By Austin Arceo
TERRE HAUTE — Listeners submitted more questions than normal for Mayor Duke Bennett’s participation in radio station WFIU’s “Ask the Mayor” program Wednesday, the station’s interim news director said.
Bennett debuted on the program at about noon, during which he gave his thoughts on a variety of issues, such as downtown development, the new trash contract and the ongoing legal challenge to his eligibility to take office. The Bloomington radio station’s weekly program features mayors from Hoosier cities Terre Haute, Columbus, Bloomington and Kokomo, with a different city executive speaking each week.
Wednesday was Bennett’s turn.
“I thought it went pretty good,” Bennett said after his participation in the program. “I really didn’t know what to expect.”
Bennett started off stating that he was participating in the interview from City Hall’s first floor, now that the office has been moved from the third floor.
“I have an open-door policy,” Bennett said on the program. “I’ve always had that in my career, and I wanted to do that here, and so we’re down here on the first floor.”
Bennett spoke about property taxes and reform efforts currently taking place in the General Assembly. He said during the program that, under Gov. Mitch Daniels’ plan, Terre Haute’s budget is projected to lose about $5.7 million, or 10 percent of its overall amount, in 2010.
He also said that the city is working with the trash contract, and that city officials were looking at options and trying to work with Republic Services Inc., “to see if we can maybe make some amendments to this contract.”
Bennett said after the program that the city just wanted to see what flexibility was available in the contract.
“There’s nothing specific” about anything to be changed, Bennett said, “but just the fact that we want to work with them, since it’s been signed.”
Adam Ragusea, the station’s interim news director who hosted the show, admitted that the increased interest was generated because Bennett is a new mayor, and it was his first time on the program.
“… We certainly have a lot of really dedicated listeners in Terre Haute, and that’s really awesome,” Ragusea said, “but I think not enough to really create that kind of volume of listener participation every single show you do.”
WFIU officials estimate the station has about 3,000 listeners in the Terre Haute area.
Bennett is scheduled to be on the monthly rotation every second Wednesday of the month. The broadcast can be heard in Terre Haute at 95.1 FM.
Listen to a podcast of the radio show.
Austin Arceo can be reached at (812) 231-4214 or austin.arceo@tribstar.com.
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Below are several of Mayor Duke Bennett’s answers to questions posed during WFIU’s radio program Wednesday. These are specific questions, and do not include answers to follow-up questions:
• On what he would have said if he testified before the General Assembly about property tax reform — “Well, I would have said, I personally, I don’t like property taxes just in general, because … it’s a serious issue, and property taxes have been going up. It’s just, I’m not so sure that this has been totally processed, that we know the exact end result. And some say it’s just a switch of taxes from property to sales tax. I’ve looked at it. I know what the impact on Terre Haute’s going to be, and I’m just adjusting and trying to prepare for that, but I think it needs a little bit more processing and be a little bit more well thought out. And hopefully the Senate side will do that. I’m just hopeful that we don’t have the dramatic impact that I see coming, and so I’m kind of caught in the middle. I understand a need to look at things and do things the right way, but I’m just not so sure that the process that we’re taking here is going to get the result that everybody’s looking for.”
• On his plan for cleaning up the community and educating people about the negative effects of litter — “That’s another question that comes up a lot. There’s a lot of people in this community that want to get involved in that, and I want to make them part of this process. The previous administration signed a new contract with our trash removal company over here … and we are going to be implementing recycling as part of that. There is a cost to the individuals to do that, but we’re going to go to trash cans with lids, and do some things at least from that perspective to begin a process. But we’ve got to get the community involved to help us clean up Terre Haute. We can’t just kind of expect the government to solve that problem by themselves. There’s a lot of groups that I’ve already had meetings with that want to be a part of this, and we’re beginning to have some initial planning meetings on how can we do this to educate people and get people on board. And the previous administration kind of got the code enforcement side of things going. We’re working with that side, too, to make sure we’re dealing with those that are habitual offenders. But to really try to get people to think differently, we want to get into the schools and get kids thinking about throwing trash out the window, that’s not a good thing. And try to do a comprehensive thing over the next 12 months to educate and deal with those offenders, and then with the new trash contract, with the lids on the trash cans, hopefully that will help us to begin to move in a positive direction.
• On his plans for downtown Terre Haute — “Well, I can’t say that I have a specific project that I’m trying to attack. What we’re trying to do, I just met with Downtown Terre Haute Inc., last week, and talked about their ideas and their plans, and they’re sharing with me. These were the things that were on the table. Some of these things have been planned for many, many years, like that Cherry Street parking garage. It took about 12 years to get in place. The new federal court building will be going in during my term here. We are just going to try to facilitate and continue to do all the positive things that we can do in city government. There are some different ways I may attack some projects in the future as they’re brought to us, but I really want the private sector to thrive, and be able to make investments themselves, and what we can do as a city is help them and do those things, like putting sidewalks in, hook them up to the sewer, all those things that we can do. And so we are meeting and talking to people about ‘OK, what other ideas, what other things are on the table that you’d like to do from an existing business perspective?’ And then help continue this growth process. So I’m on board with that. I just don’t have a specific project that I can tell you today that I want to accomplish downtown, but I think there’s a lot of different things that are happening, and they need our assistance, and we’re going to be right there to partner with them.”
