A fire destroys at least two downtown shops, the town is looking for state grant money to fund sewer projects, the town needs more police officers during tourism season, and we learn more about Crocker as we welcome her to our show for the first time.
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.
Editor note: Nashville municipal consultant Dax Norton says he's 'passing the torch' to town council president Nancy Crocker for Nashville's segment.
Hren: Welcome Nancy to your first show on WFIU's "Ask The Mayor," let's just start by learning more about you.
Crocker: I was born and raised in Anderson, just north of Indianapolis. I moved to Nashville nine years ago this month and opened the Old Magnolia House Inn and I also had a little vintage store where I sold my artwork.
I came here as somebody that was creating art, but didn't recognize yourself as an artist. And I remember when a customer came in, and he looked at one of my pieces, and he said, oh, you're an artist. And I went, Oh, yeah, I guess I am.
So it's the perfect place for me. And I still have my artwork up at B3 Gallery, but I just recently sold my house and I now am kind of retired. But I'm working very hard for this town at this point. I got into the town council realm because I was involved in the chamber. And they wanted somebody to represent the businesses and I lived in town. So I was a good fit for it. And I hope I've done them well.
This is my fourth year and I'm up for reelection. And this is my first year as president.
READ MORE: Fire destroys at least two Nashville shops
Hren: One of the things that Dax Norton and I talked a lot about, and he said, the number one priority in 2022, was sewer infrastructure. Would it be fair to say you're in the funding and planning stages now?
Crocker: Yeah, we have the plans ready, we were able to acquire somewhat of a grant. And we're hopeful that we're going to get more, because now that inflation has come up, it's gone from a $6 to maybe a $9 million project. So we're very grateful for the state's assistance on helping us with this.
I cannot raise these rates very much of the people that live here, we are not a wealthy town. And my goal, my priority is to keep those rates as low as possible. However, we did just raise the water rate. We had to because we were losing money.
We haven't had a water rate increase since 2012. So it was time and we're going to be looking at implementing yearly increases, cost of living type increases, instead of waiting so long, and then having to have a big increase, where then it really hurts.
We also just passed approval to have a sewer increase because of the sewer project that we're going to be doing. And again, we're not breaking even on our sewer, we have a lot of issues that we have to address on a daily basis.
Here's a little known fact and I think a lot of small towns are like this. Our water system was installed in 1947. It's never been updated. We bought the pipes that we installed used from Camp Atterbury. So that's how old they are. So we need to we need to upgrade the whole town.
Hren: I remember talking about this with Dax, maybe a year or so ago, and I saw in the Brown County Democrat that 53% of water is being lost.
Crocker: Just to put it in perspective, in any regular healthy water system, it's about 20%. But we don't have any way to pinpoint where it is. It's all over. That's why we're doing a water master plan. And we're looking at the total upgrade. From what I understand, the only thing that's making them still stay as a pipe is the dirt around them.
Hren: Dax and I also talked about the Brown County State Park project. I believe they had their own water system and don't want to be in that business. So they're working with the town to pay for service. So that would be a big customer for the town?
Crocker: It would be a great big customer. So that's another reason we've got to get our pipes in shape, so that we can provide water to them. And the good thing is, they're taking care of everything on their side. So it's not going to be costly for our taxpayers to connect with them. Other than the fact that there's going to be a lot more water running through the pipe. So we're going to have to make that area a priority. But yeah, that's an exciting project, because that will bring some revenue into the utilities, and help us a lot.
Hren: What are some other things that the town needs to do to prepare for the influx of visitors that you get throughout the year?
Crocker: Our roads, our streets, our striping of roads, all of that stuff, making sure that everything's in good shape. We do have plans. Dax calls it more the year of planning. I call it the more year of finishing because there's been so many things in the past, so many studies and we need to do this and we need to do that and nobody's just grabbed hold of them and done them.
What do we want the town to be? And I'm talking about residents, I'm not talking about tourists and businesses. And we need to have some type of strategic plan, even to handle things like festivals.
Our town is run by volunteers. There's very few paid people, although my staff and my utility workers are fabulous here. They don't get paid enough money either. So I would just say just get involved. Reach out, ask questions. Be willing to give your time to your town because if you don't, the town's gonna disappear.
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