Ben Shoulders Remarks Concerning The Status Of Several Vanderburgh County Projects

Commissioner  Shoulders Rotary Club Remarks Concerning The Status Of Several Vanderburgh County Projects

MAY 23, 2022

  OLD COURTHOUSE 

First, I also wanted to again thank everyone for being with us here today and wanted to thank my mother, father, and beautiful wife Shannon for being here.  So, there are several county-related facilities, venues, and events that relate to leisure and entertainment.  I’ll start with the Vanderburgh County Old Courthouse.  We recently had an adjustment in sales and stay highly occupied with 20 tenants leasing 21 current suites – eight suites are occupied by county departments (County Engineer, Veterans Services, and DADS).  From an event standpoint, a lot going on at the Old Courthouse!  This month alone we have 4 weddings, 1 baby shower, A US Army Changing of the Guard Ceremony and at the end of this month we start our annual Lunch on the Lawn – which is Fri, May 27^th and is every month during the summer.  It’s a great outside event – so please come by and grab some lunch at one of the food trucks.  Overall, we have a strong team focusing on increasing revenue streams, bookings for leisure/social events and fundraisers to ensure the longevity of the historic venue.  As a member of the Old Courthouse Foundation board, I’m passionate about the success of this venue and proud to say it was recently featured in the May Issue of the Indiana Landmarks Magazine – Indiana Preservation edition for the Old Courthouse’s Bell Tower campaign.  So we are very proud of that!    

OLD NATIONAL EVENTS PLAZA 

First of all, we have had new leadership take place at the Old National Events Plaza.  Our own, Nick Wallace, is the new General Manager.  Congrats to you, Nick!  A lot going on at ONEP.  First, we recently approved non-profit partnership waivers – so if you are a Non-Profit in our local community and want to use  ONEP for your event – please submit a form, and we as a commission will vote to waive the rental fee.  This has already been a big hit and utilized by numerous Non-Profits just in the last 6 months!  Most recently, ONEP has also used a voting location for the May 2022 primary.  As we return to pre-Covid 2019 business trends, we’ve recently seen improved technologies such as apple pay and touch-free systems.  From a business and revenue standpoint, ONEP generated over $1M Operating Income, on pace to do $2.4M forecasted in 2022, and saw 85,500 guests visit the Plaza in 2021.  Also, we are proud to say ONEP was ranked the #122 event venue in the world in the 2021 Pollstar Top 200 Theaters Globally.  The economic impact of over $8.1M for Vanderburgh County translated to 112 jobs created in 2021!  So keep up the momentum, Nick!  

  BURDETTE PARK 

As the only county-owned park in Vanderburgh County, Burdette Park has really come into its own in the last couple of years!  Last year Burdette not only added several features such as two children’s water slides in the family pool but also entertained over 300,000 guests.  Year over year, we’ve seen an increase in gross revenue since 2018 (minus 2020 due to Covid), and in 2021 Burdette set a new annual Gross Revenue park record by exceeding $1 million dollars for the first time ever since the park opened in 1961 at $1,143,052!  Moving forward, already in 2022 projected revenue is to exceed $1.4M!  Many people don’t know there are 6 overnight cabins, 12-day shelters, and the discovery lodge for special events.  Not to mention the BMX Bike tracks and campgrounds out there – there is just so much to do with many family-friendly features and leisure at Burdette Park!

 CVB/DEACONESS SPORTS PARK 

 The parks are managed by the Visit Evansville Team.  As many of you know, the organization is under new leadership.  Alexis Berggren, former director of the ONEP, is the new President & CEO, so congrats again to Alexis – we are looking forward to some big things!  In terms of the Deaconess Sports Park, many improvements had happened there including new turf fields.  Since the park opened in 2015, we’ve seen over 959,000 (so almost a million) visitors, neighbors and residents served at the park.  From an economic impact standpoint, we’ve seen over $98M in direct and indirect expenditures yielded from the park from 2015 – to 2021 and over 112,000 hotel stays during that same period.  So, we can honestly say, that the Deaconess Sports Park has been a tremendous boost to our local economy and particularly to our leisure, hospitality, entertainment, and tourism industries.  And as you can see, the CVB continues to drive tourism together with overall county properties accounting for a $34.9M economic impact and approximately 750 new jobs.  Keep up the great work, Alexis and CVB!

 TEAMWORK 

Great question!  Teamwork is critical to succeeding as a County Commission, both internally and externally.  The three of us may not agree on everything 100% of the time.  And that’s ok!  Each of us has a different skill set, and a different core competency – for example, I may have certain attributes that Cheryl doesn’t have, or she may have things Jeff doesn’t have, or Jeff may have things I don’t have, but together it needs to work as a team.  And I believe, although there is still work to be done, I believe we’ve accomplished some great things in the last few years – and it’s mainly due to teamwork; regardless of whose idea it is or who thinks of it first.  And I also want to say, we have two exceptional office managers in Kathy Glaser and Alyssa Nilsen who are both here today.  Thank you both so much for all you do on a daily basis!!  Externally, we continue to work with not only our great county department heads, some of which are here today, but other county and city elected officials, our VC Health Dept, our VC Sheriff’s office and law enforcement and primarily with the County Council who recently agreed to our request of almost $2M in road paving – thank you Council for that!  Also, by working with many folks in the private sector, such as E-REP and others, to ensure we stay focused on economic development and infrastructure by working as a team – by way of private/public sector partnerships.  So, yes, no matter what we do, teamwork plays a vital role in the success for our county!  So on that note, I know nationally and globally these are somewhat of uncertain times, but I ask that each of you locally continue to work together as a team to make our community even better.  Both private and public sector leaders, elected office holders, business owners and executives, MBE/WBE owners, Non-profits, and our brothers and sisters in the unions all continue to work hand-in-hand so we can continue to move forward and focus on the task at hand as a TEAM for the greater good of Vanderburgh County.