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Ask The Mayor: Lienhoop on NexusPark Christmas tree, conference center halt, park shooting

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Speaker 1
Record. Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU I'm Joe Hren first week of June. And as always, I'm with Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop. Hello, welcome. It's nice to be back in the city of Columbus.

Speaker 2
It's good to see you again. Yeah. In person. Yeah. We were joking earlier on that you're zoomed over the old fashioned way. This trip or in the olden

Speaker 1
days? Yeah. But it is good to be here. It's a beautiful day, I just parked and saw the new 1812 trails, something that we've talked about previously. And it looks great.

Speaker 2
Yeah. Thank you. 1821 1821. Sorry, no, no, no. 1812 was a big war, we went out part of the 1821 is a homage to our homage, whatever it how you say the word to the founding of Columbus and the founding of Bartholomew County. That's when we started in these parts. And so the trail does several different things for us, obviously, rebuilt first street from the sewers up, provides, you know, some historical markers, you know, that talk a little bit about the history of Columbus, and sort of why we're here where you know, some of the things that have happened the last 200 years.

Speaker 1
Yeah, I noticed that the placards have important dates that look like but it's referencing the history of Columbus.

Speaker 2
Exactly. Yeah. So again, starts from the time of our founding, and 200 years ago, it was what we call a bicentennial, a legacy project. And so the idea came up at that time, because we, you know, we were celebrating our bicentennial in the middle of a pandemic, which made it a little bit hard to get together. But we wanted something that would, you know, Blip afterwards. And sort of, as I said, speak to the legacy that we've had over the last 200 years.

Speaker 1
Yeah, I'm also looking forward to driving down little further to see what's going on at the old Mall. Nexus Field House, I believe there's some steel up right now,

Speaker 2
there is a lot of it, a lot of it. Several million dollars worth, but it's one big barn, it's going to be every bit as tall as the fairgrounds a coliseum up at the Indiana State Fair, and it will be wider. So we're going to be able to fit a circus soccer field inside there. We call it Nexus Park, and it's going to be the Circle K Field House at Nexus Park. So we hope we're on schedule. The engineers and the contractors tell us we're on schedule. We should be open sometime early in quarter one of 2024. We hope to have events in there starting no later than April of 2024. So So yeah, drive by as often as you want. We'll take a look. Keep track of it.

Speaker 1
I know, the city council had to allocate fund funding mechanisms as this process moves along. How is that working?

Speaker 2
It's moving forward, we've got another request to go before the city council this evening. And you know, we would like to have put all this in one funding request right at the beginning. But given the pandemic and given some of the uncertainties with respect to cost, I just really didn't make sense. So we've brought them forward as we could. Tonight, we'll bring forward the what I think is basically the landscaping, but it's a little bit more than trees and bushes. You know, we're talking about the parking lot, all the asphalt the under all there's a name for the drainage, wastewater drainage process, as well as all the wayfinding that will occur outside, you know, we expect to have quite a bit of crowd there on a daily basis, our partners CRH, Columbus Regional Health tells it, that they'll have about 1000 visitors a day that's on top of 200 employees. Then on the weekend, we could have a crowd, anywhere from five to 10,000. And those won't be there all at the same time, hopefully, but they'll be coming and going. And so we need to make it easy for people to people to get in and out and then find a parking space while they're there.

Speaker 1
They just mentioned Columbus Regional Hospital I saw they have a draft plan for what about 700 acre West Side property? Yes, that is huge.

Speaker 2
It is. Yes, it is huge. Obviously the largest remaining parcel not part of the city. City Limits go all the way around it but we haven't got on to it yet. It's what had been the old Stadler family farm people familiar with Columbus may recall Staedtler Packing Company there was a company that butchered hogs and cattle and, and cured bacon and so on and so forth. Well, this was the old family farm and it became available a couple of years ago, became available a couple of years ago at this point, and was purchased by Columbus Regional Health part of their expansion plant. You know, the, if you take a look at 17th Street where they are today. It looks pretty it's a nice looking campus, but they've got some buildings up there that date from the 60s. And you know, they've got some interior issues that teachers can easily fix. So they know they're going to need a new place and say in anticipation of that they went ahead and bought all this ground. They're going to reserve a portion that they need or they want to keep for themselves. And then Park will probably partner with a developer, you know with respect to their balance of it. The plan that I saw last which again it just plan includes about a third Housing residential units, that'll be a mixture of, you know, single family, residential units, some some multifamily, and then, you know, a variety of residences in between for plexes, zero outlines, that kind of stuff. But it's kind of exciting to see that come forward. And great to see Columbus Regional Health grow. Band, it's a, it's an addition to the housing stock here that we sorely need. So happy to see all of that come together.

Speaker 1
Yeah, I know, we've talked about that, not only with you, but other mayors about housing to all kinds of housing. Yeah. And recently learned that there's flattery and Collins looking for a subsidy to build an apartment complex next to a parking garage, correct downtown. Yeah. What's that proposal? Like? Is that does that fit into the city's plan? Well,

Speaker 2
it does. But let's back up just a step. We talked a moment ago about the Taylor, which is an apartment complexes east of City Hall, that will have about 200 units. This is a different site near I mean, this will be on Washington Street between sixth and seventh will be developed by the same people, Flaherty and Collins. The ground there presently is owned by Commons. And this property fronts a parking garage that Commons built, oh, golly, five years or more ago. And it's sort of been in the city's plan for some time to develop that area with a mixture of residential properties and light retail or commercial. And so we're happy to see that come forward. It's, I can say it's the same developers, so the people who will rent at that particular apartment complex will have access to the amenities offered by the tailor. But But yeah, there'll be another 50 to 5556 units or something like that. And, and at this point in time, it's all welcome. We have constant demand for housing here in Columbus.

Speaker 1
And I see a consultant has been, I don't know if his has been hired or looking for the Downtown LA these downtown projects, including something we've talked about many times the conference center, right? Where does that come into play?

Speaker 2
Well, you know, that's the Conference Center was idea that seems like a long time ago at this point. But it was pre pandemic, I want to say it came out of a plan we called Envision Columbus that we did in 2018. And in 2019, we put out an RFP, we had a variety of responses, we selected a developer. And we were ready to sign ready to get started on building a hotel and conference center. And then the pandemic occurred. And all that got sort of set aside or at least put on hold. And now we got out of the pandemic, we we contracted with the same consulting group back in golly, July or August of 2022, and got an update on our study, and confirm that there's still demand for a conference center in Columbus and a hotel to support it. And we took that back to the developer that we've been talking to, unfortunately, we weren't able to get together on price with them. And so we anticipate working with another developer, or maybe we'll go out for another RFP, we're not quite sure just exactly where this goes next. But in anticipation that we're going to need a little bit of help and guidance, we reached out to the consulting group that we've been working for. So the contract that you're talking about is an extension of the two that we had previously.

Speaker 1
Okay. Yeah. And I know that I mean, the ball has been rolling on the conference center for years, you've moved buildings, other buildings are coming down, you've got a parcel of land that's ready to go. Right.

Speaker 2
Right. Yeah. Yeah, it's at the corner or the city block that is just north of our jail, bounded by second and third and Franklin Lafayette. And you're right, we purchased that from the county of Bartholomew guy like a year and a half or so ago, and raised a building that was on there. So it's ready for development. Right now. It's being used for county employee parking. And it'll stay that way until we've got somebody who's ready to develop it. But But yeah, we've we've continued to move forward. But I just excuse me hit a little snag when it came to the math on, you know, the cost for the construction of the Hotel Conference Center.

Speaker 1
And I remember talking about this to that. And this could maybe be the same study, or what's it called, again, consultant about the need for one and that Columbus does need one and actually the one that was planned was maybe a little smaller than then it should be. So the need is the need still there.

Speaker 2
We believe it is, you know, people may remember the what we call the old Clarion had been a Holiday Inn or a holiday home that was built out by I 65 and State Road 46. There were a lot of events there. A lot of regional conventions, conferences were held there. And it was a significant attractor to the local tourism economy. And when that went away, we lost quite a bit. And not just for City of Columbus, but the region. I mean, there were a variety of activities were that The real locus was see more or Jenny's County where they were hold him here because the facility was here. And the relevant size, I don't know, in square footage, how big the ballroom was with the Clarion buddy could accommodate 500 People at round tables, you know, 10 to 12 a table. And that's really what we want to try to replace is that size. And so the consultant that we're working with helps us size that, you know, whether we're talking about 8000 square feet, or 9000 square feet, you know, what kind of breakout rooms you have, I mean, because what they're able to tell us is what people really want, I mean, what they're looking for, in in that kind of a facility. So, so from that we sort of scope or size the project, and then we talk to a hotelier about what it might take in terms of 150 rooms or so to support that and and see where it goes. Like I said we weren't able to get together on the cost figures with the prior developers. So we're back at it back at it looking for more.

Speaker 1
So I see the parking commission is asking to go back to time limits in a certain area, I think part of the reason was to try to move some of the parking low further out. And to open up more spots downtown. So that that not

Speaker 2
Yeah, we the Board of Works met this morning. And we approved a proposal to, to reinstate three hour time limits on several streets in downtown Columbus, what we do is allow you to come and go park for free, but you're limited to three hours, you know, at your spot are limited to three hours in the in the downtown area. And we were asked to for a trial purpose trial run to remove the three hour limitation and in fact, allow all day parking, you know, in some parts of the downtown area. And And this morning, we were asked to sort of put that three hour limit back. And so we agreed to do that. Basically, what you get, we've got plenty of parking in Columbus and the parking garages that we have sort of reflect that. But there's just a it's a tough notion to dispense with. And that is that people come downtown Columbus, they expect to park for free and to stay as long as they want. And we want to try to accommodate them. But that stay as long as you want part is is troublesome. Because the retailer's, you don't really expect to have room for their customers. And that's what, what this impinges upon. And so we'll continue to try different strategies and see where that goes.

Speaker 1
So we reported on there was a drive by shooting at Lincoln Park recently, and a couple of weeks ago, we know the suspects are in custody. And when something like this city reviews security measures, maybe sends a few extra patrols in that in that area. I mean, as mayor, how do you react when you hear about something like that?

Speaker 2
Well, number one, that the reaction is to try to take care of everybody involved. And candidly, I was very pleased with a variety of our response aspects of our response. You know, we do active shooter training for all city employees and for all city locations. And so they're at Lincoln Park, the Parks Department employees who were employed, and on on duty at the Hamilton Ice Center and at the concession stand that sort of is in the middle of the ball diamond complex. I mean, they did exactly as they were trained. I mean, they lock the places down secured, the locations that they were in charge of, and provide it for the security of the folks that were in doors at the same time. Excuse me, our police and our first responders were on scene you know, within a matter of minutes, and they were able to attend to the the injured people and get them stabilized and then off to care or trauma hospital in Indianapolis or what have you. And then our police that you know had at at a pretty good indication as to who they thought they were going to look for. And so those people were apprehended with at about four hours and today one of them sits in Bertha, well, they're both in Bartholomew county jail, one of them with a $5 million bond. So I feel like our response at the time was was appropriate. And in pretty thorough way I'm candidly we also provided for some counseling, not only for our first responders who, you know, sort of came across came across a difficult situation, but for our parks, employees and some of the public who were there. Going forward, we are going to take a look at what we can do to enhance security at at all of our parks. And I anticipate that that will involve more patrols when there's an event underway, and I anticipate that there'll be more cameras. I don't know that either of those would have prevented what had occurred. But we want to make it very clear to anybody who's got this kind of activity on their minds, that we will see what you're doing and we'll come get you. And when we do, you're going to be across the street from me with a $5 million bond. So just give that some thought you know, before you engage in this kind of behavior And so those conversations are ongoing. And, you know, we'll we'll be announcing something, you know, later on this year.

Speaker 1
Is the Columbus police force it is full staffing right now, is it hard to retain officers?

Speaker 2
Well, there is there are always officers who are coming and going, you know, what has happened is that typically, retirement, you can retire, you know, with full pension after about 20 years. And so we have people who reached that level, if you hire it at 22, you know, you're ready to retire 42. And so we have that kind of a rotation that happens all the time. We I think the last number I got from police chief, we were down one position, you know, so I feel really good about that, particularly when compared to some of the other communities that we have in Indiana. But we know that there's going to be continuing pressure with respect to compensation. The Indiana State Police recently achieved or received from the Indiana State Legislature approval to significantly increase the wages they pay to road troopers, and we're gonna follow suit. I mean, I don't know exactly when exactly how, excuse me, but we will we will not get ourselves out. Did you know by the state of Indiana, as difficult as that may be, but But right now, we're in pretty good place.

Speaker 1
Just a quick follow up from last time there was testing underway, or maybe complete on the Columbus drinking water. I think they were looking at pee fast. Has that? I've not heard?

Speaker 2
Yeah, that's not complete. Okay. Yes, we were chosen. I guess really all the public drinking water utilities in Indiana. were chosen we got in round three life. I remember that correctly. But but I've not given the responses. Yeah.

Speaker 1
So did I hear at first exhibit? Columbus installation is starting to go up?

Speaker 2
That Well, I don't know about that. Okay, exhibit Columbus is coming back. Yeah, this fall. What has attracted a lot of attention is they're planning and exhibit for the intersection at fourth and Washington. And, in fact, we got a little picture of it outside here, maybe on your way out, you could take a picture of it. And so we're just trying to make sure that this one works for us, it will be the first one that will involve a public right away. Obviously, they're at the corner at the intersection, rather a fourth in Washington. And while they proved to be a truly outstanding installation, it does present us with different questions we've not had to answer with respect to previous installation. So we got to work through some of those details and, and we've got some guys assigned to We'll get her done. But But yeah, it's fun to see exhibit Columbus come back. It's really worthwhile experience I enjoyed very much.

Speaker 1
Yeah, that was all I had. I know we're running short on time. But I always like to see if you have any announcements or anything else you'd like to talk about.

Speaker 2
You know, we we've talked about a variety things around Columbus, back on Nexus Park, if you go out there and take a picture, there's a Christmas tree up on top. And I'm told that that's a Oh, just a habit that you do when you do what's called topping out. And so a week or two ago, there were several obviously, we went up to Nexus Park and signed a beam. So my signature is up there somewhere, I think it's gonna take a telescope to see it. But on top of that, we've got a further tree or a Christmas tree type arrangement to just sort of have a little bit of fun and and let sink said send a signal that at least with respect to that portion of the construction, we're finished and ready to move on. But the rest of Columbus continues to continues to grow. I got a report earlier today that the county census increased by 1000 people, we think that most of those folks are going to live in Columbus. And you know, the population of Columbus has grown by about 1000 each year since the great recession. And we think a lot of that has to do with because the quality of life here, which is you know what resulted in our receiving the community of the Year Award, which we get, always want to try to mention, because it's going to be a long year. Well, you're celebrated. We're community the gear every day of the year. So So yeah, we want to have some fun with that. But yeah, it's a good time to be in Columbus.

Unknown Speaker
Thank you so much. We'll see you next month. You're welcome.
Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop

Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop (Joe Hren, WFIU/WTIU News)

Mayor Lienhoop tells us why there's a Christmas tree on top of NexusPark, reaction to the recent park drive-by shooting, and why the delay on a downtown conference center.

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.

The 1821 Trail is complete as part of the city's bicentennial.
The 1821 Trail is complete as part of the city's bicentennial celebration projects. (Joe Hren, WFIU/WTIU News)

Hren: We are back in person and it's great to be in Columbus. The new 1821 Trail looks great with placards and landscaping. I'm looking forward to seeing NexusPark too.

Lienhoop: The 1821 Trail is a homage to the founding of Columbus and the founding of Bartholomew County. That's when we started in these parts. And so the trail does several different things for us, obviously, rebuilt First Street from the sewers up, provides some historical markers that talk a little bit about the history of Columbus, and why we're here and marks some of the things that have happened the last 200 years. The idea came up as we were celebrating our bicentennial in the middle of a pandemic, which made it a little bit hard to get together. 

NexusPark steel structure construction is complete.
The NexusPark steel structure construction is complete. (Joe Hren, WFIU/WTIU News)

Yes, there's several million dollars worth or steel up, it's one big barn, it's going to be every bit as tall as the fairgrounds and the coliseum up at the Indiana State Fair, and it will be wider. So we're going to be able to fit a soccer field inside there. We call it NexusPark, and it's going to be the Circle K Field House at Nexus Park. The engineers and the contractors tell us we're on schedule. We should be open sometime early in quarter one of 2024. We hope to have events in there starting no later than April of 2024.

Hren: City council had to allocate funding mechanisms as this process moves along. How is that working?

Lienhoop: We've got another request to go before the city council this evening. We would like to have put all this in one funding request right at the beginning, but given the pandemic and given some of the uncertainties with respect to cost, it just really didn't make sense. So we've brought them forward as we could.

Tonight, we'll bring forward what I think is basically the landscaping. But it's a little bit more than trees and bushes. We're talking about the parking lot, all the asphalt, wastewater drainage process, as well as all the wayfinding that will occur outside. Our partners CRH, Columbus Regional Health says they'll have about 1,000 visitors a day that's on top of 200 employees. Then on the weekend, we could have a crowd anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000. And those won't be there all at the same time, but they'll be coming and going.

A Christmas Tree on top of NexusPark marks the 'topping' of the completed structure.
A Christmas Tree on top of NexusPark marks the 'topping' of the completed structure. (Joe Hren, WFIU/WTIU News

I'm told that the Christmas tree up top is just a habit that you do - what's called topping out. And so a week or two ago, we went up to NexusPark and signed a beam. But on top of that, we've got a Christmas tree type arrangement to just sort of have a little bit of fun and send a signal that at least with respect to that portion of the construction, we're finished and ready to move on.

Hren: I see a consultant has been has been hired for the downtown projects, including something we've talked about many times the conference center. Where does that come into play?

The Columbus conference center is on hold until the city can find a developer that's within funding goals.
The proposed conference center lot is being used for county jail parking. (Joe Hren, WFIU/WTIU News)

Lienhoop: The conference center was an idea that seems like a long time ago at this point. But it was pre pandemic, I want to say it came out of a plan we called Envision Columbus that we did in 2018. And in 2019, we put out an RFP, we had a variety of responses, we selected a developer. And we were ready to sign ready to get started on building a hotel and conference center. And then the pandemic occurred. And all that got sort of set aside or at least put on hold.

And now we got out of the pandemic, we we contracted with the same consulting group back in July or August of 2022, and got an update on our study, and confirm that there's still demand for a conference center in Columbus and a hotel to support it. And we took that back to the developer that we've been talking to, unfortunately, we weren't able to get together on price with them. And so we anticipate working with another developer, or maybe we'll go out for another RFP, we're not quite sure just exactly where this goes next. But in anticipation that we're going to need a little bit of help and guidance, we reached out to the consulting group that we've been working for.

Construction is ongoing on The Taylor housing development and grocer.
Construction is ongoing on The Taylor housing development and grocer. (Joe Hren, WFIU/WTIU News)

Hren: The developer building The Taylor a couple blocks away is looking at another development near the downtown Cummins parking garage. How does this fit into the city's housing demand?

Lienhoop: The Taylor will have about 200 units. This is a different site on Washington Street between Sixth and Seventh will be developed by the same people, Flaherty and Collins. The ground there presently is owned by Cummins. And this property fronts a parking garage that Cummins built five years or more ago. And it's sort of been in the city's plan for some time to develop that area with a mixture of residential properties and light retail or commercial. And so we're happy to see that come forward.

I can say it's the same developers, so the people who will rent at that particular apartment complex will have access to the amenities offered by The Taylor. But yeah, there'll be another 50 to 55 units or something like that. And at this point in time, it's all welcome. We have constant demand for housing here in Columbus.

Crime scene tape outlines the area of a shooting at Lincoln Park in Columbus Tuesday night.
Crime scene tape outlines the area of a shooting at Lincoln Park in Columbus Tuesday night. (Columbus Police Department)

Hren: We reported on a drive-by shooting at Lincoln Park recently, we know the suspects are in custody. When something like this happens, the city reviews security measures, maybe sends a few extra patrols in that area. As mayor, how do you react when you hear about something like that?

Lienhoop: Number one, the reaction is to try to take care of everybody involved. And candidly, I was very pleased with a variety of our response aspects of our response. We do active shooter training for all city employees and for all city locations. And so at Lincoln Park, the Parks Department employees who were employed, and on duty at the Hamilton Ice Center and at the concession stand, they did exactly as they were trained. They lock the places down, secured the locations that they were in charge of, and provided security of the folks that were indoors.

Our police and our first responders were on scene within a matter of minutes, and they were able to attend to the the injured people and get them stabilized. And then our police had a pretty good indication as to who they thought they were going to look for. And so those people were apprehended within about four hours and today they're both in Bartholomew county jail, one of them with a $5 million bond.

Going forward, we are going to take a look at what we can do to enhance security at at all of our parks. And I anticipate that that will involve more patrols when there's an event underway, and I anticipate that there'll be more cameras. I don't know that either of those would have prevented what had occurred. But we want to make it very clear to anybody who's got this kind of activity on their minds, that we will see what you're doing and we'll come get you. And when we do, you're going to be across the street from me with a $5 million bond.

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