Ask The Mayor

If it seems to you that Tippecanoe County leaders have been talking forever about starting a needle exchange program, that’s just an illusion – it’s only been about eight months since the first approvals began.

But if it has seemed to you that in recent months support for such a program from some local leaders has waned, that may be true.

Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton has made visits this month to businesses granted tax abatements by the city.

It’s normal – required, in many cases – for some sort of check-in to happen, but on this week’s Ask The Mayor, we find out whether Mayor Barton thinks changes that could be afoot in the coming years thanks to Stellar Cities money may change the way the city looks at abatements.

Also on this week’s show, we check back in on the progress of the reconstituted Crawfordsville Human Rights Commission.

This week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, we offer some helpful hints to budding entrepreneurs, including this one: If you want a city to give you a tax abatement, there are a few key words you can use to describe that investment you want to make.

The summer construction season is now in full force and you, the listeners to WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, have many questions about it.

This week, we put those to West Lafayette’s John Dennis and ask him whether he’s surprised that a project as talked about as State Street is still creating as much consternation as it is.

Also on this week’s program, will West Lafayette join the list of hundreds of other cities standing opposed to President Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate change agreement?

The City of Lafayette has begun evicting some residents from low-income housing just south of the city’s downtown.

That’s because those homes are slated to be razed and replaced with new townhomes.

It’s all part of Mayor Tony Roswarski’s strategy to increase population density near downtown – an area that still doesn’t have a grocery store.

But could such a move be made to help the city’s dilapidated north end, which is home to run-down houses and Lafayette’s highest crime rate?

When, earlier this week, a train derailed in downtown Crawfordsville, it brought to a head some of the concerns Mayor Todd Barton has lodged with the railroads that crisscross his city.

Sure, the tracks caused regular traffic jams before, and city leaders have long hoped for a railroad relocation project, but was this week’s incident the locomotive that broke the camel’s back?

We talk about that incident on this week’s Ask The Mayor program.

Many months on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, we focus broadly on the topic of cleanup when it comes to chatting with Frankfort’s Chris McBarnes. This month, we have a number of topics relating to that theme.

We ask Mayor McBarnes whether the city needs to take a harder line with its derelict properties, after one homeowner wasn’t brought before the city despite six years’ worth of complaints.

We also find out whether recent flooding that shut down several roads in the county has made the mayor reevaluate which of his streets need work first.

For months, we’ve known a couple things about this summer’s road construction in Greater Lafayette.

One, it was always going to be a hassle.

And secondly, the cities seemed committed to trying to complete major projects while most Purdue students were away for the summer.

But the City of Lafayette now says the closure of the county’s busiest intersection isn’t slated to start until July and will last past the time students and their parents return.

As legislation season ends and a prolonged construction season begins in West Lafayette, the city faces challenges from multiple sides.

On one side is a bill which would have given cell phone companies carte blanche to put small cell towers almost anywhere they could find a utility hookup.

On the other are small business owners who say the city and Purdue University may benefit from State Street’s overhaul, but they’re being imperiled.

Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton has found himself up against some powerful competition recently.

He appears to have prevailed in a battle against the world’s largest company, Wal-Mart, in a battle over a road near the big box chain’s Crawfordsville location.

But he may also be up against several cell phone companies – and the lawmakers they appear to be bankrolling.

This week on WBAA’s Ask the Mayor, we quiz Mayor Barton about what he’s learned from his recent skirmishes.