Railway overpass timeline, Clarion Hotel leaves room void, Exhibit Columbus debuts soon and riverfront development research continues.
On this week's installment of Ask The Mayor, Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop 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. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: Last time we were here you were on the verge the big announcement of a new railroad overpass and Cummins plans for a renovated headquarters. What's the timeline for the railroad overpass?
Lienhoop: We've been told there would be an increase in train traffic, a couple trains per day starting August 21st. So that will give people a taste of what might be in store because out in the country-side they should be moving 45 MPH. In the City of Columbus, that speed will be 10 MPH. So you'll begin to understand why we've been pushing so hard for the last year and a half.
It will take one and a half construction seasons once it starts. Right now we're in discussions with the department of transportation on the start date. We'd like for it to start in 2019 and realizing that's light-speed for the department of transportation. Land acquisition takes a while, environmental studies that are required take a while. The engineering itself takes a while.
Hren: What did it take to get INDOT or the state's attention to get this project moving?
Lienhoop: I think it was a multi-pronged effort. We started a year and a half ago hiring an engineering firm to help us put together our story. We felt and it was important at the end to have data. You can tell somebody that life's tough dealing with the delays, it's hard to talk about it in the future tense. So the engineering firm provided data, research - a video to show how far back-ups on State Road 46 into town will be. Then we added information on ambulance runs and school bus crossings.
At the end of the day, this has a lot to do with safety. If you're going to have a heart attack, you don't want to have to give a 45 minute notice to the ambulance. So just being able to gather the data drove the discussion.
Hren: How about the funding aspect of this project? How much will the city need to pay?
Lienhoop: We asked the engineers to help us estimate the cost and came back at $27.2 million. We turned that into INDOT and after they approved it, they rounded it up to $30 and let's go halves. We found $9 million from a central TIF we can earmark for this project and another C.E.P. TIF. We're going to put a request in front of the county for $2 million and expect a vote, I think August 8.
We've been told early on not to expect anything from the railroad, but they agreed to contribute five percent, so $1.5 million. So we've got a little bit of ground to cover, but we've got some other sources. The Community Crossings grants, we got one last year. There maybe a federal grant program we can apply to.
Hren: A few months ago we talked about appropriation salary for city employees, how is that coming along?
Lienhoop: It's ongoing. What we found is it is a lot more difficult to compare from one city to the next. You can't go by titles, you have to call and figure out what the job descriptions are and we've picked six or seven cities we want to compare to. I feel like we've covered a lot of ground, but we still have a fair amount of ground to cover and to do so in time for this budget cycle is going to be challenging.
Hren: The Clarion Hotel and Conference Center is closed and being demolished for a medical facility by Columbus Regional Health, does this leave a void here in Columbus?
Lienhoop: The Clarion represented about 250 hotel rooms. Hotel rooms are dear to us as we host a bunch of events. We have another incoming on, Fairfield Inn is being constructed at the interchange, but hopefully we can find a way to replace what we lost there. We've had discussions with others about building a hotel or events center somewhere else in town, but it's step one of 210 - it's way at the beginning.
But what the Clarion events center held for us is a large enough room to host 500 people at round tables and the people who are in that business tell us that's the threshold we have to get to. The Commons that we have here also has a big room, it's capacity is 400 and it's booked. So they'll be a demand and typically the market will move to meet the demand.
