LOCAL

Race for Richmond mayor: Candidates talk downtown, jobs and more

Jason Truitt
The Palladium-Item
Storefronts in the 800 block of East Main Street, including the Knollenberg's building, in downtown Richmond are seen Tuesday, May 8, 2018.

RICHMOND, Ind. — There's just one contested race in the city for the May 7 primary election, but it happens to be for the highest elected office in Richmond.

Mayor Dave Snow and the city's former director of infrastructure and development, Jack Cruse, are running to be the Democratic Party's nominee for the general election in November.

Whoever comes on out top next month will face Richmond Common Council member Jamie Lopeman, who is unopposed on the Republican ticket.

The Pal Item recently sat down for interviews with both Snow and Cruse to talk about several of the issues facing the city and their plans for what they would do should they win the election in the fall.

This is the second in a three-part series featuring excerpts from those interviews. In this edition, the candidates talk about reviving downtown, the mayor's role in bringing jobs to the city and whether a food and beverage tax should be enacted.

The first edition focused on why residents should vote for them, what they hope to accomplish over the next four years, their priorities for the city budget, how they plan to handle raises for city employees and whether the structure of city government needs changes.

The final article will touch on the candidates' plans for the parks system, infrastructure such as streets and sidewalks, blight and substandard housing, and drugs and crime.

What's your plan for downtown?

• Snow: "Downtown and the Depot District are the heart of our city. We always want to make sure what we're doing for downtown, the Depot District and our center city is pulling people into the heart of our city.

"Continuing to add connectivity, continuing to do what we can to invigorate the business environment downtown and continuing to add elements like our farmers market and Food Truck Wednesdays that'll keep a crowd down here.

"But most importantly, really taking a harder look at livability downtown. ... We're taking a look at all these elements to see how over the next handful of years we can really invigorate the business environment, the livability and the vibrance of downtown to really create a critical mass because I want to see a critical mass in the heart of our city.

"When I look at invigorating the downtown economy, what we have to do is set up an appropriate pipeline for entrepreneurs who want to be in those stores. That's going to require a vetting process which I think the (Indiana Small Business Development Center) is well-suited to do. If an entrepreneur went to the ISBDC and proposed their business idea to them, the ISBDC in turn lets us know that they have vetted that entrepreneur and said this is a great idea, perhaps the city could play a role in some of the building stabilization so that the entrepreneur coming into the building wouldn't then have to worry about so much cost going into the building.

"I'd be excited to play that role because I think that's how cities can really make strides and get ahead with their downtown, by setting up that workable pipeline that people with an idea can start there in business development and then through vetting come through the city and end up in their downtown building.

"Those are beautiful, old, remarkable buildings. That is their greatest strength, but for some up-and-coming entrepreneurs, the age of the buildings is also one of the big hurdles. It creates a lot of cost. If we can negate some of that through that proper pipeline, then I think that's a strong role that we could play to really invigorate the business downtown."

• Cruse: "The city needs to make sure that the business owners have enough information to operate, so that's one thing I would do is make sure they know what their advantages are.

"Another thing I would like to do — and I don't think this would be in the first four years — I think we need to re-look at the roads themselves. Granted, we do have a parking garage, but I can't think about how I get around. I have to think about how (other) people get around, and some people have handicaps. Some people have children. So at some point, we need to put the street back to the 1930s, honestly. Widen the street.

"And if we do angle parking on both sides of the street, we would have more parking and more parking directly in front of stores."

What is the mayor's role in local economic development?

• Snow: "When we take a look at our local economy, it's very, very important to understand that it is not the mayor's role to supersede the work that has already been done and is being done by our (Economic Development Corporation). I've worked closely with Valerie Shaffer and her office — of course, we've made two trips to Japan — and that relationship is working very well.

"Our economy is at a pivotal point because we are seeing growth and we need to continue to invigorate and foster that growth. In 2017 and '18, in new projects, retention projects and expansion projects, we saw over $27 million in investment in Richmond. We also saw creation of over 300 jobs.

"Now that doesn't include a commitment from Omen Casting to expand after only two years in Richmond and significantly add to their workforce and their investment. We are their first home outside of Israel.

"Also, we made an investment with the EDC in Hoosier Opportunity (a local jobs website), and we saw with returning visitors and new visitors about 30,000 users on that site in 2018. So we know that Hoosier Opportunity is working and is helping to connect people to jobs and helping companies connect to people who can fill the jobs.

"Because of our (first) trip to Japan, we did see growth in two of our Japanese-owned companies, and we continue to pursue our international investors to see more growth.

"I also want to point out that we are currently in a land-acquisition phase so we are looking at how we can properly budget to purchase more land to grow our industrial park and also to start planning financially for infrastructure upgrades. We went through a major infrastructure upgrade process for Blue Buffalo to handle their semi traffic, and we'll have to do that again in the industrial park for more coming projects."

• Cruse: "I was on the south side, and one of the business owners said he didn't care about voting because (candidates) never looked after him anyway. He said every time the city does anything or announces anything for business, they either focus on the downtown or Depot District. The truth is we've got businesses on the south side, east side, west side. I don't want to be mayor of the pieces I like. I want to be mayor of supporting everyone.

"The Economic Vitality Group used to be one thing that (former Mayor) Sally (Hutton) had, and that was bringing leaders together to talk about things going on in the city. I would like to do the same thing, but I would want to do it with a year-to-year milestone focus.

"I look at the EDC does one portion, which is external development, but I also look at the Chamber of Commerce. I would bring them in to play a stronger role for the smaller businesses because I think that's what is the marginalized community. Small business owners don't feel like they're being respected.

"But for the largest businesses, I would not look at going away from going to Japan — of course I would pay for the trip myself — but I think if we can change the opioid crisis and crime statistics and the education — what our social footprint looks like — I believe we can start to get more businesses because that they'll see that their investment is going to be protected.

"Everybody expects us to get some big company coming in with a thousand jobs, the business structure does not exist like that anymore. What they'll bring is 100 jobs or 200 jobs and a bunch of robots. So we can't focus on one company coming to save Richmond's day."

Should the city pursue enacting a food and beverage tax?

• Snow: "I want to have more conversations about that. I still stand by the statement that I wasn't a big fan of the original plan that was put in place to justify the food and beverage tax. I think there needs to be a much stronger plan if we're going to pursue that.

"I've been working on some elements that could come together that could result in a presentation to warrant that food and beverage tax, but looking at those projects, we'll do that in a way where if that's the avenue we decide to go, then fine, (but) if that's not the avenue that council decides to go, they'll be projects that we try to pursue otherwise.

"I think we can do some larger-scale, major moves with implementing a food and beverage tax if all the right pieces fall into place."

• Cruse: "If we did have one, I'd have to look at what are the pluses and minuses for the community because it's not really if I'm interested. I have to really make sure I know if the community's interested in that."

"If there was a significant amount of money that came back off of something like that, I would try to invest it in something that the city needs like say, for instance, roads. I think people if they knew the money comes back to improving our roads, a lot of people would probably be interested in that."

Jason Truitt is the team leader and senior reporter at the Palladium-Item. Contact him at (765) 973-4459 or jtruitt@pal-item.com.

WHEN AND WHERE TO VOTE

  • In-person absentee voting at the Wayne County Courthouse already is under way. The poll outside the Voter Registration Office on the second floor is open 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays and 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. The courthouse also will be open for voting on two Saturdays, April 27 and May 4, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. In-person absentee voting ends at noon May 6.
  • The Kuhlman Center vote center will be open 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on two Saturdays, April 27 and May 4.
  • Early voting also will be available at the Kuhlman Center and First English Lutheran Church 10 a.m.-7 p.m. April 29-May 3.
  • On Election Day, May 7, votes can be cast 6 a.m.-6 p.m. at either Kuhlman, First English, Mt. Olive Baptist Church or First Baptist Church.