Unknown Speaker
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren first week of April. And as always, we're with Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop. Hello, and welcome.
Unknown Speaker
Welcome, Joe. Good to be back. Yeah, it's, it's April hard to understand. Time goes.
Unknown Speaker
Well, it's spring, cold fronts, warm fronts moving through, we have another strong storm system coming through Wednesday. But we have to look back at Friday and really hard to see all the devastation from those tornadoes severe weather throughout the state solvent hit hard Whiteland McCormick's Creek State Park what what goes through your mind as mayor, when you see these disasters and other areas that are really so close to home, when you think about it?
Unknown Speaker
It is and really what goes through my mind is how haphazard how totally random. This is, I mean, there's no phrase you know, there, but for the grace of God go I and so to see these communities have to deal with that really makes it kind of difficult, you know, because we're fortunate here. I mean, we had some trees down, but nothing of any significance, nobody got hurt. And then just a few miles up the road, I mean, white London's I'll say 20 miles, it's not really know how accurate that is maybe 15 is significant devastation, and some personal injury. So we're just fortunate, you know, that things turned out as well as they did for us. I mean, knock on some wood for the next time around. hopeful that we are also as fortunate. I think I mentioned to you earlier that we have reached out to the folks in Whiteland. And elsewhere, just to offer some assistance a few years ago, there was a similar incident in Kokomo and we sent a crew up there for a few days, and, and it's the whole motion is just to help out, you know, maybe clear some trees or other brush that's in the way maybe help pick up some refuse. So people have taken to the curb, and just 30 do a little bit to try to get people back to normal as quickly as you can. Because, you know, while some people who've experienced significant devastation are going to have to rebuild, or move out of their house for a while until some significant repairs are done. For others, you got to get to work, right? You got to get the kids to school, you got to be able to get services, sanitation, or what have you down the street. And so, you know, we're gonna be able to return to that part of normalcy as quickly as you can. So we've offered to help. We'll see what happens.
Unknown Speaker
In other news, I see where Biden was in Minnesota. Talking with Cummins, they're announcing a $1 billion investment in Indiana, North Carolina, New York. Is it too early to hear about what type of investments are coming to Indiana and Columbus? Well,
Unknown Speaker
I think so. And I, we have a good relationship with commons, but they typically don't give us much advance notification of what they intend to do. The Accelera brand is presently headquartered here. And so we expect there to be a fair amount of investment associated with that, but I don't know really, which which, where it will be made in terms of which plant or whether there'll be a new facility, and when and how much. But, you know, we're excited to have the opportunity to play a role in that, because we really do see that it's not too often that you get to see the future coming, right. I mean, sometimes we get surprised. I mean, there's no surprise, you know, we're moving towards alternative fuels being electric electrification, or hydrogen fuel cells, or, you know, whatever. And so we want to be able to play part of that here in Columbus, we've got a very strong local economy today. And it is because people before me have been very purposeful, very thoughtful, about how to position the city. And so we want to be as purposeful and as thoughtful going forward. So that we're able to preserve the quality of life that we have here. And, and three, you know, in some people are don't really quite get it in terms of the value of the strong economy, they don't get it until they get ready to sell their house. And then, you know, they're really pleased that there's a ready market and affair and what they consider to be a fair price. And so it can come home in a variety of ways. And that's one of why we need to buy we need to have a strong local economy. So again, you know, we're happy to see Cummins grow. We want to see him do it here and get excited about the future.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I just saw report the Columbus municipal airport getting FAA funding for the design of the new air traffic control tower. I know that's something we talked about in previous shows that maybe didn't happen in the first round. But it sounds like the next step is happening.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, we've been working on this for, I don't know, let's seems like 10 years. I mean, I've been here seven years, and but it's been three months. And it's been a topic of conversation the entire time. Candidly, after last year, we thought we had a pretty good shot, you know, we had put together what I thought was an excellent presentation, and had gotten the attention of the FAA administrators in Chicago. And what comes back, I mean, the feedback we got was that, well, there's only so much money and the tower project are looking at his 10 million bucks. Well, you know, if we spend $10 million on one airport, we can take care of you. But if we spend one, or one and a half million dollars per airport, we can take care of seven or eight, you know, and so, if you're an administrator at the FAA, what are you likely to do, you know, you spread the wealth around a little bit. And so the the advice that we got, was try to break your project up into smaller projects. So instead of one big one, it's still an airport tower, right? But but find a way to break it up into the design and, and maybe two pieces to the construction. And so now, instead of asking for 10 million bucks, you're asking for one and a half, maybe four, and then another four, or something like that, so that it's easier for them to approve. And yeah, it's gonna take a little longer than that way. But as long as we get what we need, you know, I mean, as long as we get a new tower out of it, we're happy with that. But But yeah, we got one and a half million bucks allocated to us for, for design. And our airport folks will be meeting with the FAA and with some designers shortly, to try to zero in on a location, if you're familiar with the airport, the part that they've been looking at, is south of the current tower, closer to where the beacon is, if that's, you know, helpful, there's a little lawn or green space there on this bit of an oval, be at the south end of that is the space they were looking at before. So So yeah, it's exciting. We're the, you know, don't people don't stop to think about it. But we're the fourth busiest airport in Indiana, 55,000 takeoffs and landings last year. And I, I live not downwind. But sort of downstream, if you will, from one of the runways that I can, I can attest to the fact that there is a lot of plane traffic up there. So it's good for our local economy. It keeps our airport vibrant. And, you know, well maintained, because a lot of that funding is based upon the amount of operations that you get. So it's a good thing. But the tower has needed improvement or replacement. For some time. The picture that was in the paper, I thought did a pretty well, a pretty did justice to it. I mean, it's open air, it you call it a ladder, it's more like steps, man, it's not a stairway, you know, that gets to the top, you know, there's a rather sad or started looking restroom up there. So it's, it's not the best environment for anybody to work in. And, and it sorely needs to be replaced. And so we've got the attention of the folks at the FAA in Chicago. And I think the current steps are an important one, that will set us on the road to get in a new town.
Unknown Speaker
So the city is considering solar zoning standards. So I'm not sure what that means. And I was hoping you can explain that a little bit more.
Unknown Speaker
I'm not sure I can provide much help on that, you know, the, there was some zoning or some solar projects planned for the county. And the the issue you get into whenever you do zoning is there is the city. And then there's the city plus a two mile jurisdiction that extends out, you know, beyond city limits, and then you have the county out beyond that. And so what the previous discussion was related to was the county portion of that. And so our city Zoning Board of Appeals or city cities Planning Commission, will be considering whether or not to extend those county rules into the city into the two mile jurisdiction. I don't think we'll ever get to the place where inside city limits, there are solar farms, and maybe that's just there's just not enough room for me, it wouldn't make much sense. But, but the whole notion behind the two mile jurisdiction is just to anticipate that the city is going to grow. And so that as it does, when it expands into that two mile area, that the what's there sort of conforms to what we would expect to see in the city in terms of in all the setbacks and the various things that are covered by zoning, building heights, so forth. Okay.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that does make a lot more sense. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker
yeah, that's yeah. That's that would be my answer in terms of specifically, you know what the setbacks are or the types of solar field I couldn't tell you, but that that's really what that that conversation is going to be about.
Unknown Speaker
So I see the Republic reported just some water, I believe it was waterline issues through the fiber installation. We saw some of the things same things happen in Bloomington where Mayor Hamilton saying there's gonna be some cut lines during a massive undertaking such as this, but it has this disrupted residents watch.
Unknown Speaker
The wrong end of the line. Yeah, it's disrupted service. But as mayor Hamilton said, I mean, any kind of project of this size, that there's going to be unintended consequences. And, and so there'll be some cut lines, cut wires, I mean, other other utilities. But But I haven't heard of any single day, any of it in any significance. I mean, I'm sure that it's happened. And yeah, for the folks who are affected. It's going to be a few bad days. But But yeah, overall, I've not heard of a lot presented in that regard.
Unknown Speaker
So leaders from Columbus, Bloomington, Brown County, we're in Nashville a couple of weeks ago to launch Project 46. So a Tri County climate collaboration plan. I know we've talked about this on past shows working together, making a bigger impact. I wanted to ask a bit about this part where I've read residents contributing 50 cents to help fund something. So how does that part work? Well,
Unknown Speaker
that nobody, that residents will not be contributing that poor use of words or poor choice. Each, the amount that we anticipate budgeting at the city is 50 cents per resident. And what we were trying to do is to come up with a way for Bloomington and Nashville and the City of Columbus to sort of work together and manage the money. And so the the notion was to the extent that we say we hire somebody, you know, to help us, well, we'll contribute and Bloomington will contribute, and Nashville contribute, but it's all proportionate to the population. And the global contribution is, we don't anticipate doing anything more than 50 cents per person, which is for Columbus, 25,000 bucks for Bloomington is maybe 40. And I don't remember the number for Nashville. But we're not going to be where the team can, you know, asking people for 50 cents. I mean, that's just, yeah, that's not the way it's gonna work. But those would that would be something that we will go to our respective councils and ask for an appropriation for. And when we do that, we'll have something specific in mind with respect to where we want to spend the money. And right now, we have notion that we want to cooperate or collaborate on sustainability issues. But we don't have any specific program or project in mind, other than to sort of take the next step see where this goes.
Unknown Speaker
Just thinking about Nashville needing cities like Columbus and Bloomington, to be able to come together to do projects like this Nashville, so small, so hopefully other communities can can follow suit. I assume that's also part of this plan.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, it is, you know, part of what we kind of struggle with from time to time here in Indiana is that once you get outside the bigger metro areas, and the bigger metro areas might be, say, Indianapolis and the doughnut counties, Fort Wayne Evansville, South Bend Elkhart, you know, once you get outside there, it's really difficult for any community to get much scale, I mean, and again, if you're looking at the number that we quoted a moment ago, for Columbus for 25,000 bucks, we just can't do much. Okay. But if we work together with Bloomington, and they've got a lot of money to throw in a pot, now perhaps we can qualify for some more meaningful, either federal or state programs that would would help our carbon neutralization effort here. So it's just an opportunity, like I say, to work together, perhaps get a little bit more scaled by working with a bigger group, something that we're not going to be able to do on our own. And that is particularly true with respect to Nashville. You know, they're excited about the opportunity to just do something with us, and, and I'm hopeful that we can we can make a meaningful impact over there. Yeah, we talked about Project 46. Just because that's a convenient moniker, it sort of connects to communities. Mayor Hamilton asked me what we might do with, you know, Bedford or, you know, some community not on 46 wants to join and, and I guess my answer is that, that hasn't slowed down to big 10. Right. I mean, I don't know how many how many colleges are in the big 10 Now, it's the galley. It's a big number, so you can't you can't get hung up on on the numbers and on the on the initial title, but It's just a way to get things started.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, and they're adding two more. Let's see other items in Oh, you mentioned earlier kickoff Mental Health Matters, or is going to happen Wednesday that I believe that's Wednesday night is that coming off of this state budget trying to focus on mental health and health issues in Indiana?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, it's all part of that initiative. You know, one of the aspects of life that we're dealing with here in Columbus and and as I can tell, that I can tell elsewhere, not just in Indiana, but around the country is difficulties related to mental health. And some of it, you know, it's kind of easy to understand that we've got here at the city, we've got employees who sometimes get put into stressful situations, you're thinking about police or fire. But in our community at large, we have folks who maybe handle stress a little bit better than others. And when you handle the poorly, there are effects that maybe go beyond just just yourself, you know, might affect your family, your co workers, your neighbors, and so forth. Part of what we want to do is to put together a community initiative, that will begin to look at ways that some of our stakeholders here can cooperate together. And so when I'm talking about stakeholders, particularly thinking about the healthcare system, city, government, county government, the school system, maybe some employers, because these, we're all dealing with this now, whether we we really understand it or not, you know, the city deals with it often, with respect to homelessness, and or with respect to certain types of crime. I mean, whether it's domestic violence or child abuse, you know, we deal with it in a number of different ways. The school corporation deals with it with respect to kids who come to come to school, sleepy or totally unprepared to learn hungry. And you try to figure out well, what's what's leading into this. And I think one time, if sometimes, if you peel the onion back far enough, what you find is there's some mental health issues embedded in the in the family unit. And so what are ways that we can work together as a community to try to address this, because we're already doing, I mean, we're already working on it. But among us, in a leadership, I mean, there's, I think, a little bit more acute sense of a need to partner to try to find ways to have a, a better outcome than what we've got, again, we deal with an increasing, we are dealing with an increasing amount of homelessness. And, and what we need to be able to do is figure out a way to approach those folks that it lists their assistance in trying to help them find purpose to their lives. Yeah. And so I'm hopeful that we can model this a little bit based on say what we did with ASAP, the Alliance for substance abuse progress, maybe a little bit based upon vim care, which is volunteers in medicine, and, you know, approach a variety of mental health challenges here throughout Columbus and do it in a way that just gives us better outcomes than what we're getting today. But yeah, that the announcement will be April 5, at 6pm. Down with the comments. So yeah, we were anticipating a couple 100 people. And, you know, hopefully able to explain what it is that we're about and how we how we intend to unfold. Excuse me, roll this out.
Unknown Speaker
Have to follow up on that as well. I know we're out of time. But I always want to leave the last question for you any any quick updates, I know you have a grand opening coming up the 1821 trail.
Unknown Speaker
We call it the 1821 Trail. It's a fancy name for the rebuild of First Street. But we wanted to wanted to rebuild that it needed to be done provide a connection between the riverfront project and the apartments that are being built at second Lafayette. So we've created a name, the 1821 Trail sodium and a maj to our Bicentennial of last year, two years ago, or 2020. more excited about that. remind everybody that early voting is underway out at Nexus Park. We're in a different location inside Nexus Park. But once you get there, follow the signs. You can't miss it, hoping everybody shows up and what's the old phrase both early and often? Well, that'll be enough for us.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it, and we'll see you next time.
Unknown Speaker
All right, take care. Bye.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you so much. You're welcome. See you later. Bye.
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren first week of April. And as always, we're with Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop. Hello, and welcome.
Unknown Speaker
Welcome, Joe. Good to be back. Yeah, it's, it's April hard to understand. Time goes.
Unknown Speaker
Well, it's spring, cold fronts, warm fronts moving through, we have another strong storm system coming through Wednesday. But we have to look back at Friday and really hard to see all the devastation from those tornadoes severe weather throughout the state solvent hit hard Whiteland McCormick's Creek State Park what what goes through your mind as mayor, when you see these disasters and other areas that are really so close to home, when you think about it?
Unknown Speaker
It is and really what goes through my mind is how haphazard how totally random. This is, I mean, there's no phrase you know, there, but for the grace of God go I and so to see these communities have to deal with that really makes it kind of difficult, you know, because we're fortunate here. I mean, we had some trees down, but nothing of any significance, nobody got hurt. And then just a few miles up the road, I mean, white London's I'll say 20 miles, it's not really know how accurate that is maybe 15 is significant devastation, and some personal injury. So we're just fortunate, you know, that things turned out as well as they did for us. I mean, knock on some wood for the next time around. hopeful that we are also as fortunate. I think I mentioned to you earlier that we have reached out to the folks in Whiteland. And elsewhere, just to offer some assistance a few years ago, there was a similar incident in Kokomo and we sent a crew up there for a few days, and, and it's the whole motion is just to help out, you know, maybe clear some trees or other brush that's in the way maybe help pick up some refuse. So people have taken to the curb, and just 30 do a little bit to try to get people back to normal as quickly as you can. Because, you know, while some people who've experienced significant devastation are going to have to rebuild, or move out of their house for a while until some significant repairs are done. For others, you got to get to work, right? You got to get the kids to school, you got to be able to get services, sanitation, or what have you down the street. And so, you know, we're gonna be able to return to that part of normalcy as quickly as you can. So we've offered to help. We'll see what happens.
Unknown Speaker
In other news, I see where Biden was in Minnesota. Talking with Cummins, they're announcing a $1 billion investment in Indiana, North Carolina, New York. Is it too early to hear about what type of investments are coming to Indiana and Columbus? Well,
Unknown Speaker
I think so. And I, we have a good relationship with commons, but they typically don't give us much advance notification of what they intend to do. The Accelera brand is presently headquartered here. And so we expect there to be a fair amount of investment associated with that, but I don't know really, which which, where it will be made in terms of which plant or whether there'll be a new facility, and when and how much. But, you know, we're excited to have the opportunity to play a role in that, because we really do see that it's not too often that you get to see the future coming, right. I mean, sometimes we get surprised. I mean, there's no surprise, you know, we're moving towards alternative fuels being electric electrification, or hydrogen fuel cells, or, you know, whatever. And so we want to be able to play part of that here in Columbus, we've got a very strong local economy today. And it is because people before me have been very purposeful, very thoughtful, about how to position the city. And so we want to be as purposeful and as thoughtful going forward. So that we're able to preserve the quality of life that we have here. And, and three, you know, in some people are don't really quite get it in terms of the value of the strong economy, they don't get it until they get ready to sell their house. And then, you know, they're really pleased that there's a ready market and affair and what they consider to be a fair price. And so it can come home in a variety of ways. And that's one of why we need to buy we need to have a strong local economy. So again, you know, we're happy to see Cummins grow. We want to see him do it here and get excited about the future.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I just saw report the Columbus municipal airport getting FAA funding for the design of the new air traffic control tower. I know that's something we talked about in previous shows that maybe didn't happen in the first round. But it sounds like the next step is happening.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, we've been working on this for, I don't know, let's seems like 10 years. I mean, I've been here seven years, and but it's been three months. And it's been a topic of conversation the entire time. Candidly, after last year, we thought we had a pretty good shot, you know, we had put together what I thought was an excellent presentation, and had gotten the attention of the FAA administrators in Chicago. And what comes back, I mean, the feedback we got was that, well, there's only so much money and the tower project are looking at his 10 million bucks. Well, you know, if we spend $10 million on one airport, we can take care of you. But if we spend one, or one and a half million dollars per airport, we can take care of seven or eight, you know, and so, if you're an administrator at the FAA, what are you likely to do, you know, you spread the wealth around a little bit. And so the the advice that we got, was try to break your project up into smaller projects. So instead of one big one, it's still an airport tower, right? But but find a way to break it up into the design and, and maybe two pieces to the construction. And so now, instead of asking for 10 million bucks, you're asking for one and a half, maybe four, and then another four, or something like that, so that it's easier for them to approve. And yeah, it's gonna take a little longer than that way. But as long as we get what we need, you know, I mean, as long as we get a new tower out of it, we're happy with that. But But yeah, we got one and a half million bucks allocated to us for, for design. And our airport folks will be meeting with the FAA and with some designers shortly, to try to zero in on a location, if you're familiar with the airport, the part that they've been looking at, is south of the current tower, closer to where the beacon is, if that's, you know, helpful, there's a little lawn or green space there on this bit of an oval, be at the south end of that is the space they were looking at before. So So yeah, it's exciting. We're the, you know, don't people don't stop to think about it. But we're the fourth busiest airport in Indiana, 55,000 takeoffs and landings last year. And I, I live not downwind. But sort of downstream, if you will, from one of the runways that I can, I can attest to the fact that there is a lot of plane traffic up there. So it's good for our local economy. It keeps our airport vibrant. And, you know, well maintained, because a lot of that funding is based upon the amount of operations that you get. So it's a good thing. But the tower has needed improvement or replacement. For some time. The picture that was in the paper, I thought did a pretty well, a pretty did justice to it. I mean, it's open air, it you call it a ladder, it's more like steps, man, it's not a stairway, you know, that gets to the top, you know, there's a rather sad or started looking restroom up there. So it's, it's not the best environment for anybody to work in. And, and it sorely needs to be replaced. And so we've got the attention of the folks at the FAA in Chicago. And I think the current steps are an important one, that will set us on the road to get in a new town.
Unknown Speaker
So the city is considering solar zoning standards. So I'm not sure what that means. And I was hoping you can explain that a little bit more.
Unknown Speaker
I'm not sure I can provide much help on that, you know, the, there was some zoning or some solar projects planned for the county. And the the issue you get into whenever you do zoning is there is the city. And then there's the city plus a two mile jurisdiction that extends out, you know, beyond city limits, and then you have the county out beyond that. And so what the previous discussion was related to was the county portion of that. And so our city Zoning Board of Appeals or city cities Planning Commission, will be considering whether or not to extend those county rules into the city into the two mile jurisdiction. I don't think we'll ever get to the place where inside city limits, there are solar farms, and maybe that's just there's just not enough room for me, it wouldn't make much sense. But, but the whole notion behind the two mile jurisdiction is just to anticipate that the city is going to grow. And so that as it does, when it expands into that two mile area, that the what's there sort of conforms to what we would expect to see in the city in terms of in all the setbacks and the various things that are covered by zoning, building heights, so forth. Okay.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that does make a lot more sense. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker
yeah, that's yeah. That's that would be my answer in terms of specifically, you know what the setbacks are or the types of solar field I couldn't tell you, but that that's really what that that conversation is going to be about.
Unknown Speaker
So I see the Republic reported just some water, I believe it was waterline issues through the fiber installation. We saw some of the things same things happen in Bloomington where Mayor Hamilton saying there's gonna be some cut lines during a massive undertaking such as this, but it has this disrupted residents watch.
Unknown Speaker
The wrong end of the line. Yeah, it's disrupted service. But as mayor Hamilton said, I mean, any kind of project of this size, that there's going to be unintended consequences. And, and so there'll be some cut lines, cut wires, I mean, other other utilities. But But I haven't heard of any single day, any of it in any significance. I mean, I'm sure that it's happened. And yeah, for the folks who are affected. It's going to be a few bad days. But But yeah, overall, I've not heard of a lot presented in that regard.
Unknown Speaker
So leaders from Columbus, Bloomington, Brown County, we're in Nashville a couple of weeks ago to launch Project 46. So a Tri County climate collaboration plan. I know we've talked about this on past shows working together, making a bigger impact. I wanted to ask a bit about this part where I've read residents contributing 50 cents to help fund something. So how does that part work? Well,
Unknown Speaker
that nobody, that residents will not be contributing that poor use of words or poor choice. Each, the amount that we anticipate budgeting at the city is 50 cents per resident. And what we were trying to do is to come up with a way for Bloomington and Nashville and the City of Columbus to sort of work together and manage the money. And so the the notion was to the extent that we say we hire somebody, you know, to help us, well, we'll contribute and Bloomington will contribute, and Nashville contribute, but it's all proportionate to the population. And the global contribution is, we don't anticipate doing anything more than 50 cents per person, which is for Columbus, 25,000 bucks for Bloomington is maybe 40. And I don't remember the number for Nashville. But we're not going to be where the team can, you know, asking people for 50 cents. I mean, that's just, yeah, that's not the way it's gonna work. But those would that would be something that we will go to our respective councils and ask for an appropriation for. And when we do that, we'll have something specific in mind with respect to where we want to spend the money. And right now, we have notion that we want to cooperate or collaborate on sustainability issues. But we don't have any specific program or project in mind, other than to sort of take the next step see where this goes.
Unknown Speaker
Just thinking about Nashville needing cities like Columbus and Bloomington, to be able to come together to do projects like this Nashville, so small, so hopefully other communities can can follow suit. I assume that's also part of this plan.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, it is, you know, part of what we kind of struggle with from time to time here in Indiana is that once you get outside the bigger metro areas, and the bigger metro areas might be, say, Indianapolis and the doughnut counties, Fort Wayne Evansville, South Bend Elkhart, you know, once you get outside there, it's really difficult for any community to get much scale, I mean, and again, if you're looking at the number that we quoted a moment ago, for Columbus for 25,000 bucks, we just can't do much. Okay. But if we work together with Bloomington, and they've got a lot of money to throw in a pot, now perhaps we can qualify for some more meaningful, either federal or state programs that would would help our carbon neutralization effort here. So it's just an opportunity, like I say, to work together, perhaps get a little bit more scaled by working with a bigger group, something that we're not going to be able to do on our own. And that is particularly true with respect to Nashville. You know, they're excited about the opportunity to just do something with us, and, and I'm hopeful that we can we can make a meaningful impact over there. Yeah, we talked about Project 46. Just because that's a convenient moniker, it sort of connects to communities. Mayor Hamilton asked me what we might do with, you know, Bedford or, you know, some community not on 46 wants to join and, and I guess my answer is that, that hasn't slowed down to big 10. Right. I mean, I don't know how many how many colleges are in the big 10 Now, it's the galley. It's a big number, so you can't you can't get hung up on on the numbers and on the on the initial title, but It's just a way to get things started.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, and they're adding two more. Let's see other items in Oh, you mentioned earlier kickoff Mental Health Matters, or is going to happen Wednesday that I believe that's Wednesday night is that coming off of this state budget trying to focus on mental health and health issues in Indiana?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, it's all part of that initiative. You know, one of the aspects of life that we're dealing with here in Columbus and and as I can tell, that I can tell elsewhere, not just in Indiana, but around the country is difficulties related to mental health. And some of it, you know, it's kind of easy to understand that we've got here at the city, we've got employees who sometimes get put into stressful situations, you're thinking about police or fire. But in our community at large, we have folks who maybe handle stress a little bit better than others. And when you handle the poorly, there are effects that maybe go beyond just just yourself, you know, might affect your family, your co workers, your neighbors, and so forth. Part of what we want to do is to put together a community initiative, that will begin to look at ways that some of our stakeholders here can cooperate together. And so when I'm talking about stakeholders, particularly thinking about the healthcare system, city, government, county government, the school system, maybe some employers, because these, we're all dealing with this now, whether we we really understand it or not, you know, the city deals with it often, with respect to homelessness, and or with respect to certain types of crime. I mean, whether it's domestic violence or child abuse, you know, we deal with it in a number of different ways. The school corporation deals with it with respect to kids who come to come to school, sleepy or totally unprepared to learn hungry. And you try to figure out well, what's what's leading into this. And I think one time, if sometimes, if you peel the onion back far enough, what you find is there's some mental health issues embedded in the in the family unit. And so what are ways that we can work together as a community to try to address this, because we're already doing, I mean, we're already working on it. But among us, in a leadership, I mean, there's, I think, a little bit more acute sense of a need to partner to try to find ways to have a, a better outcome than what we've got, again, we deal with an increasing, we are dealing with an increasing amount of homelessness. And, and what we need to be able to do is figure out a way to approach those folks that it lists their assistance in trying to help them find purpose to their lives. Yeah. And so I'm hopeful that we can model this a little bit based on say what we did with ASAP, the Alliance for substance abuse progress, maybe a little bit based upon vim care, which is volunteers in medicine, and, you know, approach a variety of mental health challenges here throughout Columbus and do it in a way that just gives us better outcomes than what we're getting today. But yeah, that the announcement will be April 5, at 6pm. Down with the comments. So yeah, we were anticipating a couple 100 people. And, you know, hopefully able to explain what it is that we're about and how we how we intend to unfold. Excuse me, roll this out.
Unknown Speaker
Have to follow up on that as well. I know we're out of time. But I always want to leave the last question for you any any quick updates, I know you have a grand opening coming up the 1821 trail.
Unknown Speaker
We call it the 1821 Trail. It's a fancy name for the rebuild of First Street. But we wanted to wanted to rebuild that it needed to be done provide a connection between the riverfront project and the apartments that are being built at second Lafayette. So we've created a name, the 1821 Trail sodium and a maj to our Bicentennial of last year, two years ago, or 2020. more excited about that. remind everybody that early voting is underway out at Nexus Park. We're in a different location inside Nexus Park. But once you get there, follow the signs. You can't miss it, hoping everybody shows up and what's the old phrase both early and often? Well, that'll be enough for us.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it, and we'll see you next time.
Unknown Speaker
All right, take care. Bye.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you so much. You're welcome. See you later. Bye.
