JASPER — Mayor Terry Seitz said this morning that Jasper has encountered both accomplishments and challenges in the last year and there are many opportunities this year on which the city will focus.
“Yet through all of this, there is a single major accomplishment which stands above all the rest,” Seitz told the approximate 60 people listening to his address at Vincennes University Jasper Campus. “I ask you to reflect back to four years ago, and think about the rather tumultuous times we were going through as a city. We inherited that when we came in with our administration. And we did so willingly.”
On Seitz’s first day in the office as mayor, he addressed the situation of the lawsuit and lease agreement concerning the former Jasper power plant, a battle that had been ongoing between the city and health activist group Healthy Dubois County. The lease to allow a company to turn the plant to a biomass-generating facility had been signed by former Mayor Bill Schmitt at the end of December 2011. A lawsuit Healthy Dubois County had against the city to stop the conversion was ruled in the city’s favor on Jan. 3, 2012. Seitz held a press conference that January morning to announce those results.
“However what has changed is that we have addressed the tone and temperament of the City of Jasper,” he said this morning, “in returning things to a much more positive discussion. And that has been intentional.”
Seitz, Dubois County Commissioners President Randy Fleck and Dubois County Councilman Jerry Hunefeld each gave an address this morning, sharing their perspectives on city and county affairs, respectively. The morning event was hosted by Jasper Chamber of Commerce.
The Mayor said the work that has been done in the city has been completed through what he called a four-point strategy.
“Involve the public to a higher degree. Involve the best people whether it is our talented staff, many of whom are here today, or other professionals,” he said. “Encourage adoption and employment of economic incentives already used by other Indiana cities and counties for many years and not used here locally very often. And to employ your economic development income taxes toward some formal economic development. We have used them for a lot of other things, and by law we can; but using them for pure economic development, we have done so very well.”
Seitz listed 14 accomplishments for 2014, some of which are the Giga City project, which will extend Internet speeds of up 1,000 megabits per second to residences and businesses; the city’s first tax-increment financing district, mostly on the east side of the city; having the county’s second shovel-ready site at Kimball Industrial Park; the new project of placing 67 workforce housing units in the former Jofco building, on the Dewey Street side of the building; replacing a 60-year-old water main under Third Avenue; establishing a dog park at Gutzweiler Park; hiring Jasper’s first Hispanic police officer; adding a school resource office and starting the repairs and improvements to the city’s aging storm-water system.
Seitz also listed completing the lawsuit concerning the former power plant as an accomplishment. Seitz said city is looking at its options for the plant. The company planning to turn the facility on East 15th Street into a biomass facility pulled out of the agreement in June.
He also named challenges the city faces, such as financing projects the public has said through meetings they would like to see happen; monitoring the general fund, especially as it is impacted more by property tax caps are in the state constitution; growing the city’s assessed valuation and dealing with the impact of state legislation and state-issued but unfunded mandates.
Seitz said the city will continue working on implementing items listed in the city’s comprehensive plan, which now included the downtown and riverfront plan. Work will also continue on developing former industrial properties in the downtown area. The city is also working on creating a planned-unit development that includes the 30th Street Park property, which would give potential developers an opportunity to use the property for business or residential instead of being limited to one zone. A labyrinth maze will be in the grassy area north of the entrance to the Riverwalk’s parking lot at Fourth Street by the end of the year. The Jasper Arts Center will celebrate its 40 anniversary this year, and Jasper and Pfaffenweiler will celebrate 30 years as Sister Cities.
Seitz said work on the city’s downtown and riverfront master plan and its application for the Stellar Communities award led individual groups to pursue other projects that are now in the works — including revitalizing the former Astra Theatre in the southwest corner of the Square. The public has also been involved in studies concerning future aquatic facilities as well as the use of The Parklands, which is the former Jasper Country Club golf course now under city ownership.
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