Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. We're on Zoom with Terre Haute, Mayor Duke Bennett. Hello, and welcome. Hey, Joe, how
Unknown Speaker
are you today?
Speaker 1
I'm well, beautiful sunny spring. Today
Unknown Speaker
is a good day today.
Speaker 1
We didn't have a show last week with Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop. Because it was the primary election. Here we are a week later we're with in Terre Haute, I see now you have an opponent for the fall. Now you can kind of gear up for the general election,
Speaker 2
you never know how these things are going to shake out. As I tell everybody, every time we go through this cycle, every election is different. And you never know who's going to be in it, who's going to run how they're going to run. And so this dynamic this time was a little bit unique, because we had two Democrats running and I was running unopposed on the Republican side. And I really wasn't sure who was going to win. So that was it was kind of a toss up to me. And it kind of turned out that way that the kind of one of the gentlemen was an unexpected win on that side. So yeah, now I can figure out forward with the strategy of who that opponent will be.
Unknown Speaker
I was voter turnout, it was pretty low.
Speaker 2
I would say it wasn't tremendously different than 2019. But still low. Considering our number of registered voters. It's disappointing that more people don't get engaged in our local elections. And, you know, it's it's a common theme. It's just, it's, I would, you know, I think 75 80% of people out to vote every time, that's just my personal thing, but it's just not like that. So all we can do is, you know, make sure we reach out to those voters that do participate in the process, because they get to decide, you know, how the government is formed. And so, you know, it's just a bit disappointing that more people aren't engaged.
Speaker 1
Yeah. What I thought that was interesting, too, I didn't see any really big. I mean, I think they were a couple of Democratic primary, but there will be some turnover in city council. And that's something I mean, obviously, you're keeping an eye on any mayor would, because if you were to, of course, receive another term that really affects your administration as well,
Speaker 2
right. So we knew that three of our nine council people were not running this time for various reasons. And so we know those will be three new positions, one of our sitting council people was defeated. So you know, if there's going to be change on the council, and, you know, that's always good, there's some, there's healthy, you know, side of that positives, but with the momentum that we have right now, and the way we're going, it's just critical that we get these folks on board early in the process and get them up to speed. So they can hit the ground running in January. And so, you know, I'll be fighting my battle to get back in here again, but all throughout this time, we all continue to need to work together to be ready to date ready to go?
Speaker 1
Well, let's get into the state legislature wrapped up a week or so ago, it's a budget year $44.6 billion budget, any adjustments, cuts more income to coming to Indiana, cities and towns,
Speaker 2
you know, I didn't really, I'm still going through some things. But my, our lobbyist is really good about keeping me up to date every day of what's happening with the session. And all the things I was worried about, kind of faded away or became not quite as big of a deal. You know, I'm still anxious to see what they're going to do with property taxes for next year, what that looks like. Because I don't really know by reading what they did, I'm not sure what that means quite yet to us. We do locally, we got the Excel funding for the goodwill center that we want to create here locally, to help young people go back and get their high school diploma. That's a big deal for our workforce development side of things. So I was excited about that. I know there's some mental health money out there, but I am not quite as much or not quite as clear how that's going to work its way back to our county. But excited that's happening. So, you know, overall, I always go in when I see all the bills that are filed, I think, Okay, here's the 20 or 30, that I have to really be concerned about. And at the end of this, it seems like, you know, this turned out to be a pretty good session, that nothing is going to be harmful to cities and towns and there's actually some things in there, that'll be helpful. And so I think I see it as a good session, especially being a budget year.
Speaker 1
And of course, you mentioned mental health public health. That was a major talking point legislators gave about two thirds of what the governor wanted and I I saw this to leader of the state's largest teachers union, so Lawmakers missed the mark on helping schools around the state. Our state schools and teachers getting what they need,
Speaker 2
you know, I, I don't live in that world. So I can't tell you what I know what I hear. But I don't know, you know, I don't have any experience with that. There's always more need, there's no question about that one of the biggest needs I see is making sure that we're able to keep the pipeline of teachers coming, we have to be able to have the teachers in place. So they need to pay them the salary, they, it's necessary to get quality teachers. But one of the biggest issues I see is related to support services for our students, especially when it comes to mental health and addictions, those kinds of things. You know, when there's not enough money for the counselors, and for the social workers and others that are in our schools, we have a big waitlist here, from what I'm told, you know, there are local providers, but that takes a parent, you know, taking their child or connecting them with some outside provider, when I love seeing that initial reaction and an engagement happening in our schools, I'd love to see more money going to that, to head off some of these issues down the road. We're blessed with a lot of mental health providers here locally, but it's it's getting people connected with those services. And so schools are a primary referral source. You know, and we need money for capital projects. So, you know, the state doesn't like to fund those kinds of things, they leave that up to local property tax dollars. But if you can shift some of the burden from the budget side of it, to capital, then we can accomplish those goals we're trying to do to recruit and bring people to Indiana, we got to have good high schools, you know, we haven't got as good school facilities in here in Vigo County, our high schools are all in need of repairs. So I mean, you know, when you step back and look at the education piece, there's a lot of money that goes there. But I feel good about what they've done. But there's more to be done. I'm sure absolutely. What that looks like in two years in the next budget cycle, who knows, but I think they just got to continue to show the results. You know, that's the key with all these legislators, you got to show what are the results of that those investments, those funds going to the schools or you name or whatever that is. And so I think it's critical that people are able to show, what are we getting for those dollars and asking for more makes it an easier ask.
Speaker 1
Speaking of funding and processes, the city and county are working, I believe a big meeting coming up this week on allocating ARPA funds.
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's a meeting that we've been working towards for a couple of months. Now. Baker, Tilly will be there rjL solutions, who's our local kind of helping us, you know, work together with the city and the county on this, we've invited all of the city council and all the county councils. So there'll be having a session, there's no public input in this particular session. But people can come and listen to the process of how this is going to work. And then there'll be additional public meetings in the future, both only not only to give public input, but to be able to specifically give input on those things that we're going to spend the monies on. So the process input and in particular funding ideas. And so you know, we're talking about housing, we're talking about small business support, we're talking about not for profit support, we're talking about city projects, the county has their list of things. And so we're trying to make sure we utilize these funds in a way that we can use it to as leverage for a match for grants for ready grants that we know we're coming again, out of this legislative session. We're trying to make the money go as far as we possibly can get it to go. And so it's a very detailed, long, ongoing process, we will have 1000s of man hours in this by the time we complete the process. And so I feel really good about how it's going to roll out this, this meeting this week will really begin to bring things together. And then there'll be additional meetings to follow.
Speaker 1
You know, a theme that we've talked about so much of how Indiana towns or cities struggling with budgets. We know Terre Haute had that a few years ago, and now you're at a balanced budget. But how big is this, these funds for?
Speaker 2
It's a big, you know, it's unfortunate that it all had to happen, you know, because of COVID. But what we want to do is make sure that we use it wisely. And you know, I've had some criticism for people saying, oh, we should have spent a bunch of it by now. Well, a lot of places haven't spent a lot of it by now because they want to do it right. You know, this is a one time thing. We're never going to see these funds again. I don't expect to see anything like that in my lifetime. And so we want to get the biggest bang for the buck. And the only way to do that and get the big splashy, you know the kind of stuff that people can see that there's value in this. The only way to do that. has to be diligent, working together to make sure that we're doing the projects that meet the community plan that, that are driving what we're trying to do as a community. So when it comes to housing, workforce development, all those things that are critical to our future success, we can help fund some of these things with these dollars that will ensure that these things happen in a great way.
Unknown Speaker
And just refresh our memory, how much are we talking again,
Speaker 2
we've got about 32 million roughly left to spend. Okay. And we got about 20 million.
Speaker 1
It's, you know, you say this, and it's really good tie in to that was a great feature out a call on the trip star this week on all the jobs needed in the area, over the over the next few years, I think was around 1200, Vav count in the casino, the battery plant a few others. And you were quoted in there saying, you know, there's not one answer to this, there's just so many areas. So, and we talked about this, I think last month, too. So does this all tie in with this as well,
Speaker 2
absolutely, you know, there's, there's a couple of really key pieces. One is, this has to be a place people want to come to work, you know, the quality of place, the quality of life has to be great infrastructure has got to be good, public safety has to be good, low crime rate, taxes have to be balanced, you know. So all those things are important to those that are seeking to come somewhere. But then you have to have a place for him to live, you know, where our housing stock is really stretched, they have to have a place that get childcare that's stretched to the max right now. And then just the workforce development side of it with the existing people that are here, let alone the people that are coming here, we've really got to take advantage of the state programs that help our companies here are local manufacturers and others to find that workforce. And so man, when you step back from that those are big, heavy lifts all of that. And if you don't work on those things, you're going to be left behind. And so that's what we're trying to do. And we're going to use some of this ARPA money to help facilitate some of these quality of life components help us with recruiting people to come to our community to work. It's all of the above all hands on deck, there's no bad idea, let's just see, where we get the, you know, really the biggest payback from and all the things we're working on seems to make a ton of sense to everybody that we've talked to, we've looked at other communities we've looked at beyond the Midwest, you know, not everything works everywhere. And so there is no one, you know, magic pill that will make you better in all these areas, this is going to be a long term investment. To get these things done to make us stand out. People want to come here so we can fill those jobs.
Speaker 1
I see the Terre Haute Police Department looking to hire a social worker as part of a program to reduce calls for officers to do wear welfare checks. what spurred this this new program?
Speaker 2
Well, we've been looking at it a couple of years now, one of the communities we looked at was Bloomington, they've had I think they're in their second year of having a caseworker. You know, this caseworker is not going to respond to coals, that's not their job, it's to follow up on calls, to hopefully reduce the amount of future calls at that particular address. And to help with a lot of internal things when it comes to dealing with, you know, crisis situations. So there'll be working with mental health providers and local health care providers and not for profits. And there'll be the connecting piece of that. So our police officers can respond to the call, be complete that call as quickly as possible. And in turn over the follow up to our caseworker. I'm gonna guess that we're going to need more assistance down the road with this because I think it works, the model works. It's just doing something that's a little bit different. You know, we asked police officers to be caseworkers and social workers and things every day. And we want them to focus on dealing with crime. And some of the folks that get caught up in the crime really need mental health and addiction services or some other support system besides the criminal justice system. So we're hopeful that we'll be able to begin to make a difference there. I know it'll work. I just have a feeling it's going to be there's a lot of opportunity out there to do some good things.
Speaker 1
And I believe I mean, recruiting officers can't be easy. I know I've heard that in Bloomington always seems like they're recruiting or losing people. How are how hard is it there in Terre Haute to recruit maintain?
Speaker 2
It's tough. You know, we keep them pretty good, but we have a lot of people retiring right now over the next couple of years. We're probably going to lose another 20 officers that are Retirement, I'm sure we'll lose one or two in there somewhere in the mix to another department that pays more than we do, or the state police as part of the budget, you know, they're paying much better salaries. Now. The key is, is having a good pool of talent that people who've applied for the job that we can pick from this last pool that we're working with was it really shrunk down quite a bit. So what the future holds, I don't know. But right now is a tougher time for people to want to get into law enforcement. It is definitely and I hear that from other mayors, too. It is an issue.
Speaker 1
Know something we talked about past shows that you have a lot of work coming up on city parks this year, anything underway right now.
Speaker 2
No actual work yet. We're still doing design phase but working on Fairbanks Park. major projects there that'll be happening over the next few years. That's a really, really big one hertz rose Park we're working on the final design just started that final design process and the bid documents. Our goal would be to start construction in the spring of hertz, Rose Park. Deming Park pool upgrade and expansion is something we're just getting ready to start that design process on. So hopefully by the end of this year, we'll have a good handle on that. And in the timing of that. And in the right Park clubhouse, we intend to start construction on that at the end of this year. So for major parks projects that are somewhere in the design phase, moving towards construction phase on at least two of those in the shorter term.
Unknown Speaker
Did ISU have their commencement yet?
Speaker 2
Yeah. So it was that process like, you know, a year? You know, they do but you know, that's always a big change for us locally when the students go away. So yes, it's all we're in the month of May. So you got all the colleges graduating and you got the Indy 500. It's always a busy month of just a buzz of activity. And then when you hit June, everything quiets down tremendously. So we're kind of seeing that
Speaker 1
and I'm sure that's something on your mind, too. As as graduates leave ISU, hey, Terre Haute has a lot of jobs covered.
Speaker 2
They are good paying jobs. And so that and same thing with I was at a rose home and for a meeting with the governor's workforce cabinet, Matt here last week, and you know, talking about those roads, graduates, we want to keep these graduates in Indiana. I want to keep Matera hope, but we need to keep them in Indiana. There are a lot of better, higher paying high tech jobs coming. They're already here with more to come. So there is more opportunity for them to find a great job. And it's inexpensive to live here. You know, in Terre Haute, Vigo county Indiana's Oh, that's a selling point to do you want to go to California, you know and take a job there. Well, there's a draw, I understand that. But it's also very expensive to live there. So we're going to continue to, you know, tout ourselves and show the what these jobs are what the future holds here. And hopefully we'll be able to start, you know, getting a few more of those students to stay each year.
Speaker 1
I know we're out of time, but I like to leave the last minute to you any big announcements.
Speaker 2
I don't think I have any big announcements. It's just as I said, it's may already this year is flying by we're getting ready to start our construction projects. That's always makes it an exciting time. Things are going well in our community. We're excited that community plans coming together. We're gonna be having some announcements about people moving into into the hub building that I talked to you about a little while ago, the chamber and others are all moving under one roof. That's going to be exciting project we should be talking about more about the Larry Bird Museum. Lots of great things happening. So lots more material for future shows.
Speaker 1
Stay tuned as they say. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor, and we'll hope to see you in June. All right.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you, Joe.
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. We're on Zoom with Terre Haute, Mayor Duke Bennett. Hello, and welcome. Hey, Joe, how
Unknown Speaker
are you today?
Speaker 1
I'm well, beautiful sunny spring. Today
Unknown Speaker
is a good day today.
Speaker 1
We didn't have a show last week with Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop. Because it was the primary election. Here we are a week later we're with in Terre Haute, I see now you have an opponent for the fall. Now you can kind of gear up for the general election,
Speaker 2
you never know how these things are going to shake out. As I tell everybody, every time we go through this cycle, every election is different. And you never know who's going to be in it, who's going to run how they're going to run. And so this dynamic this time was a little bit unique, because we had two Democrats running and I was running unopposed on the Republican side. And I really wasn't sure who was going to win. So that was it was kind of a toss up to me. And it kind of turned out that way that the kind of one of the gentlemen was an unexpected win on that side. So yeah, now I can figure out forward with the strategy of who that opponent will be.
Unknown Speaker
I was voter turnout, it was pretty low.
Speaker 2
I would say it wasn't tremendously different than 2019. But still low. Considering our number of registered voters. It's disappointing that more people don't get engaged in our local elections. And, you know, it's it's a common theme. It's just, it's, I would, you know, I think 75 80% of people out to vote every time, that's just my personal thing, but it's just not like that. So all we can do is, you know, make sure we reach out to those voters that do participate in the process, because they get to decide, you know, how the government is formed. And so, you know, it's just a bit disappointing that more people aren't engaged.
Speaker 1
Yeah. What I thought that was interesting, too, I didn't see any really big. I mean, I think they were a couple of Democratic primary, but there will be some turnover in city council. And that's something I mean, obviously, you're keeping an eye on any mayor would, because if you were to, of course, receive another term that really affects your administration as well,
Speaker 2
right. So we knew that three of our nine council people were not running this time for various reasons. And so we know those will be three new positions, one of our sitting council people was defeated. So you know, if there's going to be change on the council, and, you know, that's always good, there's some, there's healthy, you know, side of that positives, but with the momentum that we have right now, and the way we're going, it's just critical that we get these folks on board early in the process and get them up to speed. So they can hit the ground running in January. And so, you know, I'll be fighting my battle to get back in here again, but all throughout this time, we all continue to need to work together to be ready to date ready to go?
Speaker 1
Well, let's get into the state legislature wrapped up a week or so ago, it's a budget year $44.6 billion budget, any adjustments, cuts more income to coming to Indiana, cities and towns,
Speaker 2
you know, I didn't really, I'm still going through some things. But my, our lobbyist is really good about keeping me up to date every day of what's happening with the session. And all the things I was worried about, kind of faded away or became not quite as big of a deal. You know, I'm still anxious to see what they're going to do with property taxes for next year, what that looks like. Because I don't really know by reading what they did, I'm not sure what that means quite yet to us. We do locally, we got the Excel funding for the goodwill center that we want to create here locally, to help young people go back and get their high school diploma. That's a big deal for our workforce development side of things. So I was excited about that. I know there's some mental health money out there, but I am not quite as much or not quite as clear how that's going to work its way back to our county. But excited that's happening. So, you know, overall, I always go in when I see all the bills that are filed, I think, Okay, here's the 20 or 30, that I have to really be concerned about. And at the end of this, it seems like, you know, this turned out to be a pretty good session, that nothing is going to be harmful to cities and towns and there's actually some things in there, that'll be helpful. And so I think I see it as a good session, especially being a budget year.
Speaker 1
And of course, you mentioned mental health public health. That was a major talking point legislators gave about two thirds of what the governor wanted and I I saw this to leader of the state's largest teachers union, so Lawmakers missed the mark on helping schools around the state. Our state schools and teachers getting what they need,
Speaker 2
you know, I, I don't live in that world. So I can't tell you what I know what I hear. But I don't know, you know, I don't have any experience with that. There's always more need, there's no question about that one of the biggest needs I see is making sure that we're able to keep the pipeline of teachers coming, we have to be able to have the teachers in place. So they need to pay them the salary, they, it's necessary to get quality teachers. But one of the biggest issues I see is related to support services for our students, especially when it comes to mental health and addictions, those kinds of things. You know, when there's not enough money for the counselors, and for the social workers and others that are in our schools, we have a big waitlist here, from what I'm told, you know, there are local providers, but that takes a parent, you know, taking their child or connecting them with some outside provider, when I love seeing that initial reaction and an engagement happening in our schools, I'd love to see more money going to that, to head off some of these issues down the road. We're blessed with a lot of mental health providers here locally, but it's it's getting people connected with those services. And so schools are a primary referral source. You know, and we need money for capital projects. So, you know, the state doesn't like to fund those kinds of things, they leave that up to local property tax dollars. But if you can shift some of the burden from the budget side of it, to capital, then we can accomplish those goals we're trying to do to recruit and bring people to Indiana, we got to have good high schools, you know, we haven't got as good school facilities in here in Vigo County, our high schools are all in need of repairs. So I mean, you know, when you step back and look at the education piece, there's a lot of money that goes there. But I feel good about what they've done. But there's more to be done. I'm sure absolutely. What that looks like in two years in the next budget cycle, who knows, but I think they just got to continue to show the results. You know, that's the key with all these legislators, you got to show what are the results of that those investments, those funds going to the schools or you name or whatever that is. And so I think it's critical that people are able to show, what are we getting for those dollars and asking for more makes it an easier ask.
Speaker 1
Speaking of funding and processes, the city and county are working, I believe a big meeting coming up this week on allocating ARPA funds.
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's a meeting that we've been working towards for a couple of months. Now. Baker, Tilly will be there rjL solutions, who's our local kind of helping us, you know, work together with the city and the county on this, we've invited all of the city council and all the county councils. So there'll be having a session, there's no public input in this particular session. But people can come and listen to the process of how this is going to work. And then there'll be additional public meetings in the future, both only not only to give public input, but to be able to specifically give input on those things that we're going to spend the monies on. So the process input and in particular funding ideas. And so you know, we're talking about housing, we're talking about small business support, we're talking about not for profit support, we're talking about city projects, the county has their list of things. And so we're trying to make sure we utilize these funds in a way that we can use it to as leverage for a match for grants for ready grants that we know we're coming again, out of this legislative session. We're trying to make the money go as far as we possibly can get it to go. And so it's a very detailed, long, ongoing process, we will have 1000s of man hours in this by the time we complete the process. And so I feel really good about how it's going to roll out this, this meeting this week will really begin to bring things together. And then there'll be additional meetings to follow.
Speaker 1
You know, a theme that we've talked about so much of how Indiana towns or cities struggling with budgets. We know Terre Haute had that a few years ago, and now you're at a balanced budget. But how big is this, these funds for?
Speaker 2
It's a big, you know, it's unfortunate that it all had to happen, you know, because of COVID. But what we want to do is make sure that we use it wisely. And you know, I've had some criticism for people saying, oh, we should have spent a bunch of it by now. Well, a lot of places haven't spent a lot of it by now because they want to do it right. You know, this is a one time thing. We're never going to see these funds again. I don't expect to see anything like that in my lifetime. And so we want to get the biggest bang for the buck. And the only way to do that and get the big splashy, you know the kind of stuff that people can see that there's value in this. The only way to do that. has to be diligent, working together to make sure that we're doing the projects that meet the community plan that, that are driving what we're trying to do as a community. So when it comes to housing, workforce development, all those things that are critical to our future success, we can help fund some of these things with these dollars that will ensure that these things happen in a great way.
Unknown Speaker
And just refresh our memory, how much are we talking again,
Speaker 2
we've got about 32 million roughly left to spend. Okay. And we got about 20 million.
Speaker 1
It's, you know, you say this, and it's really good tie in to that was a great feature out a call on the trip star this week on all the jobs needed in the area, over the over the next few years, I think was around 1200, Vav count in the casino, the battery plant a few others. And you were quoted in there saying, you know, there's not one answer to this, there's just so many areas. So, and we talked about this, I think last month, too. So does this all tie in with this as well,
Speaker 2
absolutely, you know, there's, there's a couple of really key pieces. One is, this has to be a place people want to come to work, you know, the quality of place, the quality of life has to be great infrastructure has got to be good, public safety has to be good, low crime rate, taxes have to be balanced, you know. So all those things are important to those that are seeking to come somewhere. But then you have to have a place for him to live, you know, where our housing stock is really stretched, they have to have a place that get childcare that's stretched to the max right now. And then just the workforce development side of it with the existing people that are here, let alone the people that are coming here, we've really got to take advantage of the state programs that help our companies here are local manufacturers and others to find that workforce. And so man, when you step back from that those are big, heavy lifts all of that. And if you don't work on those things, you're going to be left behind. And so that's what we're trying to do. And we're going to use some of this ARPA money to help facilitate some of these quality of life components help us with recruiting people to come to our community to work. It's all of the above all hands on deck, there's no bad idea, let's just see, where we get the, you know, really the biggest payback from and all the things we're working on seems to make a ton of sense to everybody that we've talked to, we've looked at other communities we've looked at beyond the Midwest, you know, not everything works everywhere. And so there is no one, you know, magic pill that will make you better in all these areas, this is going to be a long term investment. To get these things done to make us stand out. People want to come here so we can fill those jobs.
Speaker 1
I see the Terre Haute Police Department looking to hire a social worker as part of a program to reduce calls for officers to do wear welfare checks. what spurred this this new program?
Speaker 2
Well, we've been looking at it a couple of years now, one of the communities we looked at was Bloomington, they've had I think they're in their second year of having a caseworker. You know, this caseworker is not going to respond to coals, that's not their job, it's to follow up on calls, to hopefully reduce the amount of future calls at that particular address. And to help with a lot of internal things when it comes to dealing with, you know, crisis situations. So there'll be working with mental health providers and local health care providers and not for profits. And there'll be the connecting piece of that. So our police officers can respond to the call, be complete that call as quickly as possible. And in turn over the follow up to our caseworker. I'm gonna guess that we're going to need more assistance down the road with this because I think it works, the model works. It's just doing something that's a little bit different. You know, we asked police officers to be caseworkers and social workers and things every day. And we want them to focus on dealing with crime. And some of the folks that get caught up in the crime really need mental health and addiction services or some other support system besides the criminal justice system. So we're hopeful that we'll be able to begin to make a difference there. I know it'll work. I just have a feeling it's going to be there's a lot of opportunity out there to do some good things.
Speaker 1
And I believe I mean, recruiting officers can't be easy. I know I've heard that in Bloomington always seems like they're recruiting or losing people. How are how hard is it there in Terre Haute to recruit maintain?
Speaker 2
It's tough. You know, we keep them pretty good, but we have a lot of people retiring right now over the next couple of years. We're probably going to lose another 20 officers that are Retirement, I'm sure we'll lose one or two in there somewhere in the mix to another department that pays more than we do, or the state police as part of the budget, you know, they're paying much better salaries. Now. The key is, is having a good pool of talent that people who've applied for the job that we can pick from this last pool that we're working with was it really shrunk down quite a bit. So what the future holds, I don't know. But right now is a tougher time for people to want to get into law enforcement. It is definitely and I hear that from other mayors, too. It is an issue.
Speaker 1
Know something we talked about past shows that you have a lot of work coming up on city parks this year, anything underway right now.
Speaker 2
No actual work yet. We're still doing design phase but working on Fairbanks Park. major projects there that'll be happening over the next few years. That's a really, really big one hertz rose Park we're working on the final design just started that final design process and the bid documents. Our goal would be to start construction in the spring of hertz, Rose Park. Deming Park pool upgrade and expansion is something we're just getting ready to start that design process on. So hopefully by the end of this year, we'll have a good handle on that. And in the timing of that. And in the right Park clubhouse, we intend to start construction on that at the end of this year. So for major parks projects that are somewhere in the design phase, moving towards construction phase on at least two of those in the shorter term.
Unknown Speaker
Did ISU have their commencement yet?
Speaker 2
Yeah. So it was that process like, you know, a year? You know, they do but you know, that's always a big change for us locally when the students go away. So yes, it's all we're in the month of May. So you got all the colleges graduating and you got the Indy 500. It's always a busy month of just a buzz of activity. And then when you hit June, everything quiets down tremendously. So we're kind of seeing that
Speaker 1
and I'm sure that's something on your mind, too. As as graduates leave ISU, hey, Terre Haute has a lot of jobs covered.
Speaker 2
They are good paying jobs. And so that and same thing with I was at a rose home and for a meeting with the governor's workforce cabinet, Matt here last week, and you know, talking about those roads, graduates, we want to keep these graduates in Indiana. I want to keep Matera hope, but we need to keep them in Indiana. There are a lot of better, higher paying high tech jobs coming. They're already here with more to come. So there is more opportunity for them to find a great job. And it's inexpensive to live here. You know, in Terre Haute, Vigo county Indiana's Oh, that's a selling point to do you want to go to California, you know and take a job there. Well, there's a draw, I understand that. But it's also very expensive to live there. So we're going to continue to, you know, tout ourselves and show the what these jobs are what the future holds here. And hopefully we'll be able to start, you know, getting a few more of those students to stay each year.
Speaker 1
I know we're out of time, but I like to leave the last minute to you any big announcements.
Speaker 2
I don't think I have any big announcements. It's just as I said, it's may already this year is flying by we're getting ready to start our construction projects. That's always makes it an exciting time. Things are going well in our community. We're excited that community plans coming together. We're gonna be having some announcements about people moving into into the hub building that I talked to you about a little while ago, the chamber and others are all moving under one roof. That's going to be exciting project we should be talking about more about the Larry Bird Museum. Lots of great things happening. So lots more material for future shows.
Speaker 1
Stay tuned as they say. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor, and we'll hope to see you in June. All right.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you, Joe.
