Vincennes mayor: 2014 a 'tremendous year' for city

He commended Good Samaritan Hospital on its BEACON Project, set to be completed later this summer, and he praised the creation of INVin, an organization aimed at connecting arts-minded entrepreneurs with empty downtown buildings.

With the help of more than $600,000 in grant money, the city is working to rid itself of eyesore homes, and the pocket park, a project spearheaded by the city's Urban Enterprise Association, has been a “nice addition” to Main Street, the mayor said.

The city also, he said, is rather unexpectedly on sound financial footing as it moves into the second half of 2015. The general fund finished last year with $100,000 more than it did the year before. The Parks and Recreation Department, he said, was projected to end 2014 with just $3,400 in the bank. Instead, it had more than $115,000.

Other discretionary funds, he said, are up as well, and with them major improvements were made last year, including $1 million in repaving. He hopes, with the council's support, to do another $1 million this year.

“We did a lot of work, we invested in things,” Yochum said to the council. “And I'll need your help to do it again.”

Yochum said this year he hopes to continue investing in body cameras for the police department until “every officer has them,” and he wants to use the city's share of the state's riverboat gambling tax to buy new vehicles for the police department as well. The parks department needs a new vehicle, and the Street and Sanitation Department needs two new rear-end packers if the city is to stay in the trash collection business.

Yochum also wants to set aside $50,000 for the repair of deteriorating curbs.

And he promised to continue pushing forward with his current plan to annex seven targeted areas that could potentially net another $1.3 in tax revenues per year.

“We mentioned it last year,” he said of his last State of the City address, “and the time has come. As we move forward, as we get more information, when we hold the public hearing on May 18 to discuss this with the public, my hope is that you take all the information you receive and come up with a decision you believe is best for Vincennes.

“This has been a topic for years, something you've said the city should look at,” he said of annexation. “Well, we've taken a hard look at it, and we have come to the spot in the road where it will come back to you for a decision.”

Council president Duane Chattin called the mayor's address “a good report” and that he is more confident than ever in the city's ability to continue improving itself.

“He indicates that the city is on sounder financial footing than we thought, and that's good news,” Chattin said. “And he outlined a series of proposals to move the city forward, a plan to pay for them, one based on us being on sounder financial footing, so I think that based on last year and plans for the coming year, the city is in a good position. It's in a better position, I think, than most of the other communities I have been reading about.”

Vice-president Scott Brown said he, too, appreciated Yochum's efforts to tout all the work that has gone into improving the city's infrastructure as well as his promise for more.

“I think my favorite part was the part about him wanting to spend $50,000 on curbs,” Brown said. “Those are in really bad shape.

“I'm just glad we are starting to address the infrastructure problems in our city.”