Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to Ask The Mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren from WFIU/WTIU News. This week I'm joined by Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun. Hello and welcome.
Speaker 2
Happy to have you back here in Terredise. Good to see you and thanks for having me on this month.
Speaker 1
It's nice to be here. I can feel a little different energy, is it spring break?
Speaker 2
It is spring break for Indiana State University. So our 8,000 students are off and Florida on vacation or at home. They are pumped though - Indiana State men's basketball not the outcome. We wanted to March Madness. But with the strong net ranking. I certainly hope that they NCAA Selection Committee. He puts him in a March Madness on Selection Sunday this weekend.
Speaker 1
Well, more than the Hoosiers can say, so we're going to be rooting for ISU instead of Bloomington this year.
Speaker 2
Yeah. Basketball runs through Terre Haute, not Bloomington, this year.
Speaker 1
Exactly, exactly. So I have to ask about everyone's talking also about the solar eclipse. It's coming up. It's less than a month away. And I know some cities towns have been preparing for years. Can you tell us a little bit about what Terre Haute is doing?
Speaker 2
Absolutely. So we've got our own website on Terre haute.com. There's a solar eclipse section. Tons of community events here in Terre Haute. From a public safety standpoint, we are prepared. Our police, fire, street department, highway department, the county, the sheriff's department, you name it. We are making preparation for an influx of visitors. We're gonna have a downtown festival and I encourage folks to come out to that. We've got festivals at a lot of our city parks as well. Camp space is getting booked up. Hotels are booked up, and we are looking forward to a great weekend and a great day here in Terre Haute on April 8.
Speaker 1
Is there an estimate about how many people you expect to be here?
Speaker 2
We're banking on 30 to 50,000. That being said, it changes. I mean, if it's cloudy and Vincennes or Bloomington even, we expect to see some more traffic here. So we're staying flexible. We're staying open. We have studied the after-action reviews, prior municipal governments, and law enforcement agencies from other eclipses in Kentucky or across the United States. So taking their lessons learned and applying some prudent planning to our organizations really the focus right now.
Speaker 1
You know, the interesting thing is hearing every mayor or city manager, per se in Nashville, Indiana, Brown County, what she said they're expecting anywhere from maybe 5,000 to 200,000 people and it's like how do you prepare for that wide of a gap?
Speaker 2
It's a large delta. You know, restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, this affects everyone. Vigo County School Corporation has the day off. We're doing a half day for kind of our office staff and most city employees. Obviously public safety will be out the entire day.
Speaker 1
Let's get really quick into the end of the session in the statehouse in Indianapolis. Any thoughts at the end of the session? How do you think it went?
Speaker 2
I'm thrilled. We got representative Tonya Pfaff our house district. She is great, communicates very frequently. Her passion is education as an educator, she does sit on elections as well. And she continues to do great work and fight her hardest to deliver for the people of Terre Haute and Vigo County. State senator Greg Goode just entered the fold. I am so thankful and fortunate that he is our state senator. Party differences aside, he communicates very directly to me. We've got a close working relationship. Obviously Bob Heaton, Alan Morrison, Bruce Borders, they're around us. I do talk to them frequently. Not as much as Tonya and Greg though, and I can't thank the two of them enough for keeping me in the loop. There's several bills that we're still digesting. It was a short session. And unfortunately, sometimes the sprint towards the end, you do see a little confusion. But in municipal government, we will digest and we will communicate to our state legislators some concerns that we have or some changes we'd like to see in the future. But I'm happy to have a strong working relationship with state senator Goode and Representative Tonya Pfaff.
Speaker 1
You know, and we talked about ARPA funds a lot last month. Of course, it's a lot of money there too. So I saw where there's some small businesses, nonprofits can apply for grants, either now or very soon.
Speaker 2
So that'll start in May. But in April, we're going to do a lot of sessions with businesses and nonprofits to coach them through the application. Small businesses can expect anything from $100 to $10,000 based off what they apply for. For nonprofits, it's $5,000 to $50,000. Some other ARPA projects that we're pleased to bring to the table, a new overpass in Terre Haute finally 13th and Eighth Avenue, stormwater projects, and we are hoping to deliver a transformational community project. We are partnering with Indiana American Water to bring their water service to residents in North Terre Haute and that's just a pilot program. Once we do that, we're going to look to deliver for the people Terre Haute across the entire city access to Indiana American Water. We annexed land decades ago and have failed to give folks that opportunity and many of them are still on well water and have expressed concerns. So that's a project I'm proud to start. Of course our downtown revitalization, things are trending well there, a new renovation of some of our city parks looking forward to that as well.
Speaker 1
Yet I hear a new clubhouse is coming too, is it Rea Park?
Speaker 2
Yes. So Rea Park is in great shape. They continue to bring in revenue. They have a little bit of debt right now, about a million dollars, but each year they're bringing in hundreds of thousands to pay off that debt. This is a facelift to the clubhouse, but it is only phase one of our Rea Park makeover. We're looking to add some small playground equipment, tennis courts, pickleball, making that a community park, not just for Terre Haute, but southern Vigo county as well.
Speaker 1
So let's talk a little bit about landlords. I think you mentioned this last show as well. Negligent landlords, I guess we should say, you know Terre Haute of course is a college town we this is an issue in Bloomington too being a college town. But you know residents, sometimes they don't have enough protections do they against negligent landlords?
Speaker 2
No. And we have some of the worst tenant friendly laws in the country. In other levels of government, you know, when you look at the comparisons. Here locally, we have started to do some little procedural changes, a grass cutting fee that negligent landlords really honestly abused city employees. Street department, code enforcement, wastewater, they are not a lawn care service. So we have increased our grass cutting fee for a lot of those owners who put that on the city. That's just the start. We are going to look at our building code, building permits. We have addressed a right-of-way fee that was some among the lowest in the state hadn't been touched in almost 20 years. That change allows us to hold utility companies accountable. When they are doing work, we're gonna hold them to a standard to where they're doing quality work. And if you cut a new street in Terre Haute, Indiana, we expect that to be repaired to the fullest extent. And if you cut a kind of a bad street, a lower rated street, we expect to see that brought up to a higher standard.
Speaker 1
So let's talk about the city council news. This new ordinance just passed and hold subcontractors, utility providers, accountable. Can you talk a bit about how that came about?
Speaker 2
Yeah, so, I had close conversations with our city engineer during the transition is when we started that legislation in November. So finally, after a couple of months fine-tuning it, we got it a city council member to carry that legislation received unanimous support, a 9-0 vote, so good to see that happen for the city of Terre Haute. We were number one in the Midwest for telecommunication strikes on gas lines. This allows us to implement some state code that had already been passed about finding locates, pausing work when needed, and assessing finds if needed.
Speaker 1
Does this impact the advancement of getting broadband and technology to neighborhoods?
Speaker 2
It will not, no. So working with those utility providers, they are not the issue. It's some subcontractor concerns. So we're very clear on that. We appreciate our utility providers, and we simply ask that we hold subcontractors to a standard that is expected in our community.
Speaker 1
Something I see a lot too on social media. Of course, you mentioned Thrive West Central Indiana. Housing stock, of course is one of your your primary concerns. But we're seeing vacant lots now being either taken over by the city more. And you want more and more of that, because it's not just about infill or building new apartments, it's about taking over what land is already in the city.
Speaker 2
So it's really a two phase a two-part operation bifurcated out city and county and then just city. So on the city side of it, we had 119 vacant lots on January 1st that are deemed buildable. This means they kind of meet that 40-foot width requirement. We're at almost 40 vacant lots that have now moved towards some stage of development, and the goal is to get that list to 0. We get new homes in our community because our housing shortage is very clear, based on studies, data, and incoming jobs. We need quality housing fast. A lot of these homes are priced at a great price range, some at $130,000, some at $140,000. Our infrastructure grants through Thrive West Central helped make this list a reality. On the other side of the fold, we have started to work with the county to receive lots that have cleared the tax sale multiple times that the county has possession of that we would like the city to have possession of, to start increasing the inventory for developers. And I appreciate our county commissioners, they've been great to work with. So looking to add to our list as we continue to push it out to get developed.
Speaker 1
How do you feel about density in neighborhoods and adding plexes or more than one household in a home?
Speaker 2
So it's dependent on the neighborhood and the situation. There's the political answer, but here's my personal answer. Cities like Terre Haute have got to chase density and urbanism. Can you eat, live, work, play all within a mile? Are you walking distance from a grocery store? That's why I'm happy to support a $500,000 program, funded through American Rescue Plan Act funds to help solve the food desert problem in Terre Haute, Indiana, with groups like Terre Foods and Catholic food charities. We've got a food desert problem. Our community right now is not as walkable as it should be. And infill housing, density, urbanism helps bring that to the city of Terre Haute and solve some of those problems. Is it going to happen overnight? No. Is it going to happen over four years? Well, I certainly hope so. And if it doesn't, what we are going to do is create an environment where it can happen for years and years and years down the road. Rome was not built in a day, density and urbanism does not happen overnight. But we have several projects that are already tackling that issue that we hope to carry through the finish line at the end of this month and next.
Speaker 1
I saw you retweet, or ask everyone to retweet, a tweet or an X now? I don't know what you call it. But a million times and it was it was from the [National Governor's Association] about how towns or cities are built around the automobile and around people. And that really resonated with you.
Speaker 2
It did I mean, if we're looking at the change in municipal governments, city services, as well as urban planning over the last 100 years, we went like this, we spread out, right, that puts a strain on your infrastructure, a strain on public safety costs, the wider that we are getting, instead of being more dense. And he was I believe the North Dakota governor and he even made a comment. We need more governors who have municipal government experience because he said they can relate and understand. And those comments echoed to me because, you know, I would just ask the state and the federal level, other folks in government to think in terms of what is the mayor and city council charged with? You know, our ... police division works so hard to be village vigilant and present in the community. But conversations like annexation from decades ago, set us down this path where we're so wide. Now, let's build up. We don't need to build out we can only build up, and you're looking as society starting to push back towards bicycles, towards walking to and from, public transportation. Man, those are programs that I love to support, because it chases urbanism. And it provides a community that is not just "modern," that's a buzzword, but a community where families Hoosiers can walk to a pharmacy, can walk to a grocery store, can walk to a park with their dog, with their kids, and enjoy the city of Terre Haute and all that it has to offer.
Speaker 1
Yeah, you know, I think we're seeing that across the country where it was asphalt and roads and three lanes going one way, and now we're seeing cities walking back and taking out a lane and putting grass or making bike lanes. You see that in Indianapolis. Former mayor, when we were up in Kokomo, Greg Goodnight and I used to talk about "road diets" where he was narrowing the roads and saying even a foot less of road can save so much more in costs.
Speaker 2
And it does and we look at road projects that don't require widening. We really look at a lot of those and you know, [former] Mayor Greg Goodnight, surface parking is blight. Chase density and parking as well, find creative ways to connect parking garages to places of employment or places of commercial spending. I mean, those are just good tenants to practice. You got to find the balance. Not all Hoosiers are prepared to move away from all-surface parking. But it's always good to have these conversations because it's cost savings. Its benefit to the taxpayer in the short term and long term, and it creates a dense community.
Speaker 1
It was interesting to see that in New York where the COVID moved restaurants to a lane, but they just stayed there. They left it there and didn't move it back and said, 'Oh we're okay we didn't need that lane, did we?' New York!
Speaker 2
Well if New York can do it Terre Haute can. Come on, you know we can take a look at this concept.
Unknown Speaker
Hey the casinos looking great.
Speaker 2
April 5th, coming up, we're gonna roll the dice, it'll be our our hard launch. I am looking forward to it. Is it going to bring in some increased taxes? Yes. Will there be some traffic concerns, handfull of safety concerns? Gambling is the second highest addiction in the United States of America. Well, sometimes with problems becomes new solutions. So we are looking at conversations with INDOT, conversations with redevelopment on how we can look at the east side transportation infrastructure focus. We do work closely with police and fire in the casino to ensure that it is a safe environment for all Hoosiers. Those that live here, and those that visit. I am looking forward to it. It will be a great addition to the city of Terre Haute, and I invite all the listeners, all of your followers come on down to Terre Haute, Indiana, stay in a hotel for a night, check out the casino, go visit some of our golf courses like right park, like Coleman lanes, our city parks, and of course our museums.
Speaker 1
Yeah, and I was gonna ask that you just touched upon about the infrastructure and all that. I mean, that was planned years ago. But is all that coming together?
Speaker 2
Some planning had not been done. So we are simultaneously trying to be proactive in new planning, as well as what are the fixes today that we need to make to be compliant with the state and just create an easy community for folks to drive or walk and maneuver to and from hotspots in Terre Haute.
Speaker 1
I know we're out of time, but I always like to leave the last minute to you any announcements or things that you'd like to say?
Speaker 2
You know, we are we are firing on all cylinders and infill housing, and parks, and American Rescue Plan dollars. But I like to use this to say hey, where are we falling short? We've started conversations around sustainability. We've launched a new city recycling center that's now up to four tons a week. But we have so much further to go in the conversation of sustainability. I find myself saying this time and time again. I will always believe that we fallen short on mental health. A conversation that is hitting Hoosiers day in and day out. We are looking at some opportunities there. We're looking at our police social worker program hoping to expand it here and 2025. At the end of the day, while we have taken steps forward, we've got a long way to go. So am I proud of what we've accomplished? Yes, but you've got to be humble. You've got to be a leader who says well, we have not done enough yet. And that's my mindset. Happy we've taken steps forward, hoping to take many more in the coming years and months.
Speaker 1
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2
Thank you for the time and we'll see you next month.
Speaker 1
Sounds good.
