Ask The Mayor

This week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, we’re going back to school. School shootings have dominated the headlines over the past year, and the state of Indiana is supplying free handheld metal detectors to schools who request them--but will the West Lafayette School Corporation sign on? What’s the best way to ensure safety, with an awareness of gun violence heightened after the Noblesville shooting in May?

Cities of all sizes have their issues. Large burgs like Indianapolis often have high rates of poverty and homelessness and often not enough services to help those in need. Small municipalities frequently don’t look like inviting places to invest, so they frequently are happy if they’re keeping the lights on and not losing residents.

But this week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, a question from a listener causes us to ponder this question: is the city of Crawfordsville’s population – about 16,000 people – exactly the wrong size? That’s one of our queries for Mayor Todd Barton.

The Wabash Heartland Innovation Network has released a survey to gather information, including how residents of Frankfort really feel about Frankfort. On WBAA’s Ask the Mayor, we put Chris McBarnes to the same test.

We also ask about the state of renewable energy in Frankfort, just after a proposal from the state’s power agency to land a solar park in the city. We find out not just the solar power in question, but the project’s power with potential investors as well.

We’ll know Friday evening what a week of public input has done to change the plans for a redeveloped Chauncey Hill Mall.

It’s perhaps the most valuable piece of land in West Lafayette, and Mayor John Dennis – our guest this week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor – will have to balance the desire for something a little more eye-catching, clean and modern with the nostalgia some people appear to have for a piece of property that’s never really lived up to its potential.

Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski has already announced his intention to run for a fifth term in office when next year’s elections roll around. But this week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, we ponder whether the increasingly nasty tone of this year’s races is causing him to think about what may be a more bruising political climate when he runs next.

The city of Crawfordsville recently celebrated the return of the Montgomery County Courthouse Clock Tower after 70 years – you can see it well down US-231, but local leaders say it’s more than just a physical marker.

This week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, we’re talking visibility.

This week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, we talk with Frankfort Mayor Chris McBarnes about downtown revitalization. Frankfort is struggling to fill agribusiness and manufacturing jobs, so the city is trying to improve life outside of work, and focusing on parks and apartments to build a larger employee pool.

After Lafayette lost a prominent sports event and cancelled two summer festivals, the city’s left to fill those gaps in the calendar.

The Taste of Tippecanoe is just days away, and it’s always a big draw for the city – but there may be a wave of Lafayette-branded events on the horizon for the city’s redeveloped hot spots.

This week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, we’re digging into West Lafayette’s growing pains. One of the city's roundabout projects just won an award, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t complaints. And, the city is gearing up for several more development projects both downtown and near the local airport. So how does a city maintain – or shape a new – identity when so much of the past has to be torn down?

Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton recently went to Atlanta, Georgia to try to talk up his city with out-of-state investors. The trip came on the heels of last year’s visit to Japan with Governor Holcomb. But what happens to a dream deferred – in this case Crawfordsville’s economic development hopes? Does it dry up in the summer Indiana sun?

We pose that question to Mayor Barton today on this week's Ask The Mayor.

The City of Frankfort has attracted some large employers in recent years, but still struggles to find college-educated employees to fill high-wage jobs.

So the city is taking a page out of the book of another Indiana municipality and offering grants to people who want to buy homes in the city.

On this week’s Ask The Mayor, we talk with Frankfort’s Chris McBarnes about whether the city can find the cash to increase the grant amounts and whether the city budget should even be used in such a way, when there’s little cash to spare anyhow.

In this week’s elections in Tippecanoe County, Democrats fielded a candidate in just two of the seven countywide races. It’s the continuation of a trend of apathy from the party in recent years.

This week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, we talk with the highest-ranking Democrat in the county – Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski – about what that dearth of participation means for his party – especially in a year where Democrats were supposed to be energized.

West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis is in a unique position to comment on an increasingly chippy Tippecanoe County sheriff’s race. He’s served on a police force with incumbent Barry Richard and is currently the boss of Richard’s leading challenger, Jason Dombkowski.

Credit Crawfordsville residents for trying to improve safety in a number of ways – even if there may be pushback.

In the wake of recent mass shootings, the city’s police department will oversee a church gun buyback event this weekend. But is the city prepared for possible protests?

The reconstituted human rights commission has begun to meet, but what issues are they addressing first?

And, like Lafayette, the city has established a bicycle and pedestrian committee to focus on the safety of those not in cars.  But how to balance who rules the road?

As development along Interstate 65 becomes a topic in Clinton County elections this year, Frankfort Mayor Chris McBarnes finds himself between a highway and a hard place.

On the one hand, he had to forego his plan to annex land from the city limits out to I-65. On the other, he watched county officials begin to develop land near the State Road 28 interchange and now hears county commissioner candidates ask his city to extend its utilities westward to serve those new investments.