Speaker 1
According Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU I'm Joe Hren. First week of the month here it is August 1 already. We're in Columbus today with Mayor Jim Lienhoop. Hello, welcome. Thanks so much for taking the time to be on the show.
Speaker 2
Welcome back to Columbus. That's good to see. You. It's warm. It's not as warm as it has been. But But yeah, upper 70s. Lower East. We're, that's good weather for me. I kind of like it that way. I don't like it too hot. I mean, the 90s aren't aren't my style. But But yeah, it's working fine.
Speaker 1
Yeah, we did have some pretty hot days last week, the city offers suggestions for people to go, they just can't find the cooling places.
Speaker 2
Yeah, we've got a variety of public facilities that are open. We're talking about Donner center, the Hamilton Ice Center, Nexus Park, there's a walking track on the inside there. The Commons. There are also a variety of other public buildings, the library, some folks ride a bus, you know, so there's a way there ways to sort of get around respite from the from the heat? Yeah. Well, after
Speaker 1
this, I'm going to head over to the Crump theater there to check out the work that's being done here. And I mean, obviously, we know it's a historic building, that's not really been in the public place for for quite a bit, can you just take us back a little bit to a little bit of the history of the crop. And what's being done now to save it?
Speaker 2
Well, the building dates back to the 1880s. And so you've got a very old masonry structure that times is showing its age, I want to say in the 1940s, maybe the early 1940 timeframe, right before World War Two, it was renovated to what we call an art deco style, and pretty much made a single purpose facility or made into a single purpose facility, which was to show movies. And it was a big, big theater at the time, and had a lengthy run. I remember going to movies later when I was a kid back in the 60s. And it was always interesting, always fun to go down there and watch the latest Disney flick or what have you. I'll say maybe several years ago, there were some concerns maybe 10 years ago, some concerns about the structural integrity, there were some issues with respect to some of the roof trusses, particularly those towards the the stage area. And that necessitated a closure of the building to the public, you know, so there were still people inside working, you know, to try to renovate the space. And they've got a committee now that is particularly energetic, that has scoured Indiana for spare seats, and, you know, spare lighting and spare whatever you have. And then there are a number of volunteers from around the community who have come in to help clean those seats, clean the floors, clean the balcony, just do a variety of fixed up repairs. And my anticipation is that they'll be able to host a ticketed event here. Now in a couple of months, you know, so So yeah, it's kind of kind of neat to see it come back to life at the end of the day. It's, it's going to be difficult to do a lot more in there than, you know, show movies and maybe have some some white entertainment. But But yeah, it should be fun. What
Speaker 1
does it mean to the not only the history of Columbus, but economic development, as well to the downtown to have that back?
Speaker 2
Well, well, that's to be determined. I mean, in terms of the value economic value of it, because we really don't know, you know, what kind of events they're going to be able to host there and what kind of crowds those will draw. But it's a neat piece of history, and then nice to be able to get back in there and and visit it once again.
Speaker 1
That's correct me if I'm wrong, that's a block away from where you would want the new conference center. Is that correct? Yeah. And that land is there and available that could create some,
Speaker 2
I would hope that you could get some synergy. Yeah. And again, it all depends on whether all this can come together, you know, on the schedule that we put forward. And what kind of events you know, they'll be able to hold there. It would seem to be an adjunct or I'd already adjunct to a to a conference center, sort of to provide a theater type setting, as you might expect. And so we'll see, you know how that works out. But, but yeah, we've we'll wait to see what how many it'll seat I've not heard what the new capacity will be. We've got a couple of other venues in town. So the high school auditoriums are a little bit bigger. I mean, maybe 1000 to 1200 seats. I don't think they're going to have that many in the Crump but, but it'll be interesting to see how it develops.
Speaker 1
There was an interesting thing that I read, I believe in the Republic about getting through certain obstacles to be able to get it open to the public again, and I mean, obviously you want it to be safe, but there are different states. hundreds to how to how do you get the Crump to be able to get through the standards to be able to open again?
Speaker 2
Well, you sit down with your code enforcement people, your building, building code people, and you just sort of walk through what it will take to, to accommodate a crowd? Because I think part of what I think they're trying to get out, is it how do you get out in the case of an emergency, you know, how easy or difficult is the egress, if we have to empty the building in short time, I think there's some structural issues. As I mentioned earlier, there were some roof trusses that needed to be replaced, these were mostly towards the stage and to the building. I think they're going to be able to get all that done. There, we're always worried about any other part of the building something that old, just making sure that it's structurally integrity, structural integrity, and so we'll have some code people, you know, climbing around you, and they're shining some flashlights up into the corners, making sure that what's supposed to be there is there.
Speaker 1
So how about an update on the proposed conference center? That would be across the street, right. Last time, we talked a couple months ago, the process of getting a consultant?
Speaker 2
Well, we, with respect to the conference center, we have reengaged, the consultant that we had 100, strategic strategic partners. And part of that reengagement was to determine whether or not the Conference Center was still a viable amenity, something that we wanted here in Columbus, and he confirmed that yeah, it is, I mean, that's something that we really do want to do, the Conference Center, the hotel that would go with it, would be able to replace what we had at the Clarion Hotel back several years ago now, when it was when it was in operation. But we've, you know, had several discussions since with the proposed developers and reached a bit of an impasse, you know, in terms of how we would go forward there. So we have begun to talk to door hospitality, they had been our second place furniture finisher. Oh, several years ago, when we picked the Sprague Dora has asked us to take a look at another location here in town. And we're gonna do that. I mean, we're gonna try to be thoughtful, you know, in terms of whether we go forward with this, and if so, where, but at the same time, that may require us to reissue the RFP since we're looking at a different site. And that'll add several months to the project. So we're kind of taking that proverbial step backwards right now and try to take a deeper look or a broader look as as to just where this would go. And again, you know, how much it's really going to cost? I mean, we had sort of penciled in, I want to say about 30,000 square feet. I don't know that we'll, I don't know that we'll do that. We just need to rethink the numbers a little bit. But, but yeah, so we're still believe that it's a viable project, it makes sense. But we've got some work to do.
Speaker 1
So where's that new site? And why over towards
Speaker 2
the post office, and Dora is interested in it, because he's already got a hotel over there, you know, and there's an existing parking garage over there, you know, the project that we contemplated would require the construction of a parking garage. And you know, why build one if you've already got one? Now, the one that we are referring to is over on Jackson Street already exists, but it's already being used. So, you know, I don't know how many seats you're talking about trying to accommodate maybe 500 people, you know, in a ballroom type setting. And so you've got to contemplate maybe 250 cars. And so where would you put them, and there's some room over there, not just in the existing garage, but some surface lots that exist. But But we got to work through all that, you know, just to try to understand how that would, would fit together how it would connect, because the folks who were in that industry tell me that it's important for the hotel to connect to the conference center, all weather connection, little less important that it connects to the parking. But that's, that's valuable, it's desirable, but really critical. Then it connects to that hotel, connect to the conference center. So we've got to got to figure all that stuff out. And we'll let you know.
Speaker 1
Talk to Bloomington mayor, John Hamilton a couple of weeks ago, and he said a good handful of residents are now getting high speed internet through the broadband installation that has been going on. What's the update here in Columbus?
Speaker 2
Well, I don't think we're ready to sign anybody up yet. I don't think we're quite that far along. But they tell me that we are completing construction in that big block area, which is generally, you know, Second Street North to 25th. And then, oh say Washington Street over to central if you're sort of familiar with the streets here in Columbus, and so people should be able to sign up soon. They were out at they been gigabit now we're at at the county fair last month, and they were signing up people out there and so we expect to have have service available As soon again, it did. Sometimes the dates tend to get pushed off a little bit, but, but it'll be up this summer.
Speaker 1
So, but can people preliminarily Sign up now for it?
Speaker 2
So I understand okay, yeah. You go to gigabit now his website, you'll, you know, look around for Columbus. And yeah,
Speaker 1
I mean, are you happy? Are they happy? Have you heard of that? Have not heard that? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, let's see here. The City of Columbus is looking for updated information on the communities housing needs. It's something you've talked about many times on this show, right? And now they want to fund a more in depth study. Right, give us a little bit of background. I
Speaker 2
mean, what I sometimes tell people is that Columbus needs more housing at all price points. You know, there's a demand for, for housing units, like I said, at all price points. But part of what we would like to understand is, where is the need most acute, you know, and how do you segment that market? I mean, are we talking about houses between 150 and 250,002 50, and 505 100. And above, or are those demarcation points somewhere else, because, you know, it's interesting or important to us to be able to explain to any prospective developer, you know, this is the kind of house or this is the kind of price range that we want you to target. And particularly if we're going to end up talking about any incentives, you know, the city's Redevelopment Commission has authorized to pay for this study, or authorize payment of the study. And so their ability to use the results will depend upon, you know, the kind of information they get, and how well we can present that then to developers, because again, what we'll be trying to do is say, well, we've got a bigger need, and the one, I'll say 100 to 150 range, that may be maybe changed before when we get the final study. But that will allow us then to say that's where we want to get, and I'll say 25% of your units, you know, and then we want 20% in a different segment, and so on, just maybe have a little bit more focused approach, on on how we kind of addressed this, because part of what we know is coming on is, well, there's continued annexation, you know, but what we're particularly focused on is what happens out at the, what they call the Columbus Regional Hospital foreign property, and the plan that they intend to present here in a couple of nights, that plan commission would contemplate about 1000 units. And so if the developer comes to town, and they want some taxpayer assistance, redevelopment says assistance to to construct those will, then we want to be informed as to what kind of unit we want to get. We've got other housing opportunities around town, but they're generally on small plots of land. And when you get a small plot of land, you get kind of limited with respect to the people who will talk to you about that, and, and what kind of housing that you can really put on there. And so, those, the housing study won't help much with respect to that. But but with respect to this bigger project, and with respect to future annexation at the edges of the city, you know, we will hope to get some data that will help us inform the developers in terms of what we really would like to see there
Speaker 1
with this also affect rezoning of the downtown, because I assume, you know, there's single family, there's going to be multi Plex don't know things like that. Yeah, with that information be helpful in future, you know, future zoning of downtown or rezoning of the downtown?
Speaker 2
Well. I don't know. You know, I, it's I don't think that our zoning at the present time is restricted is too restrictive in terms of preventing the kind of housing that we want built. You've got, you know, homeowners associations that that have their, you know, their overlay of so to speak of rules on whatever ground that they've got, but I but I don't anticipate any big changes to the zoning or building codes with respect to or, excuse me to come from this.
Speaker 1
Before we sat down. We talked about what's on your mind right now and budget, it's well, it's always budget, you're always looking at money. But it seemed like the top of thing was a police and fire.
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, there's two or three things going on. And with respect to police, the state of Indiana has announced and begun to implement some significant increases to the pay for Indiana State Police. And they kind of drive the market, if you will, in terms of setting a standard that that most of our officers try to get to. I think most of our officers understand that. Being a trooper for the Indiana State Police is not the same as being a police officer. You know, when you're out there on the interstate, you're kind of out there by yourself. Here in the city of Columbus. We have an officer who's got a call, we've got backup there within a matter of minutes. And that just doesn't happen out there on the interstate. But nonetheless, when the state of Indiana sort of dangles a 15 16% increase in compensation, we can't ignore that. And so we were we were going, we are going to work towards a goal like that, we've tried to put some get put together some numbers now, because compensation is not as straightforward for those guys is not and gals is not as straightforward as you might think they work, a rather unique shift. They're working the weekends, most holidays. And, and there are different types of incentive pays that are a percentage of what the base comp is. And so it takes a little bit of work to noodle through the numbers. But at the end of the day, we know that's going to be significantly more expensive than what we're paying today. And we're gonna see something similar with respect to fire. You know, I don't know just how those numbers will work out. But it's a similarly difficult to involve isn't that difficult involve calculation. It we obviously, don't worry about the Indiana State Police with respect to fire, but we do worry about what Indianapolis fire does, and what they set the the standards they set up there tend to trickle down, you know, through Johnson County to get to us. And, you know, if we don't respond, our firefighters head up to, you know, Franklin, or bargersville, or Greenwood or some other place so, so we'll be responsive, we don't want to become a training ground, you know, for for the bigger departments. But yeah, it's going to force us to spend a lot of time thinking about our budget. At the same time, the Indiana State Legislature in an effort to help people on their property taxes, placed a 4% growth limit on our levy. And, you know, if you're trying to provide 16% Raise increase, it increases in comp, and you can only raise your property tax levy by 4%. It kind of, you know, provide will provide us with some choices that we've got to make, and and some way to try to squeeze a big number into a smaller one. And typically those don't go well. But we've got some thoughts, you know, in terms of, you know, how to make that work, at least make it look over a multi year period.
Speaker 1
Excuse me, I did see in the Republic two, there was an overtime issue with the fire department about 500. Or is it 5 million?
Speaker 2
Yeah, closer to that? Yeah. Yeah, the issue you get into is there are some folks who get sick, then we have to backfill with another person, there are some open positions that you know, will get filled, but it takes a while to fill them to get people through the training that they need to. So while they're doing that, while we're waiting for the training, or whatever, we fill that with, with people, you know, with overtime from some other folks. So So yeah, it puts us in a little bit of a bind there as well.
Speaker 1
And so I just want to make sure I half million, I think I'm at 5000. And I Yeah, yeah, so yes, yeah, yeah. I know, we're getting close on time. I do want to mention exhibit Columbus is thank you coming up. And I know, Washington and Fourth Street stuff is happening already, what are people going to start seeing?
Speaker 2
Well, they're going to start seeing some really neat installations all over the downtown area, I want to say they're going to be 11, but maybe 12. Some of these will be maybe from higher profile architectural firms. Then there'll be some architectural programs from some of the universities and as always, the high school students here really put put a lot of effort into, you know, an installation. That's not fun. And it gives us a little bit of insight into how kids think, perhaps, but, but yeah, that'll come up, I want to say the 25th of August is when that opens 25th 26th. And in particular, there will be an installation on over the intersection of fourth and Washington. This will be by I don't know exactly how to describe it. But it's, they call it Oculus. So it as the name kind of infers it's round, and they have a hole at the top, the the, they will have a steel superstructure with some fabric. To cover it. There'll be some lighting underneath as well as some, some music I believe, provided by Ovation or the company here in town at the corner of fourth and Washington. It will be a unique installation. So we'll invite everybody to come down. Take a look. We'll have a couple of events that weekend. I want to say the 25th is Friday. So yeah, encourage everybody to come on down. See Columbus, this will be the fourth exhibit Columbus that we've had. And they've all been a lot of fun. This one proves to be or it sounds like it's going to be right up there with the rest.
Speaker 1
I think one year we met at an installation and did the whole show sitting in one. I think you're right. It was great. Maybe we have to look and see if that's an opportunity in September. They
Speaker 2
will be here and still be here in September right and October October 20.
Speaker 1
A little cooler maybe? Yeah, let's do it. I would like to give you the last word any announcements Anything else we need to know before we we head off today?
Unknown Speaker
What we're still community of the year, you know, no
Speaker 1
one's forget celebration continue exactly
Speaker 2
that, you know, we continue to live in a very special place. And, you know, it's all the people of Columbus that make it that way. But I'm particularly proud to be able to, to be the mayor, when we get to get recognition like that. We're really happy about Nexus Park, it continues on schedule. You know, we were talking about the other day that we're going to have to plan for several grand openings, so there'll be one for the hospital for CRH for its location. I think we'll have a second one for the Fieldhouse, a third for the park space, and a fourth for the grounds so there'll be plenty to celebrate out there.
Unknown Speaker
Alright, thanks so much for your time. We'll see you next month. Take care
According Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU I'm Joe Hren. First week of the month here it is August 1 already. We're in Columbus today with Mayor Jim Lienhoop. Hello, welcome. Thanks so much for taking the time to be on the show.
Speaker 2
Welcome back to Columbus. That's good to see. You. It's warm. It's not as warm as it has been. But But yeah, upper 70s. Lower East. We're, that's good weather for me. I kind of like it that way. I don't like it too hot. I mean, the 90s aren't aren't my style. But But yeah, it's working fine.
Speaker 1
Yeah, we did have some pretty hot days last week, the city offers suggestions for people to go, they just can't find the cooling places.
Speaker 2
Yeah, we've got a variety of public facilities that are open. We're talking about Donner center, the Hamilton Ice Center, Nexus Park, there's a walking track on the inside there. The Commons. There are also a variety of other public buildings, the library, some folks ride a bus, you know, so there's a way there ways to sort of get around respite from the from the heat? Yeah. Well, after
Speaker 1
this, I'm going to head over to the Crump theater there to check out the work that's being done here. And I mean, obviously, we know it's a historic building, that's not really been in the public place for for quite a bit, can you just take us back a little bit to a little bit of the history of the crop. And what's being done now to save it?
Speaker 2
Well, the building dates back to the 1880s. And so you've got a very old masonry structure that times is showing its age, I want to say in the 1940s, maybe the early 1940 timeframe, right before World War Two, it was renovated to what we call an art deco style, and pretty much made a single purpose facility or made into a single purpose facility, which was to show movies. And it was a big, big theater at the time, and had a lengthy run. I remember going to movies later when I was a kid back in the 60s. And it was always interesting, always fun to go down there and watch the latest Disney flick or what have you. I'll say maybe several years ago, there were some concerns maybe 10 years ago, some concerns about the structural integrity, there were some issues with respect to some of the roof trusses, particularly those towards the the stage area. And that necessitated a closure of the building to the public, you know, so there were still people inside working, you know, to try to renovate the space. And they've got a committee now that is particularly energetic, that has scoured Indiana for spare seats, and, you know, spare lighting and spare whatever you have. And then there are a number of volunteers from around the community who have come in to help clean those seats, clean the floors, clean the balcony, just do a variety of fixed up repairs. And my anticipation is that they'll be able to host a ticketed event here. Now in a couple of months, you know, so So yeah, it's kind of kind of neat to see it come back to life at the end of the day. It's, it's going to be difficult to do a lot more in there than, you know, show movies and maybe have some some white entertainment. But But yeah, it should be fun. What
Speaker 1
does it mean to the not only the history of Columbus, but economic development, as well to the downtown to have that back?
Speaker 2
Well, well, that's to be determined. I mean, in terms of the value economic value of it, because we really don't know, you know, what kind of events they're going to be able to host there and what kind of crowds those will draw. But it's a neat piece of history, and then nice to be able to get back in there and and visit it once again.
Speaker 1
That's correct me if I'm wrong, that's a block away from where you would want the new conference center. Is that correct? Yeah. And that land is there and available that could create some,
Speaker 2
I would hope that you could get some synergy. Yeah. And again, it all depends on whether all this can come together, you know, on the schedule that we put forward. And what kind of events you know, they'll be able to hold there. It would seem to be an adjunct or I'd already adjunct to a to a conference center, sort of to provide a theater type setting, as you might expect. And so we'll see, you know how that works out. But, but yeah, we've we'll wait to see what how many it'll seat I've not heard what the new capacity will be. We've got a couple of other venues in town. So the high school auditoriums are a little bit bigger. I mean, maybe 1000 to 1200 seats. I don't think they're going to have that many in the Crump but, but it'll be interesting to see how it develops.
Speaker 1
There was an interesting thing that I read, I believe in the Republic about getting through certain obstacles to be able to get it open to the public again, and I mean, obviously you want it to be safe, but there are different states. hundreds to how to how do you get the Crump to be able to get through the standards to be able to open again?
Speaker 2
Well, you sit down with your code enforcement people, your building, building code people, and you just sort of walk through what it will take to, to accommodate a crowd? Because I think part of what I think they're trying to get out, is it how do you get out in the case of an emergency, you know, how easy or difficult is the egress, if we have to empty the building in short time, I think there's some structural issues. As I mentioned earlier, there were some roof trusses that needed to be replaced, these were mostly towards the stage and to the building. I think they're going to be able to get all that done. There, we're always worried about any other part of the building something that old, just making sure that it's structurally integrity, structural integrity, and so we'll have some code people, you know, climbing around you, and they're shining some flashlights up into the corners, making sure that what's supposed to be there is there.
Speaker 1
So how about an update on the proposed conference center? That would be across the street, right. Last time, we talked a couple months ago, the process of getting a consultant?
Speaker 2
Well, we, with respect to the conference center, we have reengaged, the consultant that we had 100, strategic strategic partners. And part of that reengagement was to determine whether or not the Conference Center was still a viable amenity, something that we wanted here in Columbus, and he confirmed that yeah, it is, I mean, that's something that we really do want to do, the Conference Center, the hotel that would go with it, would be able to replace what we had at the Clarion Hotel back several years ago now, when it was when it was in operation. But we've, you know, had several discussions since with the proposed developers and reached a bit of an impasse, you know, in terms of how we would go forward there. So we have begun to talk to door hospitality, they had been our second place furniture finisher. Oh, several years ago, when we picked the Sprague Dora has asked us to take a look at another location here in town. And we're gonna do that. I mean, we're gonna try to be thoughtful, you know, in terms of whether we go forward with this, and if so, where, but at the same time, that may require us to reissue the RFP since we're looking at a different site. And that'll add several months to the project. So we're kind of taking that proverbial step backwards right now and try to take a deeper look or a broader look as as to just where this would go. And again, you know, how much it's really going to cost? I mean, we had sort of penciled in, I want to say about 30,000 square feet. I don't know that we'll, I don't know that we'll do that. We just need to rethink the numbers a little bit. But, but yeah, so we're still believe that it's a viable project, it makes sense. But we've got some work to do.
Speaker 1
So where's that new site? And why over towards
Speaker 2
the post office, and Dora is interested in it, because he's already got a hotel over there, you know, and there's an existing parking garage over there, you know, the project that we contemplated would require the construction of a parking garage. And you know, why build one if you've already got one? Now, the one that we are referring to is over on Jackson Street already exists, but it's already being used. So, you know, I don't know how many seats you're talking about trying to accommodate maybe 500 people, you know, in a ballroom type setting. And so you've got to contemplate maybe 250 cars. And so where would you put them, and there's some room over there, not just in the existing garage, but some surface lots that exist. But But we got to work through all that, you know, just to try to understand how that would, would fit together how it would connect, because the folks who were in that industry tell me that it's important for the hotel to connect to the conference center, all weather connection, little less important that it connects to the parking. But that's, that's valuable, it's desirable, but really critical. Then it connects to that hotel, connect to the conference center. So we've got to got to figure all that stuff out. And we'll let you know.
Speaker 1
Talk to Bloomington mayor, John Hamilton a couple of weeks ago, and he said a good handful of residents are now getting high speed internet through the broadband installation that has been going on. What's the update here in Columbus?
Speaker 2
Well, I don't think we're ready to sign anybody up yet. I don't think we're quite that far along. But they tell me that we are completing construction in that big block area, which is generally, you know, Second Street North to 25th. And then, oh say Washington Street over to central if you're sort of familiar with the streets here in Columbus, and so people should be able to sign up soon. They were out at they been gigabit now we're at at the county fair last month, and they were signing up people out there and so we expect to have have service available As soon again, it did. Sometimes the dates tend to get pushed off a little bit, but, but it'll be up this summer.
Speaker 1
So, but can people preliminarily Sign up now for it?
Speaker 2
So I understand okay, yeah. You go to gigabit now his website, you'll, you know, look around for Columbus. And yeah,
Speaker 1
I mean, are you happy? Are they happy? Have you heard of that? Have not heard that? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, let's see here. The City of Columbus is looking for updated information on the communities housing needs. It's something you've talked about many times on this show, right? And now they want to fund a more in depth study. Right, give us a little bit of background. I
Speaker 2
mean, what I sometimes tell people is that Columbus needs more housing at all price points. You know, there's a demand for, for housing units, like I said, at all price points. But part of what we would like to understand is, where is the need most acute, you know, and how do you segment that market? I mean, are we talking about houses between 150 and 250,002 50, and 505 100. And above, or are those demarcation points somewhere else, because, you know, it's interesting or important to us to be able to explain to any prospective developer, you know, this is the kind of house or this is the kind of price range that we want you to target. And particularly if we're going to end up talking about any incentives, you know, the city's Redevelopment Commission has authorized to pay for this study, or authorize payment of the study. And so their ability to use the results will depend upon, you know, the kind of information they get, and how well we can present that then to developers, because again, what we'll be trying to do is say, well, we've got a bigger need, and the one, I'll say 100 to 150 range, that may be maybe changed before when we get the final study. But that will allow us then to say that's where we want to get, and I'll say 25% of your units, you know, and then we want 20% in a different segment, and so on, just maybe have a little bit more focused approach, on on how we kind of addressed this, because part of what we know is coming on is, well, there's continued annexation, you know, but what we're particularly focused on is what happens out at the, what they call the Columbus Regional Hospital foreign property, and the plan that they intend to present here in a couple of nights, that plan commission would contemplate about 1000 units. And so if the developer comes to town, and they want some taxpayer assistance, redevelopment says assistance to to construct those will, then we want to be informed as to what kind of unit we want to get. We've got other housing opportunities around town, but they're generally on small plots of land. And when you get a small plot of land, you get kind of limited with respect to the people who will talk to you about that, and, and what kind of housing that you can really put on there. And so, those, the housing study won't help much with respect to that. But but with respect to this bigger project, and with respect to future annexation at the edges of the city, you know, we will hope to get some data that will help us inform the developers in terms of what we really would like to see there
Speaker 1
with this also affect rezoning of the downtown, because I assume, you know, there's single family, there's going to be multi Plex don't know things like that. Yeah, with that information be helpful in future, you know, future zoning of downtown or rezoning of the downtown?
Speaker 2
Well. I don't know. You know, I, it's I don't think that our zoning at the present time is restricted is too restrictive in terms of preventing the kind of housing that we want built. You've got, you know, homeowners associations that that have their, you know, their overlay of so to speak of rules on whatever ground that they've got, but I but I don't anticipate any big changes to the zoning or building codes with respect to or, excuse me to come from this.
Speaker 1
Before we sat down. We talked about what's on your mind right now and budget, it's well, it's always budget, you're always looking at money. But it seemed like the top of thing was a police and fire.
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, there's two or three things going on. And with respect to police, the state of Indiana has announced and begun to implement some significant increases to the pay for Indiana State Police. And they kind of drive the market, if you will, in terms of setting a standard that that most of our officers try to get to. I think most of our officers understand that. Being a trooper for the Indiana State Police is not the same as being a police officer. You know, when you're out there on the interstate, you're kind of out there by yourself. Here in the city of Columbus. We have an officer who's got a call, we've got backup there within a matter of minutes. And that just doesn't happen out there on the interstate. But nonetheless, when the state of Indiana sort of dangles a 15 16% increase in compensation, we can't ignore that. And so we were we were going, we are going to work towards a goal like that, we've tried to put some get put together some numbers now, because compensation is not as straightforward for those guys is not and gals is not as straightforward as you might think they work, a rather unique shift. They're working the weekends, most holidays. And, and there are different types of incentive pays that are a percentage of what the base comp is. And so it takes a little bit of work to noodle through the numbers. But at the end of the day, we know that's going to be significantly more expensive than what we're paying today. And we're gonna see something similar with respect to fire. You know, I don't know just how those numbers will work out. But it's a similarly difficult to involve isn't that difficult involve calculation. It we obviously, don't worry about the Indiana State Police with respect to fire, but we do worry about what Indianapolis fire does, and what they set the the standards they set up there tend to trickle down, you know, through Johnson County to get to us. And, you know, if we don't respond, our firefighters head up to, you know, Franklin, or bargersville, or Greenwood or some other place so, so we'll be responsive, we don't want to become a training ground, you know, for for the bigger departments. But yeah, it's going to force us to spend a lot of time thinking about our budget. At the same time, the Indiana State Legislature in an effort to help people on their property taxes, placed a 4% growth limit on our levy. And, you know, if you're trying to provide 16% Raise increase, it increases in comp, and you can only raise your property tax levy by 4%. It kind of, you know, provide will provide us with some choices that we've got to make, and and some way to try to squeeze a big number into a smaller one. And typically those don't go well. But we've got some thoughts, you know, in terms of, you know, how to make that work, at least make it look over a multi year period.
Speaker 1
Excuse me, I did see in the Republic two, there was an overtime issue with the fire department about 500. Or is it 5 million?
Speaker 2
Yeah, closer to that? Yeah. Yeah, the issue you get into is there are some folks who get sick, then we have to backfill with another person, there are some open positions that you know, will get filled, but it takes a while to fill them to get people through the training that they need to. So while they're doing that, while we're waiting for the training, or whatever, we fill that with, with people, you know, with overtime from some other folks. So So yeah, it puts us in a little bit of a bind there as well.
Speaker 1
And so I just want to make sure I half million, I think I'm at 5000. And I Yeah, yeah, so yes, yeah, yeah. I know, we're getting close on time. I do want to mention exhibit Columbus is thank you coming up. And I know, Washington and Fourth Street stuff is happening already, what are people going to start seeing?
Speaker 2
Well, they're going to start seeing some really neat installations all over the downtown area, I want to say they're going to be 11, but maybe 12. Some of these will be maybe from higher profile architectural firms. Then there'll be some architectural programs from some of the universities and as always, the high school students here really put put a lot of effort into, you know, an installation. That's not fun. And it gives us a little bit of insight into how kids think, perhaps, but, but yeah, that'll come up, I want to say the 25th of August is when that opens 25th 26th. And in particular, there will be an installation on over the intersection of fourth and Washington. This will be by I don't know exactly how to describe it. But it's, they call it Oculus. So it as the name kind of infers it's round, and they have a hole at the top, the the, they will have a steel superstructure with some fabric. To cover it. There'll be some lighting underneath as well as some, some music I believe, provided by Ovation or the company here in town at the corner of fourth and Washington. It will be a unique installation. So we'll invite everybody to come down. Take a look. We'll have a couple of events that weekend. I want to say the 25th is Friday. So yeah, encourage everybody to come on down. See Columbus, this will be the fourth exhibit Columbus that we've had. And they've all been a lot of fun. This one proves to be or it sounds like it's going to be right up there with the rest.
Speaker 1
I think one year we met at an installation and did the whole show sitting in one. I think you're right. It was great. Maybe we have to look and see if that's an opportunity in September. They
Speaker 2
will be here and still be here in September right and October October 20.
Speaker 1
A little cooler maybe? Yeah, let's do it. I would like to give you the last word any announcements Anything else we need to know before we we head off today?
Unknown Speaker
What we're still community of the year, you know, no
Speaker 1
one's forget celebration continue exactly
Speaker 2
that, you know, we continue to live in a very special place. And, you know, it's all the people of Columbus that make it that way. But I'm particularly proud to be able to, to be the mayor, when we get to get recognition like that. We're really happy about Nexus Park, it continues on schedule. You know, we were talking about the other day that we're going to have to plan for several grand openings, so there'll be one for the hospital for CRH for its location. I think we'll have a second one for the Fieldhouse, a third for the park space, and a fourth for the grounds so there'll be plenty to celebrate out there.
Unknown Speaker
Alright, thanks so much for your time. We'll see you next month. Take care
