Unknown Speaker
One here. Hello, and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU I'm Joe Hren. It's the first week of December. And as always, I'm in Columbus this time at city hall with Mayor Jim Lienhoop. Hello, and welcome. Thanks for having us to Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.
Unknown Speaker
All the above?
Unknown Speaker
Well, we just have to start the show. I and I know we talked about this a couple of weeks ago when you announced that it not be running for third term. But this is the first time on the show. So just wanted to make sure everyone realized we're gonna have a new guest in Columbus a year from now. Wow. Yeah, a little bit more than a year from now.
Unknown Speaker
A little bit over a year. But yeah, for us, it's a combination of, oh, retirement, and, oh, a desire to retire and family. You know, I mean, my wife and I today have two grandchildren that we didn't have eight years ago. And we want to spend plenty of time with them want to get to know them want them to get to know us. And I've I have a desire to retire. I mean, we want to do some traveling and a few other things that just are difficult to arrange. When you've got a city council meeting every other week and a Board of Works meeting every week, and all the other things that you do on a regular recurring basis. I have thoroughly enjoyed this job. I mean, in particular, the people that I've worked with here at the City of Columbus, so it's, it's kind of bittersweet. In terms of announcing that, yeah, we're going to move on, but we got a whole year. I mean, it's not like it's going to happen tomorrow. And we'll have a bunch of great memories. And we accomplished a lot in the last seven years. And like I say, we've got one more to go. So. So yeah, I appreciate the the wishes of the warm wishes that I've received from a variety of folks. And I look forward to you know what the future has yet to hold?
Unknown Speaker
Of course, you know, you say you have a year to go, which is true. What are some of those maybe two or three high priority items that you're really looking at that you really want to focus on?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, well, we've got a Hotel Conference Center that we've talked about for a couple of years, that got pushed back, because of the pandemic, and still sort of suffers from that a little bit. I mean, business travel still hasn't returned to the point that it was pre pandemic. And it really hasn't sort of smoothed to the point where we know what the new normal is. So we don't necessarily know what to plan for. But, but we've explained to the developers that we've chosen, that we want to try to get this thing under contract as soon as possible. And so we anticipate bringing up a development agreement forward here, and then it didn't in this month in December. So stay tuned, we'll let you know. As we've talked before the riverfront project continues to somewhat surprised us, you know, in terms of the regulator's ability to ask continue to ask questions cover the same ground, you know, over and over again. But we feel like at this point that we are going to get what we need from the US Army Corps of Engineers, it's who we're in front of now. And but that may not come until sometime in January, maybe even early February at this point. But we're still hopeful that that project goes forward. When we talk to the regulators, you know, they express approval of the project. I mean, they like it. But they say you got to check this box. Gotta check that box, we got to make sure that we run all the traps before we grant you the permit that you need to do construction. And I appreciate the fact that they're being thorough, I just wish we could speed things up a little bit. But, but those two projects come to mind. And then we've got a variety of other little things around town that obviously Nexus Park is not a little thing. But there are a few small pieces of life to sort of get in place. We've got some housing projects that we're working on, you know, housing continues to be an issue here in Columbus, I mean, we and across the country, I mean, it's not just us, but I tell people that we need housing units at all price levels, all price points, and we've got a few people we're talking to about trying to put in some affordable with large a and affordable with a small a, which is sometimes called workforce housing. But But yeah, those will be the things that we'll try to work on between now and a year from now.
Unknown Speaker
You mentioned the Nexus park that used to be or still is partly a mall, Fair Oaks Mall. Was that right? Correct that for years, city bought it along with partnerships, a collaboration and work is is going on right now. I'm gonna head over there after here. So what am I going to see and what's new on that project?
Unknown Speaker
Well, you'll see some construction underway. I don't know exactly how much of it you'll get to see because they tore down the exterior portions that were to be torn down what we call the old goodie space wide. There's a lot of work going on right now inside the Columbus Regional Health space, which had Ben Carson's for those folks who are familiar with what the mall had been. The hospital is a little bit further along than we are in terms of their construction. process but we, we anticipate letting a contract for the parks portion of the mall in maybe February, we'll get to that. But what we also anticipate in February is the arrival of about 115 truckloads of steel that will be used to erect the Fieldhouse that'll be on the north side of the building. So if you go out there today, I don't know that you're going to see a whole lot but there are some physical changes some some changes on the exterior of the building, some of the signage has been removed and some of the frontage all the walkway, the entryways, you know, have been have been changed around a little bit, you mentioned that there's still a retail section to it. And that's, that is true. Dunham's on the, the the east side will continue for some time, and there are some tenants inside the mall, a couple of restaurants and a few small retail locations. And those also will continue, we don't have a plan to remove those. In fact, we hope once we sort of get a little further along with our sports themed activities, that we'll be able to attract some tenants who will complement, you know, the sports themes that we have, because we anticipate having a good number of people there on the weekends, and we want to have something for those folks to do, you know, in between their contests, whether it's a volleyball match, or a soccer game, or what have you. I
Unknown Speaker
also just came across an article about this at the 1821 Trail. Official Opening delayed a little bit.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, we got some supply chain issues, you know, and trying to complete the what, what do they call those architectural elements, the artistic part of this, we've got some stones that you can see now in place along First Street, and we've got some markers that will be mounted on those and just trying to get those constructed. We've got them all out at the printer, so to speak. I mean, it's not a prayer. It's an engraver, I guess a better word for it. And we're just waiting for those to come back. Once those get mounted, then we'll be able to do a grand opening and, and right now we're looking for sometime in February, maybe March. But candidly, we began to think that maybe we should just wait for warmer weather, you know that we might get a little better crowd. But the whole notion behind 1821 is to do two or three things. It's one, it's a legacy project related to the Bicentennial that we celebrated in 2021. And it also serves as a connector between the riverfront project that I mentioned a moment ago, and the apartments that are being constructed at the corner of first and Lafayette. So so we're anxious to have that put in place because we feel like it will be a well used portion of the trail, the people trail that we have here in town, as well as just a delightful amenity we, you know, we had the ethnic Expo down here in October. And we were interesting. It was interesting to us. And we're interested in seeing and to get that out, right. How that new configuration because the road today First Street is a little narrower than it was before. And so we wondered how that would work with various vendors and how their displays and such would be set up. And he candidly worked very well. You know, we were really pleased with the the extra room that we ended up with, we thought initially that it was going to be narrower roadway, and it is, but the sidewalks wider. And so there's plenty of room for people, you know, to move around, and it actually facilitated visitation at the Expo. So it's worked out well in a variety of perspectives. And we're just happy to see the end in price the end in sight.
Unknown Speaker
I did want to get this into because it just just happened I believe yesterday or was it Sunday, the fire downtown 100 block of Fifth Street a commercial building? Is it pretty much gutted?
Unknown Speaker
Yes. You know, I was over there just at lunchtime today. And I you know, I'm not structural engineer. But you know, you look up there and you say this has got to go to the landfill. I mean, there's just no hope of saving this at you stop by and take some pictures of that too. But yeah, it's a real shame that building dates from 1890s. It has a direct tie to Joseph I Irwin, who was one of the leading prominent citizens. Back in the day back in the 1800s. He built that building and used it as a rental facility for a number of years sold it to a 1945 to the family that owns it today. And so it's somewhat unique in that it's only had two basically two owners throughout its history. It was a unique design. There there was a unique window treatment on the front. That was what they call Quiett. And, and and it was quite attractive. I mean, we all you know, commented on it or remarked about the fact that it was somewhat unique for this, this city. I mean, it's not what you not and it's not modern architecture, right. I mean, it really did sort of stand out for a variety of reasons, but unfortunately, it went up pretty quickly. And so, yeah, it'll be removed and we're just now trying to sort of sort through the process. and how you work with the insurance companies and the demolition contractors and so forth to get that done. But, but in the meantime, Fifth Street in front of that will be closed, so long as there is any risk that anything could fall off that building and get out into the sidewalk or the street. And that's probably going to be that way for August through the end of January. So we'll just, we're gonna get the building down as quickly as we can, but it's going to take a while before they can sort of clear up the process of clear up the location, you know, clean everything out and, you know, make it safe for passer safe for pedestrians.
Unknown Speaker
Has investigators been able to determine any cause right now or not yet? No, no. I say the county has moved, has the county moved into the new server Court Services Building? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker
they have. They're in there. And we are in the process of changing the titling, you know that for the land, you know, we're going to deed that building to the county and then in return will receive the block that is vacated. There's a parking open lot or a surface lot parking, excuse me, a surface parking lot, you know, between second and third streets and Franklin Lafayette, we're gonna raise the building that's on there, and the people who are parking here today will be able to continue to park there until we start construction on the hotel. And that's probably going to be at least another year, you know, before that happens, but But yeah, it's it's moving forward, moving forward slowly.
Unknown Speaker
And you know, just talking about long term projects. You mentioned the riverfront project too earlier. I have to mention how quickly how amazed I was at the bypass went up to COVID. to I think I was here one week, you know, and it wasn't there. Yeah. And I came back after COVID. And it was there. And coming from Bloomington where they're still working on I 6920 years later. Some of these projects, I know they still take time. But right sometimes the pieces fall into place.
Unknown Speaker
The railroad project is one of those where everything just sort of lined up and fell into place. As you say, part of what worked out well for us was that the land that had to be purchased, was just farm ground. I mean, it wasn't like we had to move the cemetery or we had to move grandma's house. It was it was fallow ground, a lot of it was floodplain. So there wasn't a whole lot of competing interest for but the powers came together pretty quickly on that one. And it gave us a little bit of a I don't know if I wouldn't say false sense of security, but certainly a false sense of how easily we might be able to get some other things done. And yeah, he's you mentioned, here we are a year later, we're still talking about a few of them. So that was a remarkable project.
Unknown Speaker
And the river front prod project has so much more to it. I mean, there's wildlife habitat and environment concerns and emanate goes on and on, doesn't it,
Unknown Speaker
it's a lot like Rubik's Cube, you know, you you tweak one little thing over here. And now well, that does work well for the wildlife, or you change the level of the dam, and then what's upstream, Melrose Park gets affected, we've got environmental concerns on both sides of the river. So there's just a lot to to sort of manage your way through and, and that's been part of the issue is trying to make sure that we we satisfy all the relevant governmental agencies.
Unknown Speaker
So this is our last show of 2022. So I was like to take a look back to over the year. And I actually looked at this show a year ago, the number one thing we talked about, of course, was COVID numbers revising, and get your booster which we're still talking about today, although it's sort of fallen off the radar a little bit. The other two things were the Meridiam with the high speed internet and the ready grant preparations. And here it is a year later, of course, you've received those are well close to receiving the ready grant and looking forward to the next
Unknown Speaker
year they Well, with respect to Meridian, we signed all the documents and the contractors are on site. I mean, they're beginning that construction process. Not sure exactly when we're going to be able to get people signed up, but I'm guessing that that's going to be late first quarter, maybe early second quarter of 23. With respect to ready, yeah, we were really pleased with the way way that turned out. I mean, we'd submitted $50 million worth of projects when we got trimmed back to 30. But it when you take the bigger picture view, we had a rather rather small region, just a three county region, most of the other regions were considerably larger than ours. And when you look at the award on a per capita basis, per person, we did extraordinarily well. And now we're well above double what the statewide average is with respect to the various projects that we've got. I think I you know, hesitate to say but we are well into the The list that we gave to the Indiana Economic Development Corp. I mean, we we've been able to get funding already secured for I'll hazard a guess at half of what we had submitted. And and that includes Jackson and Jennings counties as well. So that process has worked reasonably well. You've had a few administrative fits, stay at the start, but But yeah, it's working out just fine.
Unknown Speaker
As we close out 2022 last show of the year, we head into the holidays. Yeah. Any message from the mayor to Columbus,
Unknown Speaker
I just want people to enjoy the holidays. I particularly would appreciate if you come downtown. You know, we put a lot of effort into the light show. I mean, I call it a light shield that exists on Washington Street. We've got a couple of guys out at the Department of Public Works, who made it their mission to make that the best looking downtown in the state. And I think they've succeeded. So come on down and enjoy. Come to Columbus and enjoy and particularly enjoy your family you know, at the at the holiday time, take the take what time you need to get together and appreciate each other's company and we'll see you all again next year.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you very much. You're
Unknown Speaker
welcome. Take care
One here. Hello, and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU I'm Joe Hren. It's the first week of December. And as always, I'm in Columbus this time at city hall with Mayor Jim Lienhoop. Hello, and welcome. Thanks for having us to Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.
Unknown Speaker
All the above?
Unknown Speaker
Well, we just have to start the show. I and I know we talked about this a couple of weeks ago when you announced that it not be running for third term. But this is the first time on the show. So just wanted to make sure everyone realized we're gonna have a new guest in Columbus a year from now. Wow. Yeah, a little bit more than a year from now.
Unknown Speaker
A little bit over a year. But yeah, for us, it's a combination of, oh, retirement, and, oh, a desire to retire and family. You know, I mean, my wife and I today have two grandchildren that we didn't have eight years ago. And we want to spend plenty of time with them want to get to know them want them to get to know us. And I've I have a desire to retire. I mean, we want to do some traveling and a few other things that just are difficult to arrange. When you've got a city council meeting every other week and a Board of Works meeting every week, and all the other things that you do on a regular recurring basis. I have thoroughly enjoyed this job. I mean, in particular, the people that I've worked with here at the City of Columbus, so it's, it's kind of bittersweet. In terms of announcing that, yeah, we're going to move on, but we got a whole year. I mean, it's not like it's going to happen tomorrow. And we'll have a bunch of great memories. And we accomplished a lot in the last seven years. And like I say, we've got one more to go. So. So yeah, I appreciate the the wishes of the warm wishes that I've received from a variety of folks. And I look forward to you know what the future has yet to hold?
Unknown Speaker
Of course, you know, you say you have a year to go, which is true. What are some of those maybe two or three high priority items that you're really looking at that you really want to focus on?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, well, we've got a Hotel Conference Center that we've talked about for a couple of years, that got pushed back, because of the pandemic, and still sort of suffers from that a little bit. I mean, business travel still hasn't returned to the point that it was pre pandemic. And it really hasn't sort of smoothed to the point where we know what the new normal is. So we don't necessarily know what to plan for. But, but we've explained to the developers that we've chosen, that we want to try to get this thing under contract as soon as possible. And so we anticipate bringing up a development agreement forward here, and then it didn't in this month in December. So stay tuned, we'll let you know. As we've talked before the riverfront project continues to somewhat surprised us, you know, in terms of the regulator's ability to ask continue to ask questions cover the same ground, you know, over and over again. But we feel like at this point that we are going to get what we need from the US Army Corps of Engineers, it's who we're in front of now. And but that may not come until sometime in January, maybe even early February at this point. But we're still hopeful that that project goes forward. When we talk to the regulators, you know, they express approval of the project. I mean, they like it. But they say you got to check this box. Gotta check that box, we got to make sure that we run all the traps before we grant you the permit that you need to do construction. And I appreciate the fact that they're being thorough, I just wish we could speed things up a little bit. But, but those two projects come to mind. And then we've got a variety of other little things around town that obviously Nexus Park is not a little thing. But there are a few small pieces of life to sort of get in place. We've got some housing projects that we're working on, you know, housing continues to be an issue here in Columbus, I mean, we and across the country, I mean, it's not just us, but I tell people that we need housing units at all price levels, all price points, and we've got a few people we're talking to about trying to put in some affordable with large a and affordable with a small a, which is sometimes called workforce housing. But But yeah, those will be the things that we'll try to work on between now and a year from now.
Unknown Speaker
You mentioned the Nexus park that used to be or still is partly a mall, Fair Oaks Mall. Was that right? Correct that for years, city bought it along with partnerships, a collaboration and work is is going on right now. I'm gonna head over there after here. So what am I going to see and what's new on that project?
Unknown Speaker
Well, you'll see some construction underway. I don't know exactly how much of it you'll get to see because they tore down the exterior portions that were to be torn down what we call the old goodie space wide. There's a lot of work going on right now inside the Columbus Regional Health space, which had Ben Carson's for those folks who are familiar with what the mall had been. The hospital is a little bit further along than we are in terms of their construction. process but we, we anticipate letting a contract for the parks portion of the mall in maybe February, we'll get to that. But what we also anticipate in February is the arrival of about 115 truckloads of steel that will be used to erect the Fieldhouse that'll be on the north side of the building. So if you go out there today, I don't know that you're going to see a whole lot but there are some physical changes some some changes on the exterior of the building, some of the signage has been removed and some of the frontage all the walkway, the entryways, you know, have been have been changed around a little bit, you mentioned that there's still a retail section to it. And that's, that is true. Dunham's on the, the the east side will continue for some time, and there are some tenants inside the mall, a couple of restaurants and a few small retail locations. And those also will continue, we don't have a plan to remove those. In fact, we hope once we sort of get a little further along with our sports themed activities, that we'll be able to attract some tenants who will complement, you know, the sports themes that we have, because we anticipate having a good number of people there on the weekends, and we want to have something for those folks to do, you know, in between their contests, whether it's a volleyball match, or a soccer game, or what have you. I
Unknown Speaker
also just came across an article about this at the 1821 Trail. Official Opening delayed a little bit.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, we got some supply chain issues, you know, and trying to complete the what, what do they call those architectural elements, the artistic part of this, we've got some stones that you can see now in place along First Street, and we've got some markers that will be mounted on those and just trying to get those constructed. We've got them all out at the printer, so to speak. I mean, it's not a prayer. It's an engraver, I guess a better word for it. And we're just waiting for those to come back. Once those get mounted, then we'll be able to do a grand opening and, and right now we're looking for sometime in February, maybe March. But candidly, we began to think that maybe we should just wait for warmer weather, you know that we might get a little better crowd. But the whole notion behind 1821 is to do two or three things. It's one, it's a legacy project related to the Bicentennial that we celebrated in 2021. And it also serves as a connector between the riverfront project that I mentioned a moment ago, and the apartments that are being constructed at the corner of first and Lafayette. So so we're anxious to have that put in place because we feel like it will be a well used portion of the trail, the people trail that we have here in town, as well as just a delightful amenity we, you know, we had the ethnic Expo down here in October. And we were interesting. It was interesting to us. And we're interested in seeing and to get that out, right. How that new configuration because the road today First Street is a little narrower than it was before. And so we wondered how that would work with various vendors and how their displays and such would be set up. And he candidly worked very well. You know, we were really pleased with the the extra room that we ended up with, we thought initially that it was going to be narrower roadway, and it is, but the sidewalks wider. And so there's plenty of room for people, you know, to move around, and it actually facilitated visitation at the Expo. So it's worked out well in a variety of perspectives. And we're just happy to see the end in price the end in sight.
Unknown Speaker
I did want to get this into because it just just happened I believe yesterday or was it Sunday, the fire downtown 100 block of Fifth Street a commercial building? Is it pretty much gutted?
Unknown Speaker
Yes. You know, I was over there just at lunchtime today. And I you know, I'm not structural engineer. But you know, you look up there and you say this has got to go to the landfill. I mean, there's just no hope of saving this at you stop by and take some pictures of that too. But yeah, it's a real shame that building dates from 1890s. It has a direct tie to Joseph I Irwin, who was one of the leading prominent citizens. Back in the day back in the 1800s. He built that building and used it as a rental facility for a number of years sold it to a 1945 to the family that owns it today. And so it's somewhat unique in that it's only had two basically two owners throughout its history. It was a unique design. There there was a unique window treatment on the front. That was what they call Quiett. And, and and it was quite attractive. I mean, we all you know, commented on it or remarked about the fact that it was somewhat unique for this, this city. I mean, it's not what you not and it's not modern architecture, right. I mean, it really did sort of stand out for a variety of reasons, but unfortunately, it went up pretty quickly. And so, yeah, it'll be removed and we're just now trying to sort of sort through the process. and how you work with the insurance companies and the demolition contractors and so forth to get that done. But, but in the meantime, Fifth Street in front of that will be closed, so long as there is any risk that anything could fall off that building and get out into the sidewalk or the street. And that's probably going to be that way for August through the end of January. So we'll just, we're gonna get the building down as quickly as we can, but it's going to take a while before they can sort of clear up the process of clear up the location, you know, clean everything out and, you know, make it safe for passer safe for pedestrians.
Unknown Speaker
Has investigators been able to determine any cause right now or not yet? No, no. I say the county has moved, has the county moved into the new server Court Services Building? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker
they have. They're in there. And we are in the process of changing the titling, you know that for the land, you know, we're going to deed that building to the county and then in return will receive the block that is vacated. There's a parking open lot or a surface lot parking, excuse me, a surface parking lot, you know, between second and third streets and Franklin Lafayette, we're gonna raise the building that's on there, and the people who are parking here today will be able to continue to park there until we start construction on the hotel. And that's probably going to be at least another year, you know, before that happens, but But yeah, it's it's moving forward, moving forward slowly.
Unknown Speaker
And you know, just talking about long term projects. You mentioned the riverfront project too earlier. I have to mention how quickly how amazed I was at the bypass went up to COVID. to I think I was here one week, you know, and it wasn't there. Yeah. And I came back after COVID. And it was there. And coming from Bloomington where they're still working on I 6920 years later. Some of these projects, I know they still take time. But right sometimes the pieces fall into place.
Unknown Speaker
The railroad project is one of those where everything just sort of lined up and fell into place. As you say, part of what worked out well for us was that the land that had to be purchased, was just farm ground. I mean, it wasn't like we had to move the cemetery or we had to move grandma's house. It was it was fallow ground, a lot of it was floodplain. So there wasn't a whole lot of competing interest for but the powers came together pretty quickly on that one. And it gave us a little bit of a I don't know if I wouldn't say false sense of security, but certainly a false sense of how easily we might be able to get some other things done. And yeah, he's you mentioned, here we are a year later, we're still talking about a few of them. So that was a remarkable project.
Unknown Speaker
And the river front prod project has so much more to it. I mean, there's wildlife habitat and environment concerns and emanate goes on and on, doesn't it,
Unknown Speaker
it's a lot like Rubik's Cube, you know, you you tweak one little thing over here. And now well, that does work well for the wildlife, or you change the level of the dam, and then what's upstream, Melrose Park gets affected, we've got environmental concerns on both sides of the river. So there's just a lot to to sort of manage your way through and, and that's been part of the issue is trying to make sure that we we satisfy all the relevant governmental agencies.
Unknown Speaker
So this is our last show of 2022. So I was like to take a look back to over the year. And I actually looked at this show a year ago, the number one thing we talked about, of course, was COVID numbers revising, and get your booster which we're still talking about today, although it's sort of fallen off the radar a little bit. The other two things were the Meridiam with the high speed internet and the ready grant preparations. And here it is a year later, of course, you've received those are well close to receiving the ready grant and looking forward to the next
Unknown Speaker
year they Well, with respect to Meridian, we signed all the documents and the contractors are on site. I mean, they're beginning that construction process. Not sure exactly when we're going to be able to get people signed up, but I'm guessing that that's going to be late first quarter, maybe early second quarter of 23. With respect to ready, yeah, we were really pleased with the way way that turned out. I mean, we'd submitted $50 million worth of projects when we got trimmed back to 30. But it when you take the bigger picture view, we had a rather rather small region, just a three county region, most of the other regions were considerably larger than ours. And when you look at the award on a per capita basis, per person, we did extraordinarily well. And now we're well above double what the statewide average is with respect to the various projects that we've got. I think I you know, hesitate to say but we are well into the The list that we gave to the Indiana Economic Development Corp. I mean, we we've been able to get funding already secured for I'll hazard a guess at half of what we had submitted. And and that includes Jackson and Jennings counties as well. So that process has worked reasonably well. You've had a few administrative fits, stay at the start, but But yeah, it's working out just fine.
Unknown Speaker
As we close out 2022 last show of the year, we head into the holidays. Yeah. Any message from the mayor to Columbus,
Unknown Speaker
I just want people to enjoy the holidays. I particularly would appreciate if you come downtown. You know, we put a lot of effort into the light show. I mean, I call it a light shield that exists on Washington Street. We've got a couple of guys out at the Department of Public Works, who made it their mission to make that the best looking downtown in the state. And I think they've succeeded. So come on down and enjoy. Come to Columbus and enjoy and particularly enjoy your family you know, at the at the holiday time, take the take what time you need to get together and appreciate each other's company and we'll see you all again next year.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you very much. You're
Unknown Speaker
welcome. Take care
