Page last updated on April 6, 2023 at 1:43 pm
Each week, Mayor Hamilton and Deputy Mayor Carmichael provide video updates on recent news and key initiatives. Access all of the weekly video updates at bloomington.in.gov/videoupdates.
In today's video update, Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop, Nashville Town Manager Sandie Jones, and Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton discuss Project 46, a new regional climate change alliance.
On Friday, March 24, Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop, Nashville Town Manager Sandie Jones, and Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton gathered at the Nashville Town Hall to announce the launch and next steps of a bipartisan, cross-sector, multi-county effort to address climate change.
A new regional alliance, Project 46, named for the state highway linking Bartholomew, Brown, and Monroe counties, will identify and pursue solutions that effectively address our shared challenges and opportunities related to climate change.
In the coming weeks, Jones, Lienhoop, and Hamilton will call on their communities’ respective legislative bodies to adopt a common resolution indicating support for the alliance, commit to an initial three-year phase, and allocate public funds for this effort.
Following the adoption of the common resolution, a task force will be established composed of representatives from each community to oversee the collaboration. Businesses, nonprofits, and educational institutions will be welcomed and encouraged to join this alliance.
Learn more about the March 24 announcement at: https://bton.in/H-zt9
Transcript
John Hamilton:
Hello, it's Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton again, and I'm here with some friends for this week's rendition of our video, and can you introduce yourselves?
Jim Lienhoop:
Sure. I'm Jim Lienhoop. I'm the Mayor of Columbus, Indiana.
Sandie Jones:
And I'm Sandie Jones, Town Manager for the town of Nashville.
John Hamilton:
So why are these three people sitting together, you're thinking?
We were here, and we just announced Project 46, which is a regional climate coalition effort, and I really appreciate the work we've been doing together and will be doing together, and Jim, maybe you can lead us off. What is it from your perspective?
Jim Lienhoop:
From our perspective, it's an opportunity to work together with a few other communities and hopefully accomplish something that none of us could do by ourselves. We want to make a measurable change in greenhouse gas emissions, a measurable improvement in the environment of our local communities, and we want to do that by working together and getting the, what would you call it, the incentives that come from collaboration. Maybe a little bit of competition, but also an opportunity to have an outside presence and develop a little bit of an example for others.
John Hamilton:
Great. Sandie, how do you think about it? What got you interested? How do you think about the effort?
Sandie Jones:
I love that Brown County is in the middle of two great communities and that you guys will help us, the little guy, make the impacts that we need to make for our community because, obviously, with the flooding that we've had today, we know that this is a real thing, and so working with you two together is really going to help all of us as a region.
John Hamilton:
It's really exciting for me to think about. We talked about, on the one hand, we have this climate emergency that we're all dealing with, whether it's flooding or energy costs or other challenges, the importance of responding to that emergency, but it's also this huge opportunity as everything is changing, our economy, our agriculture, all that's changing. Can we do it right? Can we do it well? And Sandie, I think you read today that there's a resolution we're going to be asking people to pass, right, to help-
Sandie Jones:
Right.
John Hamilton:
... support what we're proposing?
Sandie Jones:
Right. We're hoping that our town council, our county commissioners, our county council, will all be on board with stepping in to say, "Yeah, this is a priority for us, and this is where we're going to put some funding into," so that we can perhaps get grants and take the next steps that we need.
John Hamilton:
So each of us will be talking to our various legislatures, city council, and county governments as well to get this endorsement.
Jim, Columbus has a long history of collaboration and working together across sectors. This is a bipartisan thing, this is a cross-sector thing, and you guys have been doing it a lot, haven't you?
Jim Lienhoop:
Well, we have, and we realize that by focusing on the common good we can really get some things done. We talked a little bit about trying to establish the public will or the public desire to move on this, and part of what we hope comes out of this initiative is that we can use our voice to explain to the people who live in our communities how important this is and why it's necessary for us to take some steps forward, provide the funding, and then get to work, so I'm excited about it.
John Hamilton:
It's fun to be around a table with Nashville, Columbus, and Bloomington working together on a crucial issue of climate emergency and also climate opportunity. We look forward to our legislative bodies moving forward, we hope, and then creating a working group that'll move forward. We're aiming for a three-year runway at least, looking for that three-year commitment, and thanks for your interest in this, and if you want more information, you can check it out on the screen, and we'll be back in touch.