Tony Roswarski

Last month, we asked Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski about an unusual step his city's Board of Public Works took -- rejecting all the bids for a road repair contract on Beck Lane.

This month, we talk about not just the re-opening of those bids, but the awarding of a contract for a little less than the original amount the city had planned to spend. But here's the catch -- not as much is going to get done for the same money.

Lafayette city officials argue historic preservation is good for economic development. But not every building can be protected. The city plans to redevelop Five Points – but there’s a debate over whether to restore historic properties or build something new.

How will the proposed demolition of the E.M. Weaver building change plans for Five Points development? What effect might it have on the timeline for developing the area? And what role does preservation of similar historic landmarks play in economic development for Lafayette?

It’s not often that cities turn down all the bids they receive for a project, but that’s just what Lafayette’s Board of Works did this week on a road paving and sidewalk improvement job.

And to hear Mayor Tony Roswarski tell it, this story might be more common in the coming years, because it’s a seller’s market in the construction trades. A lack of qualified workers means companies don’t have the manpower to do all the available jobs at once, and they can pick and choose only the most lucrative projects – and charge more for the work than they used to.

We say often on Ask The Mayor that if a topic is affecting one community in our rotation, there’s a good chance it’s affecting others, too.

For months, we’ve talked to West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis about a lack of coordination between traffic signals in the city. Now, two listeners have written in to ask why Lafayette seems to be battling a similar issue.

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.

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.

If there’s one thing we here at WBAA want you to know about Ask The Mayor, it’s this: when you have a question, ask it!

On this week’s conversation with Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski, one of our youngest question-askers ever – just 12 years old – engages the mayor on a public policy question that the cities of Lafayette and West Lafayette have decided differently.

In his state of the city address this week, Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski mentioned that drug arrests were way up, year over year.

Any time there’s such a large change in a number like this, the question becomes: was there more crime, were police focusing more effort on rooting it out, or both?

There’s a meeting scheduled for later this month in Lafayette to talk about the city’s drug addiction issues. Registration to speak was so popular the venue had to be changed to accommodate more people.

This week on WBAA’s “Ask The Mayor,” we chat with Lafayette’s Tony Roswarski about what that says for a city that’s struggled to even keep drug use from growing in recent years.