Ask The Mayor

One of the main reasons Frankfort city councilman Lewis Wheeler is running against incumbent Chris McBarnes in this year’s Republican mayoral primary is a difference of opinion in how the city spends its money on the way toward possible economic development.

This week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, we quiz Mayor McBarnes about why he’s hired a new Community Development Director, and how her job might be different than what the Chamber of Commerce has already been doing.

It’s not surprising that Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski is, again, without a challenger in this year’s mayoral race. In fact, there’s only one contested race in this year’s primary in Tippecanoe County. This week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, we attempt to suss out what that means.

A visit by former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who’s thinking of running for president, has been the talk of West Lafayette this week -- so much so that we had to pre-record our monthly conversation with Mayor John Dennis.

It could be the first of several visits by presidential hopefuls to the city in the next 18 months, but what kind of impact does that have on a city’s finances, law enforcement and other services. We put that question to Mayor Dennis this week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor.

In his State of the City address this week, Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton declared it was, in his words, “time for us to quit kicking the can down the road and start to fix things.” That’s a big statement, which always comes with an undertone suggesting past leaders have been somewhat derelict in their duties. This week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, we quiz Mayor Barton on exactly what he meant and how he plans to do things differently.

This week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, construction is officially underway on Frankfort’s Washington Avenue—one of several new projects in the city’s pipeline. How are residents responding to all the changes slated for the coming year?

This week in our talk with Frankfort Mayor Chris McBarnes, we’ll talk about how communities spread information through social media, and how to handle the consequences when citizens dispute fact versus fiction. Set the record straight, or stay out of it?

As we were preparing for this week’s Ask The Mayor conversation with Lafayette’s Tony Roswarski, a surprise announcement came from Governor Eric Holcomb’s budget wonks: the state plans to drop its support for the Hoosier State Line.

It’s a new year on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, but we spend a good portion of our first show updating topics that were on people’s minds in 2018.

West Lafayette Police Chief Jason Dombkowski has stepped down, so we ask Mayor John Dennis how he plans to pick a replacement, and whether his former chief’s new job poses any concerns.

Also, the city plans to close its recycling center, and that’s got a number of city residents who want more recycling, not less, up in arms. We dig into the financials of the situation and ask what the replacement might be.

Two of our regular guests on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor have been outspoken about the fact they think railroad companies have too much power and their cities don’t have enough recourse to stop trains from clogging intersections.

But neither Frankfort’s Chris McBarnes nor this week’s guest, Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton, have seen their grant requests fulfilled to try to solve the problems with which their cities have been saddled. So what’s a city to do when railroads have all the power and cities little of the money?

Several times in 2018, Chris McBarnes has mentioned trying to amend the ways of what he calls the “old boy network” of people who make decisions in Frankfort. This week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, we quiz him about a couple possible places where that cabal of city elders has taken hold.

First, are the county commissioners trying to bury the results of a financial review of the Clinton County Humane Society, sweep the whole mess under the rug and award another $100,000 to an organization two former directors say is riddled with dysfunction?

Ever since the beginning of the great Bird invasion of 2018 – we’re referring here to the dropping of hundreds of electric scooters in Greater Lafayette – cities have been struggling with how to regulate the two-wheeled vehicles and their operators.

The city of Lafayette today announced creation of a pilot program that seeks to do just that with the three companies that have, so far, sent scooters to town. But what happens if – some might even say when – the rules are broken? We ask that this week of Lafayette’s Tony Roswarski on Ask The mayor.