TERRE HAUTE —
With national, state and local economies showing distinct signs of recovery from the Great Recession of 2008, it is good to hear Mayor Duke Bennett sounding optimistic about Terre Haute and its immediate future.
Bennett delivered his state of the city address on Tuesday, and he used that forum to deliver encouraging news about the city budget and positive developments in city services and infrastructure.
After struggling with declining tax revenues and belt-tightening in recent years, the mayor said the city is finally getting some relief and can look ahead at funding projects that will make the city better.
Among the “good news” Bennett delivered was that the former Family Y building in Fairbanks Park should soon become a full-service “Y” again under a contract expected to be signed between the Terre Haute Parks Department and the Clay County YMCA board of directors.
The resumption of “Y” activities at the facility has been widely anticipated, but it’s great news nonetheless.
Bennett also said that design work could begin this year on a new police station in the area of 12th Street and Wabash Avenue, near where the current station is located. Such a facility has been needed for a while, so it’s good to see progress is being made.
Perhaps the best news is that repaving of Wabash Avenue through the city will begin this year and be completed in 2013. Wabash is one of the three primary commercial thoroughfares in the city. Seventh Street in the heart of downtown has already been reconstructed, so work on Wabash is due. With all the new developments along Wabash the past decade, resurfacing of the street will help those who have invested heavily downtown feel as if their efforts are worthwhile.
Infrastructure is important to a community — to its people, its businesses and its institutions. It often takes a back seat to more pressing needs when budgets get tight, but letting it go for too long can have a negative, long-term impact.
Bennett pledged during his recent re-election campaign that better days lie ahead and that more money would be available for improvements. With a repaving project on Wabash Avenue, the mayor will begin delivering on that pledge.
Editorials
EDITORIAL: Delivering on infrastructure
Wabash street repaving good example of promising project
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TRIBUNE-STAR EDITORIAL: A salute to pride of ’55
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