In Tuesday’s Primary, I won the Democratic nomination for the City Council’s 4th District with about 65 percent of the vote. Vigo County Clerk Pat Mansard says the unofficial results of my race show that 456 ballots were cast for me, while my opponent got 248 votes. The state-certified official election results will be available Monday, May 21st; Pat told me she doesn’t expect the numbers to change much.

No one ran on the Republican ticket in my district on Tuesday, but local Republican Party leaders have until June 30 to caucus and place a candidate on the ballot. I’m looking forward this fall’s General Election campaign, but everyone gets a well-deserved rest until then.

To see a summary of Tuesday’s election results, follow this link and scroll way down to Terre Haute:

http://www.mywabashvalley.com/content/elections

WTWO also has some online video of Jenny, Ben, Rachel and I on election night, about half way into their ten minute long Full Primary Coverage story. Follow this link and click “watch”; coverage begins after a brief commercial:

http://www.mywabashvalley.com/content/fulltext/?cid=3792

Thanks to all of you who are supporting my reelection effort — especially the voters of the 4th District. I will continue to work hard to represent you on Terre Haute’s City Council.

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Election Day is here, and I hope you are planning to vote. I read recently that we are likely to have less than 20 percent of Terre Haute voters casting ballots in today’s election — we have to do better than that if this city is to keep moving forward.

Remember to bring a state-issued photo i.d. to the polls with you today. If you have questions about your voting status or the new i.d. requirement, call Voter Registration at 462-3393.

It’s always a good idea to look at a list of all of the candidates before you go to the polls. To see Democrat and Republican sample ballots, check out the lower right corner of the Vigo County Clerk’s main web page:

http://www.vigocounty.org/clerk/

If you live in the 4th District and have questions about my approach to representing you on the City Council, please contact me by phone or email — I want to hear from you!

The polls close at 6:00 p.m. Thanks for your support!

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Here is the text of my September 2006 letter to the Editor of the Tribune Star regarding Union Hospital’s proposed closure of a block of North 7th Street. I grew up nearby, I know the area well, and I still think a new hospital could be built without having to vacate any portion of 7th Street.

Read on!

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To the Editor,

I was happy to read that the Tribune-Star has reformed its Editorial Board after a six year hiatus, and I applaud your group’s recent editorial urging the City Council to gather more information before voting on Union Hospital’s request to close a block of 7th Street. Everyone I listen to on both sides of this issue agrees that the new hospital is an important project for our community, and I think city government can play a role in helping the Union Hospital campus become the world-class medical facility that we all want in Terre Haute. However, I cannot support the hospital’s proposed closure of 7th Street.

As I said at last week’s City Council meeting, I believe Union Hospital has a design problem with many possible solutions. I agree with the Editorial Board’s opinion that it’s unfortunate hospital leaders are only presenting the community with one design — one which requires city government to surrender a block of a major street and places dozens of privately-owned homes squarely in their wrecking ball’s path.

Union’s stated intention to “only go up to Ash Street” means that the homes between 7th and 10th, from Ash to Beech, will be purchased by the hospital, cease paying property taxes, and turn into surface parking lots if the new building is built as proposed. This is not alarmist speculation — hospital administrators shared this with me at one of their Open House events this summer. I have checked the county tax records, and only three of the roughly 330 parcels owned by Union Hospital are in those three residential blocks. The other fifty homes between 7th and 10th, from Ash to Beech, are still privately owned. Go look at them before they’re gone — the hospital tore down one of their three earlier this year.

I was born at Union Hospital, grew up around Collett Park, delivered newspapers to the hospital and its neighbors when I was a kid, and now represent neighborhoods south and northeast of the hospital on the City Council. On visits to Union Hospital and my family home on North 10th over the last 15 years, I have seen firsthand Union’s approach to addressing their parking problem: buy more, sprawl farther. It is time to establish boundaries for the Union Hospital campus, and a parking plan as modern as the new building they have committed to build somewhere on that campus.

A well designed, properly placed parking garage connected to major buildings with pedestrian walkways over street traffic should be a major piece of their campus master plan, but Union’s leaders have made it clear that they prefer to continue developing the surrounding neighborhood into a sea of surface parking lots. Approving their proposed closure of 7th Street would bring city government into direct partnership on this approach. I think there are better ways for us to partner with the hospital.

A neighborhood plan should be in place before seriously discussing the vacation of any major street near the hospital. The data gathered in the recent traffic study should help inform the Parks Department’s Collett Park Master Plan goal of moving the vehicular entrance to the park from 7th and Maple to 8th and Maple — but 8th Street was only studied at its intersection with Lafayette. Changing 8th and 9th Streets back to two way traffic from Maple to at least Lafayette would calm traffic in the residential area south of the park while facilitating use of a new park entrance at 8th, but that scenario was not part of the traffic study. Building a bike path connecting ISU to Union Hospital, Ouabache School and Collett Park has also been discussed in recent years, but the route is still up in the air. The city maintains two blocks of park land on the south side of 8th Avenue, between 3rd and 6th Street, which served the neighborhood that used to surround the hospital — maybe we should give that land to Union so they can grow toward 3rd Street, instead of toward Collett Park.

Where is the vision that brings these elements together? It sure isn’t in anything before the City Council now as we consider whether or not shifting traffic from 7th Street is a good idea. Union Hospital seems oblivious to these neighborhood issues and focused on gathering enough council votes to push through the plan they think is best for them — the only option they are willing to discuss. Even though I support construction of a new hospital and look forward to the local economic and health care benefits we will all enjoy, I cannot support the idea that the only way to help Union Hospital now is to close 7th Street. We can do better.

I hope the City Council will vote down the proposed closure of 7th Street and send Union Hospital’s architects back to the drawing board. As I said in the council meeting last week, if I thought there was any possibility that the hospital wouldn’t build a great new main facility if we don’t close 7th for them, I would be more inclined to support their current plan. In the past few months, hospital administrators have made it clear that they will build somewhere in the 20-plus block campus they now control, regardless of what happens on 7th Street. I am happy to hear that commitment, and whatever the outcome of the 7th Street vote, I will continue working with them, their neighbors, and my colleagues in city government to help Union Hospital find more balanced solutions to their design problems.

Todd Nation
City Council, 4th District

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The Farrington’s Grove Historic District board issued the following question to all candidates for Mayor, City Council At Large, and City Council 4th District a couple of weeks ago:

“Why should Farrington’s Grove Historical District residents cast their vote for you?”

We were told to limit our responses to 125 words — a tall order for a wordy guy like me. Although I found the short length somewhat restrictive, I produced the following “Top Five Reasons” list. It is aimed at Farrington’s Grove, but any Terre Haute resident can read it and understand how I approach issues that concern us all.

If you want to read a longer treatment of  my views on Farrington’s Grove, my response to their 2003 candidate questionnaire can be seen here:

http://www.toddnation.com/fgqa.html

Read on!

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Here are the Top Five Reasons:

1. I want to keep building upon the foundation of change that has been established since 2004.

2. As a fellow resident of Farrington’s Grove, I understand the challenges you face (trash, graffiti, vandalism, stray animals, vacant homes), and I’m helping address these issues as your councilman.

3. Although we’ve made good progress in some areas (sidewalk repair, paving, tree maintenance, handicap ramps), there is still much work to do (see above).

4. Whether considering business encroachment next to homes on 7th Street or parking lots on 4th Street, I have voted repeatedly to maintain the residential character of our neighborhood.

5. I am accessible, responsive, and I need your support! Call 232-2595, email booknation@earthlink.net, or check out www.toddnation.com.

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This year’s Human Rights Day schedule of events features lots of interesting sessions, all of which are free and open to the public.

Look for details on the following presenters: a former Tibetan political prisoner; a Cambodian man who now represents the United States to UNESCO; U.S. Representative Julia Carson; the Indiana Green Party’s Bill Stant; the new Executive Director of the ICLU; documentary filmmaker Maia Wechsler; Hoosier singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer… I look forward to participating.

Here’s a link to the schedule:

http://www.indstate.edu/hrd/events.html

See you there!

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The League of Women Voters of Vigo County and the Tribune-Star will present their second City Council Candidate Forum tonight at 7:00 in the Sarah Scott Middle School cafeteria.

Last night’s forum included those of us running for the 1st - 4th District seats; tonight’s forum features the rest of the candidates. Join me tonight to hear how the 11 Democrats and two Republicans running in the 5th District, 6th District, and At Large races answer questions posed by the host groups and the audience.

If citizen participation in last night’s forum is any indication of what we can expect, there should be plenty of available seats. Bring a friend!

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The first open forum for City Council candidates will be held from 7:00 until 9:00 tonight — Tuesday, April 10 — in the Sarah Scott Middle School cafeteria. Candidates from districts 1 through 4 will address questions from the League of Women Voters of Vigo County and the Tribune-Star, then we will address audience questions chosen and posed by a moderator.

Tomorrow, candidates in districts 5 and 6 will be joined by the At Large candidates for another forum. It will be held at the same time and place, and the format will be the same. I will attend both forums — answering questions about my 4th District candidacy tonight, and listening to the exchange tomorrow.

In my experience, these forums are the best way to get a feel for who is running for office and how they approach issues. Come see for yourself, as you prepare to cast informed votes on May 8th.

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Here is the text of today’s Tribune-Star article about the upcoming Trash Can Ordinance vote.

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Published: April 05, 2007 11:50 pm

City Council to vote on requiring garbage cans for trash

By Crystal Garcia
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE - Terre Haute resident Pam Hacquet can’t help but notice the occasional litter drifting in the wind along Margaret Avenue while on her way to work.

While some of it comes from people polluting, she believes that some of it also comes from garbage bags left for trash pickup.

A new city ordinance could change that.

The City Council will debate a change to city code to require residents to put all trash into garbage containers with lids. Current law allows for garbage bags to be placed out the night before they are picked up by trash collectors and hauled away.

“I think it would be very, very good not only just environmentally, but for the scenic view,” Hacquet said of the proposal. “Who wants to drive down a road and see somebody’s trash littered or blowing all over the place?”

Councilman Todd Nation, D-4th, introduced the legislation after researching issues related to the annual crow roost.

Last year, Terre Haute officials openly discussed the possibility of poisoning crows to deter them from roosting in Terre Haute, to which Nation publicly voiced concerns.

He believes the law will help prevent crows and stray animals from tearing open garbage bags for food, and help alleviate the litter problem in the city.

“Terre Haute has had a problem with blowing trash, with getting trash into the right containers and having it removed by our city contractor,” Nation said, “and all I’m doing with this is trying to tighten up the code in a way that helps.”

The councilman discussed the issue with various segments of city government, including the legal department. He said that he discussed the issue with Marty Dooley, supervisor of the Environmental Protection Division of the Police Department, which issues citations for a variety of code violations, including garbage.

Dooley hopes that a grace period will be given so that people can buy the needed garbage receptacles, since “Terre Haute’s a big city, and there’s a lot of people who don’t have cans right now … ,” he said.

“It can be enforced,” Dooley said of the change, but “it’s going to be hard to enforce.”

Nation said that the city’s legal department encouraged him to go ahead with the proposed ordinance revision, which Terre Haute Mayor Kevin Burke supports.

The City Council did not speak about the ordinance much during its “sunshine” meeting Tuesday, although council members will have the chance to discuss the ordinance before voting on it during the council’s business meeting Thursday.

The ordinance will not affect raked leaves left for trash pickup, since they are not garbage, Nation said.

Terre Haute resident Cheri Hancock supports the ordinance. While she believes it will help address the annual crow roost in Terre Haute, she added that city officials should research a way to help low-income residents afford trash containers.

Burke said that talks with the city’s trash contractor about providing all city residents with the same kind of garbage containers “have gone on for over three years now,” with no agreement yet.

Tribune-Star reporter Crystal Garcia contributed to this report. She can be reached at (812) 231-4271.

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Here is the text of WTHI’s report on General Ordinance 5, 2007 from last night’s broadcast:

Council ‘Talks Trash’

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Here’s the introductory text from WTWO’s coverage of the Trash Can Ordinance after the City Council meeting on April 3. Click on the link below to watch the full report — including an interview with me.

Terre Haute City Council Meeting

Reported by: Patrick Fazio
04/03/2007 11:28pm
The Terre Haute City Council is working on ways to clean up the community. Residents have complained about trash throughout the city, including along Margaret Avenue. The trash trucks are required to be covered on top. The city council wants to require residents to use a trashcan with a lid. Currently, the city ordinance allows people to just put trash on the side of the road for pick-up. The city council will meet again Thursday, April 12th to vote on requiring people to use trashcans.

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http://www.mywabashvalley.com/content/fulltext/?cid=3387

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