Noblesville mayor-elect Chris Jensen has already planned his first year in office. He said his goal for 2020 is to take some of the ideas Noblesville officials have discussed for years and put them into action.
“The Logan Street pedestrian bridge will open, and that’s a 50-50 partnership with Hamilton County aimed at not only rehabbing the bridge but creating a way to safely move pedestrians from the east side to the west side of the river,” Jensen said. “If we want to continue to make investments on the west side of the river, and we will – you’ll see a lot of those come in 2020 — we have to be able to move people safely across the river if we want to continue to promote connectivity like that.”
Jensen said the bridge would be finished in early 2020.
Construction of The Levinson, a $23.4 million public-private partnership project which will bring apartments, parking and retail space to the northwest corner of Ninth and Maple streets, will continue. The project originally had a completion date of October 2020, but Jensen said there were some construction delays with drilling issues, so he’s not sure of a precise completion date.
“The Levinson will really start to take shape in 2020,” he said. “The construction season this winter will help determine what that timeline looks like, but you will see the building come out of the ground in 2020 and how that’s going to affect the make-up of downtown.”
Jensen said residents also will begin to see construction on Ind. 37 at 146th Street and 126th Street in 2020.
“A lot of times, people view that as a Fishers project, but two interchanges are in Noblesville – 146th Street and 141st Street,” Jensen said. “Looking ahead in 2020, you will start to see Noblesville looking at the northern section of (Ind.) 37. A lot of lessons are being learned currently about the southern piece of 37 that we need to apply to the northern piece. That project is not complete until it gets well into Noblesville up to (Ind.) 32/38.”
Other road projects include a plan for the Pleasant Street extension project. Jensen said the city will continue with the federal aid process into 2020.
“Part of that is a lot of public engagement. I think our goal is to have final designs of that in 2020, and really my goal for the incoming administration is to have a funding package in place for Phase 1 and in front of (the city) council in 2020.
“In 2020, we will move from the idea phase to the funding plan.”
Downtown parking will continue to take shape in the new year. The new parking ordinance for downtown Noblesville goes into effect Jan. 1.
“As the Levinson comes online, that will increase our capacity by 90 percent in terms of parking in downtown Noblesville, and that completely changes the game for us,” Jensen said. “We will look at ways to adjust that and listen to merchants and customers downtown.”
Plans for a new police station
In addition to overseeing construction on roads and other developments in the City of Noblesville, mayor-elect Chris Jensen also has a plan for public safety.
He recently announced the appointment of Chad Knecht as director of public safety, the first position of its kind in Hamilton County. John Mann is the new chief of police.
“I think we can put to rest the idea of a new police station. It’s time to outline the plan on that idea,” Jensen said. “They are in a station equipped for 15 to 20 years ago, and our growth has continued since that time. We need a facility to make sure the guys and gals in blue on the front line every day are best-equipped.”
Jensen said the ideal location for the new police station is the Firestone site off Division Street in downtown Noblesville. He expects a final decision on if the station will be able to occupy that site in the first quarter of 2020.
“We have designs ready to go. It’s really the land question,” he said.
