Brown County COVID-19 rates are trending low, school is open with a majority of in person classes, the Brown County Music Center is being used as a multi-purpose facility, and the town's master sewer project is up for public input.
On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Nashville's Norton 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: It seems like that big increase of COVID-19 cases when we talked a month ago came after the Fourth of July. And now with Brown County being a tourist site and shops are open, probably not what it would be normally, but still not really seeing that big spike in cases there. Is the community feeling good about where they're at right now?
Norton: I've heard mixed reaction. Nobody wants any positive tests. I think some people probably thought that if it stayed closed, wouldn't continue to see some increases. Obviously, that's not realistic. We have to be open for business. That that's how we survive.
So I think it's actually gone pretty well since the reopening in July and then obviously, council meetings were held about face coverings and ordinances put in place and would we like to see more people that are consistently wearing face coverings? Yes, for the most part, people were very respectful. There haven't been any major incidents and the the rate has stayed relatively low in comparison to the number of testing that's going up. So it seems to be Brown County is doing a pretty good job in the battle.
Hren: Brown County Schools are undertaking mostly in person classes. And from what I understand, there are no outbreaks that we know. I know rural broadband is an issue here, is that part of what's driving in person classes?
Norton: I was just on a call this morning with the Indiana Chamber Economic Development Policy Committee and that very topic was brought up. It's better to be in person, just to have that camaraderie of your peers and because you may not be able to adequately learn due to a lack of broadband at home, especially in Brown County in Nashville just because of the terrain if anything. Getting that product to some of those homes is going to be very hard to do.
I have not heard of any major issues with the school system. You talk about really good leadership and all the things they had to scramble to do to get the kids back into the classroom it's an incredibly good school system and they've done a good job of leading through this as well.
Hren: I saw an article in the Brown County Democrat about how the Brown County Music Center is being used as a multi-purpose center during the pandemic and I believe it's owned by the county so why not use it as for meetings, and the latest is a courtroom. Do you have any more info on that?
Norton: I don't have a lot of info on it. It happened at the Old National Center in Indianapolis and some other music venues that have gone dark and it's a really creative way to use a venue that's not being used for its original purpose. I think even if you want to rent it for certain events and occasions. So to kind of reinvent its use until it can be used for what it's built for again, hopefully in 2021.
Hren: Do you have any other updates on foundation funds or grants or loans that local businesses are now either applying for or receiving?
Norton: So there is a grant open through the county as to the Community Foundation. Their executive director Maddison Miller has done a great job of getting that info out to the businesses. I know she's been going through applications there. The town has applied for another round of funding through the Office of Community And Rural Affairs.
The other $250,000 may be coming to the county through the town and Nashville government shortly. That would be a great program as well. And that threshold is once again grants up to $10,000 to the businesses. I think we hear from that Friday. So up to half a million dollars from that, from that process, could be in the county and ready to be granted to some of our local businesses.
Hren: I wanted to follow up on some of the projects that are still in the works such as the sewer master plan. How much of those project unfunded mandates? And we talked about this in Terre Haute and Greencastle, how much is expansion, and how much is current upgrades?
Norton: So a good portion of it is current rehabilitation process. One thing I think was probably maybe shocking and not shocking to others, is that the collection system in Nashville is greater than 60 years old. And 60 years ago, the pipe product wasn't what the byproduct is now. So replacing that product, fixing infiltration of rainwater into the sanitary sewer collection system is important, doing some upgrades to the to the actual wastewater treatment plant site to keep any of those items out of Salt Creek during say flooding issues, but to make the plant run much more efficiently, and then also increased capacity by doing these things.
There are a number of projects that are short term immediate need projects, are they all funded? They are not. You have to really look and see what is the priority, and then go find the money either through federal grants, state grants, federal loan programs... there are some good ones that don't have a major negative impact on the rates because the ratepayer doesn't want to get into the $70 $80 $90 $100 a month rates because there are millions and millions of dollars actually there are 10's of millions of dollars worth of products or projects that can be done on the sanitary collection.
The system in Nashville is very good plan and I think they're about $7-8 million of immediate kind of action item projects that can be done just to maintain the current and rehab the current system, much less expansion projects. After you fix those things, and then the expansion projects can happen when you're talking $10-20 million worth of potential costs, so it's pretty daunting.
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