The ammonia spill is under control and didn't pose any risk of losing water supply, big improvements are coming to city parks, and leaders are luring a $1 billion business investment.
On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett addresses these issues and more on a Zoom interview. 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: Could you run through the ammonia spill in Terre Haute's sewer recently and give an update to the cleanup efforts?
Bennett: We had a local company, Hydrite Chemical that makes a variety of chemicals, but ammonia is one of their end products. And it was just a man made mistake there - somebody did the wrong thing, and emptying that into our sewer system, where their waste products should have gone. And when that gets into the sewer system and works its way to the treatment plant, it kills the bugs and the treatment plant, because it's such a potent chemical that it stopped our processes.
We were able to capture that spill into seven of our eight tanks that we have down there and keep it in there. So it wouldn't go do more damage and do environmental damage. And we've been working on it ever since, it'll be two weeks this Wednesday of having it in our system. And we have recovered pretty well. We've got three of our tanks of the seven that are functioning normally the other two are coming online as we speak.
But it made us go into an emergency mode to deal with this chemical spill, if you will. They're hauling some stuff out from our plant and treating it at a different facility we're bringing bugs in. But it made me feel really good about our internal processes to deal with that. And IDEM came in and verified everything we're doing and said we're doing it by the book, and they applauded our efforts of dealing with it.
Hren: Was there any loss of service to residents or anything like that?
Bennett: We have enough capacity down there. The major upgrades we've done on that plant has allowed us to deal with things like this - not that you plan for a spill like this, but the capacity that we have allows us to guide that to certain tanks, shut those tanks off from the rest of the system to make sure it doesn't get into the river, basically, that's the worst case scenario would be to have a dump into the river. And that did not happen. And we've done a great job. It'll take us a few more weeks to get rid of all of it, but it the process is working.
Hren: Let's just get to the statehouse - the halfway point of the session, and I know you've been keeping your eye on a few things. Do you have any updates for us?
Bennett: It seems the TIF bill died in the house. So that was good. Once again, communities only have really two tools available to us. If somebody wants to relocate in a TIF district, we can help with infrastructure, etc. Or we have tax abatements, that's really the only two tools that municipalities had. And so I was concerned about that bill that some of that money was going to go to other taxing entities. And they were just going to make it more difficult for us to spend the money there.
We fight these battles every session, but I feel good that it didn't make it out of the House, doesn't mean it's completely dead. It can resurface in a Senate Bill. What they're gonna do on property taxes? I don't know, they're wanting to provide relief. And to taxpayers, I understand that. But I don't know what that exactly might look like at the end. So I'm keeping a very close watch on that. How can we find a way to provide relief, but don't do it at the cost of delivering services? And so I think they get the message.
Hren: Looking forward to this year, you said you were planning more parks upgrades. Is that something that you're active with now?
Bennett: Yeah, we're making major progress on our Herz-Rose Park as part of a bigger neighborhood stabilization project and then the 16th and Locust area, we are starting the actual design documents for that park upgrade, it'll get totally refurbished, the whole park will get everything new. We hope to complete that this summer and be able to go out to bid with something by the fall on that project.
Then Fairbanks Park, we're probably going to have about nine or 10 projects. Fairbanks Park is our park on the river, it's in downtown, we want to really make that much more of a destination Park. And so we've got the master plan done now. Now we're beginning to work on the individual projects and starting to design on those. We'll probably pick at least two of those projects to get construction started on and then a couple each year after until we get them all done.
Rea Park it's rehabilitating the clubhouse, the goal is still to go to construction in November of this year on that, we're still raising private funds and working with a local group. Then the city will match that and I think we're gonna get there in the next couple months.
And then the last one is the Deming Park pool and upgrade to the pool, repair of existing pool, adding a zero entry pool next to that and and amenities, slides, and a rock climbing wall, those kinds of things at that park. So basically a park on the north side, the west side, the east side and south side is our focus first. Then as we get those projects underway, we're going to begin to bring other parks into the fold. Our goal is to make some improvements in all of our parks over the next five to 10 years, we've got 29 different facilities we're responsible for.
Hren: I see the Trib-Star is reporting Terre Haute could get a $1 billion investment from a battery producing company in Vigo County's Industrial Park creating about 640 jobs, how did this evolve?
Bennett: It's a company we've been working with for a while, leads come in, you see them on a list a year or two ago, and you're thinking, okay, we'll see how these play out. And then if you stay on the list, you're in pretty good shape. This one has been doing that for the last year. And everybody locally felt good about it, but you just never know until the final decision is made. It looks like it's going to happen.
Average wage is going to be about $70,000 a year - that's tremendous, 642 jobs. And it's really over a billion dollar investment over a period of time as they ramp up their operations. So the county redevelopment commission, county council and others, commissioners are all working hard on that. That's what we're trying to do is bring those higher paying jobs, those big investments, so people can buy homes here, they can increase their household income. And so this is a perfect fit for what you're trying to do.
Hren: Before we go, I hear there's a big donation. The Indiana Theater has been handed over to the CIB, can you fill us in on that?
Bennett: A few years ago, Greg Gibson bought it so it wouldn't go on the tax sale. He saved the building from being used for what we believe to be something of a lesser use than what we envision. The Indiana theater is one of the oldest theaters left in the state of Indiana, designed by a guy that designed a very unique way of architecture. It's just a beautiful facility. It's still in excellent condition. Greg did not want to be in the movie or the entertainment business, but he wanted to make sure that building was saved. And so he recently donated to that to the CIB. So that's going to be our second project now after our convention center.
We know it needs new heating and cooling, new roof etc. We're going to be using ARPA funds, possibly some READI funds, casino funds. We don't have to use existing budget line items, but we'll be able to use revenues both from the city and the county. We're both in on this.
Greg already had an agreement with a local movie guy who runs the outdoor theater here in Terre Haute. So they're going to run first run movies in there. It'll be available for concerts and comedy shows. And you name it, it's going to be a real functional location like it used to be in its past. It's just been closed now for a few years but preserved.
