After Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness wound down from his State of the City address Wednesday, he sat down for a podcast interview with me the same afternoon to expound on some of the issues raised in his speech.  He also commented on some other items, particularly economic development.

“Over the next 60-90 days, we will be announcing  nearly $150 million of new economic development projects coming to the city of Fishers….that will include hundreds of new jobs,” Mayor Fadness said.   “Although we did not talk about those projects (Wednesday) at the State of the City,  I think the next 2-3 months could be a very exciting  time in our community.”

Here are some other comments from the mayor that made some news:

–Long-time Fishers HR Director Cici Conover will be retiring.  The mayor described Cici as “the moral compass of this organization.”  He said she will be missed.

–The mayor hopes the city is 2-3 weeks away from closing the deal on purchasing land for the Geist waterfront park.  Once the land deal is done, Fadness says he will take his time and engage the neighborhood in order to craft a park design good for the city and those living near the park.   He says the 70-acres of land and how the city plans to use it will require looking ahead 50 years.   The opportunity to acquire that land for the park would have been lost if the city had not acted immediately, according to the mayor.  As to the condition of Geist Lake, a study was done a few years ago and found the reservoir will not get significantly worse in water quality, but it’s also not going to get significantly better.  “It’s hit a bit of a plateau,” the mayor said.   He argues centralized management is needed for the lake.

–On plans for Kroger to expand and move its store at 116th Street and Allisonville Road, Fadness says the city continues to be in conversation with representatives from Kroger.  “We still do not have a firm timeline for when (Kroger) would start building that new Kroger building” the mayor told me. “We continue to check- up with them on it.  I think they still have an intent to build there.”

You can listen to my entire podcast interview with Mayor Fadness at this link.