Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren. The first Wednesday of the month. It's November we're in Columbus, with Mayor Jim Lienhoop. Hello. Welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me over in Columbus today.
Speaker 2
Welcome back. Yeah, it's a beautiful day in Columbus, a little chilly. But, but it's bright and sunny. So So yeah, we'll take that.
Speaker 1
So want to get right to something I heard a few weeks ago, a lot is progressing on the riverfront project, it was going to quiet we haven't talked about it in a little bit. Right. But there was a presentation, with some being proposed to a certain commission. Well,
Speaker 2
excuse me for interrupting. But yeah, you know, there's been a variety of governmental agencies whose permits were required to proceed on this project. And we finally got the last domino to fall. That was the US Army Corps of Engineers, they have an office in Louisville, that takes care of this, this part of the world. And so they finally gave us their permit their approval to complete the project as designed. So the next step is to try to get that bid. And to do that, we have to get the funding approved by by the redevelopment commission, and the Columbus City Council, both of them have to prove this, because the amount will be in excess of $500,000. As you will know, this has been a long running project. I mean, this has taken several years to get through all the regulatory hoops. And, and so while we're happy to do that, too happy to be where we are, we know that a lot to change. You know, we've been through the pandemic, we've been through significant inflation with respect to building materials, concrete being no example. And they are no exception. And there's a lot of concrete in this design. So we we have retained the services of a oh, I guess you call them an urban economist. His name is James Lima, to take a look at the project one more time. And to give us a little bit of an update on the benefits, economic benefits that exist. We we believed when we proposed the project originally, that it had a sound business case, that it made sense for us to do this from an economic perspective, as well as a safety perspective, and amenity perspective, a recreational perspective. But we want to revisit the economic side of this to make sure that we're still still looking at similar results. And so we will have a joint meeting of the Columbus Redevelopment Commission and the Columbus City Council that is now scheduled for November 14. And we will have Leamas results, we'll see what we'll see what he what he shares with us, I anticipate that he will tell us that as the project continues to make sense. But some of the numbers have changed, in particular the cost. And so so we just want to be able to, you know, have some kind of confidence before we strike out on this, that, that he has a worthwhile investment. I think that I think that's the answer we'll get but you know, right now, all we do is supply Lima with information. And we'll just wait to see what he tells us.
Speaker 1
So it sounds like this is really in the store in the environmental stages, besides whether or not the city is something wants to import this much money into?
Speaker 2
Well, the environmental questions have been addressed and answered. Okay, now and in the affirmative. You know, this will be improvement to the river. You know, right now, what we have is a failing of low head dam. And among the things that we've talked about as fish passage, you know, right now we get no fish fish passage up river, we get some downriver, obviously, but none, you know, in the other direction, the new design will allow for that. We worry a little bit about erosion, particularly on the far or what I call the far when you're sitting in city hall so far, but the south side of the west side of the river, there's an old landfill over there. And it's right now covered with what is eight to 10 feet worth of clay and we'd like to that for that clay to stay in place. And if you take a look closely, as you drive across the Third Street Bridge, sort of Garden Grove across the bridge, get in the left hand lane, look to your left, you'll see there's a scour, you know, that's developed down there. And it threatens to, to uncover the old landfill. And so there's not only monetary issues, which you alluded to, but the environmental concerns are real, and they're ones that we've, we've designed this project to address. So in addition to is taken out a dangerous low head dam that has some ecological problems associated with it, we we think we're going to be able to put in something that will enhance the viability of the river and the safety, the environmental safety, you know, that results from it.
Speaker 1
I know we have some proposed plans that I received that was probably a year or so ago have those changed?
Speaker 2
No, no. In fact, you know, once we submit, you know, a drawing or design to Well to these agencies, we really are not allowed to change it, because that's what gets permitted. And so we pretty much have to build, build what they've told us as is accepted.
Speaker 1
I believe the governor there plans for another ready round grants coming up in the next year. Is this Is that something that the city could look at down the road to help fund this too? We could,
Speaker 2
and we will, we've already received a commitment from Ready one, you know, that is more or less waiting to be applied to this, but But you're right, ready to would help handle some of the inflation that we've, we've experienced or anticipate experiencing?
Speaker 1
How important are those ready from grants that have come through from the state,
Speaker 2
they're really, really critical. I mean, you get a lot of things happening, that wouldn't happen otherwise, number one, you get number two, I think some things that might have happened, but it would have been a while, you know, when we took initial, when we made our initial plans at Nexus Park, for example, we anticipated a five to seven year build out, you know that it would take us a while. So we, we realized we had to phase in the project. And part of what the ready funds as well as some of the fundraising we've done, what those have allowed us to do is to accelerate those phases. And so I think we'll be much closer to, to the eventual completion, when we begin to do our ground break, or excuse me, our ribbon cuttings here, you know, the next six months or so,
Speaker 1
just want to get a update, because then we're hearing a little bit more on the pee fast, which is those contaminants that were found in 30. Drinking Water utilities, including Columbus, you mentioned a few months ago, I think we talked about this in September, that one drinking water well was shut down. But there was another process that you wanted to pursue. And that was reimbursement from litigation, right in these companies. And that's what I just read recently in an article, I think, in the Republic about utilities. So I thought it'd be a good bit spent a couple months any updates on that process? Well, we're
Speaker 2
still pursuing the the process that we'd outlined them in there, basically four steps to a one was to shut down the well with the highest reading in anticipation that the remaining wells would have an average that was below below the detection limits, or below the acceptable limits. And we're still awaiting results from the sampling, there's only a couple of labs in the country that can't sample or contest samples to this level. I mean, when you're talking to trilliant, somebody told me that was a second out of 100 centuries. I mean, it's a it's a really small number. But anyway, we've shut down a well in anticipation that what's left will be okay. We anticipate in the short run to dig some more wells, you know, I'll take a few months to get those online. What before you dig a well, you dig a test well, or you drill a test well, and the test wells that we've done have come back non detect. So we think we're headed in the right direction there. The third strategy will be to introduce some charcoal filtering. And I'm told that the charcoal will take out the activated charcoal, we'll take the PFA s out of the water. And then the fourth strategy will be to pursue reimbursement for the money we got to spend on there charcoal filters. And the you know that you go to Monsanto, Dow and some of the large Dupont, some of the large chemical companies. And so yes, we've joined some litigation that will hopefully result in some some funding, I say anticipate that that funding model will be similar to what we've seen with respect to smoking. And the opioids where you get you don't get a hunk of cash right now, but you get some money over time. And like I say that will that will help us help reimburse us for the additional costs that we've got related to those new wells and the activated charcoal filters.
Speaker 1
As the I know, you said the new well has already that began has the charcoal filter. No, that's
Speaker 2
a that's a one to two year, you know, project. And just a reminder
Speaker 1
to people listening to this as the water is safe. It's okay to drink.
Speaker 2
Correct? Yeah, I will use city well water or city water at my home, it does come from wells, that's really, somehow or another this, these chemicals have gotten into the groundwater down there. But we're doing everything we can to identify those sources that are a problem, you can close them off, open up new ones that are not a problem. And the amounts that we're going to find I'm confident will be below an amount that will be causing harm to anybody.
Speaker 1
So it looks like the Fieldhouse is being enclosed just for this, this cold weather and that white stuff that might be coming to down the road a year or so I was progress on Nexus Park,
Speaker 2
it's on schedule. We are going to there's two or three things going on all at the same time out there. Columbus Regional Health is completing its portion of the building. It's already opened one practice out there the OB GYN practice, they will have practices, clinics, parts of what are proper their operations, if you will, that will open from between now and I want to say through April of next year. So there'll be something new happening hang out there every couple of weeks. We are completing the Fieldhouse, we anticipate hosting events, you know, opening that up to the public in April, 2 quarter of 2024. At the same time we're working on the park space, you know that what had been the JC Penney space will become the offices for our parks department. And then they'll have some community rooms in their fitness room and some other activities that would be more public in nature that would be similar to what you might expect at a park. So, you know, that's like three things going on right there. And then we've also just recently let the contract for the exterior landscaping, and landscaping probably doesn't do it justice. I mean, we're talking about repaving the parking lots, putting in new dry wells for the stormwater runoff, we're going to have a little park, you know, out in front of what had been the JC Penney space, just to provide a little place for people to go, when they're in between events, you know, in the building, trying to improve the signage, and then the navigation around, there's a ring road that will go around the exterior of the space. Want to complete that, and then want to tie it into the people trail systems that we already have.
Unknown Speaker
Looking forward to seeing you aren't you?
Speaker 2
I am and it's it's going to take a little longer than I will I mean, my time here ends December 31. But so this will probably be finished sometime in the summer of next year. But that's okay. I mean, we want to try to get as much of this done as we can. So I mentioned earlier, the ready funds and some of the other fundraising we've done, it allowed us to accelerate the various phases that we'd originally identified for Nexus Park. And we think that's going to be good, you know, so that when people do come to visit, they see the project completed. And you know, you don't have to walk around orange barrels or or yellow tape or or listen to this, these big pieces of equipment backing up, you know, so, so we feel good about that. And it's kind of neat to get this close. Yeah, the anticipation builds.
Speaker 1
I just wanted to ask you really quick, I know the city approved, annexation was at 674 acres, it's voluntary annexation for this hospital own land for long term build out that they want to do. But this is just the land for now. So the city doesn't have any right now. Any big investments for annexing that land? Is that
Speaker 2
correct? Yeah, this is 674 acres of unimproved grounds farm ground right now, but those people who've been following, you know, will remember that this is some property that Columbus Regional Health bought. I don't remember now, whether it's been three years or so ago, they're going to reserve a few 100 acres for their own use, then they've been tied, they've retained a land use planner to sort of help them identify, you know, what might be done with the rest of the ground, we anticipate, you know, making a ready submission to try to speed up the development of that ground. You know, the hospital is busy up at Nexus park right now. They've also got some property at i 40. i 65. And State Road 46. This property they're interested in trying to see it developed. But, you know, perhaps the ready funds can accelerate that a little bit. And in general, what we're taking a look at for ready is what you might call a north, south and east west and Boulevard that would provide access into the site, as well as sewer and water, wastewater, electric broadband, all the various utilities that you would need to open up that property for development and make it attractive to housing developers. The plan that CRH has brought forward shows about 965 residences, so housing units, so not quite 1000. And anybody who's followed the price of housing knows that we sorely need the additional supply. And so that's another reason to try to pursue ready funding so that we can accelerate the construction of those, those units.
Speaker 1
All right, one more thing, before we go. I see City Council is looking at zoning ordinance to prohibit solar farms. But I was trying to understand, it's not so much within the city limits. There's a there's a jurisdiction area, so maybe you can explain that a little
Speaker 2
try. You know, what we're talking about is ground that is outside city limits. And when you talk about when you get outside city limits, you're really talking about two sections of ground. There is a what we call a two mile jurisdiction that starts at the city limit and goes out into the county into the you know, the non incorporated portion and it goes out for two miles. And then you've got what's beyond that, you know, sort of say beyond the two miles, the beyond two miles part that came before the county some time ago. And the solar farms were approved with you know, some stipulations. Now the Solar, the the developer or the people who want to build these things have come before the City Planning Commission. And although this development is not inside city limits, City Planning Commission has control because it's within this two mile, territory territorial jurisdiction. And it came first before I want to say the Columbus Planning Commission, and it was approved, the solar farms were approved with some stipulations that then had to be approved by the Columbus City Council. And they, in their last meeting, denied approval, and denied it pretty emphatically Seven, zero, so or zero to seven, depending upon you know, which side of that you're on, that will come before the city council one more time, the states that state rules require that we do that. And so in our next meeting, where I anticipate that being on the agenda, and I a while I anticipate the result to be the same, you know, you never know till you know, so I would encourage people, either on either side of the question, to show up and make their feelings known and let the City Council understand, you know, how it might affect their lives and what you think they ought to do. But yeah, that'll come back one more time.
Speaker 1
All right. Well, I know we're out of time here. But I always like to leave the last few seconds to you. Any big announcements, one word,
Speaker 2
vote, you know, you got to get out and vote. I mean, we are in a municipal election season, as I've mentioned, or alluded to a moment ago, I'm not on the ballot. I'm going to retire at the end of this year. But we will elect nine city council members, a clerk and a mayor. And in the city council, I think we've got five incumbents running. So you know, we will have at least new for four new faces, you know, on our city council and dependent upon the incumbent to do he might have one or two more, or he might have a few more, I should say. We will start we will also elect a clerk and then a new mayor. So I would encourage people to get out and vote. We're making it as easy as possible out there at Nexus Park with the early voting started a couple of weeks ago will extend right up until just before November 7. And then on November seventh election day, we'll be open again at Nexus park as well as all the traditional voting voting locations inside the city. So vote.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you so much, and we'll see you one more show.
Speaker 2
I'm looking forward to December now. We'll have a sign or a party. All right. All righty. Thank you. Thank you.
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren. The first Wednesday of the month. It's November we're in Columbus, with Mayor Jim Lienhoop. Hello. Welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me over in Columbus today.
Speaker 2
Welcome back. Yeah, it's a beautiful day in Columbus, a little chilly. But, but it's bright and sunny. So So yeah, we'll take that.
Speaker 1
So want to get right to something I heard a few weeks ago, a lot is progressing on the riverfront project, it was going to quiet we haven't talked about it in a little bit. Right. But there was a presentation, with some being proposed to a certain commission. Well,
Speaker 2
excuse me for interrupting. But yeah, you know, there's been a variety of governmental agencies whose permits were required to proceed on this project. And we finally got the last domino to fall. That was the US Army Corps of Engineers, they have an office in Louisville, that takes care of this, this part of the world. And so they finally gave us their permit their approval to complete the project as designed. So the next step is to try to get that bid. And to do that, we have to get the funding approved by by the redevelopment commission, and the Columbus City Council, both of them have to prove this, because the amount will be in excess of $500,000. As you will know, this has been a long running project. I mean, this has taken several years to get through all the regulatory hoops. And, and so while we're happy to do that, too happy to be where we are, we know that a lot to change. You know, we've been through the pandemic, we've been through significant inflation with respect to building materials, concrete being no example. And they are no exception. And there's a lot of concrete in this design. So we we have retained the services of a oh, I guess you call them an urban economist. His name is James Lima, to take a look at the project one more time. And to give us a little bit of an update on the benefits, economic benefits that exist. We we believed when we proposed the project originally, that it had a sound business case, that it made sense for us to do this from an economic perspective, as well as a safety perspective, and amenity perspective, a recreational perspective. But we want to revisit the economic side of this to make sure that we're still still looking at similar results. And so we will have a joint meeting of the Columbus Redevelopment Commission and the Columbus City Council that is now scheduled for November 14. And we will have Leamas results, we'll see what we'll see what he what he shares with us, I anticipate that he will tell us that as the project continues to make sense. But some of the numbers have changed, in particular the cost. And so so we just want to be able to, you know, have some kind of confidence before we strike out on this, that, that he has a worthwhile investment. I think that I think that's the answer we'll get but you know, right now, all we do is supply Lima with information. And we'll just wait to see what he tells us.
Speaker 1
So it sounds like this is really in the store in the environmental stages, besides whether or not the city is something wants to import this much money into?
Speaker 2
Well, the environmental questions have been addressed and answered. Okay, now and in the affirmative. You know, this will be improvement to the river. You know, right now, what we have is a failing of low head dam. And among the things that we've talked about as fish passage, you know, right now we get no fish fish passage up river, we get some downriver, obviously, but none, you know, in the other direction, the new design will allow for that. We worry a little bit about erosion, particularly on the far or what I call the far when you're sitting in city hall so far, but the south side of the west side of the river, there's an old landfill over there. And it's right now covered with what is eight to 10 feet worth of clay and we'd like to that for that clay to stay in place. And if you take a look closely, as you drive across the Third Street Bridge, sort of Garden Grove across the bridge, get in the left hand lane, look to your left, you'll see there's a scour, you know, that's developed down there. And it threatens to, to uncover the old landfill. And so there's not only monetary issues, which you alluded to, but the environmental concerns are real, and they're ones that we've, we've designed this project to address. So in addition to is taken out a dangerous low head dam that has some ecological problems associated with it, we we think we're going to be able to put in something that will enhance the viability of the river and the safety, the environmental safety, you know, that results from it.
Speaker 1
I know we have some proposed plans that I received that was probably a year or so ago have those changed?
Speaker 2
No, no. In fact, you know, once we submit, you know, a drawing or design to Well to these agencies, we really are not allowed to change it, because that's what gets permitted. And so we pretty much have to build, build what they've told us as is accepted.
Speaker 1
I believe the governor there plans for another ready round grants coming up in the next year. Is this Is that something that the city could look at down the road to help fund this too? We could,
Speaker 2
and we will, we've already received a commitment from Ready one, you know, that is more or less waiting to be applied to this, but But you're right, ready to would help handle some of the inflation that we've, we've experienced or anticipate experiencing?
Speaker 1
How important are those ready from grants that have come through from the state,
Speaker 2
they're really, really critical. I mean, you get a lot of things happening, that wouldn't happen otherwise, number one, you get number two, I think some things that might have happened, but it would have been a while, you know, when we took initial, when we made our initial plans at Nexus Park, for example, we anticipated a five to seven year build out, you know that it would take us a while. So we, we realized we had to phase in the project. And part of what the ready funds as well as some of the fundraising we've done, what those have allowed us to do is to accelerate those phases. And so I think we'll be much closer to, to the eventual completion, when we begin to do our ground break, or excuse me, our ribbon cuttings here, you know, the next six months or so,
Speaker 1
just want to get a update, because then we're hearing a little bit more on the pee fast, which is those contaminants that were found in 30. Drinking Water utilities, including Columbus, you mentioned a few months ago, I think we talked about this in September, that one drinking water well was shut down. But there was another process that you wanted to pursue. And that was reimbursement from litigation, right in these companies. And that's what I just read recently in an article, I think, in the Republic about utilities. So I thought it'd be a good bit spent a couple months any updates on that process? Well, we're
Speaker 2
still pursuing the the process that we'd outlined them in there, basically four steps to a one was to shut down the well with the highest reading in anticipation that the remaining wells would have an average that was below below the detection limits, or below the acceptable limits. And we're still awaiting results from the sampling, there's only a couple of labs in the country that can't sample or contest samples to this level. I mean, when you're talking to trilliant, somebody told me that was a second out of 100 centuries. I mean, it's a it's a really small number. But anyway, we've shut down a well in anticipation that what's left will be okay. We anticipate in the short run to dig some more wells, you know, I'll take a few months to get those online. What before you dig a well, you dig a test well, or you drill a test well, and the test wells that we've done have come back non detect. So we think we're headed in the right direction there. The third strategy will be to introduce some charcoal filtering. And I'm told that the charcoal will take out the activated charcoal, we'll take the PFA s out of the water. And then the fourth strategy will be to pursue reimbursement for the money we got to spend on there charcoal filters. And the you know that you go to Monsanto, Dow and some of the large Dupont, some of the large chemical companies. And so yes, we've joined some litigation that will hopefully result in some some funding, I say anticipate that that funding model will be similar to what we've seen with respect to smoking. And the opioids where you get you don't get a hunk of cash right now, but you get some money over time. And like I say that will that will help us help reimburse us for the additional costs that we've got related to those new wells and the activated charcoal filters.
Speaker 1
As the I know, you said the new well has already that began has the charcoal filter. No, that's
Speaker 2
a that's a one to two year, you know, project. And just a reminder
Speaker 1
to people listening to this as the water is safe. It's okay to drink.
Speaker 2
Correct? Yeah, I will use city well water or city water at my home, it does come from wells, that's really, somehow or another this, these chemicals have gotten into the groundwater down there. But we're doing everything we can to identify those sources that are a problem, you can close them off, open up new ones that are not a problem. And the amounts that we're going to find I'm confident will be below an amount that will be causing harm to anybody.
Speaker 1
So it looks like the Fieldhouse is being enclosed just for this, this cold weather and that white stuff that might be coming to down the road a year or so I was progress on Nexus Park,
Speaker 2
it's on schedule. We are going to there's two or three things going on all at the same time out there. Columbus Regional Health is completing its portion of the building. It's already opened one practice out there the OB GYN practice, they will have practices, clinics, parts of what are proper their operations, if you will, that will open from between now and I want to say through April of next year. So there'll be something new happening hang out there every couple of weeks. We are completing the Fieldhouse, we anticipate hosting events, you know, opening that up to the public in April, 2 quarter of 2024. At the same time we're working on the park space, you know that what had been the JC Penney space will become the offices for our parks department. And then they'll have some community rooms in their fitness room and some other activities that would be more public in nature that would be similar to what you might expect at a park. So, you know, that's like three things going on right there. And then we've also just recently let the contract for the exterior landscaping, and landscaping probably doesn't do it justice. I mean, we're talking about repaving the parking lots, putting in new dry wells for the stormwater runoff, we're going to have a little park, you know, out in front of what had been the JC Penney space, just to provide a little place for people to go, when they're in between events, you know, in the building, trying to improve the signage, and then the navigation around, there's a ring road that will go around the exterior of the space. Want to complete that, and then want to tie it into the people trail systems that we already have.
Unknown Speaker
Looking forward to seeing you aren't you?
Speaker 2
I am and it's it's going to take a little longer than I will I mean, my time here ends December 31. But so this will probably be finished sometime in the summer of next year. But that's okay. I mean, we want to try to get as much of this done as we can. So I mentioned earlier, the ready funds and some of the other fundraising we've done, it allowed us to accelerate the various phases that we'd originally identified for Nexus Park. And we think that's going to be good, you know, so that when people do come to visit, they see the project completed. And you know, you don't have to walk around orange barrels or or yellow tape or or listen to this, these big pieces of equipment backing up, you know, so, so we feel good about that. And it's kind of neat to get this close. Yeah, the anticipation builds.
Speaker 1
I just wanted to ask you really quick, I know the city approved, annexation was at 674 acres, it's voluntary annexation for this hospital own land for long term build out that they want to do. But this is just the land for now. So the city doesn't have any right now. Any big investments for annexing that land? Is that
Speaker 2
correct? Yeah, this is 674 acres of unimproved grounds farm ground right now, but those people who've been following, you know, will remember that this is some property that Columbus Regional Health bought. I don't remember now, whether it's been three years or so ago, they're going to reserve a few 100 acres for their own use, then they've been tied, they've retained a land use planner to sort of help them identify, you know, what might be done with the rest of the ground, we anticipate, you know, making a ready submission to try to speed up the development of that ground. You know, the hospital is busy up at Nexus park right now. They've also got some property at i 40. i 65. And State Road 46. This property they're interested in trying to see it developed. But, you know, perhaps the ready funds can accelerate that a little bit. And in general, what we're taking a look at for ready is what you might call a north, south and east west and Boulevard that would provide access into the site, as well as sewer and water, wastewater, electric broadband, all the various utilities that you would need to open up that property for development and make it attractive to housing developers. The plan that CRH has brought forward shows about 965 residences, so housing units, so not quite 1000. And anybody who's followed the price of housing knows that we sorely need the additional supply. And so that's another reason to try to pursue ready funding so that we can accelerate the construction of those, those units.
Speaker 1
All right, one more thing, before we go. I see City Council is looking at zoning ordinance to prohibit solar farms. But I was trying to understand, it's not so much within the city limits. There's a there's a jurisdiction area, so maybe you can explain that a little
Speaker 2
try. You know, what we're talking about is ground that is outside city limits. And when you talk about when you get outside city limits, you're really talking about two sections of ground. There is a what we call a two mile jurisdiction that starts at the city limit and goes out into the county into the you know, the non incorporated portion and it goes out for two miles. And then you've got what's beyond that, you know, sort of say beyond the two miles, the beyond two miles part that came before the county some time ago. And the solar farms were approved with you know, some stipulations. Now the Solar, the the developer or the people who want to build these things have come before the City Planning Commission. And although this development is not inside city limits, City Planning Commission has control because it's within this two mile, territory territorial jurisdiction. And it came first before I want to say the Columbus Planning Commission, and it was approved, the solar farms were approved with some stipulations that then had to be approved by the Columbus City Council. And they, in their last meeting, denied approval, and denied it pretty emphatically Seven, zero, so or zero to seven, depending upon you know, which side of that you're on, that will come before the city council one more time, the states that state rules require that we do that. And so in our next meeting, where I anticipate that being on the agenda, and I a while I anticipate the result to be the same, you know, you never know till you know, so I would encourage people, either on either side of the question, to show up and make their feelings known and let the City Council understand, you know, how it might affect their lives and what you think they ought to do. But yeah, that'll come back one more time.
Speaker 1
All right. Well, I know we're out of time here. But I always like to leave the last few seconds to you. Any big announcements, one word,
Speaker 2
vote, you know, you got to get out and vote. I mean, we are in a municipal election season, as I've mentioned, or alluded to a moment ago, I'm not on the ballot. I'm going to retire at the end of this year. But we will elect nine city council members, a clerk and a mayor. And in the city council, I think we've got five incumbents running. So you know, we will have at least new for four new faces, you know, on our city council and dependent upon the incumbent to do he might have one or two more, or he might have a few more, I should say. We will start we will also elect a clerk and then a new mayor. So I would encourage people to get out and vote. We're making it as easy as possible out there at Nexus Park with the early voting started a couple of weeks ago will extend right up until just before November 7. And then on November seventh election day, we'll be open again at Nexus park as well as all the traditional voting voting locations inside the city. So vote.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you so much, and we'll see you one more show.
Speaker 2
I'm looking forward to December now. We'll have a sign or a party. All right. All righty. Thank you. Thank you.
