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Ask The Mayor: Frankfort's Chris McBarnes

City of Frankfort

Some questions for the mayor this week:

Shortly after we spoke last month about the city’s plans to possibly demolish blighted buildings, the state announced another round of funding to cities trying to do exactly that. Is Frankfort getting any of that cash?

You’re getting set to knock down your first home following the creation of the Hearing Authority, right?

You and I also talked last month about INDOT’s plan to rehab SR 28 leading into town and you said you thought it was on the near horizon. How quickly do you think that will start in earnest?

A couple weeks ago, Wabash National announced it’d invest $2 million into a Frankfort plant. But what’s interesting is that they expect that money to create as many as 100 jobs. Normally, well-paying jobs require a lot more investment capital than that. Does that mean these aren’t high-paying positions?

Last month, we talked about your wish to annex the land out to I-65 and locate more businesses in that region. When you do that, it certainly makes Frankfort seem welcoming to business, but does it tie your hands at all? For instance, what if a business wanted to locate closer to downtown for some reason…?

There’s also the negotiating side of things – your community is not well-to-do and it’s obvious some additional investment could have a big impact on Frankfort. But companies are smart – they’ll see that you want them there and that it’s relatively inexpensive to locate there and it seems like they have all the leverage in that situation, making it harder for you to negotiate how you want investment to go, right?

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