Mayor Sakbun says he's focused on serving local citizens rather than the political aftermath of last week's general election. And we get an update on the asbestos clean-up at the former enameling site.
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: What were your thoughts as the night was unfolding last Tuesday?
Sakbun: What an interesting election, of course, and a lot of those swing states, you saw Democratic senators being elected, as well as individuals voting for President Trump. So I think it's pretty unique, different style election. North Carolina, that's a state where Democrats swept statewide offices, but they voted for President Trump. So I really think that the Trump effect is interesting, and it'll be something that political scientists studied for years.
But here on the front facing and in local government, we all woke up, went to work and said, we've got to deliver for the people at Terre Haute. We have been blessed here in Terre Haute to receive large tranches of funding from the Biden Harris administration, as well as large tranches of funding from the state legislator and Governor Holcomb. And we hope to continue those relationships, regardless of who's the governor or who's the president.
And that's really my message to the people of Terre Haute, Vigo County that partisan politics, while it might be great for engagement in Facebook, likes and podcasts, we are focused on progress here in Terre Haute.
Read more: Election 2024 - Indiana Public Media
Hren: What does the Democratic Party need to get voters and people in office, especially after this last election?
Sakbun: You know, that's a political question that I'll leave to the state party and the national party. I do think some introspection is definitely needed and really a strong look at messaging, right? I'll use a local example here, we have a Responsible Bidders Ordinance for public projects. That's where companies with apprenticeship programs that follow federal standards that includes ensuring that either legally vetted migrants are working, or those who are in an apprenticeship program are working.
That helps unions. It helps contractors and construction companies that make the right decisions thrive when it comes to public sector projects. Bringing messages like that to the the American people in the Hoosier State is definitely something that's needed to be done more. But I really just, I tend to focus on the local aspect of it.
Hren: How about an update on the EPA asbestos cleanup at the former Colombian Enameling site - the city held a public forum October 30, what did you learn?
Sakbun: There have been calls, complaints and frustration from some of those neighbors for years, and it's really refreshing for them to kind of come to these public meetings and see like, oh my goodness, we're not tweeting about problems, we're providing solutions. And they see the EPA trailers, they see a fence going up, and they see clean up starting. They can physically see progress.
That is one of my best memories so far as being mayor is saying, hey, no, like we said, we're going to help North Terre Haute. We've committed to working with the EPA to clean up a crumbled factory. We've committed millions of dollars to rebuild their neighborhood park, so that way we've got consistent quality of life across the city. There's some health related questions that we're happy to get them connected to the Department of Health or IDEM to follow up on, and we're thankful that so many people participated.
We are in phase two of the operation. Phase one was reaching out to the state and federal level for financial assistance and cleanup. This is a fully funded project from the federal level, so no local property taxes are being used. Here we are in phase two, which is clean up as well as site recovery. So Site Recovery does focus on the cleanup side, but there's also a legal conversation with the developers and the hands that be that created this situation. The EPA will pursue cost recovery on the private side.
Hren: There was a controlled burn this past week as well. I think you said in a press release, 20 years of brush and debris that was just piled by the city. I assume is this from storm cleanup and construction?
Sakbun: We had three sites strategically spread throughout the city, I mean, there's mountains of brush. It was creating a safety hazard for our employees to be back there. We did this through multiple steps. We disk some of it up, cut some of it up, packed it down, consolidated the debris into one area, split it up into multiple piles. We did have an industrial shredder, which did provide some wood chips for our trails, and then we had to burn some of it.
And it was a control burn. The fire department was made aware, and they were on close watch. This is a prime example of when you kick cans down the road. This is what happens, right? The leaf season starts. Started today, November 12, and we're already bringing more stuff back there, so we have got to have space available.
Hren: I see you're keeping up on parks construction that former Mayor Duke Bennett has on his priority list, this time Herz-Rose Park.
Sakbun: We did have to do some value engineering to meet the price. And a lot of our projects have come in under bid this year. This one, unfortunately not, so we did some value engineering. We did have to tweak the designs, but it is one project that you know any mayor, Republican or Democrat should want to do, right? And that's provide a safe, quality place for kids to play. Kids are on their phone for hours a day, and they used to be outside playing two hours a day. Now it's 15 minutes, according to some surveys and studies, oh my goodness, right? We've made a lot of changes on the recreation side. We actually almost doubled some of our recreational revenue for the year because we've created programs that more kids are participating in.
Hren: Do you think that that collaboration, partnership with ISU and the students will continue with the new president?
Sakbun: Oh, he has been amazing. So working with President Godard and the new Board of Trustees has been just genuinely refreshing. Everything from the football team, with Terre Haute on the side of their helmets... they beat a 15th ranked team in the nation with the Terre Haute helmets, okay?
But also, we are seeing more and more companies sign on to be preferred partners, which is their employees can get a discount if they go to ISU for a undergrad or graduate degree. We're seeing more Indiana State University students apply for some of our local internship positions, which is always a refreshing site, and we will support President Godard and ISU. Terre Haute does better when that enrollment is strong and it's a strong relation. We talk very frequently. He's been great to work at from a strategic planning perspective, but he's also just a genuine person and leader.
