
we have the second reading of an ordinance creating a Dora, which stands for a downtown outdoor refreshment area, which is state statute that was passed, I think, in 2023 and a number of other cities around the state have been approving Dora's, and so it's basically setting up boundaries of a recreation area which allows people 21 and older to be able to walk around with an open, open cup of alcohol. That cup has to be branded a Dora. And so this is something that the, actually, the downtown community has really expressed an interest in having so the first reading was a couple of weeks ago, and then this is the second reading. So again, there's a map that had to be approved with boundaries. And so it's not throughout the city, it's not all of downtown. It's just specific places. And the idea is just to kind of boost your tourism and allow people to kind of move from venue to venue. So
Speaker 2
have you had any pushback on this? We
Speaker 1
haven't. We've, we've tried to be very careful about where we set those boundaries, and so we'll take it very slow and see how it works. So
Speaker 2
there are some areas, like schools and churches that you probably have to be careful about
Speaker 1
right to school and churches have to give permission. I think we only had one church that was right along the boundary line, and so they they gave permission. And so we'll just be, we'll just try to be very mindful of the fact that that church is there, and we don't want to create any havoc for them. I mean, do you see
Speaker 2
any any potential concerns about this? Or do you really see this as an economic development tool? I think it can be
Speaker 1
a really economic development tool. Like I said, my goal is to take it a little bit slow and make sure that people understand how it works. Again, this doesn't mean that you can just go wherever you want to. There's certain places, the only certain places you can be, but we do have a lot of festivals, and so yes, it should be. It should help. Kind of boost that that that fun aspect.
Speaker 2
So in some latest results is a point in time count numbers of people experiencing homelessness decreased in Bartholomew County this year, but some more people are opting to not stay in a shelter than last year. So what has changed about how Columbus is reaching its homeless population, because I assume, obviously the decrease is something that you're happy about, right?
Speaker 1
And so I think, first of all, I think social services have already started working together a little bit better to try to understand that, yes, as we our goal is always to decrease our numbers, but we don't necessarily know that that means that we have a decreased number just because our count is decreased. As I think I noted a month ago, we've asked United Way to kind of take the lead on initiative about what what would best serve the community of Columbus, because we're going to be different from surrounding cities and counties. And so we've already started talking with Mark Stewart. He's given us some preliminary data. I know he's out talking with stakeholders, primarily other social service agencies, and so we're anxious. I think sometime this month, he'll be coming back to us with some recommendations that we can start moving forward on. But as I say to everybody on the community, this isn't is not something so that just the city can fix it's really going to take a multi faceted approach, and it's going to take some time, but, but we understand that we always get extra nervous as winter weather starts coming, coming to us, because that's when, I think, when people are impacted the most, yeah,
Unknown Speaker
well, and we've had some heat. We do.
Speaker 1
We have, we have, we city of Columbus, just like most other communities, we have cooling centers that have been used some, and so we're always grateful to the people who work those to make sure that we can have places where somebody who doesn't have access to air conditioning is able to spend spend their day, right, right?
Speaker 2
So some region 10 service providers, which includes the city of Bloomington, Monroe County, and there's some other I believe, Columbus and Bartholomew county are in Region 11. So some region 10 service providers are looking to temporarily focus efforts on reunification of people coming from outside of the region, asking or trying to get them to go back to where they were originally from, which could mean going back to Columbus or another region. How would that affect operations in Columbus? And maybe your thoughts on that? So
Speaker 1
historically, I don't know about Bloomington, but I know historically in Columbus, one of the things our social service agencies have done up front is when somebody, when they meet somebody new, who's who is homeless, is trying to figure out if, is there anything that we can do to get them back home? I know that we've driven people to other regions. I know that we've put we've given people bus tickets, and we've if they if we know that they can connect in family in Tennessee or Kentucky or someplace. We're not just going to put somebody on a bus and create a problem for another community, right? But then that's what happens, is so I'm glad to hear about the reunification efforts. That's kind of the first step is that making sure that if somebody wants to get home and has somebody who can help them, that we get them there, because that's that's probably the best solution for them to begin with, and then the next step is getting to know our our our homeless individuals. As individuals like what, what might you might need, might be different for someone else. I know that collectively, they all share a need for housing, but oftentimes it's that housing is based upon maybe they've lost their job, maybe they've been through the divorce, maybe they've got an addiction. So there's lots of different reasons. And so I think kind of the tact that we're talking with United Way is, how can we identify people one by one and help them in an individual level? And so what would it take to do that?
Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean, this goes so deep. I mean talking about even in Bloomington, when they have a shelter and it's empty, and the question is, why? Right? Why would they rather not be at the shelter? And there are many reasons, right, and those, and they're very difficult to understand, and get a wrap your mind around and get to where it becomes help for them, right?
Speaker 1
And we have some of those same issues here. We'll have a shelter that might only be half full. And there's part of it has to do with the rules that we have, and those rules are there for a reason, right? For instance, you can't bring drugs or alcohol into a shelter. But we also understand that because of that, that prevents or some people from coming in because they're if they have a substance abuse issue, then then they don't feel comfortable there oftentimes, because they're still using so there's a lot of give and take there, and we're trying to find what are the what are the most restrictive rules? Can we eliminate those? But we still have to have those to safeguard those people to stay there as well as the employees. So it's a really delicate balance. Yeah,
Speaker 2
so city budget, that's right. Hearings are.
Speaker 1
Done, they're completed. You see the Spirit smile on my face? Right? It's a tough time every year, right?
Speaker 2
This is obviously your first one as mayor, but you've been in the administration in your previous career. How is it going through as mayor? This time?
Speaker 1
Much easier because I had other people doing the bulk of the work. But I have to say, we have a great team here at the city we have a wonderful controller, the executive director of administration. Worked really well with our city council, which, as you, as you remember, we went from class three to class two. So we grew two more city council members, four of them are new, and so there was a lot of work and making sure that we gave them the information they needed. Our city council members wanted to be much more engaged in the budget this year than in years past, so they formed a budget subcommittee. They formed a Personnel Subcommittee, so we met with them much more regularly, so that they kept up with some of the recommendations that we were going to be making, we kind of revamped how we did the capital, made some of the capital decisions. So I'm not going to say it was an easy process, but I think it got a lot more input from everybody along the way. And so it feels good to have it over, but I think everybody felt like that. It was a much more efficient process than maybe we've done in the past $51 million general fund, and probably about 110 million overall. So that's a lot of work to to to put that together in a way that we can then present it to the public and they can understand it
Speaker 2
well. What I've learned over the years and talking to mayors about budgets that so much of is just fixed, it's like you're coming in and tearing it apart, even as a new mayor, and say, well, now we're going to do this, and that, like so much has to be funded. So howler, were you able to do anything with this budget, maybe some new revenue streams that weren't there before, and able to fund things that maybe
Speaker 1
I wanted to I wish? Yeah. So the biggest push that we typically do right is public safety. And so this year we were able to do a few things around public safety. We are trying to get Nexus Park finished all the way. And so we've put some new monies in different places. So what we're what we hope to do over the next year or so is, once we start getting some results from some of the studies that we've been doing, that will be that we'll have funding available to move forward on that.
Speaker 2
Yeah, and last time we talked to about security and online security, and how much that department has grown, and I'm sure you're seeing that, we'll think of the that new complex that's just down the street here too. The parks department has to now look over, right?
Speaker 1
We've got new cameras. I think, I can't remember if last time we talked about the city went through a cyber attack in early August, we did, yes, and so we're still feeling the effect of that. We're, we're back online, but we learned a lot of valuable a lot of valuable procedures that we we've since changed, I think, as a as a employee base, where I'm much more aware of of how fragile and vulnerable as a community, as a city, we can be as well as you can on an individual level. But that reinforces that we need to put a lot more resources into security, not only cameras, but software and and people. People are some of our best security measures. So yeah, lesson learned, like I said last time, it's not a club we wanted to be part of, but here we are, and so I've been able to share our experiences with other mayors and just reminding them that having cyber insurance is really important, and then just constantly understanding what what's out there and what's happening. The state's been very helpful too. They've put a lot of money into cyber technology and cyber security,
Speaker 2
and to ask about Nexus field house too, and everything going on over there, and the park, actually, it's Nexus Park. I'm sorry, that has to be. I mean, how are budget numbers lining up? Our income coming in there? And that's a huge operation.
Speaker 1
It is a huge operation. In fact, it's this past weekend. We had our first big concert there. We had our hospice concert, right? And it was very successful. I don't think we had, I think that the I should know this, but the field house can hold somewhere between 20 703,000 people, so I think they had close to 2000 it was a success. Obviously worked. You always worked through a few minor problems, but it was great to see it used as a as a concert concert venue. It rained Saturday, so if we'd been outside, if kaspas concert had been outside, it would have been wet and sticky, and there have been a lot of mosquitoes. So that was a that was a real plus. And so we see that being used as a concert venue much more in the future. We've recently started work on the external campus, which is the last piece, and working on the park. I. There. And if you drive by now, you can see the restroom going up and the sidewalks and the walking paths going in. So the goal is to be done with that by the end of the year. And then I'm not going to say it'll be finished, but it'll be 90% of the way there. And then we are focusing on sustainability. We are managing to get a lot of tournaments over the next year or so. And once you get in a rotation, then you know, and if the team's coming in, like your venue, then you're, you're set for the next few years. So we're seeing a lot of progress there. So I'm excited, but,
Unknown Speaker
but the budget lines are meeting up. And yes,
Speaker 1
yeah, I mean this, yeah, there's, there's still, it's not still fully sustainable, but it's very close. So we knew that it would take several years to get there, to get there.
Speaker 2
I We're already down to our last minute, but I always like to leave that. Leave that for you what? Well, just like to announce, yeah, just, I'm
Speaker 1
just really excited next, next Wednesday, September 11, is when we have our legacy of leadership, a conversation with our mayor, which we talked about a month ago. It's down to the wire. Very excited. We have a number of former mayors who have agreed to sit on a panel. And going back to the 1980s we had our first female mayor, Mayor Nancy Ann brown pointer, and she still has, like I said, she has wonderful stories and between her and myself, and so we're really excited. It's free to the public. It's starts at six. It's at the local Commons, and we think it will really be an enjoyable evening. So just welcoming anybody who chose us to hear a little bit of history.
Unknown Speaker
Well, Mayor Leno be there too.
Unknown Speaker
Yes, he will. Oh, okay,
Unknown Speaker
how's he doing?
Speaker 1
Yeah, I saw him this weekend. He's enjoying retirement, enjoying the grandkids, but he's still, he still comes back and helps us as we need him to. So it's a win win for both of us.
Speaker 2
Tell him we all say hi at WFIU, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it good to see you.
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren. It's a new month. September is here, and that means we're with Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon, hello, welcome. Thanks for having us on the show today.
Speaker 1
thanks for being here. Yes, and welcome to you. It is September, so we start that late summer trek where we have cooler weather, lots of festivals, beautiful colors, but it's going to lead in the winter, so take advantage of September, right?
Speaker 2
That's right. That's right. Let's just get to write some city council news. Now, we know we do this show on a Tuesday. It airs Wednesday. City Council meets tonight, Tuesday night, right? So some of this will there'll be some updates to come in in the future, but city council members can talk about possible water sewer rate hike tonight. Why is it needed? What are you hoping happens in the meeting tonight?
Speaker 1
Right tonight is just a discussion the actual rate increase approvals will come later this fall. It's really just an opportunity for City Council and the community to understand the need for water and sewer rates. I spent, actually, over the weekend, spent a lot of time looking at the projects. Is probably close to a million, 100 million dollars worth of water and sewer projects that needed to be need to be done over the next 10 years. And so it's just really important that our our rates, keep up with the necessary improvements. You know, it's one of the most important services that, as a community, the City of Columbus provides, and we just need to make sure that we have the revenue to provide the safest infrastructure that that is needed. Yeah,
Speaker 2
we just talking with Bloomington Mayor Carrie Thompson about replacing big culverts, some of those 100 years old. But I'm sure you're not surprised to hear that. No,
Speaker 1
we have a number of we have the same infrastructure. It's under a lot of our major roads, and so anytime we tear up a road, we want to make sure that we get that particular that utility infrastructure replaced. It is aging, and we've been fortunate, because we have not had a lot of major collapses like some communities have. But when you think about the use 100 years ago, in the use now, we need to have updated equipment, larger sizings of our water and sewer infrastructure. So it's really, it's really critical, and I know it's it's always painful, but it's just necessary to keep up with what needs to be done. And
Speaker 2
you can just look at me like the cameras, not Oh, okay, it makes a little bit more. So just then, last question on that process, so for is this like an initial hearing tonight?
Speaker 1
Yeah, tonight's not really even a hearing, even I just a discussion, okay, and then we'll start the hearing process.
Speaker 2
Hearing by what couple hearings with public comments. Yes. Okay. Anything else on the agenda we should know tonight, tonight
Speaker 1
we have the second reading of an ordinance creating a Dora, which stands for a downtown outdoor refreshment area, which is state statute that was passed, I think, in 2023 and a number of other cities around the state have been approving Dora's, and so it's basically setting up boundaries of a recreation area which allows people 21 and older to be able to walk around with an open, open cup of alcohol. That cup has to be branded a Dora. And so this is something that the, actually, the downtown community has really expressed an interest in having so the first reading was a couple of weeks ago, and then this is the second reading. So again, there's a map that had to be approved with boundaries. And so it's not throughout the city, it's not all of downtown. It's just specific places. And the idea is just to kind of boost your tourism and allow people to kind of move from venue to venue. So
Speaker 2
have you had any pushback on this? We
Speaker 1
haven't. We've, we've tried to be very careful about where we set those boundaries, and so we'll take it very slow and see how it works. So
Speaker 2
there are some areas, like schools and churches that you probably have to be careful about
Speaker 1
right to school and churches have to give permission. I think we only had one church that was right along the boundary line, and so they they gave permission. And so we'll just be, we'll just try to be very mindful of the fact that that church is there, and we don't want to create any havoc for them. I mean, do you see
Speaker 2
any any potential concerns about this? Or do you really see this as an economic development tool? I think it can be
Speaker 1
a really economic development tool. Like I said, my goal is to take it a little bit slow and make sure that people understand how it works. Again, this doesn't mean that you can just go wherever you want to. There's certain places, the only certain places you can be, but we do have a lot of festivals, and so yes, it should be. It should help. Kind of boost that that that fun aspect.
Speaker 2
So in some latest results is a point in time count numbers of people experiencing homelessness decreased in Bartholomew County this year, but some more people are opting to not stay in a shelter than last year. So what has changed about how Columbus is reaching its homeless population, because I assume, obviously the decrease is something that you're happy about, right?
Speaker 1
And so I think, first of all, I think social services have already started working together a little bit better to try to understand that, yes, as we our goal is always to decrease our numbers, but we don't necessarily know that that means that we have a decreased number just because our count is decreased. As I think I noted a month ago, we've asked United Way to kind of take the lead on initiative about what what would best serve the community of Columbus, because we're going to be different from surrounding cities and counties. And so we've already started talking with Mark Stewart. He's given us some preliminary data. I know he's out talking with stakeholders, primarily other social service agencies, and so we're anxious. I think sometime this month, he'll be coming back to us with some recommendations that we can start moving forward on. But as I say to everybody on the community, this isn't is not something so that just the city can fix it's really going to take a multi faceted approach, and it's going to take some time, but, but we understand that we always get extra nervous as winter weather starts coming, coming to us, because that's when, I think, when people are impacted the most, yeah,
Unknown Speaker
well, and we've had some heat. We do.
Speaker 1
We have, we have, we city of Columbus, just like most other communities, we have cooling centers that have been used some, and so we're always grateful to the people who work those to make sure that we can have places where somebody who doesn't have access to air conditioning is able to spend spend their day, right, right?
Speaker 2
So some region 10 service providers, which includes the city of Bloomington, Monroe County, and there's some other I believe, Columbus and Bartholomew county are in Region 11. So some region 10 service providers are looking to temporarily focus efforts on reunification of people coming from outside of the region, asking or trying to get them to go back to where they were originally from, which could mean going back to Columbus or another region. How would that affect operations in Columbus? And maybe your thoughts on that? So
Speaker 1
historically, I don't know about Bloomington, but I know historically in Columbus, one of the things our social service agencies have done up front is when somebody, when they meet somebody new, who's who is homeless, is trying to figure out if, is there anything that we can do to get them back home? I know that we've driven people to other regions. I know that we've put we've given people bus tickets, and we've if they if we know that they can connect in family in Tennessee or Kentucky or someplace. We're not just going to put somebody on a bus and create a problem for another community, right? But then that's what happens, is so I'm glad to hear about the reunification efforts. That's kind of the first step is that making sure that if somebody wants to get home and has somebody who can help them, that we get them there, because that's that's probably the best solution for them to begin with, and then the next step is getting to know our our our homeless individuals. As individuals like what, what might you might need, might be different for someone else. I know that collectively, they all share a need for housing, but oftentimes it's that housing is based upon maybe they've lost their job, maybe they've been through the divorce, maybe they've got an addiction. So there's lots of different reasons. And so I think kind of the tact that we're talking with United Way is, how can we identify people one by one and help them in an individual level? And so what would it take to do that?
Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean, this goes so deep. I mean talking about even in Bloomington, when they have a shelter and it's empty, and the question is, why? Right? Why would they rather not be at the shelter? And there are many reasons, right, and those, and they're very difficult to understand, and get a wrap your mind around and get to where it becomes help for them, right?
Speaker 1
And we have some of those same issues here. We'll have a shelter that might only be half full. And there's part of it has to do with the rules that we have, and those rules are there for a reason, right? For instance, you can't bring drugs or alcohol into a shelter. But we also understand that because of that, that prevents or some people from coming in because they're if they have a substance abuse issue, then then they don't feel comfortable there oftentimes, because they're still using so there's a lot of give and take there, and we're trying to find what are the what are the most restrictive rules? Can we eliminate those? But we still have to have those to safeguard those people to stay there as well as the employees. So it's a really delicate balance. Yeah,
Speaker 2
so city budget, that's right. Hearings are.
Speaker 1
Done, they're completed. You see the Spirit smile on my face? Right? It's a tough time every year, right?
Speaker 2
This is obviously your first one as mayor, but you've been in the administration in your previous career. How is it going through as mayor? This time?
Speaker 1
Much easier because I had other people doing the bulk of the work. But I have to say, we have a great team here at the city we have a wonderful controller, the executive director of administration. Worked really well with our city council, which, as you, as you remember, we went from class three to class two. So we grew two more city council members, four of them are new, and so there was a lot of work and making sure that we gave them the information they needed. Our city council members wanted to be much more engaged in the budget this year than in years past, so they formed a budget subcommittee. They formed a Personnel Subcommittee, so we met with them much more regularly, so that they kept up with some of the recommendations that we were going to be making, we kind of revamped how we did the capital, made some of the capital decisions. So I'm not going to say it was an easy process, but I think it got a lot more input from everybody along the way. And so it feels good to have it over, but I think everybody felt like that. It was a much more efficient process than maybe we've done in the past $51 million general fund, and probably about 110 million overall. So that's a lot of work to to to put that together in a way that we can then present it to the public and they can understand it
Speaker 2
well. What I've learned over the years and talking to mayors about budgets that so much of is just fixed, it's like you're coming in and tearing it apart, even as a new mayor, and say, well, now we're going to do this, and that, like so much has to be funded. So howler, were you able to do anything with this budget, maybe some new revenue streams that weren't there before, and able to fund things that maybe
Speaker 1
I wanted to I wish? Yeah. So the biggest push that we typically do right is public safety. And so this year we were able to do a few things around public safety. We are trying to get Nexus Park finished all the way. And so we've put some new monies in different places. So what we're what we hope to do over the next year or so is, once we start getting some results from some of the studies that we've been doing, that will be that we'll have funding available to move forward on that.
Speaker 2
Yeah, and last time we talked to about security and online security, and how much that department has grown, and I'm sure you're seeing that, we'll think of the that new complex that's just down the street here too. The parks department has to now look over, right?
Speaker 1
We've got new cameras. I think, I can't remember if last time we talked about the city went through a cyber attack in early August, we did, yes, and so we're still feeling the effect of that. We're, we're back online, but we learned a lot of valuable a lot of valuable procedures that we we've since changed, I think, as a as a employee base, where I'm much more aware of of how fragile and vulnerable as a community, as a city, we can be as well as you can on an individual level. But that reinforces that we need to put a lot more resources into security, not only cameras, but software and and people. People are some of our best security measures. So yeah, lesson learned, like I said last time, it's not a club we wanted to be part of, but here we are, and so I've been able to share our experiences with other mayors and just reminding them that having cyber insurance is really important, and then just constantly understanding what what's out there and what's happening. The state's been very helpful too. They've put a lot of money into cyber technology and cyber security,
Speaker 2
and to ask about Nexus field house too, and everything going on over there, and the park, actually, it's Nexus Park. I'm sorry, that has to be. I mean, how are budget numbers lining up? Our income coming in there? And that's a huge operation.
Speaker 1
It is a huge operation. In fact, it's this past weekend. We had our first big concert there. We had our hospice concert, right? And it was very successful. I don't think we had, I think that the I should know this, but the field house can hold somewhere between 20 703,000 people, so I think they had close to 2000 it was a success. Obviously worked. You always worked through a few minor problems, but it was great to see it used as a as a concert concert venue. It rained Saturday, so if we'd been outside, if kaspas concert had been outside, it would have been wet and sticky, and there have been a lot of mosquitoes. So that was a that was a real plus. And so we see that being used as a concert venue much more in the future. We've recently started work on the external campus, which is the last piece, and working on the park. I. There. And if you drive by now, you can see the restroom going up and the sidewalks and the walking paths going in. So the goal is to be done with that by the end of the year. And then I'm not going to say it'll be finished, but it'll be 90% of the way there. And then we are focusing on sustainability. We are managing to get a lot of tournaments over the next year or so. And once you get in a rotation, then you know, and if the team's coming in, like your venue, then you're, you're set for the next few years. So we're seeing a lot of progress there. So I'm excited, but,
Unknown Speaker
but the budget lines are meeting up. And yes,
Speaker 1
yeah, I mean this, yeah, there's, there's still, it's not still fully sustainable, but it's very close. So we knew that it would take several years to get there, to get there.
Speaker 2
I We're already down to our last minute, but I always like to leave that. Leave that for you what? Well, just like to announce, yeah, just, I'm
Speaker 1
just really excited next, next Wednesday, September 11, is when we have our legacy of leadership, a conversation with our mayor, which we talked about a month ago. It's down to the wire. Very excited. We have a number of former mayors who have agreed to sit on a panel. And going back to the 1980s we had our first female mayor, Mayor Nancy Ann brown pointer, and she still has, like I said, she has wonderful stories and between her and myself, and so we're really excited. It's free to the public. It's starts at six. It's at the local Commons, and we think it will really be an enjoyable evening. So just welcoming anybody who chose us to hear a little bit of history.
Unknown Speaker
Well, Mayor Leno be there too.
Unknown Speaker
Yes, he will. Oh, okay,
Unknown Speaker
how's he doing?
Speaker 1
Yeah, I saw him this weekend. He's enjoying retirement, enjoying the grandkids, but he's still, he still comes back and helps us as we need him to. So it's a win win for both of us.
Speaker 2
Tell him we all say hi at WFIU, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it good to see you.
