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Indoor sports facility opens, state of city address in Columbus

By Bente Bouthier

Posted March 7, 2024

(WTIU News, Bente Bouthier)

A new indoor sports field in Columbus is officially open, on the ground of the old Fair Oaks Mall.

The Cirlce-K Field House, a 150,000 foot space, houses both basketball and turf fields, named for the late John McCormick.

It’s part of the NexusPark renovation of the area, turning the old mall into a health, wellness, and recreation area.

Mark Jones, the director of the Columbus Parks and recreation department, helped introduce the new fields to the public at Wednesday’s ribbon cutting. He said the fields will help boost sports tourism in Columbus.

“Our staff does amazing job with the parks," Jones said. "This is going to be able to give us extra amenities that we'll be able to give to the community, that we've never been able to offer before.”

He said the parks department plans to move its headquarters to NexusPark as well.

Izzy Johnson is a member of the Indiana University Columbus softball team. From Kokomo, and it’s her first year playing for the team in Columbus. The team came to the fieldhouse and practiced during the ribbon cutting.

“We just came came here today just to see the feel of new place, and we're really excited for what's to come here for us.”

Johnson said it's one of the nicest indoor facilities she's played in.

NexusPark is a joint effort by Columbus Regional Health and City of Columbus. Columbus Regional Health opened doctors offices in the building.

State of the City Address

Before the ribbon cutting, Columbus' new mayor, Mary Ferdon, gave her first state of the city address.

Ferdon said one of her administration’s immediate focuses is public safety.

She said the city increased resources for retention of city employees, like police officers and firefighters this year.

The council also added a new department to its budget — Security and Risk.

"Unfortunately, over the past few years nationwide, we've seen an increase in violent incidents," Ferdon said. "So locally, we become more focused on security for building and events with more training for potential incidents."

In the last year, Columbus police saw an 18 percent increase in calls for service, according to Ferdon.

From 2022 to 2023, she said property crime arrests decreased in the city. Criminal arrests were stable. Overdose deaths decreased by more than 30 percent.

Another point if focus in the address was housing. Ferdon said nationally, approximately four million units of housing are lacking.

She said a variety of factors contribute to the shortage: aging infrastructure, construction costs, and older generations aging in place.

Columbus is experiencing housing shortages, she said. The city started a housing needs assessment last year.

"Providing affordable workforce housing is an area where it's difficult for developers to provide without incentives," she said. "As we move forward on study recommendations, the city is prepared to use any tools we have to increase affordable housing units for those who provide backbone services for Columbus."

The study is meant to identify existing housing stock and gaps in availability.