Speaker 1
Joe, hello and welcome to ask the mayor on wfiu. I'm Joe Hren. It's a new month. August is here, and that means we're with Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon. Hello and welcome to the show.
Speaker 2
Well, thank you and happy August to you. It smells like August. It certainly feels like August. And we, we have a lot of cicadas, so it sounds like August. So that
Speaker 1
is really interesting, because I have not seen a one in Bloomington. So are they all in Columbus?
Speaker 2
I don't think we have the the 17 year, but we have just the normal cicadas that come out every August? And it's just, it just sounds like, you know, summer's beginning, that end and so and school starts here locally in Bartholomew County on Wednesday, I guess that would be tomorrow. So summer's ending, the kids are heading back to school. So we go forward, which is a real shift for parents and drivers, we always remind people to be much more cautious, because we now have kids back in school busses and walking
Speaker 1
like a lot of new traffic patterns and stuff happening more traffic, especially around eight and three. Let's start with something I know former Mayor Jim Leno worked on, and that was grant money for a new control tower over at the airport. And it sounds like things are finally starting to come together. Do you have an update for us on that?
Speaker 2
Yeah, and we may have talked about that last month, yes. So we, we, we worked with the FAA for years to get a new control tower. The current one we have, I think, is about 70 feet high. And so we finally got money from the FAA as well as this the city or the airports kicking in money too. And so we were fortunate. We were able to use the Cummins grant program that they have to bring in some really great architects. And so we had our choice of, I think, three or four architects and and chose Marlon Blackwell out of Little Rock Arkansas, and so they've got this amazing design for a tower. I think it's about 100 feet. It's it's very, very interesting. It will definitely be on our architectural tour. I think the bids start probably late this year or the first of January. We'll bid that out and get that going. And hopefully by the fall of 2025 we may have a finished project. I know we'll be groundbreaking it next spring. So that'll be huge for the community, because the current control tower was built back in the 1940s when buchala was a airbase during World War Two, and so it's very aged, and definitely needs a lot of renovation, and just didn't make sense to renovate it. So, yeah,
Speaker 1
I mean, you see this a lot with infrastructure, you know, water lines, things that were built in those periods and just haven't been updated. And all of a sudden it's like, boy, you know, this is so this is so out of date, and it feels like it happens at the same time, because I think Monroe County is looking at and maybe even Vigo county did as well, is are doing these same types of projects, and I don't think it's meant to happen altogether, but it just, it's that time, isn't it? It
Speaker 2
is. And you know, if you when you talk about infrastructure at large, so communities, the City of Columbus, you know, was built started back in the 18 I think it was 1821 and then we the city itself proper, really started growing a lot in the early 1900s that's when Cummins came in. And so we built a lot of infrastructure. And we find now when we're replacing roads and streets and doing other work, you know, we've got utilities, water and sewer lines, that are 100 years old and and, you know? And so we're, we're like every other community, we're trying to replace those as we can, because infrastructure doesn't stay new for very long. And there's new technology and there's new materials that are used. But it's very, very expensive. So we're, we were excited to get the money from the FAA, FAA to in order to do this, and we'll, we will get a pretty good tower by the time we're done. And
Speaker 1
then just what kind of economic activity does it provide? I mean, I assume Cummins uses it, and does it get any traffic from Indianapolis?
Speaker 2
Yeah. So we're actually and Brian Payne, our airport director, is going to be unhappy, because I can't remember, we're like, the third or fourth busiest airport in the state. So we get a tremendous amount of air traffic that comes and goes. We're also close to Camp Atterbury, so we have a lot of military traffic that comes and goes. And then we do have a few local employers that have jets that that use our that our airport is our home base, so we do have quite a bit of traffic for our community of our size, and so having that tower is really important because it's a safety feature. Yeah,
Speaker 1
well, have to bring up the city had a data breach. I think there's just a couple. Weeks ago, just wondering. You know what happened? If you've learned anything more from our reporting just a couple weeks ago? Right?
Speaker 2
So we joined a club that we didn't want to join, right? We had a cyber attack, a data breach. It happened Wednesday, actually, two weeks ago, Wednesday evening, and so we have spent the past two weeks working very hard to get everything back and running. I would say we're about 85 to 90% of the way there. Worked hand in hand with the Bartholomew County. We have a great team whose IT team has been working through with it. This past year, we had hired our director of security and risk, who was a former police chief for the city, and so he's been great. He's been the administration's lead, working with the IT team, because that's a language that many of us don't know as well as we might like. So we, at this point in time, we're still investigating how it happened and making sure that we didn't lose or what we may have lost. But we, as a city, we don't keep credit card data. We don't keep bank data in our system. So none of that was lost. And we we had cyber insurance, which is, I would say, anybody, any city, that's what's watching or listening, you should have it. So that's been great. We hired a forensic IT team that has come in and is working hand in hand to help us identify so we know exactly why it happened, where it happened, and then what we can do in the future, what technology we need to use more of and then how we can be more secure with more authentication, you know, more stronger passwords, how we can reach out to our employees. I mean, I think it's something that everybody knows. It's important, but we get lazy, myself included our passwords. We're lazy with our passwords, with the data that we stay around with, what we look up on our computer. And so it's just a reminder that it, it it's it's happens everywhere. Someone reminded me that the Pentagon got breached at one point in time, but that it really can affect the service that you provide to the community. So it's, it's very important that we learn from what happened. So I'm, I'm really pleased to see that we're like I said. We're getting back to normal. Our our public is hasn't seen any difficulty in acquiring services, but hopefully we'll learn and move forward.
Speaker 1
Yeah, I was wondering. We did a whole hour show on this on Noon Edition, live call in last Friday. It was very interesting. But one thing that I thought was interesting was about what IT departments are like in city, government, county, any type of government, you know, at what, at one point, it may have been one person in a corner of a room years ago, and now the city of Columbus has a director of internet security or so forth. And everyone calls them different things. So is that a department, an area that you foreseeing that is going to grow,
Speaker 2
definitely, and I'll say actually, the director of security and risk, that the position we actually created in 2024 we were thinking more, you know, physical security, you know, hardening our buildings, active shooter training, that kind of thing. When we, when we started this department and hired this, hired our the individual that we hired, who was a former police chief, so obviously his his main skill set is in, you know, physical security. And so I was thrilled that he was on board for the cyber security piece. But yes, that will continue to grow. We're actually in our 2025, budget. We have another high level it position that we're going to be requesting, because we know it is it, it's going to continue to happen. We have, you know, little attacks every day that our firewalls have been able to protect us against. But the bad guys don't stop, and they can keep learning and so and unfortunately, from a city's perspective, it's it takes so many resources, not only time, but finances that we money that we'd love to be spending on roads and and parks we're having to spend on cybersecurity, and that's just a huge frustration for me, because I see that growing the number of positions we need as well as the amount of money that we have to spend.
Speaker 1
Well, that's a great segue into the budget. And we're getting into budget season with all the mayors now this, of course, will be your first as mayor, right? How are you tackling it?
Speaker 2
So we went from third class or class three to class two, so we added two more city council members. So we recognized up front that and four of our city council members are brand new to the position. So we recognized that we had a lot of educating to do. We also, last year, hired a new controller in anticipation of getting to this class to city, and so last year was actually her first budget through. So we've, based on the request from city council, we've done things a little bit differently. So we have a council. Council Budget Committee and a council capital committee who've worked hand in hand with the controller office, and the city's off this the mayor's office to to be making decisions as a team early on. And so it's not even though it's technically the mayor's budget that city council has been involved from the very beginning, so that we're not presenting a request for, you know, X number of new positions, and there they would say, Nope, we're only going to do one or two. So that when we present capital, that they understand the capital needs and how we prioritize them. So that has been worked out really well. So I think when we get to the actual budget sessions, that city council will be probably better informed than maybe they have been in years past, and be able to feel more confident in voting on the budget. So, so the it's been as best as a budget process can be done. Well, I think it has been and it's gone. Well, nice.
Speaker 1
So I mean, are there any areas just for you that you would like to see? I mean, we talked about cybersecurity, but are there any other areas that you kind of want to tweak?
Speaker 2
So we, we, of course, we always prioritize public safety. And last year, in 2024 we we did some substantial pay raises to both our police and fire, which we needed to do for both recruitment and retention. And we saw that around the state, and we saw it at the state, state level, with the State Police, which is what drove a lot of us to having to compete at the state level. So this past year, we've just really been working on, we've got a couple of big projects, and then trying to stabilize the budget and, you know, make sure that we're ready for, you know, the next big the next big push, we're not quite sure what it is. So we don't have any huge new initiatives in this particular budget. We're just supporting a lot that are moving forward, like Nexus Park. So and then, what, like I had said in earlier discussions with you, we've got some studies going on. We have a route study our transportation system. We're doing a route study. We we've done a housing study. We've just started a work, put out an RFP for a downtown Columbus, downtown 2030 study. So we have a lot of recommendations that will come out of these studies that we know we're going to want to fund some of those. So we're kind of waiting to see what, what, what recommendations are, and where, where we can put our money that would best serve the downtown, or housing or transportation,
Speaker 1
yeah. And, I mean, boy, they all work together, don't they, so, I mean, you're going to have your hands full when all these different he's come back, because you're talking about a, you know, Master Plan, Columbus downtown, 2030 you know, transportation has to work with that housing. And right now, I think you have, maybe you can post in a little bit, a couple housing developments that are coming downtown,
Speaker 2
right we have, we recently finished the Taylor. Has finished up the tailor, and that has been great. It's brought a lot of residents downtown. We have a if you're familiar with Columbus along Washington Street, which is the main corridor going in the downtown. So we have housing, apartment complex and retail approved for sixth and Washington. So that's in the final design stages. And I think that's about 55 units. And then if you go farther north, on the corner of 11th in Washington, we have a housing proposal which has hit a couple of walls, which is not unusual with with housing so as we work our way through, but that, I think, brings another couple 100 units of housing downtown. So that would be great, because any any time we talk about, you know, improving your downtown activation is really important, so you're always stuck with the chicken and the egg, right? How do you get more people when you need more restaurants and retail, but restaurants and retail won't come in till they can be promised more people. So we've been kind of struggling with that. And so hopefully adding more residents to the downtown will make that an easier sell. And
Speaker 1
is that part of the Columbus downtown 2030 project is really trying to coordinate that activity downtown.
Speaker 2
It's giving it's giving some some guidelines. But what we're really trying to look at is we've got a lot of properties, we've got a lot of buildings and venues. And how can we, how can we identify, maybe, what the best uses for some of those are, what, what, what we've seen in other communities, what might work here? Is it just housing? Is it a housing and retail? Is it more restaurants? Do you have some other kind of activity? And so those are the kind of things that this, this will look
Speaker 1
at. Does that look at things like, you know, density, building up utilities to be able to handle that climate change, post covid, you know, all those, those, those things,
Speaker 2
yeah, a little bit our, actually, our housing study is the one that looks more like housing density, right? Because most communities are, they don't want to go out because you don't want sprawl. So you really only have two choices, which is infill, and the City of Columbus has, really doesn't have much infill left. We have some. But so then your, your third choice is really the density into going up. And so that's, that's like, you know, constant tension and balance. Which do you do? And so our housing study will will give us more guidance on that. And then also, what kind of zoning changes that could happen, could happen that would make it more favorable to to build, right because every community has zoning restrictions, and some are easier to get around than others.
Speaker 1
We've reported on this maybe a month or so ago, but some of the money is starting to come out now to local officials to of the national opioid settlements. So do you know how much Columbus is getting, how that's being spent, who's overseeing it?
Speaker 2
Yeah, that's a little bit of a sore subject. So the bulk of the money coming to Bartholomew county is actually going to the county the City of Columbus is getting very little, maybe 20,000 a year, and but Bartholomew county is getting hundreds of 1000s a year. But the good news is the county has, really has indicated that they're going to continue to spend it on addiction related services. So we have an organization, kind of an umbrella organization, in Columbus and Bartholomew county called ASAP, right? And so it deals with all kinds of programming that helps people who have a substance abuse disorder. And so we have a jail program, we have a court program, we have a hub where people can go and get all kinds of information and get referred out to treatment centers. And so the county has indicated that they're going to use the same process with the opioid dollars that we use for the to fund ASAP, ASAP is a joint split between the city and the county. We each pay 50% and so they're going to use that same process. So I think we will see that most of the dollars that they get will go toward that. So I'm really pleased that the county is stepping forward with that, but the city, for whatever reason, it's just getting a very, very small percentage.
Speaker 1
Okay, I speaking of silver spots. I don't know how much you can talk on this, but I've been seeing in the news about a commercial solar energy system being denied by the zoning board there. But I think this is part County, maybe part city, and I know that town hall has drawn a lot of people. Some neighbors don't want it. What can you tell us in on what's happening with that? Yeah,
Speaker 2
it's so there's, there was a particular entity came in and wanted to do a solar project, and so we had both the County Board of zoning appeals and the City Board of Board of zoning appeals, they both made different directives. And so it is kind of a mess. And so there was a lawsuit filed, I think that's been dismissed. And so I think right now the and then there was another there was another company that was trying to do another solar field on the north east side of Columbus, and that got denied. So I think right now, the community is just having to educate itself about solar, and there's people on both sides. And so right now, nothing has happened. I don't know that it won't in the future. It's just that the projects that that came out, unfortunately, people drew sides fairly quickly, and it was farmers against farmers, and it was neighbors against neighbors. So it was always a little uncomfortable. So I think everybody's going to take a breath, and I'm sure there will be more projects that will come back in the future, but yeah, right now, I think right now they're all dead in the water.
Speaker 1
Yeah. Well, I know we only about, like, a minute left, but I always like to leave that to you. Do you have any announcements or things you want everyone to know?
Speaker 2
Yeah, I'm really excited about an event that the city is hosting September 11, which is Patriots Day in the evening at our big Commons. We're we're having an event called legacy of leadership, a conversation with our mayors. So we have several mayors, former mayors, still in town. So we've got a mayor from the 1980s and then the deputy mayor from the 90s, and then Mayor Armstrong, who was a 16 year mayor, and then Mayor lenov and myself. So we're going to have a panel discussion at the commons. It's free to the public through our local foundation. They're they're generously picking up the cost. And I think it will be really interesting hearing some of the challenges that mayors had, which would be now, 40 years ago. I think we'll be interested in seeing we all struggle with the same challenges. Then they may be a different project, but it's the same thing as right, trying. You've got a certain amount of resources and and you're trying to fit do the best for the community. But everybody has their own idea about what the best looks like, so I think it'd be a great night, but that's September 11 at the commons. About, about it, yeah, talk
Unknown Speaker
about ask the mayor.
Speaker 2
That's right. Five mayors, right? Yeah.
Speaker 1
So yeah, and that would be fascinating. I'm just thinking about that today we have the three governors up on 465, opening. I 69 and how some of these projects go from they do administration to administration. Yeah,
Speaker 2
I, I talked with the former mayor who was, who was the first female mayor in the 1980s Her name was Nancy Ann Brown, and I she's the one that built city, the current city hall that we're in, and so just going back and talking to her about the how that happened was really interesting, because it wasn't easy, but we know we take it for granted, but getting it built was a long process, so that should be a fun night.
Speaker 1
Thank you so much for being with us and hope to see you next month. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker
thanks, Joe. I appreciate it. Bye.
Joe, hello and welcome to ask the mayor on wfiu. I'm Joe Hren. It's a new month. August is here, and that means we're with Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon. Hello and welcome to the show.
Speaker 2
Well, thank you and happy August to you. It smells like August. It certainly feels like August. And we, we have a lot of cicadas, so it sounds like August. So that
Speaker 1
is really interesting, because I have not seen a one in Bloomington. So are they all in Columbus?
Speaker 2
I don't think we have the the 17 year, but we have just the normal cicadas that come out every August? And it's just, it just sounds like, you know, summer's beginning, that end and so and school starts here locally in Bartholomew County on Wednesday, I guess that would be tomorrow. So summer's ending, the kids are heading back to school. So we go forward, which is a real shift for parents and drivers, we always remind people to be much more cautious, because we now have kids back in school busses and walking
Speaker 1
like a lot of new traffic patterns and stuff happening more traffic, especially around eight and three. Let's start with something I know former Mayor Jim Leno worked on, and that was grant money for a new control tower over at the airport. And it sounds like things are finally starting to come together. Do you have an update for us on that?
Speaker 2
Yeah, and we may have talked about that last month, yes. So we, we, we worked with the FAA for years to get a new control tower. The current one we have, I think, is about 70 feet high. And so we finally got money from the FAA as well as this the city or the airports kicking in money too. And so we were fortunate. We were able to use the Cummins grant program that they have to bring in some really great architects. And so we had our choice of, I think, three or four architects and and chose Marlon Blackwell out of Little Rock Arkansas, and so they've got this amazing design for a tower. I think it's about 100 feet. It's it's very, very interesting. It will definitely be on our architectural tour. I think the bids start probably late this year or the first of January. We'll bid that out and get that going. And hopefully by the fall of 2025 we may have a finished project. I know we'll be groundbreaking it next spring. So that'll be huge for the community, because the current control tower was built back in the 1940s when buchala was a airbase during World War Two, and so it's very aged, and definitely needs a lot of renovation, and just didn't make sense to renovate it. So, yeah,
Speaker 1
I mean, you see this a lot with infrastructure, you know, water lines, things that were built in those periods and just haven't been updated. And all of a sudden it's like, boy, you know, this is so this is so out of date, and it feels like it happens at the same time, because I think Monroe County is looking at and maybe even Vigo county did as well, is are doing these same types of projects, and I don't think it's meant to happen altogether, but it just, it's that time, isn't it? It
Speaker 2
is. And you know, if you when you talk about infrastructure at large, so communities, the City of Columbus, you know, was built started back in the 18 I think it was 1821 and then we the city itself proper, really started growing a lot in the early 1900s that's when Cummins came in. And so we built a lot of infrastructure. And we find now when we're replacing roads and streets and doing other work, you know, we've got utilities, water and sewer lines, that are 100 years old and and, you know? And so we're, we're like every other community, we're trying to replace those as we can, because infrastructure doesn't stay new for very long. And there's new technology and there's new materials that are used. But it's very, very expensive. So we're, we were excited to get the money from the FAA, FAA to in order to do this, and we'll, we will get a pretty good tower by the time we're done. And
Speaker 1
then just what kind of economic activity does it provide? I mean, I assume Cummins uses it, and does it get any traffic from Indianapolis?
Speaker 2
Yeah. So we're actually and Brian Payne, our airport director, is going to be unhappy, because I can't remember, we're like, the third or fourth busiest airport in the state. So we get a tremendous amount of air traffic that comes and goes. We're also close to Camp Atterbury, so we have a lot of military traffic that comes and goes. And then we do have a few local employers that have jets that that use our that our airport is our home base, so we do have quite a bit of traffic for our community of our size, and so having that tower is really important because it's a safety feature. Yeah,
Speaker 1
well, have to bring up the city had a data breach. I think there's just a couple. Weeks ago, just wondering. You know what happened? If you've learned anything more from our reporting just a couple weeks ago? Right?
Speaker 2
So we joined a club that we didn't want to join, right? We had a cyber attack, a data breach. It happened Wednesday, actually, two weeks ago, Wednesday evening, and so we have spent the past two weeks working very hard to get everything back and running. I would say we're about 85 to 90% of the way there. Worked hand in hand with the Bartholomew County. We have a great team whose IT team has been working through with it. This past year, we had hired our director of security and risk, who was a former police chief for the city, and so he's been great. He's been the administration's lead, working with the IT team, because that's a language that many of us don't know as well as we might like. So we, at this point in time, we're still investigating how it happened and making sure that we didn't lose or what we may have lost. But we, as a city, we don't keep credit card data. We don't keep bank data in our system. So none of that was lost. And we we had cyber insurance, which is, I would say, anybody, any city, that's what's watching or listening, you should have it. So that's been great. We hired a forensic IT team that has come in and is working hand in hand to help us identify so we know exactly why it happened, where it happened, and then what we can do in the future, what technology we need to use more of and then how we can be more secure with more authentication, you know, more stronger passwords, how we can reach out to our employees. I mean, I think it's something that everybody knows. It's important, but we get lazy, myself included our passwords. We're lazy with our passwords, with the data that we stay around with, what we look up on our computer. And so it's just a reminder that it, it it's it's happens everywhere. Someone reminded me that the Pentagon got breached at one point in time, but that it really can affect the service that you provide to the community. So it's, it's very important that we learn from what happened. So I'm, I'm really pleased to see that we're like I said. We're getting back to normal. Our our public is hasn't seen any difficulty in acquiring services, but hopefully we'll learn and move forward.
Speaker 1
Yeah, I was wondering. We did a whole hour show on this on Noon Edition, live call in last Friday. It was very interesting. But one thing that I thought was interesting was about what IT departments are like in city, government, county, any type of government, you know, at what, at one point, it may have been one person in a corner of a room years ago, and now the city of Columbus has a director of internet security or so forth. And everyone calls them different things. So is that a department, an area that you foreseeing that is going to grow,
Speaker 2
definitely, and I'll say actually, the director of security and risk, that the position we actually created in 2024 we were thinking more, you know, physical security, you know, hardening our buildings, active shooter training, that kind of thing. When we, when we started this department and hired this, hired our the individual that we hired, who was a former police chief, so obviously his his main skill set is in, you know, physical security. And so I was thrilled that he was on board for the cyber security piece. But yes, that will continue to grow. We're actually in our 2025, budget. We have another high level it position that we're going to be requesting, because we know it is it, it's going to continue to happen. We have, you know, little attacks every day that our firewalls have been able to protect us against. But the bad guys don't stop, and they can keep learning and so and unfortunately, from a city's perspective, it's it takes so many resources, not only time, but finances that we money that we'd love to be spending on roads and and parks we're having to spend on cybersecurity, and that's just a huge frustration for me, because I see that growing the number of positions we need as well as the amount of money that we have to spend.
Speaker 1
Well, that's a great segue into the budget. And we're getting into budget season with all the mayors now this, of course, will be your first as mayor, right? How are you tackling it?
Speaker 2
So we went from third class or class three to class two, so we added two more city council members. So we recognized up front that and four of our city council members are brand new to the position. So we recognized that we had a lot of educating to do. We also, last year, hired a new controller in anticipation of getting to this class to city, and so last year was actually her first budget through. So we've, based on the request from city council, we've done things a little bit differently. So we have a council. Council Budget Committee and a council capital committee who've worked hand in hand with the controller office, and the city's off this the mayor's office to to be making decisions as a team early on. And so it's not even though it's technically the mayor's budget that city council has been involved from the very beginning, so that we're not presenting a request for, you know, X number of new positions, and there they would say, Nope, we're only going to do one or two. So that when we present capital, that they understand the capital needs and how we prioritize them. So that has been worked out really well. So I think when we get to the actual budget sessions, that city council will be probably better informed than maybe they have been in years past, and be able to feel more confident in voting on the budget. So, so the it's been as best as a budget process can be done. Well, I think it has been and it's gone. Well, nice.
Speaker 1
So I mean, are there any areas just for you that you would like to see? I mean, we talked about cybersecurity, but are there any other areas that you kind of want to tweak?
Speaker 2
So we, we, of course, we always prioritize public safety. And last year, in 2024 we we did some substantial pay raises to both our police and fire, which we needed to do for both recruitment and retention. And we saw that around the state, and we saw it at the state, state level, with the State Police, which is what drove a lot of us to having to compete at the state level. So this past year, we've just really been working on, we've got a couple of big projects, and then trying to stabilize the budget and, you know, make sure that we're ready for, you know, the next big the next big push, we're not quite sure what it is. So we don't have any huge new initiatives in this particular budget. We're just supporting a lot that are moving forward, like Nexus Park. So and then, what, like I had said in earlier discussions with you, we've got some studies going on. We have a route study our transportation system. We're doing a route study. We we've done a housing study. We've just started a work, put out an RFP for a downtown Columbus, downtown 2030 study. So we have a lot of recommendations that will come out of these studies that we know we're going to want to fund some of those. So we're kind of waiting to see what, what, what recommendations are, and where, where we can put our money that would best serve the downtown, or housing or transportation,
Speaker 1
yeah. And, I mean, boy, they all work together, don't they, so, I mean, you're going to have your hands full when all these different he's come back, because you're talking about a, you know, Master Plan, Columbus downtown, 2030 you know, transportation has to work with that housing. And right now, I think you have, maybe you can post in a little bit, a couple housing developments that are coming downtown,
Speaker 2
right we have, we recently finished the Taylor. Has finished up the tailor, and that has been great. It's brought a lot of residents downtown. We have a if you're familiar with Columbus along Washington Street, which is the main corridor going in the downtown. So we have housing, apartment complex and retail approved for sixth and Washington. So that's in the final design stages. And I think that's about 55 units. And then if you go farther north, on the corner of 11th in Washington, we have a housing proposal which has hit a couple of walls, which is not unusual with with housing so as we work our way through, but that, I think, brings another couple 100 units of housing downtown. So that would be great, because any any time we talk about, you know, improving your downtown activation is really important, so you're always stuck with the chicken and the egg, right? How do you get more people when you need more restaurants and retail, but restaurants and retail won't come in till they can be promised more people. So we've been kind of struggling with that. And so hopefully adding more residents to the downtown will make that an easier sell. And
Speaker 1
is that part of the Columbus downtown 2030 project is really trying to coordinate that activity downtown.
Speaker 2
It's giving it's giving some some guidelines. But what we're really trying to look at is we've got a lot of properties, we've got a lot of buildings and venues. And how can we, how can we identify, maybe, what the best uses for some of those are, what, what, what we've seen in other communities, what might work here? Is it just housing? Is it a housing and retail? Is it more restaurants? Do you have some other kind of activity? And so those are the kind of things that this, this will look
Speaker 1
at. Does that look at things like, you know, density, building up utilities to be able to handle that climate change, post covid, you know, all those, those, those things,
Speaker 2
yeah, a little bit our, actually, our housing study is the one that looks more like housing density, right? Because most communities are, they don't want to go out because you don't want sprawl. So you really only have two choices, which is infill, and the City of Columbus has, really doesn't have much infill left. We have some. But so then your, your third choice is really the density into going up. And so that's, that's like, you know, constant tension and balance. Which do you do? And so our housing study will will give us more guidance on that. And then also, what kind of zoning changes that could happen, could happen that would make it more favorable to to build, right because every community has zoning restrictions, and some are easier to get around than others.
Speaker 1
We've reported on this maybe a month or so ago, but some of the money is starting to come out now to local officials to of the national opioid settlements. So do you know how much Columbus is getting, how that's being spent, who's overseeing it?
Speaker 2
Yeah, that's a little bit of a sore subject. So the bulk of the money coming to Bartholomew county is actually going to the county the City of Columbus is getting very little, maybe 20,000 a year, and but Bartholomew county is getting hundreds of 1000s a year. But the good news is the county has, really has indicated that they're going to continue to spend it on addiction related services. So we have an organization, kind of an umbrella organization, in Columbus and Bartholomew county called ASAP, right? And so it deals with all kinds of programming that helps people who have a substance abuse disorder. And so we have a jail program, we have a court program, we have a hub where people can go and get all kinds of information and get referred out to treatment centers. And so the county has indicated that they're going to use the same process with the opioid dollars that we use for the to fund ASAP, ASAP is a joint split between the city and the county. We each pay 50% and so they're going to use that same process. So I think we will see that most of the dollars that they get will go toward that. So I'm really pleased that the county is stepping forward with that, but the city, for whatever reason, it's just getting a very, very small percentage.
Speaker 1
Okay, I speaking of silver spots. I don't know how much you can talk on this, but I've been seeing in the news about a commercial solar energy system being denied by the zoning board there. But I think this is part County, maybe part city, and I know that town hall has drawn a lot of people. Some neighbors don't want it. What can you tell us in on what's happening with that? Yeah,
Speaker 2
it's so there's, there was a particular entity came in and wanted to do a solar project, and so we had both the County Board of zoning appeals and the City Board of Board of zoning appeals, they both made different directives. And so it is kind of a mess. And so there was a lawsuit filed, I think that's been dismissed. And so I think right now the and then there was another there was another company that was trying to do another solar field on the north east side of Columbus, and that got denied. So I think right now, the community is just having to educate itself about solar, and there's people on both sides. And so right now, nothing has happened. I don't know that it won't in the future. It's just that the projects that that came out, unfortunately, people drew sides fairly quickly, and it was farmers against farmers, and it was neighbors against neighbors. So it was always a little uncomfortable. So I think everybody's going to take a breath, and I'm sure there will be more projects that will come back in the future, but yeah, right now, I think right now they're all dead in the water.
Speaker 1
Yeah. Well, I know we only about, like, a minute left, but I always like to leave that to you. Do you have any announcements or things you want everyone to know?
Speaker 2
Yeah, I'm really excited about an event that the city is hosting September 11, which is Patriots Day in the evening at our big Commons. We're we're having an event called legacy of leadership, a conversation with our mayors. So we have several mayors, former mayors, still in town. So we've got a mayor from the 1980s and then the deputy mayor from the 90s, and then Mayor Armstrong, who was a 16 year mayor, and then Mayor lenov and myself. So we're going to have a panel discussion at the commons. It's free to the public through our local foundation. They're they're generously picking up the cost. And I think it will be really interesting hearing some of the challenges that mayors had, which would be now, 40 years ago. I think we'll be interested in seeing we all struggle with the same challenges. Then they may be a different project, but it's the same thing as right, trying. You've got a certain amount of resources and and you're trying to fit do the best for the community. But everybody has their own idea about what the best looks like, so I think it'd be a great night, but that's September 11 at the commons. About, about it, yeah, talk
Unknown Speaker
about ask the mayor.
Speaker 2
That's right. Five mayors, right? Yeah.
Speaker 1
So yeah, and that would be fascinating. I'm just thinking about that today we have the three governors up on 465, opening. I 69 and how some of these projects go from they do administration to administration. Yeah,
Speaker 2
I, I talked with the former mayor who was, who was the first female mayor in the 1980s Her name was Nancy Ann Brown, and I she's the one that built city, the current city hall that we're in, and so just going back and talking to her about the how that happened was really interesting, because it wasn't easy, but we know we take it for granted, but getting it built was a long process, so that should be a fun night.
Speaker 1
Thank you so much for being with us and hope to see you next month. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker
thanks, Joe. I appreciate it. Bye.
