Unknown Speaker
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren. Second week of March. Here we are with Terre Haute, Mayor Duke Bennett. Hello, welcome. How's Terre Haute today?
Unknown Speaker
Going? Well, you know, the weather has been pretty good lately, we've had a mild winter. So that's been you know, I've loved that. But, you know, it's we're getting closer to spring now. And that's when everything starts happening. So it's an exciting time around here.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, it is nice to see everybody out. And about this last couple of days a little cooler today. I wanted to start with something I did this last week with Mayor Jim Lin up as they national news made more local recently that was at Ohio train derailment. Lit lit up mention how it's very rare kind of disaster, but one that local emergency personnel they're trained for. And I know many trains go through Terre Haute as well. Did you kind of have one of those old moments when you saw
Unknown Speaker
that? Yeah, just briefly, though, because we have talked about it off and on and our emergency management folks are, they're always, you know, thinking through that stuff on our behalf. And and, you know, get us involved with planning and reviewing and things periodically, you know, yeah, we've got about 60 trains a day that moves through tariffs. So who knows what's in some of that cargo. I mean, just like that, I'm sure those folks had no idea what was passing through. But you know, when something like that happens, it's like, everything comes to a standstill, because you don't even know what you're dealing with, then you have to be ready for that and do have as much of an impact as you can up front on a disaster like that. So I, you know, I may just may just think about that we had some internal discussions, I had some external discussions, to make me feel good about if something did happen, that we'd be ready to respond to that. And so I feel good about that. I hope it never happens, open happens to nobody. But obviously, those things can't happen. And we've had, there's been a few more train wrecks, since that one across the United States. So you know, they're gonna get derailed and things are gonna happen. And we just need to be prepared to keep the community safe.
Unknown Speaker
And there was a incident, I believe, was a week ago about an ammonia spill into the sewer system and caused some problems. Can you talk about where that happened, how that happened? And how things are right now.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. And you know, that was kind of timely with that train wreck. So I think some people here were like, oh, you know, that's, you know, similar. But what do you do when that happens? So we had a local company, hydrate chemical that makes a variety of chemicals, but ammonia is one of their end products. And it was just a man made mistake there if somebody's doing the wrong thing, and emptying that into our sewer system, where their waste products that have gone and both are in product ID. And when that gets into the sewer system and works its way to the treatment plant, it kills the bugs and the treatment plant, because it's such a potent, you know, chemical that it stopped our processes. And so we were able to capture that spill into seven of our eight team tanks that we have down there and keep it in there. So it wouldn't go you know, do more damage and do environmental damage. And we've been working on it ever since that'll be it'll be two weeks this Wednesday of being you know, a have in our system. And we have recovered pretty well. We've got three of our tanks of the seven that are functioning normally the other two are coming online as we speak. So but it made us go into an emergency mode to deal with this chemical spill, if you will. That was just an inadvertent thing. And so we're working with them. They're hauling some stuff out from our plant and treating it at a different facility we're bringing bugs in. I mean, it's really just kind of a it's quite a process to watch. But it made me feel really good about our internal processes to deal with that. And IDM came in and verified everything we're doing and said we're doing it by the book, and they applauded our efforts of dealing with it. It's just you wish you didn't happen. It didn't happen that things like this do
Unknown Speaker
was this something that company notified the treatment plant or when it it was kind of
Unknown Speaker
both because it happened overnight. And so you know, they recognized once their additional staff came in the next morning that that it was going the wrong thing was going into the sewer and in our plant noticed that because we could smell it so we were able to identify that pretty quickly.
Unknown Speaker
It was there any loss of service to residents or anything like that,
Unknown Speaker
oh, you know, we have enough capacity down there. The major upgrades we've done on that plant has allowed us to deal with things like like this not that you plan for a spill like this, but the capacity that we have allows us to guide that to certain tanks, shut those tanks off from the rest of the system to make sure it doesn't get into the river, basically, that's the worst case scenario would be to have a dump into the river. And that did not happen. And we are we've done a great job. I applaud our staff IDM has applauded our staff that we handle this very, very well. And it'll take us a few more weeks to get rid of all of it, but it the process is working.
Unknown Speaker
And I just wanted to be sure when you say bugs, what do you what do you mean by the?
Unknown Speaker
Well, they are actual bugs that you know, that's how treatment plants work. And so Okay, eat the waist, if you will. And so you have to have these microbes in there doing their job to break the waist down. So the water as it moves from parts of the plant, it gets cleaner and cleaner and cleaner, until you put it back into the river. Well, upfront, all the rough stuffs in there, you know, a hole, all the stuff that goes into the toilet has to be dealt with. And the bugs break that down. And so the solids sink, the water rises, you pull the water off, you treat the water and you just keep working through the process. So treatment plants they live that I had to learn that as mayor, I did not know how that all work when I first got here, but I know so much more about it today.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I figured that's what you meant. And then the more I thought about it, I wondered if it was an acronym for something. Actual, but yeah, from the US. Yeah. Let's just get to the statehouse the halfway point of the session, and I know you've been keeping your eye on a few things. Do you have any updates for us?
Unknown Speaker
You know, it seems the TIF bill died in the house. So that was good. I you know, once again, communities only have really two tools available to us. If somebody wants to relocate in a TIF district, we can help with infrastructure, etc. Or we have tax abatements, that's really the only two tools that municipalities had. And so I was concerned about that bill that some of that money was going to go to other taxing entities. And they were just going to make it more difficult for us to spend the money there. And you name it. We fight these battles every session, but I feel good that it didn't make it out of the house, doesn't mean it's completely dead. It can resurface in a Senate Bill. But, you know, that was a good one for me at what they're gonna do on property taxes. I don't know, they're wanting to provide relief. And you know, to taxpayers, I understand that. But I don't know what that exactly might look like at the end. So I'm keeping a very close watch on that. Otherwise, I think it's been a pretty good session of things that are, you know, more helpful than harmful, you know, and I love my legislators that have worked with them all the time. And but there's a certain things that make it difficult to run a municipality now, those are the ones that I stay focused on, how can we find a way to provide relief, but don't do it at the you know, at the cost of delivering services. And so I think they get the message, they're trying to find ways to do both. And so I feel really good about the halfway point.
Unknown Speaker
Let's see, Vigo county commissioners are presenting the American rescue plan Act funds. Last time we talked the city was working on its plans, I believe it was went in front of city council. So how's that going? What funding projects are you looking at?
Unknown Speaker
So we've been working very closely with the county to make sure we're aligned on all of our projects, whether it's ready funded, or ARPA funded, or casino money in the future fund and whatever that might be. And so I think we've done a good job of these ARPA funds to figure out how we leverage the county's amount and the city's amount to get the biggest bang for the buck in our community. So some of those dollars will go to matches for ready grants, some of the dollars will go directly to small business to not for profits, to housing, we've all agreed on some of those big buckets. And then are some individual projects that we're each supporting. So in the city's case, you know, we're looking at some things that are housing related for homeless housing, or some assisted living kind of in a facility that's looking to locate here that needs some help with some, you know, scoring some points, some investments we can make out there to help with that. It'll be across the board. So we're looking at workforce development, housing, childcare, quality life projects, all of that fits somewhere underneath those type of umbrellas. Then there's a few city projects, we're going to fund the City Hall renovations that we've talked about before, a brown Avenue stormwater project, sewer sanitary related to our 13th and Eighth Avenue overpass that's going in. So it's kind of a mix of things, but we're going to try to make the money. You don't want to spread it thin but you want to make sure that the things you invest in will have a substantial impact. So we're trying to make sure we cover all of our bases, but not do something that will be spend some money for six months or a year and then what do you show for it? We want these things to be lasting investments. Something you talked
Unknown Speaker
about to and your end of the year show that we do. And we talk about the past year, which we're looking forward to this year was parks planning. Is that something that you're very active with to right now?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, we're making major progress on our hurts rose Park as part of a bigger neighborhood stabilization project and that 16th and Locust area, we are stamped starting the actual design, the design documents for that park upgrade, it'll get totally refurbished, the whole park will get everything new. And so that's an exciting one. For me that's taking the next step into going into the design mode. We hope to complete that this summer and be able to go out to bid with something by the fall on that project, then of Fairbanks Park, we're beginning to pick, we're probably going to have about nine or 10 projects. Fairbanks Park is our park on the river, it's in downtown Taro, we want to really make that much more of a destination Park. And so we've got the master plan done now. Now we're beginning to work on the individual projects and starting to design on those. So those will take longer, they're bigger projects than like the Hertz rose Park. But we're going to begin to do next year, we'll probably pick off at least two of those projects to get construction started on and then a couple of each year after until we get them all done. Ray Park and rehabilitating the clubhouse, the goal is still to go to construction in November of this year on that, we're still raising private funds and working with a local group to do that fundraising. And then the city will match that and I think we're gonna get there here in the next couple months. So I'm excited about improvements at Ray Park on the far south side. And then the last one is the dimming Park pool and upgrade to the pool repair of existing bool adding a zero entry pool next to that and and amenities slides, and you know, rock climbing wall, those kinds of things at that park. So basically a park on the north side, the west side, the East Side and South Side is our focus first. Then as we get those projects underway, we're going to begin to bring other parks into the fold. Our goal is to make some improvements in all of our parks over the next five to 10 years, we've got 29 different facilities we're responsible for.
Unknown Speaker
Is this something that's being funded by the arpa? Or is it a across the board funding the
Unknown Speaker
above and it are ready, and then casino revenue beginning next year?
Unknown Speaker
Any updates on the casino construction and I know the city, there's a lot of city infrastructure improvements going on there too.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, it's going well, I drove by yesterday, I haven't been out there in a few days, and it's moving up, you know, really well, they're on their schedule, they feel like they're meeting the schedule that they had set a few months ago, and still plan to open basically a year from now the end of next March. So we'll see, you know, there's always factors that can, you know, slow that down. But right now, they are moving very quickly. So we're excited about that. And infrastructure investments around it that they're paying for will, will be happening this year. And so we're gonna see a lot of activity out there on that east side,
Unknown Speaker
I see the trip stars reporting, Tara, who could get a $1 billion investment from a battery producing company and Vigo County's Industrial Park create about 640 jobs, this is huge news for you.
Unknown Speaker
Huge, you know, it's a company we've been working with for a while, you know, leads leads come in, and you see them on a list, you know, a year or two ago, and you're thinking, Okay, we'll see how these play out. And then if you stay on the list, you know, you're in pretty good shape. This one has been doing that for the last year. And everybody locally felt good about it, but you just never know until the final decision is made. So they're in those final steps of that. And it's very exciting. It looks like it's going to happen. You know, average wage is going to be about $70,000 a year, that's tremendous 642 jobs. And it's really over a billion dollars investment kind of over a period of time as they ramp up their operations. And so we're looking forward to you know, the county being able to finalize that it's in our South industrial park here. So the county redevelopment commission, county council and others, commissioners are all working hard on that. But our team overall, you know, that's what we're trying to do is bring those higher paying jobs, those big investments, so people can buy homes here, they can increase their household income. We want those opportunities for people. And so this is a perfect fit for what you're trying to do is one of those, you know, the goals you shoot for, and it looks like this one's going to play out for us. So we're just hopeful that the final parts of the deal can come together and it'll and everything will happen.
Unknown Speaker
But kind of ripple effect could that have on the city of Terre Haute is able to draw them in?
Unknown Speaker
Well, you know, I think anytime you get a big announcement like that you get a big investment, you know that it sends message that we're ready to open for business. You know, everybody uses that term. But I still worry about some things, you know, we need a population increase in the state of Indiana and here in Terre Haute, we need more people in the pool workforce. But I think it sends a great message that it's it's it's inexpensive government will work with you here, we've got the, you know, the talent we've got for colleges and universities. We're right at the crossroads of America and the major interstates, we got an airport, it's the third busiest one in the state of Indiana. I mean, there's so many selling tools, but you got to close deals. And so here's one that looks like, you know, is probably most likely going to happen, that will have that kind of an impact. So the employees will be making good wages, hopefully they'll invest buy homes, hopefully, it'll draw additional people to our community that want to work there. I think it has a very dynamic effect.
Unknown Speaker
Now, I was talking to a startup company in Bloomington last week, and he was mentioning that the next step to developing the economy was bringing in larger companies, because the smaller startups kind of feed or work off of the bigger companies, and that kind of grows everything. But it must be hard to bring in those large companies.
Unknown Speaker
It is it's very difficult, and it's so competitive. That's the thing, the Midwest is looking pretty good right now for the battery industry, semiconductors. I mean, you've heard the governor talking a lot about that. And I met with Brad chambers at the Commerce Secretary recently, and he's telling us about all these leads that are coming in to Indiana because we're a great place to do business, but they want to be in the Midwest, you know, that's, that's a great place for them to locate to be able to send their products out. And so when we're out recruiting, you know, Terre Haute is not one of the bigger cities, you know, we're I mean, we're, we hold our own. But you know, a lot of times they look at a bigger pool of people or bigger resources from the government, I think we play a perfect role in in that competition, where there's a lot of room here. It's inexpensive to live here and invest here and create your business here. But I think you have to do all the above, I think, you know, most employees come from new growth of employees comes from growth of existing businesses. That's that's a known fact. But you got to get a few of these big wins along the way to to bring somebody new and bring new technology and bring new investments in. And so you grow the old you know, the existing you help some startups kind of mixed in the play and you get a, you land a big one periodically, that kind of makes the whole economy per, and you know, we're a big healthcare industry, here are two major hospitals. We're a big retail destination. We're big educational destination. We're big on manufacturing. But you've got to always you got to fill all the niches of that. And so we're trying to work all that working great with the commissioners working great with the state of Indiana. And hopefully this will be one of those the fruits of that effort.
Unknown Speaker
Before we go, I hear there's a big donation the Indiana theater from a familiar name in Terre Haute, can you kind of fill us in on that?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, a few years ago, Greg Gibson bought it basically. So it wouldn't go on the tax sale. He saved the building from being used for what we believe to be something of a lesser, lesser use than what we envision that for the Indiana theater is one of the one of the oldest theaters left in the state of Indiana, designed by a guy that designed very unique way of architecture. It's just a beautiful facility. It's still in excellent condition. Greg did not want to be in the movie or the entertainment business, but he wanted to make sure that building was saved. And so he recently donated to that to the CIB. So that's going to be our second project. Now after our convention center, we will take that building over hopefully in the next couple of months, we'll make them get through all the legal stuff of that and get a handle on what needs all done and there we know it needs new heating and cooling new roof etc. We're going to be using ARPA funds, possibly some ready funds, casino firms. You know, we don't have to use existing budget line items, but we'll be able to use revenues both from the city and the county. We're both in on this. And we're going to make that be a showcase entity destination here locally. Greg had already had an agreement with a local movie guy who runs the outdoor theater here in Terre Haute. So they're going to run first run movies in there. It'll be available for concerts and comedy shows. And you name it, it's going to be a real functional location like it used to be in its past. It's just been closed now for a few years but preserved, but now it needs some, you know, a little TLC, and we're gonna bring that back and it's going to be a great destination in our community.
Unknown Speaker
And for those who don't know, great Greg Gibson is a longtime business person in Terre Haute, right? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker
sorry. I gotta thank Uh, yeah, no, no, no, you're a longtime businessman, you know, was originally involved with the casino project. It didn't work out for him. But he's, he's a great guy for the community, everything he does benefits the community. And this is a perfect example of him taking something that probably would have turned into not been what it'll be and saved it. Donate it to us. So we can get it in government hands and do it right, like a lot of other communities have done with old theaters. There's success stories all over the Midwest like that.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. I know, we're out of time. But always like to leave the last minute up to you any other big announcements that you'd like to make?
Unknown Speaker
I don't think any big announcements I you know, I think we're gearing up for this, this construction season. I know I say that we go through the winter, and we plan and now it's time to start making that happen. We're getting some more bids back. They look like they're right in line with our engineering estimates. So that makes me think the inflation is at least holding its own. You know, we're not seeing any big increases in material costs or labor costs right now. And so I think this is going to be a good productive year for us and not cost us more like last year did everything cost us a lot more. And I think we're prepared to deal with that locally this year. It's just going to it's going to be a really exciting year. There's a lot of things coming down the pike that I think we're positioning ourselves well as we look forward even beyond this year.
Unknown Speaker
Thanks so much for your time. And the year goes by quickly. We'll see you and April.
Unknown Speaker
The first quarter, first third of the year, I should say the first quarter is already up here now today. So it does go fast. But you know, great, great things are happening.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker
Thanks, Joe.
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren. Second week of March. Here we are with Terre Haute, Mayor Duke Bennett. Hello, welcome. How's Terre Haute today?
Unknown Speaker
Going? Well, you know, the weather has been pretty good lately, we've had a mild winter. So that's been you know, I've loved that. But, you know, it's we're getting closer to spring now. And that's when everything starts happening. So it's an exciting time around here.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, it is nice to see everybody out. And about this last couple of days a little cooler today. I wanted to start with something I did this last week with Mayor Jim Lin up as they national news made more local recently that was at Ohio train derailment. Lit lit up mention how it's very rare kind of disaster, but one that local emergency personnel they're trained for. And I know many trains go through Terre Haute as well. Did you kind of have one of those old moments when you saw
Unknown Speaker
that? Yeah, just briefly, though, because we have talked about it off and on and our emergency management folks are, they're always, you know, thinking through that stuff on our behalf. And and, you know, get us involved with planning and reviewing and things periodically, you know, yeah, we've got about 60 trains a day that moves through tariffs. So who knows what's in some of that cargo. I mean, just like that, I'm sure those folks had no idea what was passing through. But you know, when something like that happens, it's like, everything comes to a standstill, because you don't even know what you're dealing with, then you have to be ready for that and do have as much of an impact as you can up front on a disaster like that. So I, you know, I may just may just think about that we had some internal discussions, I had some external discussions, to make me feel good about if something did happen, that we'd be ready to respond to that. And so I feel good about that. I hope it never happens, open happens to nobody. But obviously, those things can't happen. And we've had, there's been a few more train wrecks, since that one across the United States. So you know, they're gonna get derailed and things are gonna happen. And we just need to be prepared to keep the community safe.
Unknown Speaker
And there was a incident, I believe, was a week ago about an ammonia spill into the sewer system and caused some problems. Can you talk about where that happened, how that happened? And how things are right now.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. And you know, that was kind of timely with that train wreck. So I think some people here were like, oh, you know, that's, you know, similar. But what do you do when that happens? So we had a local company, hydrate chemical that makes a variety of chemicals, but ammonia is one of their end products. And it was just a man made mistake there if somebody's doing the wrong thing, and emptying that into our sewer system, where their waste products that have gone and both are in product ID. And when that gets into the sewer system and works its way to the treatment plant, it kills the bugs and the treatment plant, because it's such a potent, you know, chemical that it stopped our processes. And so we were able to capture that spill into seven of our eight team tanks that we have down there and keep it in there. So it wouldn't go you know, do more damage and do environmental damage. And we've been working on it ever since that'll be it'll be two weeks this Wednesday of being you know, a have in our system. And we have recovered pretty well. We've got three of our tanks of the seven that are functioning normally the other two are coming online as we speak. So but it made us go into an emergency mode to deal with this chemical spill, if you will. That was just an inadvertent thing. And so we're working with them. They're hauling some stuff out from our plant and treating it at a different facility we're bringing bugs in. I mean, it's really just kind of a it's quite a process to watch. But it made me feel really good about our internal processes to deal with that. And IDM came in and verified everything we're doing and said we're doing it by the book, and they applauded our efforts of dealing with it. It's just you wish you didn't happen. It didn't happen that things like this do
Unknown Speaker
was this something that company notified the treatment plant or when it it was kind of
Unknown Speaker
both because it happened overnight. And so you know, they recognized once their additional staff came in the next morning that that it was going the wrong thing was going into the sewer and in our plant noticed that because we could smell it so we were able to identify that pretty quickly.
Unknown Speaker
It was there any loss of service to residents or anything like that,
Unknown Speaker
oh, you know, we have enough capacity down there. The major upgrades we've done on that plant has allowed us to deal with things like like this not that you plan for a spill like this, but the capacity that we have allows us to guide that to certain tanks, shut those tanks off from the rest of the system to make sure it doesn't get into the river, basically, that's the worst case scenario would be to have a dump into the river. And that did not happen. And we are we've done a great job. I applaud our staff IDM has applauded our staff that we handle this very, very well. And it'll take us a few more weeks to get rid of all of it, but it the process is working.
Unknown Speaker
And I just wanted to be sure when you say bugs, what do you what do you mean by the?
Unknown Speaker
Well, they are actual bugs that you know, that's how treatment plants work. And so Okay, eat the waist, if you will. And so you have to have these microbes in there doing their job to break the waist down. So the water as it moves from parts of the plant, it gets cleaner and cleaner and cleaner, until you put it back into the river. Well, upfront, all the rough stuffs in there, you know, a hole, all the stuff that goes into the toilet has to be dealt with. And the bugs break that down. And so the solids sink, the water rises, you pull the water off, you treat the water and you just keep working through the process. So treatment plants they live that I had to learn that as mayor, I did not know how that all work when I first got here, but I know so much more about it today.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I figured that's what you meant. And then the more I thought about it, I wondered if it was an acronym for something. Actual, but yeah, from the US. Yeah. Let's just get to the statehouse the halfway point of the session, and I know you've been keeping your eye on a few things. Do you have any updates for us?
Unknown Speaker
You know, it seems the TIF bill died in the house. So that was good. I you know, once again, communities only have really two tools available to us. If somebody wants to relocate in a TIF district, we can help with infrastructure, etc. Or we have tax abatements, that's really the only two tools that municipalities had. And so I was concerned about that bill that some of that money was going to go to other taxing entities. And they were just going to make it more difficult for us to spend the money there. And you name it. We fight these battles every session, but I feel good that it didn't make it out of the house, doesn't mean it's completely dead. It can resurface in a Senate Bill. But, you know, that was a good one for me at what they're gonna do on property taxes. I don't know, they're wanting to provide relief. And you know, to taxpayers, I understand that. But I don't know what that exactly might look like at the end. So I'm keeping a very close watch on that. Otherwise, I think it's been a pretty good session of things that are, you know, more helpful than harmful, you know, and I love my legislators that have worked with them all the time. And but there's a certain things that make it difficult to run a municipality now, those are the ones that I stay focused on, how can we find a way to provide relief, but don't do it at the you know, at the cost of delivering services. And so I think they get the message, they're trying to find ways to do both. And so I feel really good about the halfway point.
Unknown Speaker
Let's see, Vigo county commissioners are presenting the American rescue plan Act funds. Last time we talked the city was working on its plans, I believe it was went in front of city council. So how's that going? What funding projects are you looking at?
Unknown Speaker
So we've been working very closely with the county to make sure we're aligned on all of our projects, whether it's ready funded, or ARPA funded, or casino money in the future fund and whatever that might be. And so I think we've done a good job of these ARPA funds to figure out how we leverage the county's amount and the city's amount to get the biggest bang for the buck in our community. So some of those dollars will go to matches for ready grants, some of the dollars will go directly to small business to not for profits, to housing, we've all agreed on some of those big buckets. And then are some individual projects that we're each supporting. So in the city's case, you know, we're looking at some things that are housing related for homeless housing, or some assisted living kind of in a facility that's looking to locate here that needs some help with some, you know, scoring some points, some investments we can make out there to help with that. It'll be across the board. So we're looking at workforce development, housing, childcare, quality life projects, all of that fits somewhere underneath those type of umbrellas. Then there's a few city projects, we're going to fund the City Hall renovations that we've talked about before, a brown Avenue stormwater project, sewer sanitary related to our 13th and Eighth Avenue overpass that's going in. So it's kind of a mix of things, but we're going to try to make the money. You don't want to spread it thin but you want to make sure that the things you invest in will have a substantial impact. So we're trying to make sure we cover all of our bases, but not do something that will be spend some money for six months or a year and then what do you show for it? We want these things to be lasting investments. Something you talked
Unknown Speaker
about to and your end of the year show that we do. And we talk about the past year, which we're looking forward to this year was parks planning. Is that something that you're very active with to right now?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, we're making major progress on our hurts rose Park as part of a bigger neighborhood stabilization project and that 16th and Locust area, we are stamped starting the actual design, the design documents for that park upgrade, it'll get totally refurbished, the whole park will get everything new. And so that's an exciting one. For me that's taking the next step into going into the design mode. We hope to complete that this summer and be able to go out to bid with something by the fall on that project, then of Fairbanks Park, we're beginning to pick, we're probably going to have about nine or 10 projects. Fairbanks Park is our park on the river, it's in downtown Taro, we want to really make that much more of a destination Park. And so we've got the master plan done now. Now we're beginning to work on the individual projects and starting to design on those. So those will take longer, they're bigger projects than like the Hertz rose Park. But we're going to begin to do next year, we'll probably pick off at least two of those projects to get construction started on and then a couple of each year after until we get them all done. Ray Park and rehabilitating the clubhouse, the goal is still to go to construction in November of this year on that, we're still raising private funds and working with a local group to do that fundraising. And then the city will match that and I think we're gonna get there here in the next couple months. So I'm excited about improvements at Ray Park on the far south side. And then the last one is the dimming Park pool and upgrade to the pool repair of existing bool adding a zero entry pool next to that and and amenities slides, and you know, rock climbing wall, those kinds of things at that park. So basically a park on the north side, the west side, the East Side and South Side is our focus first. Then as we get those projects underway, we're going to begin to bring other parks into the fold. Our goal is to make some improvements in all of our parks over the next five to 10 years, we've got 29 different facilities we're responsible for.
Unknown Speaker
Is this something that's being funded by the arpa? Or is it a across the board funding the
Unknown Speaker
above and it are ready, and then casino revenue beginning next year?
Unknown Speaker
Any updates on the casino construction and I know the city, there's a lot of city infrastructure improvements going on there too.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, it's going well, I drove by yesterday, I haven't been out there in a few days, and it's moving up, you know, really well, they're on their schedule, they feel like they're meeting the schedule that they had set a few months ago, and still plan to open basically a year from now the end of next March. So we'll see, you know, there's always factors that can, you know, slow that down. But right now, they are moving very quickly. So we're excited about that. And infrastructure investments around it that they're paying for will, will be happening this year. And so we're gonna see a lot of activity out there on that east side,
Unknown Speaker
I see the trip stars reporting, Tara, who could get a $1 billion investment from a battery producing company and Vigo County's Industrial Park create about 640 jobs, this is huge news for you.
Unknown Speaker
Huge, you know, it's a company we've been working with for a while, you know, leads leads come in, and you see them on a list, you know, a year or two ago, and you're thinking, Okay, we'll see how these play out. And then if you stay on the list, you know, you're in pretty good shape. This one has been doing that for the last year. And everybody locally felt good about it, but you just never know until the final decision is made. So they're in those final steps of that. And it's very exciting. It looks like it's going to happen. You know, average wage is going to be about $70,000 a year, that's tremendous 642 jobs. And it's really over a billion dollars investment kind of over a period of time as they ramp up their operations. And so we're looking forward to you know, the county being able to finalize that it's in our South industrial park here. So the county redevelopment commission, county council and others, commissioners are all working hard on that. But our team overall, you know, that's what we're trying to do is bring those higher paying jobs, those big investments, so people can buy homes here, they can increase their household income. We want those opportunities for people. And so this is a perfect fit for what you're trying to do is one of those, you know, the goals you shoot for, and it looks like this one's going to play out for us. So we're just hopeful that the final parts of the deal can come together and it'll and everything will happen.
Unknown Speaker
But kind of ripple effect could that have on the city of Terre Haute is able to draw them in?
Unknown Speaker
Well, you know, I think anytime you get a big announcement like that you get a big investment, you know that it sends message that we're ready to open for business. You know, everybody uses that term. But I still worry about some things, you know, we need a population increase in the state of Indiana and here in Terre Haute, we need more people in the pool workforce. But I think it sends a great message that it's it's it's inexpensive government will work with you here, we've got the, you know, the talent we've got for colleges and universities. We're right at the crossroads of America and the major interstates, we got an airport, it's the third busiest one in the state of Indiana. I mean, there's so many selling tools, but you got to close deals. And so here's one that looks like, you know, is probably most likely going to happen, that will have that kind of an impact. So the employees will be making good wages, hopefully they'll invest buy homes, hopefully, it'll draw additional people to our community that want to work there. I think it has a very dynamic effect.
Unknown Speaker
Now, I was talking to a startup company in Bloomington last week, and he was mentioning that the next step to developing the economy was bringing in larger companies, because the smaller startups kind of feed or work off of the bigger companies, and that kind of grows everything. But it must be hard to bring in those large companies.
Unknown Speaker
It is it's very difficult, and it's so competitive. That's the thing, the Midwest is looking pretty good right now for the battery industry, semiconductors. I mean, you've heard the governor talking a lot about that. And I met with Brad chambers at the Commerce Secretary recently, and he's telling us about all these leads that are coming in to Indiana because we're a great place to do business, but they want to be in the Midwest, you know, that's, that's a great place for them to locate to be able to send their products out. And so when we're out recruiting, you know, Terre Haute is not one of the bigger cities, you know, we're I mean, we're, we hold our own. But you know, a lot of times they look at a bigger pool of people or bigger resources from the government, I think we play a perfect role in in that competition, where there's a lot of room here. It's inexpensive to live here and invest here and create your business here. But I think you have to do all the above, I think, you know, most employees come from new growth of employees comes from growth of existing businesses. That's that's a known fact. But you got to get a few of these big wins along the way to to bring somebody new and bring new technology and bring new investments in. And so you grow the old you know, the existing you help some startups kind of mixed in the play and you get a, you land a big one periodically, that kind of makes the whole economy per, and you know, we're a big healthcare industry, here are two major hospitals. We're a big retail destination. We're big educational destination. We're big on manufacturing. But you've got to always you got to fill all the niches of that. And so we're trying to work all that working great with the commissioners working great with the state of Indiana. And hopefully this will be one of those the fruits of that effort.
Unknown Speaker
Before we go, I hear there's a big donation the Indiana theater from a familiar name in Terre Haute, can you kind of fill us in on that?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, a few years ago, Greg Gibson bought it basically. So it wouldn't go on the tax sale. He saved the building from being used for what we believe to be something of a lesser, lesser use than what we envision that for the Indiana theater is one of the one of the oldest theaters left in the state of Indiana, designed by a guy that designed very unique way of architecture. It's just a beautiful facility. It's still in excellent condition. Greg did not want to be in the movie or the entertainment business, but he wanted to make sure that building was saved. And so he recently donated to that to the CIB. So that's going to be our second project. Now after our convention center, we will take that building over hopefully in the next couple of months, we'll make them get through all the legal stuff of that and get a handle on what needs all done and there we know it needs new heating and cooling new roof etc. We're going to be using ARPA funds, possibly some ready funds, casino firms. You know, we don't have to use existing budget line items, but we'll be able to use revenues both from the city and the county. We're both in on this. And we're going to make that be a showcase entity destination here locally. Greg had already had an agreement with a local movie guy who runs the outdoor theater here in Terre Haute. So they're going to run first run movies in there. It'll be available for concerts and comedy shows. And you name it, it's going to be a real functional location like it used to be in its past. It's just been closed now for a few years but preserved, but now it needs some, you know, a little TLC, and we're gonna bring that back and it's going to be a great destination in our community.
Unknown Speaker
And for those who don't know, great Greg Gibson is a longtime business person in Terre Haute, right? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker
sorry. I gotta thank Uh, yeah, no, no, no, you're a longtime businessman, you know, was originally involved with the casino project. It didn't work out for him. But he's, he's a great guy for the community, everything he does benefits the community. And this is a perfect example of him taking something that probably would have turned into not been what it'll be and saved it. Donate it to us. So we can get it in government hands and do it right, like a lot of other communities have done with old theaters. There's success stories all over the Midwest like that.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. I know, we're out of time. But always like to leave the last minute up to you any other big announcements that you'd like to make?
Unknown Speaker
I don't think any big announcements I you know, I think we're gearing up for this, this construction season. I know I say that we go through the winter, and we plan and now it's time to start making that happen. We're getting some more bids back. They look like they're right in line with our engineering estimates. So that makes me think the inflation is at least holding its own. You know, we're not seeing any big increases in material costs or labor costs right now. And so I think this is going to be a good productive year for us and not cost us more like last year did everything cost us a lot more. And I think we're prepared to deal with that locally this year. It's just going to it's going to be a really exciting year. There's a lot of things coming down the pike that I think we're positioning ourselves well as we look forward even beyond this year.
Unknown Speaker
Thanks so much for your time. And the year goes by quickly. We'll see you and April.
Unknown Speaker
The first quarter, first third of the year, I should say the first quarter is already up here now today. So it does go fast. But you know, great, great things are happening.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker
Thanks, Joe.
