SummerFest is scheduled as planned on Friday despite concerns of the pandemic. Planning is in full swing as ISU students return next month. And the city is planning for protesters in response to next week's federal executions.
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. Due to Zoom internet connectivity, some audio is missing.
Hren: I wanted to talk about the climate right now. The social climate, the political climate, we have the pandemic climate. The news splattered with racial situations and you may have seen the news in Bloomington last night with a car and a protest and attack at a local lake. I looked at the Terre Haute newspaper and saw a probe into racial comments at the Vigo county jail and minority students making demands at ISU, what goes through your mind?
Bennett: I think emotions are high right now. I think some of the conversations I've had with local people, sometimes they just they don't say anything. They don't come out publicly and say they've experienced something. I think, in some ways that's very healthy. I guess what happens on the other half of it what we do to address that is the biggest concern, I guess.
I still feel good overall about people feeling comfortable to report those things. I mean, we're having more conversations all the time. But that's very good for everyone involved. And I just hope it raises awareness and conscious people to, you know, don't say things don't do things that just, I mean, you don't want anybody to say anything to us. So why would you say something to somebody else? I think sometimes you just need to reset, you know, kind of hit the reset button and think about how you act around other people.
READ MORE: Car Speeds Into Protesters At Rally Against Racism In Bloomington
Hren: And I think during this time, community members are really looking up to leaders. You're the elected leader, one of the major city elected leaders in this state there in Terre Haute, how can you help lead?
Bennett: As an example of some of the protests and things that are going on, we've met with multiple different groups. We've got some people involved, mistake holder perspective on the body cams that we're reviewing right now. We brought them engaged in that process. We've answered a lot of questions. We've put a lot of misinformation to rest and so that's been very helpful.
So I really feel like we're doing a good job from that leadership perspective in that area, the pandemic, you know, it started to settle down a little bit. And I've done a lot of communications to the public. I haven't done as much in the last couple of weeks, because just kind of waiting to see are we are we going back up? You know, are we going to see a peak.
It's just I don't know where it's going. So that's a really big bit of a tricky part right now to kind of predict what do we say next? What do we push people to do? Other than social distancing? And wear a mask when you're out in public, doing everything we can to stop the spread. I'm just trying to be available to people to answer questions, you know, putting stuff out as best we can, I guess, really just trying to be engaged in a way that we're listening.
Hren: Of course there are still some concerns about reopening, but the Terre Haute SummerFest begins Friday. So we're talking, what? Rides? Carnival?
Bennett: It's just a carnival and their food vendors. We're not having any of the normal things that we have at Fairbanks Park, we used to have music and food vendors and art, you know, and crafts and things. We're not doing any of that. So it's just the carnival. They have done a great job of putting a plan in place to deal with social distancing and asking people to wear masks and of course all their staff will be. I mean, it's part of the 4.5 plan, so it's perfectly fine for it to be open. The park board and I agreed with that because they felt like we ought to do something and offer something to the public that we felt would be safe and being outdoors with that being just a carnival only, and there are a couple of food trailers that they're doing.
Hren: We're getting a lot of questions in the newsroom from people worried about an influx of students from all over the world coming back to college towns, such as Terre Haute and only in about a month. I know you touched upon this, you said that you were in meetings with ISU administration. But people feel like it's the perfect storm for a big resurgence of cases.
Bennett: That's a hard one too, because I agree with that. 100% you're gonna have people coming from areas that are, maybe they're not a hotbed at all, they come here and they get exposed to it and take it back when they go home on the weekend, or you have people coming in here bringing it from a hotbed that adds to our mix that could be have a very negative impact.
And so I think we're gonna have to be really cautious about the social distancing and the mask thing is so important. And you're having athletic teams get together and where you have that close proximity. I don't think there is any specific thing you can do other than really focus on students being conscious of that. And I don't know what it's going to look like. I hope and pray that it's not any significant at all. And we're going to look at this and say, Wow, this worked out really great. But on the other hand, it could have a huge impact on us locally. And so that's what we're having these conversations about to try to figure out. Is there something that we've missed so far? Is there something we're not ready for?
Hren: Federal executions are scheduled for next week at the federal prison there in Terre Haute. There's some delayed requests from attorneys to move those to next year due to the pandemic. But, now the nation also will be looking at Terre Haute - would be the first federal execution since 2003. How does the city prepare for something like this?
Bennett: I hope it's pretty uneventful. You know, it's just part of the business that they are required to do and it just happens to be in Terre Haute. So it's one of those things that we've all we've known it's going to happen again at some point we just didn't know when and we'll see if it happens on Monday or not.
The local law enforcement is working with the prison, talking about staging areas for protesters on both sides, those that are pro the death penalty, and those that are opposing the death penalty, keeping those groups apart, and giving them access to the prison grounds, and practices have been done and walk-throughs. So I feel really good about the preparation.
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