EVANSVILLE MAYOR LLOYD WINNECKE’S “STATE OF THE CITY” SPEECH

EVANSVILLE MAYOR LLOYD WINNECKE’S “STATE OF THE CITY” SPEECH

Good afternoon. It’s a pleasure to offer my eleventh assessment of the state of our city, just two days after the City of Evansville’s 210^th birthday.

Hugh McGary, our city’s founder, had a grand vision for this community when he walked to Vincennes to purchase the 440 acres which served as the founding site of Evansville. I’d like to think that he would be immensely proud of how his community, his vision, has blossomed over two-plus centuries.

The Rotary Club of Evansville is one of those key contributors to Evansville’s success. From cultivating civic leaders to raising money for key initiatives, this club has been an integral part of our city’s history since its inception in 1913. 

A smile came to my face recently when I was looking at the Rotary website, I had read this one section before but had forgotten it until recently. It quotes a 1915 Evansville Courier story in which a member of the Rotary was described as “coming to his meeting with a big, broad grin on his face expecting to have and to help others have a genuinely good time…and goes away happier and better prepared to withstand the worries and cares of business life.”

I hope in some small way that today’s presentation will aid you to withstand the worries and challenges that we face 107-years later.

One of your fellow Rotarians helps me daily face my challenges. My wife Carol is the sounding board that every spouse should have; she keeps me grounded, focused and is certainly the loving cheerleader that allows me to work at the pace I do.  Her ideas, feedback, and ability to just listen are so very important to me. I could not do what I do without Carol’s love and support. I love you.

I have success, challenge, and opportunity to share with you today. 

During this presentation a year ago, you got an inside look at three large construction projects. Today, each of those projects is complete. They are part of a fun and impressive highlight reel that should jog a lot of memories and create lots of smiles. 

Always fun to ride on a fire truck.

We are so very proud of our success stories. One of those successes was borne out of one of our challenges: the pandemic.

The COVID period exposed a glaring need, here and around the country: better access to the Internet.

Thanks to a state grant, we are now able to fill that need for more than 22,000 residents living in the Promise Zone.  Five public Wi-Fi zones spanning strategically across the city make up The Promise Zone Broadband Project.  

We can better address the critical needs of the community including education, employment, and healthcare by having these five public access zones located in historically underserved areas of the city.

I think it’s prudent to consider COVID a challenge going forward, although no one can predict future surges or variants. It’s my hope that we have worked through the most significant of the COVID challenges, but we mourn those who died or have been seriously debilitated as a result.

We should continue to honor our health care professionals, who put their own health at risk by treating COVID patients. And we should be grateful to the Vanderburgh County Health Department for the amazing commitment of a staff that diligently works to keep us informed and vaccinated. And, like last year, we offer a heartfelt thank you to our educators who work tirelessly to keep our classrooms safe and open for learning.

We can’t talk about challenges without acknowledging the presence of crime. Like many cities, there was an unnerving sense that violent crime was all too prevalent last year.  Last week was especially noteworthy with the double homicide on the west side, and the previous day’s hours-long stand-off with a wanted felon.

Police responded to 722 shots fired run in 2021. We’ve responded to 33 fewer through February of this year over the same period a year ago.   

Last week’s situations aside, here are two ongoing issues police face:  group violence, which is committed by a very small percentage of the population, and witnesses who refuse to assist the police.

As part of our relationship with the National Safe Communities project, which we announced here last year, after every shooting in which police suspect group activity, all responding organizations convene a “shooting review.” 

This review is a chance for investigators to exchange key information such as identifying group members.  Then there is an intervention, or “custom notification,” with suspected group members…stressing that violence is unacceptable, that their families need them alive, out of prison, contributing to the community, and with potential solutions to stop their criminal activity. Former Bosse High School Principal Sheila Huff is our Community Project Manager, and Assist Police Chief Phil Smith leads the EPD effort.

Now, more than ever, it’s important that “if you see something, same something.” The more information that police have, the faster they can solve cases and make our city safer. 

Another ongoing challenge to our city is the state of our water and sewer utility. During last year’s State of the City, I announced plans to move forward with a new water treatment plant, to replace our existing plant on Waterworks Road, which now serves about 63,000 customers. Construction on it began in 1894.

We determined that there was too much risk to on-going operations to re-build on the current site…the redundancy would be just too stressed. We also know that a new plant farther away from the river would drive costs, so we decided the best site would be on land right across the street from the existing plant, which is currently home to the street maintenance garage.

The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission recently approved a new five-year rate structure that will provide the revenue for us to proceed. 

The first of these increases begin in July. At that time, water rates will increase by 5.03% annually. So, for an average household using 5,000 gallons of water per month, that equates to about $ 2.27 more per month.   

We recognize that there is a large portion of our community for whom making utility payments is a real struggle, which is why I recently announced plans to seek City Council approval to use $4 million from our American Rescue Plan Act funds to assist our most vulnerable customers.

The Utility will be announcing enrollment and qualification details in the weeks ahead. 

On the sewer side of the utility, we’ve been equally mindful of how our Consent Decree with the federal government affects ratepayers.

As a reminder, the City entered into the original Consent Decree in 2011 in order to comply with the federal mandate to reduce our combined sewer overflows. The Decree was modified in 2015 to a 24-and-half-year, $729 million plan, and we’ve been working under it ever since. 

When project costs began coming in higher than original estimates, we re-engaged our regulatory partners in 2018 seeking a further modification to the Consent Decree. 

Fast forward to March of 2020 and the start of an even weaker economy.  That’s when, in consultation with the E.P.A. and IDEM, we halted the planned sewer rate increases for 2021 and 2022. Recently we announced there will also be no sewer rate increase in 2023.

Had we NOT begun negotiating for modifications with our federal partners when we did, by the end of 2023, sewer bills would be another $16 per month higher, or $192 more a year.  

We’re still waiting to see if we will be granted an additional two-year pause extending through 2025. Regardless of that decision, we should continue with some “must-do” projects in order to maintain the basic effectiveness of the sewer system. That will require some increases, but by the end of 2025, the rates will be $20 per month less than the original plan required.

During this pause window, we will propose changes to the existing consent decree that will hopefully result in a modified implementation schedule, as well as more manageable rate increases.

Our goal is to ensure a viable utility for future generations, which means safe, reliable drinking water and significantly fewer combined sewer overflows. All, with a keen eye toward affordability.

The challenge of maintaining our parks has been brought into greater focus in the last several months.

We’ve changed the overall direction of the Parks Department. Deputy Mayor Steve Schaefer is serving as the Interim Parks Director and he’s doing an amazing job. 

Completing the new Deaconess Aquatic Center was just one. But also, In the last eight months, our re-build of the department includes:

• implementation of new internal financial controls
• establishing new protocols with the Evansville Parks Foundation
• improving internal communication
• developing new forms and procedures
• conducting an inventory of land use agreements
• restructuring staff
• conducting a facility needs assessment

Projects We Are Working on:

• developing a new five-year overall Parks Master Plan
• including a Master Plan for Garvin Park
• delivering new mulch for more than a third of our parks this year alone
• removing hazardous dead trees and replacing benches at Bayard and Aiken Parks
• grading the South Baseball fields and improving overall safety at the Vann-Pollack Park

 We’re Celebrating:

• the success of our city golf courses, with 2021 revenue up an amazing 21% over 2020
• dramatic increases in admission and events at Swonder Ice Arena.

We know there is much work to be done but know this: we are committed to ensuring that the quality of our parks meets the high standards that our citizens deserve.

Looking at the list of at all of the projects we’ve completed, there’s one that’s noticeably absent: Roberts Park. But I’m pleased to report that, thanks to City Council funding and a private sector donor, we are set to begin. The re-boot, if you will, starts with an update of the park plan by Jeff Justice of Hafer, which is now underway.

The first work will be the build-out of the park’s infrastructure like roads and utility placement. Also, in the first phase, construction of an improved park entrance on Boeke Road to replace the tired and dated entrance that we’ve had for years. We’re very excited to get going on Roberts Park. We anticipate an exciting new announcement in the weeks ahead.

We Also Have An Economic Development Challenge: Air Service.

Airlines have paused our service to and from Chicago and Detroit. This began during one of the COVID surges. Leisure traffic is leading the airline recovery, but slow business travel, pilot shortages, and fuel costs have prompted carriers to reduce service here, and in other cities.

This presents an enormous challenge for our business community, which relies on convenient and affordable air service for customers and vendors.

Airport Manager Nate Hahn is working diligently with the airlines, our local business leaders, and the state to ensure these badly needed routes return sooner rather than later.

Keep this in mind: airlines are adding planes and flights where passengers are flying out of. They don’t care about your home zip codes, just which airport you choose. I know that it may be difficult now, but whenever possible, I encourage you to fly EVV first! 

The challenges we face are not insignificant, we also have opportunities that will perpetuate our city’s recent positive progress.

November 21^st was a cool and rainy morning, and just about thirty seconds before 7 am, the 420 Main building came down. The tower had been largely unoccupied for years, as was the Sycamore Building on the same block.  

Our vision for the block is for mixed-use; retail and restaurants on the ground floor with apartments above. The original dynamic design received state incentives, but inflation has forced us to take a second look at that design. Our mixed-use vision has not changed, but our team is reimagining the scope of the project. 

The Fifth and Main project is our number one downtown priority, and I remain confident that a significant development will occur. Certainly, more to come on this in the weeks and months ahead.

We’re also casting a bold vision for the future of the Evansville Riverfront. We’re calling this River Vision. Picture a totally different traffic pattern; one that creates more opportunities closer to the river — either for seasonal kiosks, green space or perhaps even for something more permanent. 

Imagine new living opportunities above retail shops and restaurants from Court Street to Cherry Street.

River Vision is a product of our updated 2016 Downtown Master Plan, in which hundreds of participants called for greater activation of the riverfront, and it was a part of our successful $50 million READI grant submission, which was led by the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership.

Candace Chapman and Josh Armstrong are leading the planning, visioning, and financial modeling of this incredible plan. Candidly, given the scope and complexity of this plan, this will be completed in phases and take several years.

When the weather is nice, the riverfront is certainly ONE of THE places to be in Evansville. Just look at the overwhelming success of Mickey’s Kingdom. And, before the end of THIS year, you will also be able to count a new skate park as another riverfront amenity.

Here’s the first public look at the rendering for the new park. We hope to break ground in April. It will be located between Mickey’s Kingdom and the new parking lot which was constructed as part of the new Sunrise Pump Station.

Heather Vaught and our local skate and bike community have led this effort, which will allow young (or young at heart) and daring skaters to do their thing. We anticipate an opening by the fourth quarter of the year.

One of the great opportunities for our city is what will come from the $64.4 million in American Rescue Plan money.

I’m grateful that the City Council endorsed our plan to make a significant investment in mental health. The Council’s unanimous vote to appropriate $10 million for Southwest Behavioral Health to create two services that currently do not exist here is the foundation to an unprecedented level of future care.

The city’s partnership with Southwest will help renovate two existing buildings to create 1) a new 20-bed adult residential treatment center, and 2) a new child and family services neurodevelopmental psychiatry specialty center. 

The 20-bed treatment center will be a co-ed facility for adults needing short-term residential treatment (28-35 days) following hospitalization or crisis.  The location for this much-needed service is on downtown property owned by Southwest.

The new children and family service will allow for children and adolescents with dual diagnoses to have a local treatment option. This will be located in a building on South Green River Road. We are working with other mental health service providers to relocate to this facility so that they can partner with Southwest to create an unprecedented level of professional collaboration.   

Council also approved our request for start-up operating funds for the Evansville Diversion Center, which is housed at United Caring Services in downtown Evansville. 

This six-bed 23-hour facility is for people experiencing substance use and/or a co-occurring mental health crisis.

This facility will provide front-line intervention in order to divert people away from unnecessary hospital visits or incarceration. Conservatively, UCS anticipates serving 250 people each year representing a savings of $4.5 million. 

Easterseals also provides vital psychiatric services for our region. Kelly Schneider and her team have developed a Doctoral level Internship for Clinical Psychologists and a post-doctorate Fellowship for psychologists who have just completed their graduate degrees.  

This offering allows Interns and Fellows to conduct psychological testing and counseling, regardless of a client’s ability to pay. This expands Easterseals’ Psychology services capacity by about four times.

This complements the partnership between Easterseals and the University of Evansville for on-campus mental services for students, faculty, and staff.

All of this aligns with the good work of Dr. Steve Becker at the IU School of Medicine -Evansville.  You may recall the December announcement of the Mary O’Daniel Stone and Bill Stone Center for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 

The Stones gifted the IU School of Medicine – Evansville $34.2 million to establish the center which will advance research, education, and improve the standard of care for people with bipolar disorder and related health issues.

The collaboration of our mental health experts is truly phenomenal. I think it’s very likely that in a few short years, our region’s access to quality treatment, and the groundbreaking research that will happen here, will make us the envy of the state and the entire Midwest.

Now, an update on another kind of groundbreaking — this one for a project that will make it safer for students to get to school: the pedestrian crossing over U.S. 41 at Washington Avenue. 

This is a daunting view for students as they try to cross Washington on their way to Bosse High School.

I had the chance to share this challenge with Governor Eric Holcomb, who directed INDOT to help us find a safe solution.

Here’s the first-ever view of a rendering for the bridge. Engineers say the bridge will now span both the trail and the highway.

INDOT says that the project is on schedule, which means a public hearing on the latest plans will be scheduled for late spring or early summer. A final field check will occur this December and we anticipate a contract letting next May (and yes, INDOT understands we would love for the timeline to go faster). 

Finally, we have an exciting piece of news to break today. It involves the Deaconess Aquatic Center and 62 Delaware School third through fifth graders participating in the 21^st Century Learning Center program.

Next Wednesday, We’ll Start A Pilot Swimming Lesson Program.

Over a four-week period, our partners at the YMCA of Southwestern Indiana will start these students on the path of swimming and teach them basic water safety.  The goal is to expand the program next school year with even more elementary-aged students from around the city.  We are so grateful for our partnership with the Y and the EVSC.

Last Monday, the first day of spring break, was a sunny, mild day. Zoo Director Erik Beck tells me that more than 4,000 people came to the zoo on that day alone. As Erik says, and I agree, everyone loves penguins.

So, let’s take a technological leap of faith and go LIVE to the Kinney Family Penguins of Patagonia exhibit. Wayne Kinney, who along with his wife Beth made the naming rights contribution, is joining us LIVE from the penguin exhibit to help me promote an upcoming attraction. 

Visitors will soon be able to feed the birds. The zoo staff is busy working out the logistics, but we anticipate that in the next couple of weeks, you’ll be able to feed the penguins as part of your visit.

Wayne, before you demonstrate the feeding process, I want to thank you and Beth for your generosity in making this exhibit happen.

There’s a tremendous sense of excitement at Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Gardens, much like there is across Evansville.

My friends, the state of our city is strong and the sense of anticipation for the next big event or project is palpable. We’re the third-largest city in Indiana, and we’re playing like it. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be a small part of such a dynamic time in Evansville’s history.

May God Bless the City of Evansville.

  LLOYD WINNECKE

MAYOR OF EVANSVILLE, INDIANA