Mayor Bennett reflects on fallen officer Detective Greg Ferency a day after the funeral and procession. More on the state's denial of a Terre Haute casino license... and a COVID-19 update.
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: A tragic week in Terre Haute - I watched some of the funeral services and the procession yesterday of slain Detective Greg Ferency, just no words.
Bennett: No, there really isn't. It's our third police officer killed in the last 10 years here. And it's just kind of surreal. You know, when I heard about this last week, I was actually sitting here at my desk and saw the fire dispatch come across my phone. And so I walked down the back of the building, just to see what was going on. And as I got closer to the actual scene, and they said it was an officer down, man, I was just like, no, not again.
As a community. I just, it was just awful. Detective Ferency, he was an exceptional police officer, he really was - he was pretty unique. He was really good at what he did - always been kind of involved in that Drug Task Force kind of stuff for us. But, he wrote a book, he was doing a lot of in service training for police officers and local community entities, doing a lot of things recently with children trafficking and some terrorism stuff. So he was just a huge asset.
And he was just kind of a very special guy and put a lot of bad people away and you hear lots of stories about people that he'd arrested. And I mentioned one yesterday in funeral service that a girl, 18 years ago, he arrested her, and she's been clean ever since. Greg had such a wide ranging impact. And, you know, it's just tragic.
I feel horrible for his family. I feel horrible for our police officers and every other law enforcement officer that they're having to go through this again.
Hren: You spoke at the funeral yesterday and said that we live in troubling times, and said the thin blue line keeps getting thinner. What did you mean by that?
Bennett: It just seems to me that gap between what's going on out there in the world and the bad guys, the people that want to cause harm. There's more confrontations with police officers just more engagement like that than I've ever seen. And so I guess I would just as I was thinking through a way to think about that, that blue line is small, you know, that's what keeps us from chaos, basically. And that's what they'll tell you.
And it just seems like over the last year or two things have become worse. There's more violence in our communities, police officers are placed with more violent reactions from people and you just hate to see that be so a regular thing. It's almost like daily in the news.
And so I'm just hopeful that we'll get back to where we were before where people respect police officers. And I know, everybody will tell you, there's cops out there that have made bad decisions and that they need to be dealt with. But that is such a small minority of police officers. And we just need to get back to that law and order stance. We got to have people to stop shooting people. I mean, you just see it in Indianapolis, I see the numbers are going up in Chicago and other places.
Hren: The nature of this can really shake up a community. What can people do to help?
Bennett: I think just like they did yesterday, showing up for the funeral, lining the profession route, just sending a note, call the police department, whatever, just tell them, we appreciate you, thinking about you. That goes a long way towards that healing process, I think for everybody, just knowing that the community cares. And there's no question about that. And this response that I've heard makes me feel good.
But I've got to pass that on to those guys on the front lines, they're the ones, those men and women in our police department that are out there putting their life on the line everyday. They're the ones that need that feedback.
READ MORE: State Reports 612 New COVID-19 Cases – Highest Daily Case Count Since May
Hren: As much as it seems everything is back to normal, Indiana is still seeing an increase in cases, especially now with the delta variant that is much more contagious and infects someone sooner. Indiana was around 200 cases a day, but now going up to about 500 yesterday. What's the situation in Terre Haute?
Bennett: Our numbers still remain low. I just got an update here this morning. And over the last few days, we have two one day and three the next. I don't know if it's any particular reason. And I've seen the numbers kind of across the state going up some but here, we're still doing pretty well.
And, I don't know about this variant and I've heard about the different variants out there and you hear this one's more contagious, people get sicker, who haven't been vaccinated. I don't know what variant comes next. But I think people just need to remember there will be those rises and falls of numbers just because that's the nature of the beast. I think in general still, I don't know about the vaccinations, I think we're still pretty stagnant on that. But hopefully, over the coming months, we'll be in a better position.
Hren: Some of that has to be concerning to think about half of Indiana has been vaccinated. And yet you're seeing everything is back to normal, which is good, but those who aren't vaccinated are at risk?
Bennett: A lot of things are going back to normal. I don't know, some of it's just because people want to get out and do it. They are vaccinated and they feel like, I can go take on the world, which is awesome. But, and I keep repeating this and I hate to be that way that it's become a political thing. There's no question. There's politics involved at this at various levels. And some people are like, I'm not doing the shot because blah blah, blah. Well talk to your doctor. Get a comfort level with that and get vaccinated. I think it's the right thing to do in the long run.
I get the concerns, but this is going to be around, and it can be deadly. And so I just hate to keep beating that same drum. But people need to not be complacent and talk to your doctor.
Hren: I bet you were pretty much surprised at the postponement of the Terre Haute casino. The last few months, you were pretty positive it was happening. And the Gaming Commission decided to deny the group involved citing financial issues and forced ownership changes. What are you hearing now?
Bennett: Not much. But I think everybody's working on this. I still am very optimistic. I was just really surprised and shocked at that last meeting and caught me completely off guard. And I think it'll get worked out. I really do. And I'm hopeful. I mean, Terre Haute is going to get a casino. I just hope that it's Grant Gibson. Because I would much rather have a local person who we know and who already gives back to the community to be able to follow through with this, and do even more things with the community with the money he makes.
I mean, that's his strategy. That's his goal - it's obviously a business for him. But he wants to give back to the community do some things, and this will be a great way for him to be able to do that. I just hope that in the coming weeks or months that this can get worked out and we get it going because Greg is ready to break ground.
Hren: That's Lucy Luck Gaming. But you're not concerned about what the Gaming Commission said about citing the financing part of this because you don't want to casino that can't finance itself?
Bennett: Absolutely. No, I think they've got a good financing plan from what I've been told. It's just, crossing all the T's and dotting all the I's. The Gaming Commission want it a certain way. And I see no reason why that can't be worked out. That's just me though, I'm on the outside looking in. Since October, we've been talking about a groundbreaking but they've sat back here that I really think that it's going to move forward positive way. And hopefully that will include Greg and Lucy Luck.
