Ask The Mayor: Terre Haute's Sakbun on innovation grove, ISU partnership, annexation

Rose-Hulman Innovation Grove groundbreaking was this past week, ISU has a new partnership with the city, there's a plan to remediate a dilapidated site, and the mayor has a new title - dad.

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: Terre Haute's Rose-Hulman Innovation Grove groundbreaking happened just this past week, you were there, so this is a new hub for innovation, I'm sure the city is excited to see develop?

Sakbun: Someone else was there who is very important. That's Senator Todd Young. So Senator Todd Young helps author the Chips Act, right? The Chips and Science Act. But there's also a lot of funding for Innovation Research, 3D printing, AI... those conversations, and I think this project really encapsulates the positives of when we bring education into the picture when it comes to this innovation conversation.

So is there a ton of chip back funding with this project? No, but this project does show the positives of when we take something like medical technology and medical innovation. That's the Union Hospital piece to this project and a premier engineering school that's Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, we can get a $100 million Innovation Center nestled in west central Indiana that advances the private sector and the educational sector within our community.

This is one of those game changing projects that collaboratively brings together multiple industries within a community and helps turn the chapter forward in some business manufacturing within our community. Very impressive project.

Hren: Indiana State University and the city of Terre Haute just announced a new partnership expanding workforce development opportunities for city employees. How does that work?

Sakbun: I'm really passionate about all of our employees having opportunities. Maybe working for the city of Terre Haute is not their entire career, and that's okay. This allows them to get an undergraduate or a master's degree or higher with a percentage discount for tuition and fees. So we partnered with Indiana State. We have two of our employees right now are doing programs, one with IU, one with ISU, where they're advancing their educational career, they're getting some workforce experience, and if they spread their wings and fly, we want to set them up for a success plus.

Of course, we want to support Indiana State University. They've had two groundbreakings this year, their science and technology building, plus another large construction project. So they're investing in the community, and we're going to invest with them.

Hren: I saw that you're coming up with a plan to remediate a dilapidated site I'm not familiar with - the Columbia Enameling plant. Can you fill me in on that?

Sakbun: I really think it highlights how communities like Terre Haute have struggled over the last couple of decades. You saw some manufacturing leave the United States of America. Plants like this struggle, right? They inevitably closed down, and we had a quote, unquote developer try to come in and build some housing. So they ended up just creating havoc on the site, and the buildings caved in on themselves.

We reached out to the EPA, to IDEM, reported the site and found out we were eligible for some cleanup funds, and so we're going to do a huge cleanup project, millions of dollars from the federal government reinvested back into the city of Terre Haute, and we're going to have a website, a town hall, to inform the public, let them know that it is still a safe area. We just need to get those contaminants out of the area. And I really think it highlights something that we talked about on the campaign. We really wanted to get some of these state and federal tax dollars back into the community, which here we have a great example of doing just that.

Hren: It's been a while since I've asked about the former police station. What's going on with that building, an older building downtown, with now the new police station in the former newspaper building?

Sakbun: Site control is really important in community redevelopment. We can enter into public, private partnerships with developers if we have site control. If not, it's just a private sector business conversation. Here is a great example of an old police station which we do have site control over. There was a bid in 2023 to redevelop that, and some financing fell apart in the business side, not the public sector side. Now we've got plans to completely demolish this site, provide a shovel ready site to developers, and we've seen a lot of interest.

Our end goal is to do a multi-use project. We're saying we want some apartments and we want some first floor retail and dining opportunities to add to our downtown. We're looking to see a private sector investment of $10 to $15 million in our downtown area, which would bring our total downtown investment to $60 to $80 million total for a town of 60,000 and so much of that is private funding.

Pushing City Limits: Bloomington Annexation Coverage

Hren: Something that is coming up in Columbus, Bloomington is annexation. Is that something you've thought about in Terre Haute?

Sakbun: It is currently not on Terre Haute's plate right now. Communities started to battle with Americans buying more cars per household. You saw them start to expand out instead of up. We're building homes in vacant lots. When you fill in the skeletal system of your city, we're not having to expand government services. We're talking police, we're talking fire, we're talking ambulance runs, snowplow, street department, city engineering, sewage.

So to kind of alleviate that strain on your utility infrastructure, system and public safety, my mindset is, let's develop the land we have. Let's fill in some of these gaps. If a conversation of annexation comes up within the community, of course, I'll work to address it.

Hren: Before we go, I have to mention, too, you have a new title. It's called dad. Congratulations.

Sakbun: Thank you, Joe, thank you. So my wife, Peiton and I are blessed. We welcomed our baby girl, Scarlett, into the world. She's doing great, mom's recovering, and it's just been a true blessing. I don't get to change her as much. I do change her diapers a lot, but some of her outfits, I quickly got told my fashion sense wasn't quite there, but I am happy to be a dad. Been looking forward to this for a long time.