From how residents can report potholes to the city's housing progress and finding jobs for former Sony workers.
On this week's installment of Ask The Mayor, Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett addresses these issues and more. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: Can we have a quick update on the Deming Park pool and golf course? I know there were funding issues and wanted to see how they shape up this season.
Bennett: We're looking good. Didn't find any issues this winter. For the golf course, we opened already, but the weather has been terrible. We were hoping to get an uptick this year, we made additional changes in staffing, really tried to cut the budget and we raised the rates. Hopefully, we'll get more golfers out there because we hope for increase play. That's the bottom line.
Hren: About a year ago, we talked about housing projects, especially influenced by Indiana State and the Wabash River… we reported on the re-purposing of the ICON building into apartments that are still under construction, but is that spurring more residential development?
Bennett: There's one but they both started roughly the same time. So there's brand new construction at the old Boys and Girls Club site. So it's extending people to the river from ISU's campus and the Riverfront Lofts are market rate, they're really looking for professionals. I think it will lead to additional developments. They need to get open with foot traffic.
Hren: Does the city need to get out front of some infrastructure needs to get people across the busy street (U.S. 41)?
Bennett: We've been talking about that for about five years now. ISU had some ideas about putting a pedestrian tunnel or walkway over the top. INDOT hasn't really approved those concepts, so we're working out what might be the best solution. The interim would be more safety related things, so you'll see additional striping and signage.
The newest one on Cherry Street has some vacancies. There was really a lot coming into the market at the same time. I'm not aware of any other large projects coming. But that will increase the beds downtown by 2,000 people. It's significant. We have some parking issues, but we're working through that. We've never had a downtown housing boom like that ever.
Hren: I know there have been job fairs in response to the Sony layoffs. What do you say to those who are over 50 and maybe further along their careers looking for jobs?
Bennett: Yeah, they're like, I've got this skill set and I'd like to continue to do that, and it's tough. But I think those skills are all usable, you have to think outside the box. That's what we hope to do with Work One and these other resources locally to be able to talk with them and help them go back over their skills.
