The mayor's reaction on the new GOP Gubernatorial candidate, road work updates, chicken ordinance, an abandoned buildings ordinance and a $750,000 economic development grant to the schools.
On this week's installment of Ask The Mayor, 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.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: What's it like having a Columbus native on the presidential ticket?
Lienhoop: The first few weeks it was kind of interesting. We received several phone calls from people who just wanted a little bit of background information on him or were here in town and trying to seek a little better understanding what Governor Mike Pence had come from so we're glad to be able to help with that. And Columbus is used to be having a little bit of notoriety or at least a little bit of attention, so we're thankful of that.
Hren: This month the human rights lawsuit that was filed with Columbus and a few other cities, Bloomington, Carmel, Indy ... that was stemmed from LGBT legislation is scheduled to begin, where are you in that process?
Lienhoop: We're scheduled for oral arguments on August 16th at the Hamilton County Courthouse. We'll look forward to defending the ordinance we've got and it'll be interesting to see the arguments the other side and other communities make as well.
We've had no issues with it, nobody has brought a complaint or complaint about it in any fashion, but it's our intention to defend this.
Hren: The Republic had a good story on the $750,000 grant program to the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. from the city to fund three programs for economic development. You talked about this in one of our first shows how education is so important in driving economic development, this is a big step for your administration.
Lienhoop: It is, as a city there are several things that you sell to employers or perspective employers. You want to sell good infrastructure, a significant water supply and waste water at the same time, some people want access to an airport, but recently we heard a lot about a skilled workforce. Part of what we're doing with this money is take a little of the workforce we got and skill up.
So we approached the school system about a partnership with them. The iGrad program is designed to keep kids who are at risk in school a little bit longer - get them to graduation and then transitional training which takes those students who are developmentally disabled and help them through the system so they can become a potential employee for one of these places.
