Unknown Speaker
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm with Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun on Zoom today. Trying to get both of our schedules together. Plus, it's not the second week of the month. We both been busy. But here we are in the last week of June. Time is flying. Hi, Brandon. Thanks for being here.
Now, thank you for having me, Joe, it's always good to spend some time with you on as the mayor, I mean, we really had a lot of progress the last six months, just recently did a State of the City address to highlight some of those accomplishments. So looking forward to tout Tara and success with you here today.
Unknown Speaker
So you hit on something that I'm talking about with the other mayors that here we are six months into the year already. And I know it might be too early to really talk about goals. But still I think it's a milestone, you know, six months into your administration are at least the tides turning a little bit into your vision. Absolutely. So from a housing perspective, one of my goals long term goals was to double previous year, construction on new housing units, whether through rehabilitation or new construction, folks were six months in and we've we're getting close to tripling previous year numbers. One number I always like to tout we built 122 new homes or new housing units in 2022. We're currently at about 315 and 2024. With of course, several large projects that we're looking forward to announcing in July and August. So a lot of progress there when it comes to housing. Now, it's not just you know, new construction, right part of new housing is restoration of blight properties. We've seen good progress, there are programs with Thrive West Central Indiana and the homes for the Future program continues to see a lot of interest from local builders and other builders from across the state of Indiana as we bring folks in here and to invest in the housing stock here in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Unknown Speaker
So what is the need right now for housing? Are we are we talking about all levels of housing? Great question. So we did a housing study in 2023. At Thrive West Central did one and it showed that in all income levels we are behind in our housing stock is old. So I really use the term attainable housing, we know what is attainable part of it is what folks would define is that affordable housing bucket $150,000. And under part of the attainable housing is at 150 to 300 range for young professionals, seniors downsizing folks in the middle class and part of it also is housing for those on higher incomes. So through this grant program, we really look at how can we invest in projects that hit all levels of housing to increase to our housing stock. We look at average median income, we look at rent levels, we look at our percentage who rents who owns and try to tackle every single category. Because if we were to take you know funds from the American rescue plan and say, Okay, we're committed to housing, and we build only low income housing, it would exasperate the problem amongst all those other groups. So we never want to focus on just one style of housing, whether that's infill neighborhood, redevelopment, Neighborhood Development, or rehabilitation condemn property. So it's adding to all those buckets. And the overall housing ecosystem is a term that we use. So if you know, housing is such a need, you know, we see this in Bloomington where there's a lot of student housing being built and people wondering why is all the student housing being built? Is it is it needed? And I think, well, if it, if a developer is going to come in and spend $8 million on a property, they probably have done their homework. So why so why is the city getting involved with this? Why aren't developers seeing this private need for housing and doing it on their own? So a lot of development is coming naturally. Right. But we use funds for from the American rescue plan to help close the gap we recognize and construction costs have gone up lumber has kind of decreased to about 2019 levels, but for quality housing builds, some of those prices have gone up, right. That's just, you know, supply demand COVID supply chain networks, you throw the term in that that helped create that problem. So we said, okay, how can we close the gap in terms of infrastructure so that the grants that we are giving go to infrastructure for housing projects, that sewage, that's water lines, that's utilities, and what that does is it helps connect our infrastructure network for the community at large. So we are seeing, you know, very large interest for development projects, for example, the old police station project and we're looking to bring
Unknown Speaker
Then down on 13th and Wabash, I'm sure you've driven by it before. That's a dilapidated building. So hey, if we're to take that down, which we're planning to using pre site development funds to demo it, we submitted an RFP through our Terra redevelopment office to say what developers are interested in Terre Haute, Indiana, and what is our expected Public Private Partnership match? Whether it's the IDC, which is very focused on return on investment, or the state legislator, again, really focused on return on investment, you know, we have to go to the State House to the state agencies and say, using state and federal funds, we saw a one of the projects or arms for the future projects got like a 33 to one match. So for every dollar that we put in, we get $33 of private investment. Again, and I've used this analogy in the past, I'll keep using it. If we got to return on investment like that in Wall Street. We would be on the cover the New York Times, but instead we're doing it in government in through the lens of community development. And you know, for a lot of folks in communities like taro like Bloomington, who asked the question why I always say, look at the state across the state of Indiana, you know, we cannot change the fact that over the last 10 to 20 years economic incentives, through TIF dollars through tax abatements have become the name of the game. We're trying to use a grant that goes to infrastructure cost that goes right into our local economy. A lot of our contractors are local contractors. So that's just another tool in our toolkit that helps alleviate the pressure or the need or the want to just go straight to a TIF district or tax abatement.
Unknown Speaker
And just to be clear, when we're talking about city getting involved with building housing, this is housing that will be bought and owned by residents. current residents. It is it is the vast majority these projects are private. The city and of course is not doing the framing and designing the building. No, no, we're saying okay, hey, how can we help you close the gap? How can we stimulate this local economy and get more homes then Muncie more homes in Kokomo. More homes and, you know, even Westfield. So as we look at other communities, it's like, hey, let's add to our housing stock. We've got n tech coming in a lot of great construction there, zinc power, ta TX, other companies seeking expansions or relocating the Terra hope, of course, Great Dane, Saturn Petcare, GE, and then even on, you know, kind of the the college degree side whether it's Thomson derivative, Old National Bank, first financial bank, we can't expect these companies to expand if we're not providing quality housing in the city. You know, we don't want folks to drive in and work here and drive out. We want to be able to eat live or play here in the city of Terre Haute. Plus, when the city takes on, you know, something like a vacant lot, we got a lot of vacant lots that we've been transferring to developers, we can help say, hey, you know, we'd like to see residential, you know, we don't want to see a junkyard expansion in an empty commercial zone property go up here we'd prefer to be residential. So we have our say in the conversation, too. If you look at cities for about 40 years, 1917 or 1960, really to 2000, early 2000 10s, they went out. So city services are forced to expand, you compound that with something like property tax caps, where local budgets then get reduced 15 years ago, it makes that expansion so much harder to upkeep. So now we're saying, well, let's go up let's practice density. And part of that is multi use complexes which we are looking at several in town. And part of that is just filling in the vacant lots that we do have. It takes one cop to patrol around the outside of a multi use apartment complex with first floor commercial that can house 100 to 200 people, whereas an entire neighborhood that's spread out or across the city, it would take more law enforcement personnel. So densities also cost savings method for municipalities, as we say, Hey, can we consolidate can we have quality services quality sidewalks quality parks, within our city limits, so we kind of combat some of that urban sprawl but also buckle the trends and decades of spreading out instead of building up.
Unknown Speaker
You touched upon something Mayor Thompson Bloomington just said last week, it's as part of an ecosystem isn't it? Because you know, you talked about the jobs, but you can't talk about jobs without workplace without live. You think you said live work and play?
Unknown Speaker
It's it's all one big ecosystem. And I'm smiling that you mentioned Mayor Carrie Thompson because her experience of the opposite of community and Rural Affairs over at Indiana University really is showing and how she's governing as a mayor and looking at these problems. I mean, I
Unknown Speaker
I do call her as well as I call several other mayors for feedback for thoughts and I say, hey, that seems to be working. When you look at terahertz ecosystem, on top of housing, you know, we're developing a 10 year sidewalk plan. So we can say, Hey, how can we connect, connect some of these neighborhoods, some current housing, not even feature housing current residents, how can we get them connected to our parks to our grocery stores. So there's a long list that goes into this, that is infrastructure, housing, workforce development, the city recently voted a city council, and I'm happy they did and they supported the administration and a $250,000. Grant from American rescue playing funds to the goodwill sell center that's focused on adult education. It is not a competing program that the Vigo County School Corporation, but instead it's focused on the 20% of Hoosiers, right here in our community that didn't make it through high school gives them you know, a chance to be that hand up and lift them out of some cycles like generational poverty. So that ecosystem is constantly fluctuating right? Housing, workforce development, childcare. So yes, we do the good work cell center, we started the intern experience which is similar to like an or fellowship that you see in Indianapolis. But now we have the internet experience here in Terre Haute, Indiana. When you work at our local companies, do you get a chance to see our quality of life amenities, and that's a partner with our chambers, our chamber of commerce, then you have the Housing Program, which is a partnership with Thrive West Central. So you see the city really weaving and working and kind of be in that point guard, right? I know basketball is over, unfortunately, and the Pacers couldn't quite get it done. But I'm a huge basketball fan. So you really want to be that floor general, almost a Steve Nash, Isaiah Thompson tech guy, just spreading the ball around and letting some of your other players get a shot, right? Get a jump shot or get them close to the layups, they can go in close to the goal. So you can do a layup or they can get a dunk and that's how I view community development, working with these other entities to position them to the goal. You don't want, you know, just a mayor or just local government to to not just be the floor general but to take every shot, you know, right past the logo. Now you need to facilitate that offense because we're all working towards the same goal of growing not just Terre Haute, Indiana, but West Central Indiana at large. It's a regional battle. We've got to uplift the entire region being the largest city when you look in Brazil Selvan Clay County vermillion Park Putnam. I mean, I want to be a very supportive mayor to JD Wilson down in Sullivan, Indiana, and we love working together because a strong Terre Haute and a strong Sullivan that means a strong west central Indiana region.
Unknown Speaker
You spoke about two grants. Talking about fun being able to fund things at the at the Chamber city update just about a week ago of the $5 million Lily gift that you're on track for a renovation of the YMCA and then another grant, you're going to pitch to the Secretary of Transportation Pete Buda judge, can you talk a little about those two? Yeah, well, I always say no grant is ever on track, right? You're always
Unknown Speaker
it's much like elections, you're always behind right treat every day like it's game day. So we were fortunate to make it to the final round. Lily gift a we're looking at a it's gonna be about a $90 million project. But we're gonna apply for about 5 million from Lily Gift Aid to renovate our YMCA on the banks of the ball bash, but the YMCA some folks think, oh, you know, you have to have a membership. They do so many community projects with local nonprofits focused on child care focused on quality education outside the classroom and summer programs. That just as elevating our entire community. So the building's been neglected a little bit the last couple of decades. But this provides us a funding opportunity to renovate it. And we are looking at you know, the long term operational costs and the capacity of a new facility and how it will pay itself off over time and continue to grow not just through membership, but through services offer. Not just that, but it's in Fairbanks Park on our river. We're finishing up a Riverfront Development Study. We've been meeting with developers from across the state of Indiana saying, Hey, I've seen Fort Wayne I've gone to Fort Wayne twice and met with officials met with developers looked at their river and said this was not here. 20 years ago, you know, it took a visionary like Mayor Tom Henry to to really drive that ball forward. So how can we do that in Terre Haute? Because we have, you know, the space. We've got a lot of private landowners that we're working with, but how can we kind of repeat some of that success here in West Central Indiana? And also, Joe, how can we ask some of these developers to come in and say Hey, can I get $100 million multi use complex off
Unknown Speaker
five to 10% public manage without investing in Fairbanks Park, without investing in the YMCA. Those are quality of life amenities that attract a current population and future population. So it's a win win for the community in my eyes.
Unknown Speaker
So let's just talk just a little bit about budget numbers. Does can be boring to some people, but it's always been a topic and Terre Haute always been in the story, the property tax caps and, and I know there's been a balanced budget for maybe eight years or so. So what what numbers? Are you crunching now? And what are you seeing, you know, some different eyes you, especially over these past six months. So before we hit the budget, let me rewind, because I just realized I forgot the grants with Secretary transportation. Pete Mini Oh, yes, yeah. So we did apply for a raise grant, we are looking at about four or five others that we're going to apply for or have applied for, to really bring in, you know, not just quote, infrastructure improvements. But that includes pedestrian safety, quality, right of ways, quality sidewalks, new improvements, not just the downtown Terre Haute but across the city at large. They're also part of our iterative planning cycle with our long term control plan, which is the government way of saying we want to, you know, make sure that our stormwater and our poop water is all, you know, separating all of that. So a lot of projects there that we're looking forward to discussing in our nation's capital, Wednesday, June 26.
Unknown Speaker
Okay, and then just a quick update on budget numbers. Yeah, absolutely. So, of course, our sanitary balance is very healthy. But we did you know, spend a couple of weeks with the auditor reviewing pay, you know, why was this transfer? Or why was this bill being paid out of the general fund, not the sanitary fund. And why were these services here, not there. So, bottom line, we have five budgets that are have a negative balance, right, so your yearly budget can be balanced. So you can say in 2024, we spent less than what we took in, but if you still have negative line items, on the books, not in the bank account, but on the books, then that shows that, hey, you've got to have policies and plans in place to correct that. So we are looking at our group health, our health insurance plan, our trash fleet, we had to make a very hard decision and increase the trash fee. To cover that because it hadn't been increased in years. What we did do is we provided some relief to seniors on a fixed income, especially on those lower levels and veterans and provided a credit for them. So their bill will actually go down from 11 to $10, while the rest of the constituents will go up 11 to 15. Of course, we have two municipal golf courses habitually across the United States, not just Indiana municipal golf courses, have struggled to turn a profit, Ray Park is doing very well home and Lynx is doing well, equally as much in terms of how much they're seeing right, some of the gross revenues, but their profit isn't high, because our operating costs are higher. So we look at our golf courses saying, hey, you know, Ray parks on the right path? Do we need to have the conversation of private management of a municipal owned public course, like home and lakes. And that's a conversation we're having now. And we're drafting documents to do to invite individuals who are passionate golf or live golf out every day to come in and work with our current staff and say, Hey, how can we privately manage this course, it's very important to me that the employees stay in is not at all the employees, employees fault. And over the last 18 years, you know, Holman lanes, has habitually not seen investment from the city from the state. And that's why it's in the condition that instead it's a quality golf course, the greens are great, the green fees are a great price. But we are going to open that up to a bid for private management of that course. So overall, our operating balance looks higher than it is because American rescue plan funds are in there. So we'll use some casino dollars to build our cash reserves closer to about 15 to 20%. With our our goal should be 25%. Right, but we're not going to get there overnight. So how can you use casino dollars to build that cash reserve, but also finance some projects like a new YMCA, of course the Deming Park pool, right, that's a 20.6 project that we're looking at. So how can we reroute some casino dollars while building reserve over here in the general fund? Really, really good. I mean, this is the part that I love. I love the municipal finance part and capital stacking, looking at private grant and local tax dollars and how they all sandwich together. A great kind of piece of advice that I work with a lot of our legislators on is when we go to the state of Indiana, the state legislator or or the IBC you know, or the ibtc you name or even Lilly Can you
Unknown Speaker
With one hand out instead of two hands out, can you say this is everything we've done locally to make this project happen? We just need you to fill the gap. We don't need you to finance the entire project. That's the mindset that we take here in the city of taro.
Unknown Speaker
And the big question the overpass is still coming. It is on it's an end up projects. I know it's an entire talk 25 Man, I wish they move it I get a call about it every week. We've approved our local match here. We are working with their MPO to get our tip funds there this year right paid for. So that way we know that when construction time and the bid comes in. It's just it is moving. So we're always working on that we are going to pursue a railroad elimination crossing grant 2025. But we're going to locally fund a study this year to identify our next overpass in you know this overpasses are 10 year projects. So we're going to start looking at our next project now doing a study on several railroads to identify which one makes sense to the community to public safety, as well as the commercial development currently here in development on the way
Unknown Speaker
I see you have a Mayor's Youth Council, you tell us a bit what that is because the application deadline is coming up July 1. It is and we've had a couple of applicants already, of course, you always want more. The Mayor's Youth Council is an ability to give youth in our school corporation, a chance to really identify a project that they feel would help them stay in Terre Haute would make Terre Haute better for them and their families. We give them a year to work on that project. We also integrate them into some of our boards and commissions. So they'll be required to go to a Parks Board meeting to go to a city council meeting to see what the Board of Public Works does. And just understand and get to know local government. We're fortunate to have a couple of interns with us this summer from Indiana State in Indiana University, one of the young men who works for us a master's graduate undergrad, as well. And he's about to start his PhD in the fall. And we really wanted to give him some local government experience before going to a PhD program where it's very theoretical, right, you know, federal government does this will it trickle down or not? You know, those are the problem sets that the PhDs are handling. But we want to show them that this is where no one else can come and have there's no entity underneath us like the dollar has come down to its lowest possible level. Can you make grandmother's Susie's life better? Right? Like, can you fix the sidewalk? Can you make sure that handicap parking is available across the city? Can you make sure that she's able to go to a store and her grandkids are able to play in a park and it's all centrally located. That's what I love about local government, especially I mean, you know, nothing against our our state legislators or the folks out in Washington, DC. But sometimes it gets very theoretical, very combative. And, you know, down here, it's like, well, frankly, we don't have the time for politics. And we're not going to let it hamper progress, we're going to find a way to get the job done. And that's another mindset that we take here in City Hall.
Unknown Speaker
So I know we're almost out of time, but I was like to leave the last minute to you. Any announcements, any new news that you'd like to share? Yeah, we're blessed to receive Well, kind of Blessed Of course, it's for bad reason that we received funds from the opioid settlement. And we decided to use this opioid settlement dollars towards a social worker expansion. Our current social worker has a 54% referral percentage treatment rate. What that basically means is he's got 100 cases, 54 of them successfully go on and receive receive treatment from other community partners like our community mental health center, like other nonprofits like sober living, and we're really rerouting folks from the criminal justice system. Of the 47% that aren't receiving treatment, a large percentage of them simply don't need to, and we were able to de escalate the situation in a safe way, right? These aren't, you know, these aren't very violent crimes that we're looking at De escalating, these are just routine calls that we were able to stop someone from entering our criminal justice system who just needed some time or just needed to look at the problem in a different way. So we've decided to expand on that program. As you can imagine, a lot of our issues with the social worker, our mental health related homeless or homeless related to mental health and substance abuse, a handful Juvenile and Family Dispute cases as well. But he has done a phenomenal job and we're looking to support him with another employee who could focus on the collaboration, case management referral sign to leave him in the field to increase the work that he is doing so it helps delineate duties and responsibilities and also further collapse.
Unknown Speaker
grant with community partners. And you know, I can't think mayors like Chris Jensen enough for his work up at the Statehouse to get the state legislator to recognize and provide grant based funding for programs like this. So this is a Hoosier problem. It's an American problem. COVID really exposed it, loneliness, depression, mental health issues. And I'm very happy to say that, from the mayor's perspective, a number of mayors in the state are using healthfirst, Indiana funds, opioid settlement funds to solve this problem at the local level. Because again, you know, dc in the state, it's takes a lot longer in there, there's more theoretical conversations, and they're very combative at a time. So we're gonna find a way to do what we can here locally to solve the issue of mental health.
Unknown Speaker
Right, and thank you so much. I think next time we're meeting is at the Fairbanks park on the river. Yeah, and we're gonna go spend time at the river and not just look at it, but dream about it and chat about some of the possibilities that we have on the Wabash River, touch on the success and some current projects and hopefully have some future ones. Yeah, really looking forward to that. Thank you so much. We'll see you next time. Thank you.
