The city is working with the county on a feasibility study for a sports complex and water park. Art Spaces is asking $1.5 million for phase two of the Turn To The River project. And the mayor's thoughts on whether he'll run for re-election.
On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett addresses these issues during a Tuesday visit to city hall. 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: Vigo County is looking for a RFQ for a feasibility study on a sports complex and waterpark. How much does that involve the city and where is that process?
Bennett: We're half partners in that, basically. So it's the CIB, that's doing that. And it's kind of our next big project after the convention center that we're beginning to look at. It fits into our tourism model of our community plan, it fits into the quality of life component.
We're not trying to recreate or you know, outdo anything, not trying to be a Westfield kind of a Grand Park environment, but a local facility for baseball diamonds, and for softball diamonds, probably some indoor facilities later, possibly a REX baseball stadium.
And then we'd like to have a water park destination. So on maybe 100 acres somewhere here in the community. We received some READI funds to do the preliminary feasibility study. We've identified the company, we're negotiating the final contract, we hope to approve that at the end of this month, and get them started in that feasibility study.
Hren: Art Spaces is asking about $1.5 million for phase two for the Turn To The River project, it's about a $1.8 million project. Can you tell us a little bit about what this is?
Bennett: So there's five phases of the project. The first one was completed between City Hall and the courthouse. Now they're looking at doing additional phases as we move forward. And so one of the requests they have is to the CIB for some funding for the future phases, and we're taking that under advisement. A presentation was made last month at our meeting.
We will probably do something to help them out with that, and maybe do some more in the future. This is a multi year project. So part of the legislative piece of this when the state approved our CIB, there's an arts component in there. So we are able to use those food and beverage tax funds that come to us for arts related projects. That's why they made the request.
Hren: Something we've always talked about here on this show is the long term control plan and the sewer over flow project, what's the next phase, what are you looking at now?
Bennett: We're looking at about a $300 million plan that we've submitted to IDEM and the EPA, to re-up our existing plan. We've already kind of spent all the money that was in that plan that was approved several years ago. Now, of course, they want more work done to capture more stormwater and not let it go into the river.
So it's about $300 million worth of work that we hope to do over the next 30 years. And that's what we've asked for is 30 years versus the typical 20. We think we got a good solid plan, it's just now going to be up to IDEM and the EPA so we can keep rates down as much as we can and do these projects and knock them off, pay old debt off and then be able to use those funds to move into new projects.
It's maddening in a way, it's so much money, it's so much work that needs to be done. But you're under the gun of you know, the federal government, we have to do it, we're on a river. So we have to reduce that amount of raw sewage and just stormwater that goes into the river, which we've cut back, we've done or we made great strides, but they expect you to do even more.
Hren: Does Terre Haute have e-scooters or any plans to look at that?
Bennett: I hear things from other communities, they're left laying on the street. I mean, they find them in the river or in the canal. They're a bit of a safety hazard for some people, you get kids on them that are being a little irresponsible, and people are concerned about that. I'm not as concerned about those things, because we don't have that much pedestrian traffic, but we're hopeful that as we move forward, we'll begin to have more of that. So if we do it, we want to do it right. I guess that's the bottom line.
Hren: We're heading into a new year. Are you running for mayor again next year?
Bennett: I'll be making that announcement soon. I think about it every day, obviously, I've always waited until after the election to not get caught up in those county and state elections. I typically make some kind of announcement before the end of the year. And so I'm seriously considering that and trying to figure out some timing of some things that if I do move forward with that. I still love my job. I love what I'm doing. I'm excited about the future. It's just one of those decisions that you just don't take lightly.
It's it's a major commitment. Anybody that runs for mayor will tell you that it's more than you ever expect to do. The hours are long, and sometimes the positives come from the community working hard together. And that's what we've seen. And it's an exciting time right now. So I would say well put out something regarding my future plans very soon.
Hren: As we wrap up the year, what are some of the things that you're really glad that you got done?
Bennett: We had our first full year in the new police station, it's worked out great. I hate to not talk about that, because that was a great win for the community. We got the convention center open - couldn't be any more excited about that. And every month business continues to build.
Our budget was solid for the year, we're going to finish balanced again, with some excess revenues that will go into reserves. We reduced our borrowing the temporary borrowing we do. We were at a high of $9 million in 2017, I believe. And now we're down to one and a half million for next year. And I'm hoping to be zero in 2024. So that's a huge win for us.
We've seen a lot of businesses open, I've had a significant amount of ribbon cuttings this year, we've got some big businesses that are looking to locate here. Had a meeting this morning to kind of get an update on that. So I mean, we couldn't be in a better spot. And so it's up to us to take advantage of these things. We got to work on the quality of life initiatives, got to work on workforce development, we got to work on housing, all those things. And that's what we're going to be talking about, and really pushing forward with in 2023.
