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Nashville's Nancy Crocker on COVID rise, human rights ordinance

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Hello and welcome. ask the mayor show on WFIU I'm Joe Hren. This week, we're back in beautiful Nashville, Indiana with town council President Nancy Crocker. Hey, thank you so much for having us.

Unknown Speaker 0:44
Thank you. Thanks for coming in. What a gorgeous day.

Unknown Speaker 0:47
We have to tell everyone where we're at. Because we're on the radio right now. That's right. So where are

Unknown Speaker 0:52
we are in gorgeous Nash, what's it's maybe 72 degrees and the sun is shining brightly. And this is the perfect day for Nashville and, and we are in coach light square. So we're close to our infamous Mexican restaurant behind us. In front of us, I can see our country heritage winery, one of our four winery tasting locations. And we're right near the visitor center.

Unknown Speaker 1:22
And this plaza has been here and hosted its first ever market back in December.

Unknown Speaker 1:28
Yeah, they actually used to do taste of Nashville here. And and then it kind of you know that kind of that fad kind of went away. And they've had a couple other events here. And then Chris Kendall market was here, this Christmas, which was a huge success. And we're going to do it again, three days this year. So that's good. There's

Unknown Speaker 1:51
also a new art installation that's right behind you. Can you talk a little bit about that and what it is and how it came to be.

Unknown Speaker 1:58
I'm a little proud of that the art commission asked for ideas of something to put here. And I had already had an idea in my mind. And so I submitted an idea to them. The problem was because I'm on town council, the council can't pay a council member. So I kind of handed it over to Brad Cox. So this is our, our honoring Murray got, she is one of the founding artists of the art colony. And there's a beautiful picture of her black and white picture of her out in the woods, sitting on a little stool painting. And so you can sit on the stool behind me. And somebody can get in the picture frame and it'll look like you're painting them. And then there's other frames just to have fun with family. And maybe we can take one of me in a frame later. Yeah, when okay to see what it's like. So Brad Cox is the fabricator of the installation, and he's one of our amazing metal artists that we have in the county. And so after I gave the idea, and they said we can't pay you, I said, Hey, Brad, take this, take it away. And so I gave it all to him, and and he put that put it together and made it something a little bit different than I had in mind, which is good. Because it's kind of cool to tell somebody an idea, and then have them take off with it.

Unknown Speaker 3:29
Well, we're amongst many shops, you mentioned the restaurants, the winery. And you know, I'd look around and think about how, how did these places all survived these last two years of COVID. And here they are open, open for business. It's something that these small businesses are still surviving, how did they do it?

Unknown Speaker 3:50
There's a couple that we lost, but the ones that we lost for the most part. They they had been considering retiring, anyway. And, and honestly, after we opened up, people flocked here, and some of these businesses had their best year ever that year. It's crazy. But people think of Brown County and they think that of safety, we're a safe little community. And even when the COVID issue was they still felt like this was a safe place to come. And, and plus, they didn't want to fly anywhere. They didn't want to drive a long distance. So we got we got a new surge of people. I I've seen a lot more families, I've seen more diversity. I've seen a lot of things since we reopened that. What was it 2020 I tried to omit that from my brain. You know that whole year, but I turned 60 That year during the shutdown. So it's like no, I just didn't want to

Unknown Speaker 4:57
Well, speaking of surge, though, it's starting to pick back Got through some numbers that are coming in that COVID is it's not gone. And that's even evident in County and our city government,

Unknown Speaker 5:10
right. Yeah, Our Town Hall is actually close today, we have two confirmed and one is waiting on a test. So we just felt like for the public safety, we would shut it down until Memorial Day, and then then reevaluate from there. But yeah, there's, there's a, and and none of the people that I know, I know, about five or six in the past four weeks. Nobody's had a very extreme case, everyone, but one was vaccinated, and even the one that is not vaccinated. I think she's gonna be okay. So that's good. That it doesn't seem to be as life threatening. The ones the strains that are out now. Yeah, if

Unknown Speaker 5:59
there's any positive to this, most of what I've even heard from the Monroe County health administrators that hospitals aren't filling up. The effects aren't what we saw two years ago. People

Unknown Speaker 6:12
be helpful. Yeah, that that Yes. Like that. Exactly. And it's just going to become, I think this is my opinion. And I'm not a medical professional or anything, but it's just going to become a thing, just like the flu. Yeah. By the way, I want to give a shout out to the national Spice Company that is also here behind us. Amazing little place to get spices and herbs and all kinds of fun stuff. So

Unknown Speaker 6:42
yeah, and people coming and going, yeah. Beautiful, beautiful afternoon here in Nashville. stole a lot. On your mind, though. We, we just finished running a feature with you. We were on the Brown County stage a month ago, it's hard to believe that was a month ago. Yeah. And talked so much about small towns, especially Nashville, that, you know, just can't rely on that tourism industry to be able to fund these 12 was a $15 million sewer and water projects. And, you know, I think it was an eye opener for a lot of people who watch that story that don't realize that think, oh, money is just pouring into Nashville coffers. And it's like, well, that's not what is really

Unknown Speaker 7:23
pouring into Nashville, but not for our infrastructure, not for the residents. And, and the, again, just just infrastructure is just the good word to say for everything. So we have some ideas. But we do need to come up with alternative ways of taxing or bringing income into this community in some way. I do plan on where we're working on going to the legislature and just pleading with them and saying, You know what, you got to start valuing your small towns, the they are a value, they are an asset to Indiana, the small towns are not just small towns like mine that have a big tourist industry in a state park next door, but all the small towns. And so so we have a we were starting a plan so that the after the year, after the first of next year, we can go and plead

Unknown Speaker 8:31
the case, to plead your case.

Unknown Speaker 8:33
Yes. plead my case. Yeah, the case of the people that just want to live here. You know, they you there's a saying that if you're not growing, you're dying. But but people don't want to grow. And we just want to stay like we are interesting. I talked to a family that said, you know, we moved here because of the small town feel? Well, you just made it a little bigger. And so, so there's this weird balance that we have to figure out as how we can support that small town feel. We want people to come live here. But how do we balance that with keeping that small town feel?

Unknown Speaker 9:17
Well, speaking of the state park down the street, any progress with the DNR becoming a bigger customer for your water and sewer treatment plant because a bigger customer means more money.

Unknown Speaker 9:28
Exactly, exactly. we're progressing, we're signing papers, we're exchanging things. Again, this project this project is the state parks project, not the town's project. But the State Park is a state entity it can't borrow money from the state. So the town is burning the money and so we're kind of the funnel that's funneling everything through. But it's it's close to getting started. So we You know, paperwork,

Unknown Speaker 10:03
one part of that paper, part of that paperwork is figuring out rates and so forth to write being a bigger entity, do they get a different rate?

Unknown Speaker 10:11
Well, they we negotiated with them, their rate is different than a resident, obviously. But it's not, it's not that much higher. It's like four or something. I can't even remember the correct number. But that was a long time ago. We've already we've already figured that out. And again, that's where our utility board was so important, because the utility board did a lot of research and tried to figure out a good number. We threw a number at him, and then it was just back and forth, just like you do when you barter with somebody. And then we landed on a number we could all agree. And that's not unusual for a big, I don't think so. Yeah, I don't have that much experience with this.

Unknown Speaker 10:50
Now, there's also a loan being taken out, correct?

Unknown Speaker 10:53
Well, that's through this. That's the state parks loan. Okay, so the money is getting, so the state is going to give us money, and we funnel it right to the state park. So again, we're just kind of the middle person in this and all the paperwork shows that if something crazy happens, all the burden is put on the State Park, not us, no burden is put on us at all. Now we have a little bit of a line to connect to them, but not very much at all.

Unknown Speaker 11:22
So what's the timeframe? Which I'm about a year to you? Oh, it'll

Unknown Speaker 11:26
be I would guess it would be done within a year. At least getting our part over there. But who knows? Nothing changes quickly. So you

Unknown Speaker 11:39
know that? Yeah, about how much money would that get the town?

Unknown Speaker 11:43
Oh, your numbers that are not? It's I didn't want to say something wrong. But it definitely is going to give us a really good amount on a monthly basis. I mean, think about that all the cabins that they have their their waterpark that they have their restaurant and the whole hotel. Yeah, it'll be a lot. It'll be a nice amount.

Unknown Speaker 12:08
So what's the next step in your water treatment? And getting to that point, because I know we talked to DAX long time ago, that was the number one thing back in January when I said, What's your number one goal? You know, in 2022, it was like definitely sewer and water,

Unknown Speaker 12:25
sewer and water. So we're waiting on SRF to give us an answer, as far as how much money or if they're going to give us any money. For we're working on the sewer, the sanitary sewer. Hoping to hear from them next month. Hopefully we don't have to wait until July. But that's our that's our first step. That's our first step. Because there are there are issues with the sanitary sewer that need address right now. So we've got to address those first. Then once once we get that funding, and we get that plan, and we get contractors and all that good stuff, then we'll start working on the water. We've already started a master plan for the water. But again, for me, I like to take one thing at a time, I don't want to have a whole bunch of stuff going at the same time. So sewer is the priority. Soon as we get that started going. The good thing about the sewer too, is that I just learned, they're not going to be ripping up streets and roads, they can do something where they push things through the pipes to stabilize them. And so we don't have to, there's not going to be like it's the town, it's not going to be torn up for the sewer rehabilitation part of it. Oh, that's

Unknown Speaker 13:49
new. Yeah, I didn't realize that. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 13:51
that's I just learned that too. And a lot of the rehabilitation is is for the plant itself. So that's out of the plan. So hopefully, it won't bother people too much.

Unknown Speaker 14:02
Yeah. There are a few things too before we go on what I wanted to get an update on because we talked about the human rights ordinance that was worked on big had one reading. What's the next step?

Unknown Speaker 14:12
So we were going to do a second reading at the last town council meeting. And in the last hour, a couple of groups that had questions and had initially said they were against it, met with some people, another council person and said, You know what, we've kind of reconsidered this. And we kind of would like you to just just pause a minute for us to kind of get together and talk about it. So we're really, really hopeful that we can talk to them and and help them understand how this is a good thing for our community. So we'll do hopefully, a second reading at the next meeting. And again, this isn't an emergency. So we'll do a second reading in the June meeting and then we'll have a vote on it then. A lie. That's at least the tentative plan at this point.

Unknown Speaker 15:06
Also, we talked about a noise ordinance or maybe that was with the DAX and I know that was a little while ago. And I don't remember where that was,

Unknown Speaker 15:14
it still is being talked about, but because we have a new police chief that came on, and she's fabulous, by the way, we have a new police chief that came on, and she's really working hard on creating a stable environment for the police. So we don't lose police officers so often. So she's looking at all of that and thinking long range. But she's working with Tyra Miller, who is another council person, and our lawyer. They have recently met with hard truth, they're meeting with several other and there's our train in the background, you can hear it, there's Tom Preston, Hi, Tom, our lovely little train that drives around the town. If you stay at the seasons, or at Grand Canyon, you can take that into town. I think they're still doing that anyway. But anyway, the human rights ordinance or I mean the noise. So we're tired. Tyra is working on that. We have another town hall meeting coming up this week from this Thursday, I think it's the second June 2. And we're considering having a discussion about that at that meeting. But again, anybody that has an opinion about any of these things that we talked about can always email me and tell me what you think. And we take all that into consideration. We take everybody from the county's opinion into consideration, but the town people are a little bit higher priority.

Unknown Speaker 16:50
So sure, and just to let people know, to the noise ordinance, you know, it works both ways. And people who live here don't want a loud band, maybe in their backyard, but also may be provided it goes the other way, it does give people a chance to be able to host concerts and venues. Right,

Unknown Speaker 17:07
right. And, and the like the winery behind us, they have live music, or on the weekends, they have a really nice little area inside that they can move to, but they'll have it outside. And this is a nice area, because there aren't a lot of residents right here. So they have a really good setup. So these people that have outdoor seating, you know, they want to have a little music outside. So we got to figure out the level, how to make it so that these people can have beautiful, nice music while they're eating while they're having a glass of wine. And then also make it so that the people that live on the outskirts of town, and even even in the hills surrounding the town are not hearing boo, boo, boo, boom, Windows shaking type music when they're trying to, you know, sit on their porch and have some nice peace and quiet. So, so luckily, Tyra has taken over that and she is guiding that ship. And and I would say in the next couple of months, we'll have something more definite about that. And it might be that the ordinance that we have is just fine. And we're just going to keep it and start enforcing it.

Unknown Speaker 18:29
So we're down to our last minute or two, I always like to leave the last word to you. Anything else you'd like to announce? Or any new upcoming ordinances or legislation you'd like to let everyone know about?

Unknown Speaker 18:41
Um, well, I've just that for the residents that live here. I don't think a lot of them know about our little Lincoln pinch park that is over on Washington and, and Johnson. It's just a little quiet park that you consider. And so, you know, take advantage of that. And just again, I mean, I always want to sell my town, come to the galleries. Come and enjoy this beautiful area here. Go for a hike, do some shopping, and just get away from your life for a while and be with the people of Nashville that get to live here all the time.

Unknown Speaker 19:21
Well, I hope we'll be back in June and we'll see where, where we'll be at. I'm looking forward to it. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 19:27
Hopefully exciting things will happen.

Unknown Speaker 19:30
Thank you very much.

Unknown Speaker 19:31
You're welcome. Thank you
Town Council President Nancy Crocker

Nashville Town Council President Nancy Crocker (Joe Hren, WFIU/WTIU News)

Paperwork is moving forward to get Brown County State park on the town's water/sewer system, the human rights ordinance is ready for a second reading, and a new art display is scheduled to be dedicated Friday.

On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Nashville Town Council President Nancy Crocker 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: We are sitting in Coachlight Square watching visitors shop and walk around. I see all these small businesses and wonder, how did they survive COVID-19?

Crocker: There's a couple that we lost, but the ones that we lost for the most part had been considering retiring, anyway. And honestly after we opened up, people flocked here, and some of these businesses had their best year ever that year. It's crazy. But people think of Brown County and they think we're a safe little community. And even with COVID, they still felt like this was a safe place to come. And plus, they didn't want to fly anywhere. They didn't want to drive a long distance. So we got a new surge of people. I've seen a lot more families, I've seen more diversity. I've seen a lot of things since we reopened.

Downtown Nashville on a Tuesday afternoon
Downtown Nashville Tuesday afternoon (Joe Hren, WFIU/WTIU News)

Hren: Any progress with the DNR and Brown County State Park becoming a bigger customer for your water and sewer treatment plant? We've talked about a bigger customer means more money to the town.

Crocker: We're progressing, we're signing papers, we're exchanging things. Again, this project is the state parks project, not the town's project. But the state park is a state entity, it can't borrow money from the state. The town is borrowing the money and so we're kind of the funnel. But it's it's close to getting started.

We negotiated rates with them, their rate is different than a resident, obviously. But it's not that much higher. That was a long time ago. We've already figured that out. And again, that's where our utility board was so important, because the utility board did a lot of research and tried to figure out a good number.

I would guess it would be done within a year. At least getting our part over there. But who knows? Nothing changes quickly.

READ MORE: Nashville can't rely on its tourism industry to fund infrastructure needs

A photo of Brown County State Park closed.
Brown County State Park closed in June of 2019 due to flooding and lack of water supply.

Hren: I know municipal consultant told us in January that the town's number one priority is upgrading water and sewer, it's May - how is that process moving forward?

Crocker: We've already started a master plan for the water. For me, I like to take one thing at a time, I don't want to have a whole bunch of stuff going at the same time. So sewer is the priority. The good thing about the sewer too, I just learned, they're not going to be ripping up streets and roads, they can do something where they push things through the pipes to stabilize them for the sewer rehabilitation part of it.

Hren: We talked about the human rights ordinance that's being worked on had one reading. What's the next step?

Crocker: We were going to do a second reading at the last town council meeting. And in the last hour, a couple of groups that had questions and had initially said they were against it, met with some people, another council person and said, you know what, we've kind of reconsidered this. And we kind of would like you to just pause a minute for us to kind of get together and talk about it.

So we're really, really hopeful that we can talk to them and help them understand how this is a good thing for our community. So we'll do hopefully, a second reading at the next meeting. And again, this isn't an emergency. So we'll do a second reading in the June meeting and then we'll have a vote on it then. That's at least the tentative plan at this point.

"Marie in the Woods" art piece in downtown Nashville
"Marie in the Woods" art piece in downtown Nashville to be dedicated Friday (Joe Hren, WFIU/WTIU News)

Hren: We're sitting next to a new art installation. What is it and how did it come to be?

Crocker: I'm a little proud of that. The art commission asked for ideas of something to put here. And I already had an idea in my mind. And so I submitted an idea to them. The problem was because I'm on town council, the council can't pay a council member. So I kind of handed it over to Brad Cox.

So this is our honoring Marie Goth, she is one of the founding artists of the art colony. And there's a beautiful black and white picture of her out in the woods sitting on a little stool painting. And so you can sit on the stool behind me. And somebody can get in the picture frame and it'll look like you're painting them. And then there's other frames just to have fun with family.

Brad Cox is the fabricator of the installation, and he's one of our amazing metal artists that we have in the county. He put that together and made it something a little bit different than I had in mind, which is good. Because it's kind of cool to tell somebody an idea, and then have them take off with it.

Hren: Dax and I talked about a noise ordinance a little while ago. I think it works both ways, some residents don't want to hear loud music at a venue late at night, but some venues want permission to have concerts?

Crocker: It is still being talked about, but because we have a new police chief that came on, and she's fabulous, by the way, and she's really working hard on creating a stable environment for the police. So we don't lose police officers so often. So she's looking at all of that and thinking long range. But she's working with Tyra Miller, who is another council person, and our lawyer.

They have recently met with Hard Truth, they're meeting with several other We have another town hall meeting coming up a week from this Thursday. And we're considering having a discussion about that at that meeting. But again, anybody that has an opinion about any of these things that we talked about can always email me and tell me what you think. And we take all that into consideration. 

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