Mayor Sakbun gives us an update on how the eclipse events went Monday and how they could improve. We get reaction from the casino opening last week and more on the search for a new ISU president.
On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun addresses these issues and more Tuesday from 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: We both survived the eclipse, how did it go?
Sakbun: We're still going through the total number of visitors. Anecdotally, I spoke with folks from Belgium, Scotland, Japan, as well as a myriad of states within the United States of America. One really important piece that I think Terre Haute did well, compared to other communities, we were very spread out in terms of our events, right? So yes, we had a downtown event that some are saying five to 7,000. We should have those total numbers here soon.
But we had a ton of smaller events within our parks system between the city and county that was averaging 1,500 to 1,000 people at each event, plus some other neighborhood church block party type events, all collectively we'll add those numbers up to see what it looked like from the community's perspective. But that actually helped us out because when it came to traffic and leaving, we were all able to link in two main thoroughfares through different side roads. So that was good in terms of a public safety standpoint.
Read more: Eclipse 2024 (indianapublicmedia.org)
Hren: When something like this happens, and just like the Indiana State NIT run, you have a bunch of community members coming out and doing things even with years in planning. Now that you look back, is there a couple things that you thought oh, we didn't think of that?
Sakbun: Yeah, I really did like our digital marketing presence. I like how we layered it on top of other events within Terre Haute. And then moving forward, we need to look at how we market outside of Terre Haute, right? Are we purchasing radio time through a downtown or event organizer in other communities? So from an overall marketing perspective, we can always improve.
We had about 30,000 is what I think the numbers will look like. How could we have gotten to 60,000 whether it's a downtown eclipse festival, or our air show that we're now trying to make changes in terms of marketing communications.
Hren: It's amenities too, people want to like where they live. And so the more that happens, the more you can drive people in along with the economy. It's multifaceted.
Sakbun: 40 years ago, we watched cities do this, expand out instead of upwards, right? And that can almost put a strain over several generations in terms of infrastructure, public safety, police, routine patrols, fire departments, fire houses. So now you're seeing folks look at communities like Terre Haute, or your Evansville, or your Bloomington and say, okay, how can we grow a little bit up?
What's that eat live work model look like in cities like Terre Haute. And that's really what we look at to capture some of those Gen Z and Millennial Hoosiers and folks from outside the state who want to move in, as well as retirees who are downsizing.
Hren: Presidential Search has brought three candidates to Terre Haute and you talked to all three?
Sakbun: I did and had longer conversations with two of them. I think the push there is, obviously enrollment retention, and how can you develop the community. These students that you're bringing in for a couple of years, can we can we find ways to get some to stay through the private sector and some of the many businesses in town? How do we look at student housing, blending all this together?
Rose Hulman, just announced last month, a new innovation center with a surgery center and a partnership with the Union Hospital on our east side, another area of town that is just really exploding in terms of growth potential.
Hren: How important is the town and gown with ISU?
Sakbun: Let's look at a tangible example. You put 8,000 to 9,000 people inside the Hulman Center for a basketball game. They need to park they need to eat. They need to safely be able to walk, pedestrian safety is very important. And you want to make sure you have clean and safe streets as well. That type of nucleolus for economic development as a driver in your community is huge.
Hren: So other big news, since we've last talked, the casino resort is open. What are the first impressions, what are you hearing?
Sakbun: They've been saying, hey, it's really clean, it's really safe. It's a good location, because a lot did come off of the interstate. We are going to start looking at what are the necessary infrastructure improvements for traffic and pedestrian safety. So the engineering department, they've been looking at this problem set, especially since I came into office of how do we map out our major thoroughfares and the improvements out there?
Of course, the parking lots are full because it was the opening day of the casino. Now when it comes to other infrastructure, we're looking at some of the roads that were put in that didn't have sidewalks to other nearby hotels or apartment complexes. So we got to do a better job of connecting our assets in a community like Terre Haute.
Hren: So the location is not downtown. Everything at the casino is there: food, drink entertainment. How do you bring people to say you're coming to the casino, but stop on downtown?
Sakbun: Part of it is marketing. Right? How do you market to folks inside of the casino and driving into the casino? The second part is wayfinding. So do we have proper signage that's driving folks across our community, not just off exit 11 to a casino. We worked with INDOT for casino signage coming off 46 and the interstate. But what we really need to keep doing as a community is looking at this wayfinding conversation of how we keep folks within our community. And then the last part is when we bring in these events, whether it's a convention center, a large event at the casino or an NIT basketball game, synchronizing all of that together through the Convention and Visitor's Bureau, which we've got a great working relationship with.
