Attracting people to Terre Haute and Vigo County is an ongoing topic of discussion among local officials, especially given the receipt of state and federal funding aimed at economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Part of the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) recovery includes quality of life.
Terre Haute is to receive more than $38 million and Vigo County more than $20 million. Additionally, Terre Haute is applying for Indiana’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative, or READI grant, which will award $50 million to 10 regions statewide.
“I have been pushing for about five years now for a splash park. Not a pad in a park, but a big destination,” said Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett. “It is all part of our community plan. It is already in there and we got support from the community who gave us that feedback ... so all it did was reaffirm what I have been thinking, at least from the city’s perspective,” Bennett said.
“We envision adding to our tourist type destinations, and that would be a perfect fit,” the mayor said. “I really think we need something like that.”
The community plan is part of “See You in Terre Haute 2025,” a joint collaboration between the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, the city of Terre Haute, and the Terre Haute Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The mayor said the city has several funding opportunities “but we just have to figure out what qualifies first and what we can do as a project.”
The mayor said such a splash park project could be a city/county combined effort.
“It will need a new physical location. What I am talking about will not fit in any existing city parks,” the mayor said. “It would be new destination. It would take a little bit of time to acquire property, design it, fund it and build it.”
However, the mayor said he is currently focused on applying by the end of this month for Indiana’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative, or READI grant, which will award $50 million to 10 regions statewide. The program has $500 million from a combination of state tax revenues and money from federal COVID-19 relief funds.
Regions have until August 31 to submit regional development plans, which will then be reviewed by Indiana Economic Development Corp. A decision from the state on funding is expected in December.
The partners leading the West Central region application include West Central 2025, Thrive West Central and the Wabash River Regional Development Authority. Specifically, projects included in the application will be focused on tourism, connectivity/broadband and community needs such as food disparity and mental health.
Data collection for the plan is underway. This 18-month planning process was launched last year.
The READI is comparable to former Gov. Mike Pence’s Regional Cities Initiative in 2016. In that program, Fort Wayne, Evansville, South Bend each received $42 million.
Updating the City Council
Bennett said a committee of city officials met this week to discuss federal funding.
“It is going to be a process, there is no doubt about that. The interim final rule (for the American Rescue Plan funding) is out there, which is well over 100 pages, but the final rule should shows up some time in September,” the mayor told the City Council on Thursday.
“We really can’t make any specific decisions other than what we already know about things that are pretty clear, which is probably 30 percent of it so there is probably 70 percent (of the ARP ) that we are still not sure about yet,” the mayor said. “When the interim rule gets replaced by the final rule, then we can work through that process.”
The funds, under the ARP, are to be spent by the end of 2024.
“We are not going to be in any hurry to do anything specific and will get that feedback from council members that are part of that committee,” the mayor said. The mayor is to bring any appropriations to the council for approval.
Bennett said the first appropriation will be for this year “mainly to catch up on past years revenues, (plus) some projects that we have contractual arrangements with for non-for-profits this year and a potential COVID bonus for our employees that the bill specifically calls out. That is one the most important things in there,” the mayor said.
“That will be it, and then we will have plenty of time to dialogue how we will spend the vast majority of the funds in the future,” Bennett said.
The committee includes council representatives Todd Nation, Earl Elliott and George Azar. Other committee members include City Attorney Eddie Felling, City Controller Leslie Ellis and City Engineer Chuck Ennis, along with the mayor.
“There are a lot of cautions in those documents about documentation and justification” of spending, Elliott told the Council. “Until the final rules come out, we can create a list of what is likely and what may be possible and then work through the possible items when more details are out.”
Elliott said he would like to see applicable federal funds “go to quality of life, quality of place issues and we have got to figure out if that is allowed in (the ARP). It just not very clear just yet that it is.
“There is a reference to certain things you can do in certain census tracts that are considered low and moderate income and the term ‘parks’ is used in that, but we will need to get a legal opinion as to what we can do.”
If that funding can be used, Elliott said, he would support a destination splash pad, but also said he would like to see “several splash pads in the inner city and in different parts of town that are accessible to the youngsters. Anything that we can do to get people out of the house can help with our horrible health statistics.”
The mayor told the council the city has to submit quarterly reporting under the American Rescue Plan.
“Our first report is due at the end of August,” the mayor said. “We may have to hire somebody to help us with reporting. The first report will be easy because we are not spending any money and we received the first disbursement, so that will be really clean. But, when we do begin to spend the money, the council has to appropriate it before we can spend it.”
Councilwoman Martha Crossen asked if there will be any public listening sessions prior to making decisions.
“I can see that when we get beyond this first step, but I am not sure how to do that yet,” the mayor said. “There are a lot of ideas floating around, but you want to make sure that you don’t set an expectation or get people thinking just because you come to a meeting (something will happen), so we have to figure out how to do that and be effective with that,” the mayor said.
Crossen urged public sessions be available.
“I understand your caution about not setting expectations that can’t be met, but I also think we might miss the opportunity of what our community really wants to do with those quality of life things,” she said.
Bennett said the city’s community plan has “received several thousand responses on quality of life initiatives, as an example, so I feel really good about that data we already have, but we have to figure out a way to open that up to not just people who show up for a meeting, but generally speaking like we did in those surveys.”
Councilman Curtis DeBaun asked if any city/county efforts could be made.
“I have had several meetings with commissioners so far. I think three meetings so far on a general dialogue, but nothing more than ‘What are you thinking?’” Bennett said. “We have been focused on the READI grant, primarily, versus the ARP, but there are some crossovers there on some projects. Right now it is very speculative.”
County also looking at tourism
Last week, a five-year-old feed reappeared on Facebook, with comments from Brendan Kearns on the need for a city pool. Those comments originally were made when Terre Haute’s Deming Park pool was closed. The later reopened after repairs were completed, largely from donated funds.
Kearns referred to a 2013 idea touted by former Vigo County Council woman Kathy Miller to build a $20 million aquatic center for the county.
“It is not going to do any of us any good to revisit that scenario. Another pool was built,” Kearns said this week, referring to the Vigo County Aquatic Center constructed by the Vigo County School Corp.
“Now the three new commissioners — me, Mike (Morris) and Chris (Switzer) — have talked with the mayor about a possible joint venture within the city, because that makes sense logically, or out in the county if that makes sense,” Kearns said.
“As we talk about things, it is more than just pools. It is what would be good to benefit the community as a whole recreation-wise,” Kearns said. “Should we build a softball facility tied to an aquatic center, or to soccer facility, which we already have a great one?
“Pickle ball is huge. Should we partner on building a first-class pickle ball course that people will come to Terre Haute from all over the Midwest,” Kearns said. “That is how we have to look at it.”
Kearns said a big reason why a new recreational facility has not yet been done “is the funding has not been there. Right now we are building a convention center, which has money from the food and beverage tax,” he said, added a percentage of ARP funds could be used for some sort of indoor/outdoor aquatic facility with athletic fields.
“That is what we are looking at, what is the most responsible use of our dollars assuming that our bills are paid for the county for the next two years without tax increases,” Kearns said.
Like Bennett, Kearns said the county and city “are not ready to spend yet until we know for sure what we can spend money on, but the good thing is we are having discussions about options, so when we do get the green light, we can make sure we have done our research to make the best investment for the county as a whole.”
Kearns said he thinks the county needs a standout theme to attract visitors, something that is different than other communities.
“Is it a national pickleball facility? Could be,” he said.
Commissioner Chris Switzer said he would like to work on a destination project, but also improve outlying areas in Vigo County.
“I would love for the city and county to work together to make a destination-type facility, but I also don’t want to leave the folks out who have lived here for 40 years that have always wanted to have something that they can take their kids to, something smaller that we can put into a county park,” Switzer said.
Smaller splash pads, Switzer said, could be spread across “the four points of our county, one in West Terre Haute, one in Riley, maybe a centralized splash pad and one in another area of the community for people who cannot travel to a centralized location. I would like to take some of that money to serve those folks way out in the county, even if it is a little 40-foot by 40-foot or 50-foot by 50-foot splash pad,” Switzer said.
“Some type of recreation for kids — the county has a lot of parks” where the splash pads could be located, he said.
Switzer, like other officials, said no final plans can be made until final spending regulations are determined.
“We are all biting at the bit waiting to learn how we can use this,” Switzer said.
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