Gun control, solar power, new downtown developments, Clinton Indy visit and city internet options.
On this week's installment of Ask The Mayor, Mayor Greg Goodnight addresses these issues and more. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: It's been more than a week since the Orlando shooting and now the talk is centering around gun control, is that part of the problem in your mind?
Goodnight: I don't understand the logic. If someone is on a terrorist watch list and we're not going to allow them to board an airplane, yet they're still able to buy guns... that one I struggle with the logic. Hypocrisy always comes into play. They had this big debate on the republican national convention this year where would they allow firearms into the convention and it was interesting in that the same politicians that say we need more guns to make it safer, they want to limit guns in their own convention.
Also, I struggle with the governor's position on this. I go down to the statehouse and the first thing I have to do is go through a metal detector. If they think the general public in public spaces is safer with more guns why does the governor not allow them into the statehouse.
Hren: I see where plans are moving ahead for a 26 acre solar farm in the area… but there's more to the story about property in that area?
Goodnight: It's on the former Continental Steel Superfund site which closed in March of 1986. There's a large parcel the city acquired a couple of years ago. So the city will get a little bit of money on the lease agreement with the solar farm, about tens of thousands a year, and we no longer have to provide the maintenance of the parcel. And it helps with our carbon footprint. We've been on a tree planting frenzy for a few years now and this ties into this mindset.
Hren: According to the Indiana Business Research Center, Kokomo and Columbus saw the greatest increase in home sales from June 2014 to June 2015, with gains of nearly 13 and 12 percent. What's contributing to the demand for homes in Kokomo?
Goodnight: I like to say if a community is not willing to invest in itself, then don't expect others to either. So we've made those investments in our parks, our trail system, new YMCA, new baseball stadium... those amenities attract people and we're beginning to see the benefits of that.
Hren: Hillary Clinton will address the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in downtown Indianapolis Sunday, what are you expecting her to talk about?
Goodnight: I hope she talks about real urban policy. Indiana does not have an urban policy, a large portion of people show they want to live in urban areas and our state's urban policy is nonexistent. How do we assist our cities? The legislature and governor passed the regional cities initiative last year, that's good for three regions but that doesn't address the ten other metropolitan areas in the state and definitely doesn't help some of the smaller cities that are the county seats in some of the rural areas.
Hren: We do have an e-mail from a Don, he wants to know what is being done to improve the internet options in Kokomo? He says if you look at the broadband map, you'll notice that most of Kokomo is covered by fiber optic cables. Are there any plans to use the existing fiber optic cable in Kokomo to create a municipal internet service provider?
Goodnight: We've had preliminary discussions on that. To be completely honest, it is not probably in that top ten list of things we have to address immediately. Like most things, I think that's a great question, it comes down to priorities and budgetary constraints and which do you get the best bang for the buck, but it is something on our radar screen.
