Huntingburg: State of City and School Corporation all about collaboration with community

• State of the City about a future after Stellar and continued collaboration with residents

Huntingburg Mayor Denny Spinner touched on Stellar briefly during his sixth State of the City address at the Huntingburg Old Town Hall Friday.

“With input from the community over the last few years, we’ve created a vision for the future of Huntingburg, and in this year and next, we will finally begin to see some of these projects become a reality,” Spinner said.

Some of the most visible projects like the railroad overpass project have already begun, while a few like the Heritage Trail, Fourth Street enhancement project and a new downtown park will begin to take shape in the coming months.

“Think about that,” Spinner added. “By the end of 2018, we will have a new railroad overpass, a new downtown park and an enhanced downtown historic district.”

But Spinner didn’t dwell on the future very long as he stepped back to speak about the accomplishments in the city over the past year. He reiterated that the accomplishments were not his own. “As mayor, I have the great privilege to make this report, but let me assure you, none of the progress that has been made could have been accomplished without the dedication and hard work of each and every man and woman that comes to work every day for the City of Huntingburg,” he said. “From the superintendents and the department heads to the dedicated staff and crews and the citizens that serve on our boards and commissions. It is to each of them that all credit is due. To each of them, publicly, I say thank you.”

Spinner pointed out the city’s extensive work on its streets. He explained that city had leveraged the state’s Community Crossing’s grant to launch $2 million in road projects. Among those was a reconstruction of 11th Street, a total rebuild of Washington Street north of 6th Street and an upgrade of County Road 400 West between 12th Street and Phoenix Drive that is about to get underway. Thosse projects are on top of the street department’s regular projects. According to Spinner, those included nine resurfacing and five curb and gutter projects totaling over $400,000 in improvements.

He added that the city had recently applied for a matching grant of $700,000 from the Community Crossings program for road improvements over the next year.

In regards to fire and safety, Spinner pointed to July 21, 2016, when the Huntingburg Fire Department’s recently delivered aerial truck allowed firefighters better respond to a fire at Steinkamp Warehouses. The elevated water stream was necessary to put out the fire and protect the rest of the property.

“Continual investment in upgrading our fire protection equipment keeps our community safe, and helps residents, businesses and industry keep their fire insurance premiums in check,” Spinner said.

The existing park and recreation facilities have continued to be upgraded and expanded as well. Work is underway on a 1,800-foot concrete paved extension at Niehaus Park that includes new benches and lighting.

League Stadium saw improvements as the city prepared to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the filming of “A League of Their Own.” Using proceeds from ticket sales at the stadium, the entire outfield wall was rebuilt to a poured concrete structure while maintaining the look and feel of the stadium. The recent three-day 25th Anniversary Celebration attracted thousands of fans to Huntingburg and resulted in a $10,000 donation to the League Stadium endowment which helps to provide for maintenance of the stadium.

The water department, waste water department and energy department all completed major projects to support the continued expansion of the city over the past year.

The wastewater department completed the $4.1 million lift station and forced main project. A necessary project to accommodate new industrial and residential customers.

The water department is relining hundreds of feet of the city’s old water lines and is implementing an technologically advanced metering system that could save on manpower and money for the city and its customers.

The mayor recognized the importance of the city’s transit offerings. He explained that demand for the service continues to grow and to facilitate that growth, the city recently reorganized the office and added two full-time employees. “In 2016, 36% of our ridership was being transported to the working place, 24% were taken to area businesses to do their shopping and 13% of our riders were taken to and from our schools,” Spinner said explaining the need for the service adding that it saw a 6% increase in ridership in 2016 over 2015.

Over the past year, the city’s housing offerings have grown with the opening of Hunters Crossing and the completion of the Lofts of St. Joseph.

Business growth has continued as well. “Ribbon cuttings have welcomed seven new businesses to our community, five of those in the downtown,” Spinner said while pointing out that the recent designation of the U.S. 231 corridor as an Economic Development Target Area allows the city to plan for additional enhancements along the most traveled corridor in Huntingburg to attract new business investment.

The mayor recognized that while these improvements continue to develop Huntingburg’s foundation for growth, the city needs to be poised to address the more personal needs of its citizens. “There is a need for increased health care in our community. There is a need for increased housing opportunities at all levels. There is a need for better communication and collaboration with our growing Latino population. There is a need to address the opioid crisis that affects all of rural Indiana,” Spinner listed. “All these are the real quality of life issues.”

In closing, Spinner pointed out the need for collaboration between the city and its residents to make the city the best it can be. “Please continue to give us your feedback about both the day-to-day operations, as well as your dreams for the future of our great city,” he said. “The only problems we cannot address are those we are not aware of. We cannot grow and thrive without your input. It is your community.”

• New superintendent wants to engage stakeholder, community in school development

Tim Lagrange, the new Southwest Dubois County School Corporation Superintendent, joked that the last time he tried to collaborate with the mayor, Spinner was wearing stripes and carrying a whistle.
“I was trying to work collaboratively with him, and he was not accepting my help,” Lagrange joked.

The sixty residents attending the State of the City and Schools address held at the Huntingburg Old Town Hall Friday morning appreciated the joke referring to Lagrange’s coaching experience in the area. He coached Jasper’s varsity basketball team for 10 years while he worked there.

With him just recently taking over at Southwest Dubois County schools, LaGrange stuck to giving the crowd a peek of his vision for future of the school corporation rather than a comprehensive look at the corporation.

I’ve only been on the job for a couple of minutes, or about three weeks,” he said. “It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind.”

He added that he’s been spending time learning about the corporation and learning about the community to build relationships around shared goals.

“I think we all want the same things for our children and grandchildren,” he said.

LaGrange said that his concerns included providing a safe school corporation for students, creating a clear road to academic success for students, providing relevant learning to prepare students for college or a career and creating an atmosphere of support at the school through adults that genuinely care about students and their needs and not just see them as statistics on a state mandated test.
“I want schools that genuinely care about their kids,” he said. “Our kids come to our schools sometimes with a lot of personal challenges.”

He added that to achieve these goals, the school corporation will work collaboratively with the City of Huntingburg. As an example of collaboration, LaGrange said the city and school corporation were working out details to share a Huntingburg police officer to perform duties as a school resource officer.

“It’s important to me. I think it’s important to our board. It’s important to the corporation to have a strong partnership with the city,” LaGrange said.

In short, LaGrange is focusing on building relationships to create an atmosphere of collaboration by listening and learning from the school board, community members and most importantly, stakeholders and students.

“Simply put, we all want a school corporation we can be proud of,” he said.