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  • Q&A: Mayor Duke Bennett answers a question from WFIU News Director Stan Jastrzebski during a recording of the radio program, Ask the Mayor, Monday at the Grand Traverse Pie Company. (Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza)

    MET 091012 MAYOR BENNETT.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Civic engagement: Seven-year-old Nathan Hawkins asks Mayor Duke Bennett a question about his neighborhood as Nathan's dad, Timothy (right), looks on Monday at the Grand Traverse Pie Company.

    MET 091012 MAYOR HAWKINS.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza A personal connection for him: Indiana State University junior Kayla Shackelford of New Washington asks Mayor Duke Bennett what his connection to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is after she spotted a pink ribbon pin on his lapel Monday at the Grand Traverse Pie Company.

    MET 091012 MAYOR SHACK.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Hot topic: Stan Jastrzebski, WFIU news director, asks Mayor Duke Bennett about high school class football during a taping of "Ask the Mayor" Monday at the Grand Traverse Pie Company.

    MET 091012 MAYOR JAST.jpg

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September 11, 2012

‘Ask the Mayor’ radio show visits Terre Haute to interview Mayor Duke Bennett

Arthur Foulkes The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Terre Haute residents can expect to see an overpass over the railroad tracks at 19th Street and Margaret Avenue in five years, Mayor Duke Bennett said Monday night.

Within 25 years, additional overpasses should exist over railroad crossings at Eighth Avenue and 13th Street and another downtown, the mayor said during a live taping of a radio interview program Monday at the Grand Traverse Pie Co. downtown.

Bennett was taking questions from the public and WFIU-FM 95.1 news director Stan Jastrzebski during a live taping of the weekly radio program, “Ask the Mayor.”

In response to another question from an audience member, Bennett said he is disappointed with relatively low participation in a free recycling pilot program in the Collett Park neighborhood. Not even half of those eligible have signed up, he said.

“It’s really disappointing how people aren’t taking advantage of free recycling,” Bennett said.

Also on the subject of trash, Bennett said a fee for trash pickup in the city is something definitely coming in the future. Trash removal is the third single biggest expense faced by the city, he said, after salaries and employee benefits. Many other Hoosier cities are also introducing trash removal fees, he said.

During the hour-long taping of the program, which will air at 12:06 p.m. Wednesday on WFIU-FM, the mayor also received a question about the city’s handling of abandoned homes from 7-year-old Nathan Hawkins of Farrington’s Grove.

“Are you the one who wrote me the letter?” Bennett asked Hawkins as the youth stood at a microphone set up in the restaurant for audience questions. Hawkins said he was.

In answer to the boy’s question, Bennett said the issue is complicated but he is working with Indiana’s lawmakers to allow the city to obtain quicker possession of abandoned homes through the legal system. Sometimes it takes up to two years to gain possession, he said. By that time, it’s often too late to save the homes.

There are currently about 85 homes on the city’s “demo” list for abandoned homes, Bennett said.

Another audience member spotted a Susan G. Komen pink ribbon on Bennett’s lapel. She asked his connection to the organization, which is dedicated to fighting breast cancer. Bennett answered that his wife, Pam, is a two-time survivor of breast cancer and the cause is one that means a lot to him.

Matthew Bergbower, assistant professor of political science at ISU, asked the mayor about the problem of stray animals in the city. Bennett said “we are holding our own,” but it is important that a partnership between Ivy Tech Community College and the Terre Haute Humane Society move forward. That partnership would free up more room in the Fruitridge Avenue shelter for strays collected by the city, he said.

Program host Jastrzebski asked Bennett whether the just-completed Scheid Diesel Extravaganza, which involved hundreds of citations written for participants, might not harm Terre Haute’s reputation. Bennett said this year was actually an improvement over past years and, of the 15,000 participants in the event, only a small number created problems. The difference was, this year, the post-event parties included some nudity and video that “went viral” on the Internet, Bennett said.

“That was a whole new twist this year,” the mayor said, adding that next year police officers will focus on after-event parties where the this year’s problems took place.

ISU senior Simon Vega, a legal studies and political science major, said watching a live taping of “Ask the Mayor” was an “eye opener” in a couple of ways. First, it showed him that local politics seems far less ideological than federal politics. And, second, the timelines for city projects, such as the railroad improvement plan, can be far longer than most people would expect.

Reporter Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.

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