Unknown Speaker
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor show on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren. This week we are on Zoom. It's our final show of the year. And we're with Nashville town council President Nancy Crocker. Hello, welcome. Happy holidays. Happy New Year.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, happy holidays. Happy New Year. Hopefully. You try not to jinx it by saying hopefully next year will be a good year. Yeah, just never know.
Unknown Speaker
While we're wrapping up more than just the year 2022. Just to let everybody know the way government works in Nashville. town council elections were this past November. And Nancy, you were up for reelection. We sat in the October show, but didn't make it this year, your term will be over. So I know. You're disappointed. Are you surprised?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, very surprised. Actually, I I've worked very, very hard for this town for the last four years. And very surprised that it was not a recognized I guess, by the people of this town, how hard I had worked. And, and, you know, I, when I look back at the election and everything, and there were things that happened that really made a difference, my sister passed away, right, during that period of time that the day that I was supposed to speak for the League of Women Voters was the day that she passed away. So lots of things happened that made me not focus on being a quote politician. And I kind of realized, I'm not a politician. I'm a servant. I'm a worker. I'm willing to to give my time and efforts to better this town, but I'm not somebody that is going to go out and you know, campaign and especially campaign negatively against other people in order to to regain my position. So I kind of learned a little bit about myself there that you know, I I'm I'm willing to work I'm I'm a I'm, I'm devoted to this town, but I guess I'm just not a politician.
Unknown Speaker
Well, and Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton, Columbus, Mayor Jim lit up both say they will not run again. We haven't heard from Terre Haute, Duke Bennett. So politics campaigns are easy. There's a lot of work. Yeah. And
Unknown Speaker
there's so much social media and issues like that, that it is really a struggle for politicians to stay focused and stay positive. Because there's so much negativity, so many, so many ways people can attack you. On on, necessarily, and you know, sometimes, you know, they attack you, and they don't even know what they're talking about, and things like that. So it's it's really hard. And if you look at our country, I think you'll see that to not a lot of I'm sorry about the politicians that are running, I apologize to them, but really not a lot of quality people running for any office now. Because they don't want that. That part of the politics in their life. It's hard. It's very hard. And you know, I heard somebody say recently something, I wonder if the Human Rights Commission hurt me, because people that don't want things like that will push other people down so that it doesn't, so they they don't because they're just afraid of what will happen. So anyway, anyway, we move on, and I'm looking forward to next year, I really don't have a clue what I'm going to do with my spare time. At this point, I've talked to some people possibly about baking for one of the restaurants here or doing something with our town consultant with his company. So I guess the doors wide open and I can kind of choose and at my age, I'm working at the gallery, I'm still doing my artwork, you know, if I don't want to do anything, I don't have to.
Unknown Speaker
I mean, I'm sorry. You could always run again if you want it right.
Unknown Speaker
I could run again. Both Jane gore and Tyra Miller are I almost said Tyra Banks. That's funny. Tyra Miller are up for reelection this next year. I don't know if they're going to run Again, that's up to them. And if both of them would run again, I would not run against them. Because they're both good people. And but if one of them didn't, yeah, maybe I would. Well, so
Unknown Speaker
long have you been on Town Council?
Unknown Speaker
Just the four years, it's just been one term. It's the first time I've ever done anything like this. So yeah,
Unknown Speaker
so So looking back at those years, what are some of the big projects that Nashville needed to get done that you were you're proud of?
Unknown Speaker
Well, you know, during those four years was COVID. So just getting through COVID. And being successful with that. I'm so proud of the emergency group that got put together, I was part of that, during COVID, and we have a really good base for if emergencies do happen in the future, we have a great group of people. So I'm very proud of that. Things, let you know, I can't say there's one huge thing other than overall, just organizing the town organizing the utilities, the utilities are, you know, I really didn't realize until recently how involved I am. And the utilities and the utilities have really come a long way. And these past few years, we formed this utility board, I've been a part of it since the beginning, and what they've done and what we've done together, to try to get these utilities turned around and start start a process of planning to, you know, someday get them in better working conditions. So I guess that's something I'm very proud of. And then little things like on Main, and I'm pointing over here, because this is where it is because I'm at my house this morning. But I'm on on Main and Johnson down by Sycamore Street, the parking was very tight as far as traffic, and some citizens that live in the area came to me. And they said, you know, this is a problem. And so we were able to go out and look at it with those people. And we eliminated some parking spaces. Just at the last meeting, we voted to put a stop sign down as people come in from Holmesburg road to stop that crazy person driving really fast, and then getting into town where it's really tight. And it was dangerous. And so because those people in the community knew me and knew that I would listen to them, they came to me and working with them, we were able to make that street safer for our pedestrians. We also striped a lot of town that we wouldn't have, if it wasn't for them talking to me and other people in the community. So I think I'm the thing I'm most proud of is that, you know, the people that really knew, knew what was going on in town, knew that knew me and knew that they would talk to me and that I would listen, I didn't always give the answer that they wanted. One guy wanted us to reimburse him for his sidewalk. And we just weren't able to do that. And I can't just do something that the town's not able to do. But but I'm I'm very proud that people reached out to me, even through the Human Rights Commission, people that disagreed with the Human Rights Commission knew that they could voice their opinion, and we would listen to it. So I hope that I've turned the council in a new direction there that for so long, people would say, Oh, they don't listen, they just do what they want bla bla bla bla, and I hope that the council is has turned in a different direction. They're listening to the citizens. And and I hope that the citizens of this town start being more involved in what's going on because it's so important. The, you know, the especially the utility side of it, you know, you got to know what's going on. And just this yesterday, rental house, water is pouring out of it, there's a leak inside, I'm on the feed trying to get to these people. And although all of this stuff and being the idea came into my head, we need to be aware of these houses that there are houses that people don't live in year round, they come and go because they have other homes and other devices. And hopefully there's not a squirrel outside. But we need to be aware of those and make sure that when those people do leave us plan the winter that they know Hey, settle down, that they know to turn their water off to drain their pipes in the house and things like that, to make sure that they winterize and to also possibly set up some type of process that if we know that the temperatures are gonna dip like they did Lucy was she is a puppy. So she's gonna bark squirrels. But anyway, set up some type of process that they know, if we are concerned that will just go turn their water off, you know, we're going to try look into how that would work and if people can sign up for that. So another new process there. All right, that's enough. That's enough. Sorry,
Unknown Speaker
no, you're fine. what's what? What would be the, you know, top of minds of people in Nashville residents, what's, what's their concerns?
Unknown Speaker
I think streets are always concerning traffic flow, things like that, Oh, there's another thing to index got this plan. And they're putting in stoplights. And I had this idea that at our main intersection, instead of the way it's set up, we do a scramble light. And it really makes sense for our town to have a scramble light there. And so they're going to do that in 2024. So I'm excited that it might even come sooner than that, but they're definitely scrambled like, a scramble is when all traffic stops, and then all pedestrians go, and then all pedestrians stop and the traffic goes. So then you don't get the left turn where people are crossing the street, when it's busy in town, it can you can go through three lights and only have two cars in front of you. Because there's so many people crossing the street. So it just makes sense, then everybody people can cross diagonally during a scramble light. They, you know, the it's longer so they can get across safer. And all directions cross when the when the lights scramble. And I think what would be really fun is to have some music going. But you know, during the scramble, you know, did did it it it it did
Unknown Speaker
do that? Well, you know, talking about tourism, you know, we did a great feature on tourism this past year, and how you know, of course, it's great, it brings in tourism dollars, but it doesn't really pay the bills. So do you feel that there's progress with with state legislators on that?
Unknown Speaker
No, I'm gonna be honest, now, but we didn't really get a chance to work toward it. That was one of my goals for the next four years was to try to get some things changed that we could use some of that money and, and also just to get state legislature to recognize small towns more and make it easier for them to be successful. That was one of my things we were going to start working on. And you know, what, still may do it in other ways. You know, maybe possibly do it through the utility board or arts and entertainment commission, you know, things like that. So it's, I'm not gonna give up on that. But But yeah, I don't, don't. I feel like maybe some eyes were opened. I had accepted that just the other day, I was at dinner with a bunch of ladies and the one woman was talking about this town needs to focus more on the arts in this town. And I said, Wait a minute. It's not the town. It's the visitors center. It's the it's the the the money that people handling the money. They're they're the ones that you're talking about. Not us. We're taking care of residents, you know, through the town. And that's something I don't think a lot of people realize the separation there too. And that it can be difficult.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. We're a little behind on national news. Is there any new county ordinances or things that we need to be caught up on?
Unknown Speaker
No, but I you know, speaking of all of that, I just thought about our police department. And I think, you know, I talked about the utilities and everything. But when I really think about the last four years, I came in to this office, questioning whether we even needed a police department in Nashville. That was my I was questioning and because of that questioning, and because of the pressure that I put on people asking questions. A big change happened and we got this brand new, amazing police chief, and she has a five year plan now. They have money, they have vests, bulletproof vests, when we had the incident in a couple of weeks ago at the out of the ordinary where somebody called in a bomb threat. I felt so much better about my officers, my officers, the officers Who's being there? Because I knew they had the right equipment. So I think that recognizing, first of all that this town because of the its difference, it is a small town, most small towns don't need this bigger police department. But because of the tourism industry, we do need this bigger Police Department. And if we're going to have them, we've got to make sure that they're funded. And it takes a lot of the money that comes in through the taxes in order to fund them. But it is necessary, and it's very important. And then we've got to be creative about the other things that normally would be used for that money, you know, streets and roads and sidewalks. And we've got to be creative and find different ways to fund those areas. So I'm very, very proud of our police department. Now. We've got great people working for us. And I feel like I've been a big part of that we did National Night Out where we just we raised awareness, we did some fundraisers, I'm still going to be part of National Night Out next year. So yeah, I think that the police department is is something I'm very proud of. And those are great people now working there.
Unknown Speaker
How did the fall tourism season go? They're
Unknown Speaker
fabulous. Oh, yeah, I know. I you know, I can only gauge it by our gallery, but our gallery did great. I my artwork and where I work, three or four days a week is B three gallery and we did really good. We had really numbers. People seem to be wanting to buy local more and wanting to give gifts that are made locally, even locally as far as Indiana. And, and I know, I know, every everything was jam packed. There were nights when restaurants had to close because they ran out of food. You know, so they were very busy. Chris Kendall market was a huge success again this year and the light parade. So many people at the light parade so many people at the Halloween parade. Yeah, we had a great we had a great year as far as that goes.
Unknown Speaker
Right? No, you have to get going. So we really appreciate your time and doing the show this past year. Any final message before we sign off.
Unknown Speaker
I just want to thank everybody that has worked with me throughout these four years. Dax Norton has been essential to anything that I accomplished his knowledge and our new town manager, Sandy Jones, our county or town clerk Brenda young, just just, you know, Council, woman, gore and Miller and David Rudd. Just great great people to work with and and Phyllis Carr, I you know, there's, I can name every single one of the town employees and say how great they are. So I just want to say that how grateful that I am and grateful that I am that I got this opportunity to work with amazing people. Well, I'm gonna cry.
Unknown Speaker
Well, I think DAX Norton always said on this show, too, is he always always complimented the people who work there and live there. Hmm,
Unknown Speaker
absolutely. Absolutely.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you, Sam. Thank you so much for being on the show and taking time to do this. Really, really appreciate it. I know if we need anything Nashville. I can still come to you.
Unknown Speaker
That's right. Absolutely. I'll still be involved. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Joe. Have a great new year.
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor show on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren. This week we are on Zoom. It's our final show of the year. And we're with Nashville town council President Nancy Crocker. Hello, welcome. Happy holidays. Happy New Year.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, happy holidays. Happy New Year. Hopefully. You try not to jinx it by saying hopefully next year will be a good year. Yeah, just never know.
Unknown Speaker
While we're wrapping up more than just the year 2022. Just to let everybody know the way government works in Nashville. town council elections were this past November. And Nancy, you were up for reelection. We sat in the October show, but didn't make it this year, your term will be over. So I know. You're disappointed. Are you surprised?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, very surprised. Actually, I I've worked very, very hard for this town for the last four years. And very surprised that it was not a recognized I guess, by the people of this town, how hard I had worked. And, and, you know, I, when I look back at the election and everything, and there were things that happened that really made a difference, my sister passed away, right, during that period of time that the day that I was supposed to speak for the League of Women Voters was the day that she passed away. So lots of things happened that made me not focus on being a quote politician. And I kind of realized, I'm not a politician. I'm a servant. I'm a worker. I'm willing to to give my time and efforts to better this town, but I'm not somebody that is going to go out and you know, campaign and especially campaign negatively against other people in order to to regain my position. So I kind of learned a little bit about myself there that you know, I I'm I'm willing to work I'm I'm a I'm, I'm devoted to this town, but I guess I'm just not a politician.
Unknown Speaker
Well, and Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton, Columbus, Mayor Jim lit up both say they will not run again. We haven't heard from Terre Haute, Duke Bennett. So politics campaigns are easy. There's a lot of work. Yeah. And
Unknown Speaker
there's so much social media and issues like that, that it is really a struggle for politicians to stay focused and stay positive. Because there's so much negativity, so many, so many ways people can attack you. On on, necessarily, and you know, sometimes, you know, they attack you, and they don't even know what they're talking about, and things like that. So it's it's really hard. And if you look at our country, I think you'll see that to not a lot of I'm sorry about the politicians that are running, I apologize to them, but really not a lot of quality people running for any office now. Because they don't want that. That part of the politics in their life. It's hard. It's very hard. And you know, I heard somebody say recently something, I wonder if the Human Rights Commission hurt me, because people that don't want things like that will push other people down so that it doesn't, so they they don't because they're just afraid of what will happen. So anyway, anyway, we move on, and I'm looking forward to next year, I really don't have a clue what I'm going to do with my spare time. At this point, I've talked to some people possibly about baking for one of the restaurants here or doing something with our town consultant with his company. So I guess the doors wide open and I can kind of choose and at my age, I'm working at the gallery, I'm still doing my artwork, you know, if I don't want to do anything, I don't have to.
Unknown Speaker
I mean, I'm sorry. You could always run again if you want it right.
Unknown Speaker
I could run again. Both Jane gore and Tyra Miller are I almost said Tyra Banks. That's funny. Tyra Miller are up for reelection this next year. I don't know if they're going to run Again, that's up to them. And if both of them would run again, I would not run against them. Because they're both good people. And but if one of them didn't, yeah, maybe I would. Well, so
Unknown Speaker
long have you been on Town Council?
Unknown Speaker
Just the four years, it's just been one term. It's the first time I've ever done anything like this. So yeah,
Unknown Speaker
so So looking back at those years, what are some of the big projects that Nashville needed to get done that you were you're proud of?
Unknown Speaker
Well, you know, during those four years was COVID. So just getting through COVID. And being successful with that. I'm so proud of the emergency group that got put together, I was part of that, during COVID, and we have a really good base for if emergencies do happen in the future, we have a great group of people. So I'm very proud of that. Things, let you know, I can't say there's one huge thing other than overall, just organizing the town organizing the utilities, the utilities are, you know, I really didn't realize until recently how involved I am. And the utilities and the utilities have really come a long way. And these past few years, we formed this utility board, I've been a part of it since the beginning, and what they've done and what we've done together, to try to get these utilities turned around and start start a process of planning to, you know, someday get them in better working conditions. So I guess that's something I'm very proud of. And then little things like on Main, and I'm pointing over here, because this is where it is because I'm at my house this morning. But I'm on on Main and Johnson down by Sycamore Street, the parking was very tight as far as traffic, and some citizens that live in the area came to me. And they said, you know, this is a problem. And so we were able to go out and look at it with those people. And we eliminated some parking spaces. Just at the last meeting, we voted to put a stop sign down as people come in from Holmesburg road to stop that crazy person driving really fast, and then getting into town where it's really tight. And it was dangerous. And so because those people in the community knew me and knew that I would listen to them, they came to me and working with them, we were able to make that street safer for our pedestrians. We also striped a lot of town that we wouldn't have, if it wasn't for them talking to me and other people in the community. So I think I'm the thing I'm most proud of is that, you know, the people that really knew, knew what was going on in town, knew that knew me and knew that they would talk to me and that I would listen, I didn't always give the answer that they wanted. One guy wanted us to reimburse him for his sidewalk. And we just weren't able to do that. And I can't just do something that the town's not able to do. But but I'm I'm very proud that people reached out to me, even through the Human Rights Commission, people that disagreed with the Human Rights Commission knew that they could voice their opinion, and we would listen to it. So I hope that I've turned the council in a new direction there that for so long, people would say, Oh, they don't listen, they just do what they want bla bla bla bla, and I hope that the council is has turned in a different direction. They're listening to the citizens. And and I hope that the citizens of this town start being more involved in what's going on because it's so important. The, you know, the especially the utility side of it, you know, you got to know what's going on. And just this yesterday, rental house, water is pouring out of it, there's a leak inside, I'm on the feed trying to get to these people. And although all of this stuff and being the idea came into my head, we need to be aware of these houses that there are houses that people don't live in year round, they come and go because they have other homes and other devices. And hopefully there's not a squirrel outside. But we need to be aware of those and make sure that when those people do leave us plan the winter that they know Hey, settle down, that they know to turn their water off to drain their pipes in the house and things like that, to make sure that they winterize and to also possibly set up some type of process that if we know that the temperatures are gonna dip like they did Lucy was she is a puppy. So she's gonna bark squirrels. But anyway, set up some type of process that they know, if we are concerned that will just go turn their water off, you know, we're going to try look into how that would work and if people can sign up for that. So another new process there. All right, that's enough. That's enough. Sorry,
Unknown Speaker
no, you're fine. what's what? What would be the, you know, top of minds of people in Nashville residents, what's, what's their concerns?
Unknown Speaker
I think streets are always concerning traffic flow, things like that, Oh, there's another thing to index got this plan. And they're putting in stoplights. And I had this idea that at our main intersection, instead of the way it's set up, we do a scramble light. And it really makes sense for our town to have a scramble light there. And so they're going to do that in 2024. So I'm excited that it might even come sooner than that, but they're definitely scrambled like, a scramble is when all traffic stops, and then all pedestrians go, and then all pedestrians stop and the traffic goes. So then you don't get the left turn where people are crossing the street, when it's busy in town, it can you can go through three lights and only have two cars in front of you. Because there's so many people crossing the street. So it just makes sense, then everybody people can cross diagonally during a scramble light. They, you know, the it's longer so they can get across safer. And all directions cross when the when the lights scramble. And I think what would be really fun is to have some music going. But you know, during the scramble, you know, did did it it it it did
Unknown Speaker
do that? Well, you know, talking about tourism, you know, we did a great feature on tourism this past year, and how you know, of course, it's great, it brings in tourism dollars, but it doesn't really pay the bills. So do you feel that there's progress with with state legislators on that?
Unknown Speaker
No, I'm gonna be honest, now, but we didn't really get a chance to work toward it. That was one of my goals for the next four years was to try to get some things changed that we could use some of that money and, and also just to get state legislature to recognize small towns more and make it easier for them to be successful. That was one of my things we were going to start working on. And you know, what, still may do it in other ways. You know, maybe possibly do it through the utility board or arts and entertainment commission, you know, things like that. So it's, I'm not gonna give up on that. But But yeah, I don't, don't. I feel like maybe some eyes were opened. I had accepted that just the other day, I was at dinner with a bunch of ladies and the one woman was talking about this town needs to focus more on the arts in this town. And I said, Wait a minute. It's not the town. It's the visitors center. It's the it's the the the money that people handling the money. They're they're the ones that you're talking about. Not us. We're taking care of residents, you know, through the town. And that's something I don't think a lot of people realize the separation there too. And that it can be difficult.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. We're a little behind on national news. Is there any new county ordinances or things that we need to be caught up on?
Unknown Speaker
No, but I you know, speaking of all of that, I just thought about our police department. And I think, you know, I talked about the utilities and everything. But when I really think about the last four years, I came in to this office, questioning whether we even needed a police department in Nashville. That was my I was questioning and because of that questioning, and because of the pressure that I put on people asking questions. A big change happened and we got this brand new, amazing police chief, and she has a five year plan now. They have money, they have vests, bulletproof vests, when we had the incident in a couple of weeks ago at the out of the ordinary where somebody called in a bomb threat. I felt so much better about my officers, my officers, the officers Who's being there? Because I knew they had the right equipment. So I think that recognizing, first of all that this town because of the its difference, it is a small town, most small towns don't need this bigger police department. But because of the tourism industry, we do need this bigger Police Department. And if we're going to have them, we've got to make sure that they're funded. And it takes a lot of the money that comes in through the taxes in order to fund them. But it is necessary, and it's very important. And then we've got to be creative about the other things that normally would be used for that money, you know, streets and roads and sidewalks. And we've got to be creative and find different ways to fund those areas. So I'm very, very proud of our police department. Now. We've got great people working for us. And I feel like I've been a big part of that we did National Night Out where we just we raised awareness, we did some fundraisers, I'm still going to be part of National Night Out next year. So yeah, I think that the police department is is something I'm very proud of. And those are great people now working there.
Unknown Speaker
How did the fall tourism season go? They're
Unknown Speaker
fabulous. Oh, yeah, I know. I you know, I can only gauge it by our gallery, but our gallery did great. I my artwork and where I work, three or four days a week is B three gallery and we did really good. We had really numbers. People seem to be wanting to buy local more and wanting to give gifts that are made locally, even locally as far as Indiana. And, and I know, I know, every everything was jam packed. There were nights when restaurants had to close because they ran out of food. You know, so they were very busy. Chris Kendall market was a huge success again this year and the light parade. So many people at the light parade so many people at the Halloween parade. Yeah, we had a great we had a great year as far as that goes.
Unknown Speaker
Right? No, you have to get going. So we really appreciate your time and doing the show this past year. Any final message before we sign off.
Unknown Speaker
I just want to thank everybody that has worked with me throughout these four years. Dax Norton has been essential to anything that I accomplished his knowledge and our new town manager, Sandy Jones, our county or town clerk Brenda young, just just, you know, Council, woman, gore and Miller and David Rudd. Just great great people to work with and and Phyllis Carr, I you know, there's, I can name every single one of the town employees and say how great they are. So I just want to say that how grateful that I am and grateful that I am that I got this opportunity to work with amazing people. Well, I'm gonna cry.
Unknown Speaker
Well, I think DAX Norton always said on this show, too, is he always always complimented the people who work there and live there. Hmm,
Unknown Speaker
absolutely. Absolutely.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you, Sam. Thank you so much for being on the show and taking time to do this. Really, really appreciate it. I know if we need anything Nashville. I can still come to you.
Unknown Speaker
That's right. Absolutely. I'll still be involved. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Joe. Have a great new year.
