Ballard Pushes For RebuildIndy 2

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard is proposing a $350 million plan to fix some of the city’s infrastructure.

It’s called RebuildIndy 2 and would be used for repairs of roads, sidewalks and bridges.

Thursday, he kicked off a series of public meetings on the plan.

Between 2010 and 2013 the city spent about $500 million on infrastructure improvements through RebuildIndy.

Mayor Ballard says the proposed new spending is to fix the areas that weren’t able to be done the first time around. 

"This has been the harshest winter," he said.  "We tried to do this earlier, but now we just know how bad it was - how bad these old streets were that haven't been touched in decades.  And we're going to have to do them eventually.  But, now it's cheaper than it will be in 10-15 years - a lot cheaper than it will be."

Most of the effort would be paid for through state and federal funds.

But, the city would take out about a $150 million loan for the rest, which Councilor Frank Mascari took exception to at the public meeting.  He asked the mayor to work with the council on reducing that figure.

Fountain Square Alliance Neighborhood Association President Trisha Sqrow says the price tag is high, but so is the need for improvements.

"It's a lot of money, but I think it's something that is needed," she said.  "We do have some areas where the sidewalks are just in really bad shape and we have a lot of residents in our neighborhood who may not have cars and depend on public transportation or walking, so when you have a sidewalk that is in horrible shape, it's hard to walk on it.  People start walking in the street."

Indianapolis resident Chris Staab attended Thursday's meeting and also supports the plan.

"I'm kind of enthused that this plan is coming to effect, especially after the winter that we had and the decay of the infrastructure that we've had because of all the salt that had to be put on the roads and all the freezing and thawing that we've had," he said.

Ballard will hold about a dozen public meetings on the plan over the next few months.