Ask The Mayor

The mayor ruffled some Republican feathers a year ago by endorsing a couple candidates who weren’t Republicans.

This year, a state house race covering his city is one of the most watched in Indiana. Find out who the mayor has endorsed and why.

Like a lot of college towns, Crawfordsville has a high percentage of rental properties – almost half the town’s residences are landlord-owned.

Also like a lot of college towns, the city sometimes has to crack down on owners of derelict properties which see more than their fair share of police calls.

This week on Ask The Mayor, we talk with Crawfordsville’s Todd Barton about how he’s trying to tackle that problem.

There are many ways a city raises money or offsets its costs. On this week’s Ask The Mayor, we chat with Frankfort’s Chris McBarnes about a few of them.

Everything from why the city favors a quick jump in its electrical rates instead of a slow phase-in to why changes had to be made to the fees charged to traveling food vendors who come to town for special events.

Several Indiana cities -- including Hobert, Muncie and Lafayette -- that had expected to earn revenue from advertising appearing on city-owned trash cans have seen those deals put on hold.

Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski says he’s ready to sever an agreement with National Cart Marketing, which had promised to pay half-a-dozen Indiana cities for the privilege of putting advertising on trash can lids.

“Probably by January if I don’t see that they’ve got it straightened out, I’ll just cancel the contract with them,” Roswarski says.

What happens when a mayor takes on one of the nation’s largest employers over a few hundred yards of road?

That’s the situation Todd Barton finds himself in with Wal-Mart in Crawfordsville.

This week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, we’ll inquire how he plans to resolve the situation without alienating one of his city’s most prominent investors.

To complete a new vision for Frankfort’s downtown, the city and county will have to find $10-20 million .

But first, say some consultants who recently completed a report on that redesign, the city has a number of cosmetic challenges to overcome.

This week on WBAA’s Ask The Mayor, we talk to Frankfort’s Chris McBarnes about where he hopes to get the money and what needs to be cleaned up first.

Earlier this week, the Lafayette City Council passed a controversial ordinance amendment offering additional protections to transgender residents.

But should the discussion have been allowed to go as far as it did?

The West Lafayette City Council is set to decide the fate of a 600-bed high-rise a developer wants to build just south of State Street.

It’d add more beds to the neighborhood, but might also raise concerns about urban sprawl and the culture of the area just off the Purdue campus.

This week on Ask The Mayor, we speak with West Lafayette’s John Dennis about what impacts he sees from the plan and whether they jibe with his vision for the city.

Also on this week’s show: a number of listener questions about roads around the city.

How can we get more bike lanes?

As WBAA tried to report on the fiscal situation with the Hoosier State Line, we were left to extrapolate whether the train was finally in the black financially.

Turns out we're not alone.

The city of Frankfort has a large Latino population – about a quarter of the city’s residents have Hispanic heritage.

So this week on Ask The Mayor, we ask Chris McBarnes what he’s hearing from his constituents about a presidential candidate – with whom he shares a political party – who continues to give speeches about cracking down on immigration and building a wall on America’s southern border.