The federal prison in Terre Haute isn't to blame for the county's uptick in coronavirus cases, the governor is on the right track to the pandemic response, and the new city police station is on schedule.
On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett addresses these issues and more on a Zoom conference call. 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: There's been an increase of coronavirus cases throughout the state and in Vigo County, the ACLU released a statement saying executions at the federal prison there earlier this summer is causing the spike. Is there a connection there?
Bennett: Now, I don't think that's accurate. I mean, they may just be trying to put pieces together and make that statement that there's been some numbers in the prison, but not anything huge at all. I think the last I saw was 20 positives out of 2,500 prisoners, some staff, but it hasn't spread like wildfire.
That's obviously a contained situation where people can't move around too much. So if it starts spreading from cell to cell, that would be a serious problem. But they seem to have kept a pretty good lid on it. You know, I'm not sensing that. I haven't heard that from any of my sources here locally that that's a big spread or location kind of a thing.
Hren: Records of positive cases across the state are being reported, Indiana went from 825 average cases a day a couple weeks ago to 1,500 cases a day…. Hospitalizations up 65 percent since September 19. But Governor Holcomb says to stay the course – is this the right plan?
Bennett: My gut would tell me that right now he is, and I'm sure he's monitoring that very closely. I mean, I know he is. You know, we never really had the giant spike in the beginning. So now you don't know is this the second wave? And it'll be the worst part of it. Or is this really the first wave? I mean, I'm no expert on that. I just listen to the experts. And I hear varying opinions to them. And so I am certain that Dr. Box is constantly in the governor's ear about, okay, here's what it looks like, here's what we're trending. I mean, they're looking at that constantly.
And I am certain that if he feels like if there needs to be a change or a step back, that he'll do that. Once again, I'm just not sensing that right now. I'm not hearing that through the grapevine, but guess we'll just have to see as this week progresses, does it begin to flatline? Or does it continue to go up? Especially over here in western Indiana.
Hren: How much do you think elections are part of elected leader's COVID mitigation plan?
Bennett: I don't think so, but I'm sure anybody in any position like that would weigh every factor. I think you would at least consider, anytime you make a decision, whenever a mayor or governor or whoever else - you got to think about the politics, you get to the meat of it, you want to do what's right for everybody.
But then you think about what does this look like? How do you communicate it? How do you explain it to people, so they don't think it's nothing at all, but it is based on science and is based on the business plan or the model that you put in place. And, it's a tough spot, because no matter what you do, somebody is going to criticize you. You may be right 90% of the time, but that 10% criticism can be pretty rough.
And so I think you just got to look at everything, make a decision, what your gut tells you to do, and don't worry about the people that say, 'Oh, you're only doing it for political reasons.' Because, we're all human, and we're all going to make mistakes. And we're all going to make decisions based on the factors that we have in our own head. And I think the governor's navigated this pretty well, I would be hard to criticize him and if he was a governor of the other party, I'd say the same thing, because I'm always pretty much a straight shooter on that here.
Hren: I understand you have Halloween and Christmas Parade updates?
Bennett: The CDC really kind of frowned upon any trick or treating or really any Halloween kind of things. So I consulted with the state and of course with the local health department, and they feel like with the numbers the way they are, we're in pretty good shape here to be able to have it, but you got to use a little common sense. And people wearing masks, obviously not Halloween masks, you need to wear both. But washing your hands, do as little as much contact of candy as you can, so people aren't touching each other.
For the Christmas Parade, we're gonna reverse it. So we'll be at Fairbanks parked down by the river. And all the floats will be lined up along each side of the road. And people can drive through and view all the the floats and displays that people normally put in the Christmas parade. So we felt like, you know that way you stay in your car, and you won't be exposed. And you'll be able to come through and still see all the really neat floats and things that we have in the parade every year.
Hren: Any casino, police station updates?
Bennett: So the casino they still haven't scheduled the groundbreaking day, but it'll be the first part of November so we may have already had it by the time we are next on air here. And the police station we've rolled out our schedule now. So in November, it will go through the approval process and we'll close on the bond then later in November. So we'll be fully funded by the time construction started. And I'll be able to share a timeline of when the construction should be finished next month when we visit again.
Hren: And budget hearings should be wrapping up?
Bennett: We've completed it. So the budget was approved nine to nothing by city council. I was very happy with that, we actually reduced our budget from the 2020 budget by just a few hundred thousand dollars. And we're still able to give 3% raises to all of our employees. So it turned out pretty good. Because really, what I'm trying to do is save some cash next year, but then when we head into 2022, we think our biggest hitch from COVID will come in 2022. So our idea is to sit on a little cash going into next year, and at the end of next year. So that hopefully, I'm uncertain, I will, but I want to be able to have another balanced budget, we've got six straight years of balanced budgets, and I'll be shooting for seven in 2022.
For the latest news and resources about COVID-19, bookmark our Coronavirus In Indiana page here.
