Terre Haute’s 27-year-old mayor says the city is firing on all cylinders since he took office January first. The Democratic mayor says he’s going into the job with a teamwork approach.
Sakbun defeated four-term Republican Mayor Duke Bennett last fall. He said the transition began that night.
“Former mayor Duke Bennett, he did reach out and we honestly got straight to work. He took a couple of days off, set me up some office space, and we instantly started setting up meetings.”
They made up the transition team, hired and restructured city staff, and set up goals for the next four years.
“That's been truly an eye-opening experience. So we are doing some financial audits and reviewing the budget with some independent firms or setting the conditions to apply for opportunities.”
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Sakbun said a top priority is updating the city’s water utility. The city is also looking for grants to help attract a new downtown hotel.
“We want to see skywalks connecting hotels and the convention center and we want to see foot traffic, create a walkable community.”
He said grants have already given the city a boost in building more housing.
“We took $1.8 million, cut it up in the different grants, gave it to builders, which led up $50 million of private investment.”
He said they’re doing it again – now times five. The city and county are putting $5 million into the housing initiative and adjusting grant applications to include nonprofits and larger builders.
