Unknown Speaker
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren. Today we're with Terre Haute, Mayor Duke Bennett on Zoom Hello and welcome Mr. Bennett.
Unknown Speaker
Hey, it's good to be here. Joe, thanks for doing this again. New Year and hardy our second one it just busy time around here. And it just came very quickly. So I'm glad to be on.
Unknown Speaker
You know, I wanted to start with something that I know we haven't talked about in a while is the COVID-19. The public health emergency seems to have an end date now with the White House emergency declaration set to expire into May World Health Health Organization also stated this week that the global pandemic though is not over yet. But most likely to end this year. Some health officials are worried say it's a misnomer that it's over. Ending the public health emergency means we'd have to pay now for COVID testing treatment vaccines. Just wanted to hear a little bit about your message. What are you getting? What are you hearing from health officials over there?
Unknown Speaker
Well, I'm hearing that it's turned into more of a routine thing. I mean, it can still be serious clearly like any illness can be. But not hearing a lot about that it's overwhelming anything or there's any significant uptick, I guess, you know, from this winter, I kind of was afraid that maybe you know when the flu season, you'd have more of it. But I've just noticed a few fire dispatches over the last few days of people that are COVID positive that we're still going responding to. So I think it's kind of a mixed bag, I think we're at the end, that's my personal feeling is that we're you know, we're moving on from it, but it's never gonna go away. So we're going to have to treat it like we do other seasonal kinds of things. And we're going to see peaks and valleys of it. And you know, the best, the most important thing you can do is have good health yourself. And so, you know, if you're, if you can lose some weight, you can control your diabetes, you know, lung issues, those kinds of things all go a long way that if you do get COVID Down the road, it'll impact you much less. And so I think that's one of the messages that I hear from providers all the time is we need to be at a healthier community, which will then help us to be able to resist these kinds of, you know, diseases COVID and anything else that might come along.
Unknown Speaker
We have Columbus Mayor Jim Linna, on the show as well. And they were talking about revitalizing downtown and trying to draw more people back to downtown, they had trouble with parking before COVID. And now they kind of put that on the on the wayside because of parking regulations, because it's not needed as much now, how was Terre Haute doing? And is there any effort to bring more business downtown?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, you know, we're, the convention center was a big catalyst to kind of set the tone for the future. You know, we had a new restaurant opened up right next to it, you know, a couple how buildings down from the convention center a couple of weeks ago, and they've been packed every night. With the activity that's going on in the home and building that's been purchased by a local developer, it's gonna get filled up. And it's a huge, huge building, multi storey, a big, big building, it'll have a variety of private businesses, and so not for profit businesses in it. I would expect more downtown development, we're having hearing some exciting things on the entertainment side of things downtown. And so I think, you know, things come people will invest when they know the people are going to be there. You know, that's always a big part of making those kinds of financial decisions. And more and more confidence is happening all the time. So, you know, we're looking at another parking garage downtown to supplement the new hotel or hotels, we need 200 more rooms downtown. You know, I think you're really going to see it take off here in the next two or three years. So significant investment downtown.
Unknown Speaker
Well, you presented the plan and how the city should spend $30 million and the American rescue act plan. I understand nothing in government is quick. But these were the funds that were announced a couple years ago. Right. Right. And so it's just now are the funds now finally getting into the bank.
Unknown Speaker
Last Will our last disbursement came of May of last year. So all of our funds were received in May, then, and we've been working since that time with the county and other local stakeholders, you know, looking at the ready funds looking at the ARPA funds, taking a look at the casino funds that will be coming in beginning next year, and figuring out how to leverage these dollars to get the biggest bang for the buck if you will. And so now we've kind of got a good strategy with ARPA funds. The county is going to be talking about it to the County Council this week. Commissioners are presenting their plan. And so over the next couple of months we'll work on honing in on how to apply for these funds. As an example of how we're going to distribute those funds out to not for profits, private business, whatever. So, yeah, I feel really good about it. The feedback so far has been tremendous. what our plan is, you know, it'll get more detailed over the coming months. But right now, we created some buckets that we'd like to put funds in to spend over the next really four years because it all has to be spent by the end of 2026.
Unknown Speaker
What are some of those buckets you mentioned? So some of
Unknown Speaker
the big ones really are housing is one of the top ones. We need new housing, you know, our housing stock is old here, we don't have any single family homes, we don't have any affordable housing, they're just everything is kind of taken up. And so we're looking to provide some builder incentive programs, we're looking at helping with some homeless related projects. So some multi unit kind of investment, hopefully, with some private developers, public private partnerships. So everything from single family homes, to larger facilities, everything in between over the coming years, and so helped with infrastructure, you know, doing the sidewalks in front of new construction, we're gonna, it's kind of an across the board approach, the county is also investing a significant amount of money there. So we put $5 million in that particular pool, we put another $5 million in our parks, we want to spend over the next two or three years to make some major improvements to hertz rose park, to Deming Park to Fairbanks Park to Ray Park, and in some other inner city parks that won't get splash pads and new playgrounds. So we knew that quality of life is important to us as we try to keep people in Terre Haute, and recruit people and get people to come here, we need to improve on that quality of life. So those were two of the biggest buckets, we put some money back for food deserts to help create some environments within our city where there is that access to fresh fruits and vegetables, meats and things like that, we still have to figure out what that exactly looks like. But to set some money aside for that some large infrastructure projects that will help us keep from spin or having to raise sewer rates right now one with the railroad overpass at 13th. And Eighth Avenue and another one on South brown Avenue, which is stormwater only. So it's kind of a mix of things, the City Hall update, some infrastructure, some investment in the community, it's going to be kind of across the board. And we're it's roughly a little over $30 million worth the funding that's available to us. There's a little bit leftover that we're holding back for matches and things with the next ready grants that we know will be coming out this year. So really trying to just get a plan in place, begin to implement that plan and be able to tweak it as we go, depending on what other revenue opportunities come upon us.
Unknown Speaker
Was this one of the items to talk to I know you had a I guess we could call the State of the City address but it was to the chamber their
Unknown Speaker
chamber membership. Yeah, we had nearly 230 people attended that event in the convention center. And, you know, we talked a lot about the accomplishments last year and where we're going forward. But, you know, I think the big parts of that really revolve around keeping our crime steady. I'm very happy about that. We're seeing a lot of interest here with larger manufacturers looking at Terre Haute, Indiana as a whole. But Terre Haute specifically I'm excited about that. Just the collaboration and working together like with these ARPA funds and already funds is figuring out how we can make them go as far as we can. It's been awesome to be able to work with everybody, private sector, public sector, government, everybody to figure out how we move the community forward. And so that you know, out of that comes a lot of excitement. You know, I love giving those speeches anyway, it's always fun for me to reflect back a little bit to look forward a lot. And you know what we've got coming is it really going to be impactful in a taro Vigo county
Unknown Speaker
you've been advocating at the Statehouse for replacement revenue of taxes such as the business personal property taxes cut, now we're seeing some legislation to further decrease property tax caps, due to home values going up so much just has to bring back some deja vu for you
Unknown Speaker
does. And you know, I think, you know, I always understand why our legislators want to protect the citizens of our state. But these are issues in certain areas. I mean, our assessed value has gone up Yes, but they're also the state is telling me that our tax cap credits are going to be the biggest they ever have been since 2009. So we're not going to collect a lot of that money. So I think it's a little early to determine what the true impacts are going to be on the property tax side. If you lower those caps, then that means less money come into local government. Okay. But you know, assessed values have been kind of muted for quite some time they've risen. Everybody loves it when the value of their house goes up. But then the the taxes come and I understand the conflict there. I just don't know what the legislature is going to do to address that lieutenant governor was in town last week. And I asked her that question, just to see what what is kind of what's the governor thinking? What are you thinking, where's this going? And they said, they really don't know for sure. They just know there's a lot of talk about how to minimize the impact on taxpayers. So I watched those things closely, because obviously, that impacts us and our delivery of services. And so I just want to make sure everybody understands that that's what that really means at the end of the day, and how can we be helpful to give them information about our local issues? And how it affects us I think is really important that two way communication is improved over the years dramatically with the legislature.
Unknown Speaker
So it sounds like it. Is it fair to say that it's very early is a lot of discussion right now.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I'm kind of hearing that even maybe what they do won't impact anything till next year. So we'll just have to see I'm watching it closely.
Unknown Speaker
Any word? I haven't seen much, you may have seen more more than I do on the business personal property tax now.
Unknown Speaker
It's been quiet. So right now I'm good with that the governor. And both the speaker said that they were looking at revenue replacement. So if something comes, I'm not as concerned about that one. My emphasis has shifted down to just the property taxes that say, Well, how is it going to impact Indiana? Let's find out.
Unknown Speaker
And we're seeing more reports, of course of mental health funding this legislation says just like you talked about last month, Senate Bill one provides more access to mental health centers expand community mental health model originally included 30 million for community mental health clinics, but instead the funding now looks like will be part of the state budget debate. Is this exactly what you were talking about is of what local cities counties need to help helping?
Unknown Speaker
Absolutely, you know, it's been an area that I feel like has been underfunded a long time. And I'm not about raising taxes and more government spending, I just want to use the dollars we collect, effectively, and mental health and addictions are a big area. You know, it impacts us in so many ways, from homelessness to people not being able to work, to the taxing of the healthcare system, and law enforcement and the judicial system, all of that, you know, we need to help people be successful in life. And so some of them they have to make their own decisions about participating. But if people if there's a way to invest in and keeping kids from being suicidal, or and or actually following through with it, keep people from starting down that addictions path, their lives are going to be so much better. And I just don't think we've emphasized that enough. Over the years, we put money into law enforcement, we put money into the judges and and into the system. So you get arrested, you get trapped in a system. And I'd rather see some more money on the front end to keep people out of the system. That's my preference. So if we've got those tax dollars available, let's try a different approach to this. I love the fact that they're wanting to spend more money. COVID obviously has had a huge impact on the mental health of folks. And now's the time to make those investments not wait until we have a more serious problem on our hands.
Unknown Speaker
I want to ask you about broadband in Terre Haute just because Bloomington and Columbus then touting their high speed internet through this meridiem. to their cities, there's some controversy they're giving tax breaks to to broadband, while some other private companies are saying, Hey, we're we're doing that as well as Terre Haute been involved with getting high speed internet through the city. And was that something that you're looking at?
Unknown Speaker
Well, no, it's the private sector joint is our provider over here locally, locally owned company. They'd been investing a tremendous amount of money in west central Indiana, they've kind of put a big loop all over the county surrounding us. They're building out into neighborhoods now here in Taro. We provided some financial assistance through ARPA funds. And the county provided some assistance to help provide some Wi Fi connections and a variety of like, I think 89 locations in the city. So we partnered public private partnership on that. So we're continuing to see that build out there taking the biggest risk and the biggest investment on that. But we're willing to continue to partner to build that out because it's critical as we move forward, that people have high speed, reliable internet access in their home and their business. And that's one of the selling tools, we go out and try to tell people about Terre Haute, you've got to have that. So we are blessed that they've made their investments here and continue to make them I'm not just past a whole crew out on the side, installing fiber. It just you know, it's kind of a pain sometimes when you see that utility work going on. But the end result is we're going to have significant investment beyond what we already have today. They're continuing to make those putting the fiber in the ground and getting it right to the homes and businesses. So I think we're in a great spot and we're going to continue To see that nice something we can tout,
Unknown Speaker
a new JL has been operational now, a few months, there was some supply chain issues. earlier last year, we haven't just talked about this in a while it's been busy over there. But I'm curious about that workload, the logistics of having not having the jail, right there, downtown
Unknown Speaker
seems to have worked out fine. So that's, you know, that was one of the biggest concerns a lot of people had was moving it down on the south side. But the feedback I'm receiving from our officers who have to transport to the jail, to those that work with the, you know, courthouse here across the lawn, with our city core variety of things, it's all working out just fine. I think, you know, it just took a little a few weeks to kind of work out, you know, the bugs of that. But it seems to be working very efficiently. The jail is up and operational. I talked to the sheriff a few weeks ago about that, just to kind of get an update from him. And I went down and did a quick visit. You know, it's it's turned out to be what we hoped it would be that kind of a community investment. So I think it's been great. We'll have to see you know, how the population goes over time, I'd love to see people not commit crimes and not ended up in jail. But I think they've got a it's a much better place to take people now they can be treated and served in their in a much better way. And I think there's more to come on that and to provide even additional services in the future. So I think it was a good decision. The locations working out just fine. It's up and running. Now. They're trying to figure out what to do with the old jail. But I think it was a great community project, the timing was great to get it done before the prices went up on everything, you know, the supply chain, really, I mean, we were fortunate we had the police station, the convention center and the jail, all done at the same time, roughly. And we beat those inflationary prices. And we kept those projects on schedule for the most part, and the taxpayer has benefited greatly from the timing of getting those projects done. So they've all worked out great, including jail.
Unknown Speaker
You mentioned the former jail sits what a half black there from City Hall. I just seen the trip star this morning that the commissioners I think had a meeting either last night or a couple of nights ago about what should we do with the old jail? What are you hearing,
Unknown Speaker
you know, a variety of things, I think most people think it ought to be torn down because it is a jail, it's going to be hard to remodel into something else. It just, you know, it's built like a fortress. And it's not really you know, feasible for office space or anything like that. I think they heard a variety of things. I talked to one of the commissioners briefly last night just to say how it when it was last evening. And there were a variety of ideas. But I think the majority of people think Let's reuse that space there. It's right on Third Street right next to send the government complex right next to the courthouse. I think they'll come up with some creative ideas to do with that. But I suspect it'll end up getting torn down once they figure out the 911 call center is still in there. So it's the last tenant of that building. And they've got to sort that out and find a new home for them before they can do anything.
Unknown Speaker
I know we're out of time, but I always like to leave the last word to you any big announcements or new notes you'd like to talk about?
Unknown Speaker
No, I'm just other than I would say we're seeing a lot of interest in our community on that economic development front, both on the retail and, and restaurant and hotel side aside, even all that sector. There's a lot of buzz out there and a lot of thinking about making more investments. So that's great for us. But then on that bigger scale. So manufacturing plants that are taking a look at Taro, we're excited about that. I think we're in a really good spot. And we're trying to improve on our as I mentioned our quality of life here so we can not only keep people but draw people here make it a place that people want to be and every mayor says that I get that we it's it's just that's what you work hard to do every single day. But we're being very successful with that a very strategic and I'm the future's bright, you know, I know it's easy for me to say but the things I'm hearing and the things the public will hear in the coming months are going to make them excited about Terre Haute to so very bullish on our community and look forward to the future.
Unknown Speaker
Alright, thanks so much for your time. And hey, I guess we'll see you in March.
Unknown Speaker
Okay. Thanks, Joe. Thank you
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren. Today we're with Terre Haute, Mayor Duke Bennett on Zoom Hello and welcome Mr. Bennett.
Unknown Speaker
Hey, it's good to be here. Joe, thanks for doing this again. New Year and hardy our second one it just busy time around here. And it just came very quickly. So I'm glad to be on.
Unknown Speaker
You know, I wanted to start with something that I know we haven't talked about in a while is the COVID-19. The public health emergency seems to have an end date now with the White House emergency declaration set to expire into May World Health Health Organization also stated this week that the global pandemic though is not over yet. But most likely to end this year. Some health officials are worried say it's a misnomer that it's over. Ending the public health emergency means we'd have to pay now for COVID testing treatment vaccines. Just wanted to hear a little bit about your message. What are you getting? What are you hearing from health officials over there?
Unknown Speaker
Well, I'm hearing that it's turned into more of a routine thing. I mean, it can still be serious clearly like any illness can be. But not hearing a lot about that it's overwhelming anything or there's any significant uptick, I guess, you know, from this winter, I kind of was afraid that maybe you know when the flu season, you'd have more of it. But I've just noticed a few fire dispatches over the last few days of people that are COVID positive that we're still going responding to. So I think it's kind of a mixed bag, I think we're at the end, that's my personal feeling is that we're you know, we're moving on from it, but it's never gonna go away. So we're going to have to treat it like we do other seasonal kinds of things. And we're going to see peaks and valleys of it. And you know, the best, the most important thing you can do is have good health yourself. And so, you know, if you're, if you can lose some weight, you can control your diabetes, you know, lung issues, those kinds of things all go a long way that if you do get COVID Down the road, it'll impact you much less. And so I think that's one of the messages that I hear from providers all the time is we need to be at a healthier community, which will then help us to be able to resist these kinds of, you know, diseases COVID and anything else that might come along.
Unknown Speaker
We have Columbus Mayor Jim Linna, on the show as well. And they were talking about revitalizing downtown and trying to draw more people back to downtown, they had trouble with parking before COVID. And now they kind of put that on the on the wayside because of parking regulations, because it's not needed as much now, how was Terre Haute doing? And is there any effort to bring more business downtown?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, you know, we're, the convention center was a big catalyst to kind of set the tone for the future. You know, we had a new restaurant opened up right next to it, you know, a couple how buildings down from the convention center a couple of weeks ago, and they've been packed every night. With the activity that's going on in the home and building that's been purchased by a local developer, it's gonna get filled up. And it's a huge, huge building, multi storey, a big, big building, it'll have a variety of private businesses, and so not for profit businesses in it. I would expect more downtown development, we're having hearing some exciting things on the entertainment side of things downtown. And so I think, you know, things come people will invest when they know the people are going to be there. You know, that's always a big part of making those kinds of financial decisions. And more and more confidence is happening all the time. So, you know, we're looking at another parking garage downtown to supplement the new hotel or hotels, we need 200 more rooms downtown. You know, I think you're really going to see it take off here in the next two or three years. So significant investment downtown.
Unknown Speaker
Well, you presented the plan and how the city should spend $30 million and the American rescue act plan. I understand nothing in government is quick. But these were the funds that were announced a couple years ago. Right. Right. And so it's just now are the funds now finally getting into the bank.
Unknown Speaker
Last Will our last disbursement came of May of last year. So all of our funds were received in May, then, and we've been working since that time with the county and other local stakeholders, you know, looking at the ready funds looking at the ARPA funds, taking a look at the casino funds that will be coming in beginning next year, and figuring out how to leverage these dollars to get the biggest bang for the buck if you will. And so now we've kind of got a good strategy with ARPA funds. The county is going to be talking about it to the County Council this week. Commissioners are presenting their plan. And so over the next couple of months we'll work on honing in on how to apply for these funds. As an example of how we're going to distribute those funds out to not for profits, private business, whatever. So, yeah, I feel really good about it. The feedback so far has been tremendous. what our plan is, you know, it'll get more detailed over the coming months. But right now, we created some buckets that we'd like to put funds in to spend over the next really four years because it all has to be spent by the end of 2026.
Unknown Speaker
What are some of those buckets you mentioned? So some of
Unknown Speaker
the big ones really are housing is one of the top ones. We need new housing, you know, our housing stock is old here, we don't have any single family homes, we don't have any affordable housing, they're just everything is kind of taken up. And so we're looking to provide some builder incentive programs, we're looking at helping with some homeless related projects. So some multi unit kind of investment, hopefully, with some private developers, public private partnerships. So everything from single family homes, to larger facilities, everything in between over the coming years, and so helped with infrastructure, you know, doing the sidewalks in front of new construction, we're gonna, it's kind of an across the board approach, the county is also investing a significant amount of money there. So we put $5 million in that particular pool, we put another $5 million in our parks, we want to spend over the next two or three years to make some major improvements to hertz rose park, to Deming Park to Fairbanks Park to Ray Park, and in some other inner city parks that won't get splash pads and new playgrounds. So we knew that quality of life is important to us as we try to keep people in Terre Haute, and recruit people and get people to come here, we need to improve on that quality of life. So those were two of the biggest buckets, we put some money back for food deserts to help create some environments within our city where there is that access to fresh fruits and vegetables, meats and things like that, we still have to figure out what that exactly looks like. But to set some money aside for that some large infrastructure projects that will help us keep from spin or having to raise sewer rates right now one with the railroad overpass at 13th. And Eighth Avenue and another one on South brown Avenue, which is stormwater only. So it's kind of a mix of things, the City Hall update, some infrastructure, some investment in the community, it's going to be kind of across the board. And we're it's roughly a little over $30 million worth the funding that's available to us. There's a little bit leftover that we're holding back for matches and things with the next ready grants that we know will be coming out this year. So really trying to just get a plan in place, begin to implement that plan and be able to tweak it as we go, depending on what other revenue opportunities come upon us.
Unknown Speaker
Was this one of the items to talk to I know you had a I guess we could call the State of the City address but it was to the chamber their
Unknown Speaker
chamber membership. Yeah, we had nearly 230 people attended that event in the convention center. And, you know, we talked a lot about the accomplishments last year and where we're going forward. But, you know, I think the big parts of that really revolve around keeping our crime steady. I'm very happy about that. We're seeing a lot of interest here with larger manufacturers looking at Terre Haute, Indiana as a whole. But Terre Haute specifically I'm excited about that. Just the collaboration and working together like with these ARPA funds and already funds is figuring out how we can make them go as far as we can. It's been awesome to be able to work with everybody, private sector, public sector, government, everybody to figure out how we move the community forward. And so that you know, out of that comes a lot of excitement. You know, I love giving those speeches anyway, it's always fun for me to reflect back a little bit to look forward a lot. And you know what we've got coming is it really going to be impactful in a taro Vigo county
Unknown Speaker
you've been advocating at the Statehouse for replacement revenue of taxes such as the business personal property taxes cut, now we're seeing some legislation to further decrease property tax caps, due to home values going up so much just has to bring back some deja vu for you
Unknown Speaker
does. And you know, I think, you know, I always understand why our legislators want to protect the citizens of our state. But these are issues in certain areas. I mean, our assessed value has gone up Yes, but they're also the state is telling me that our tax cap credits are going to be the biggest they ever have been since 2009. So we're not going to collect a lot of that money. So I think it's a little early to determine what the true impacts are going to be on the property tax side. If you lower those caps, then that means less money come into local government. Okay. But you know, assessed values have been kind of muted for quite some time they've risen. Everybody loves it when the value of their house goes up. But then the the taxes come and I understand the conflict there. I just don't know what the legislature is going to do to address that lieutenant governor was in town last week. And I asked her that question, just to see what what is kind of what's the governor thinking? What are you thinking, where's this going? And they said, they really don't know for sure. They just know there's a lot of talk about how to minimize the impact on taxpayers. So I watched those things closely, because obviously, that impacts us and our delivery of services. And so I just want to make sure everybody understands that that's what that really means at the end of the day, and how can we be helpful to give them information about our local issues? And how it affects us I think is really important that two way communication is improved over the years dramatically with the legislature.
Unknown Speaker
So it sounds like it. Is it fair to say that it's very early is a lot of discussion right now.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I'm kind of hearing that even maybe what they do won't impact anything till next year. So we'll just have to see I'm watching it closely.
Unknown Speaker
Any word? I haven't seen much, you may have seen more more than I do on the business personal property tax now.
Unknown Speaker
It's been quiet. So right now I'm good with that the governor. And both the speaker said that they were looking at revenue replacement. So if something comes, I'm not as concerned about that one. My emphasis has shifted down to just the property taxes that say, Well, how is it going to impact Indiana? Let's find out.
Unknown Speaker
And we're seeing more reports, of course of mental health funding this legislation says just like you talked about last month, Senate Bill one provides more access to mental health centers expand community mental health model originally included 30 million for community mental health clinics, but instead the funding now looks like will be part of the state budget debate. Is this exactly what you were talking about is of what local cities counties need to help helping?
Unknown Speaker
Absolutely, you know, it's been an area that I feel like has been underfunded a long time. And I'm not about raising taxes and more government spending, I just want to use the dollars we collect, effectively, and mental health and addictions are a big area. You know, it impacts us in so many ways, from homelessness to people not being able to work, to the taxing of the healthcare system, and law enforcement and the judicial system, all of that, you know, we need to help people be successful in life. And so some of them they have to make their own decisions about participating. But if people if there's a way to invest in and keeping kids from being suicidal, or and or actually following through with it, keep people from starting down that addictions path, their lives are going to be so much better. And I just don't think we've emphasized that enough. Over the years, we put money into law enforcement, we put money into the judges and and into the system. So you get arrested, you get trapped in a system. And I'd rather see some more money on the front end to keep people out of the system. That's my preference. So if we've got those tax dollars available, let's try a different approach to this. I love the fact that they're wanting to spend more money. COVID obviously has had a huge impact on the mental health of folks. And now's the time to make those investments not wait until we have a more serious problem on our hands.
Unknown Speaker
I want to ask you about broadband in Terre Haute just because Bloomington and Columbus then touting their high speed internet through this meridiem. to their cities, there's some controversy they're giving tax breaks to to broadband, while some other private companies are saying, Hey, we're we're doing that as well as Terre Haute been involved with getting high speed internet through the city. And was that something that you're looking at?
Unknown Speaker
Well, no, it's the private sector joint is our provider over here locally, locally owned company. They'd been investing a tremendous amount of money in west central Indiana, they've kind of put a big loop all over the county surrounding us. They're building out into neighborhoods now here in Taro. We provided some financial assistance through ARPA funds. And the county provided some assistance to help provide some Wi Fi connections and a variety of like, I think 89 locations in the city. So we partnered public private partnership on that. So we're continuing to see that build out there taking the biggest risk and the biggest investment on that. But we're willing to continue to partner to build that out because it's critical as we move forward, that people have high speed, reliable internet access in their home and their business. And that's one of the selling tools, we go out and try to tell people about Terre Haute, you've got to have that. So we are blessed that they've made their investments here and continue to make them I'm not just past a whole crew out on the side, installing fiber. It just you know, it's kind of a pain sometimes when you see that utility work going on. But the end result is we're going to have significant investment beyond what we already have today. They're continuing to make those putting the fiber in the ground and getting it right to the homes and businesses. So I think we're in a great spot and we're going to continue To see that nice something we can tout,
Unknown Speaker
a new JL has been operational now, a few months, there was some supply chain issues. earlier last year, we haven't just talked about this in a while it's been busy over there. But I'm curious about that workload, the logistics of having not having the jail, right there, downtown
Unknown Speaker
seems to have worked out fine. So that's, you know, that was one of the biggest concerns a lot of people had was moving it down on the south side. But the feedback I'm receiving from our officers who have to transport to the jail, to those that work with the, you know, courthouse here across the lawn, with our city core variety of things, it's all working out just fine. I think, you know, it just took a little a few weeks to kind of work out, you know, the bugs of that. But it seems to be working very efficiently. The jail is up and operational. I talked to the sheriff a few weeks ago about that, just to kind of get an update from him. And I went down and did a quick visit. You know, it's it's turned out to be what we hoped it would be that kind of a community investment. So I think it's been great. We'll have to see you know, how the population goes over time, I'd love to see people not commit crimes and not ended up in jail. But I think they've got a it's a much better place to take people now they can be treated and served in their in a much better way. And I think there's more to come on that and to provide even additional services in the future. So I think it was a good decision. The locations working out just fine. It's up and running. Now. They're trying to figure out what to do with the old jail. But I think it was a great community project, the timing was great to get it done before the prices went up on everything, you know, the supply chain, really, I mean, we were fortunate we had the police station, the convention center and the jail, all done at the same time, roughly. And we beat those inflationary prices. And we kept those projects on schedule for the most part, and the taxpayer has benefited greatly from the timing of getting those projects done. So they've all worked out great, including jail.
Unknown Speaker
You mentioned the former jail sits what a half black there from City Hall. I just seen the trip star this morning that the commissioners I think had a meeting either last night or a couple of nights ago about what should we do with the old jail? What are you hearing,
Unknown Speaker
you know, a variety of things, I think most people think it ought to be torn down because it is a jail, it's going to be hard to remodel into something else. It just, you know, it's built like a fortress. And it's not really you know, feasible for office space or anything like that. I think they heard a variety of things. I talked to one of the commissioners briefly last night just to say how it when it was last evening. And there were a variety of ideas. But I think the majority of people think Let's reuse that space there. It's right on Third Street right next to send the government complex right next to the courthouse. I think they'll come up with some creative ideas to do with that. But I suspect it'll end up getting torn down once they figure out the 911 call center is still in there. So it's the last tenant of that building. And they've got to sort that out and find a new home for them before they can do anything.
Unknown Speaker
I know we're out of time, but I always like to leave the last word to you any big announcements or new notes you'd like to talk about?
Unknown Speaker
No, I'm just other than I would say we're seeing a lot of interest in our community on that economic development front, both on the retail and, and restaurant and hotel side aside, even all that sector. There's a lot of buzz out there and a lot of thinking about making more investments. So that's great for us. But then on that bigger scale. So manufacturing plants that are taking a look at Taro, we're excited about that. I think we're in a really good spot. And we're trying to improve on our as I mentioned our quality of life here so we can not only keep people but draw people here make it a place that people want to be and every mayor says that I get that we it's it's just that's what you work hard to do every single day. But we're being very successful with that a very strategic and I'm the future's bright, you know, I know it's easy for me to say but the things I'm hearing and the things the public will hear in the coming months are going to make them excited about Terre Haute to so very bullish on our community and look forward to the future.
Unknown Speaker
Alright, thanks so much for your time. And hey, I guess we'll see you in March.
Unknown Speaker
Okay. Thanks, Joe. Thank you
