A month into the year, Henderson Mayor Brad Staton is digging into goals he’s set for 2024, among them Interstate-69 readiness, bulking up police department staff, continued work in the Inner City Improvement Plan, creation of a city Parks and Recreation Department 10-year master plan, increasing funding for road improvements and an effort to recruit retail stores to town.
I-69 readiness
As construction connected to the new interstate becomes more visible in Henderson, an already robust discussion about what will occur opon its completion has notched up. City commissioners, the mayor and city staff have all spoken about having plans in place for when the interstate is complete.
Staton said a huge discussion piece is closing the U.S. 41 southbound bridge. Though the record of decision—which set in place original agreements between Indiana and Kentucky for the I-69 bridge to be built to connect the interstate on both sides of the river—says that the southbound bridge shall be closed, Staton said local leaders will continue to ask for an amendment to keep it open.
“A lot of people have expressed support in keeping both bridges open,” he said.
One frustrating aspect of the attempts to keep both bridges open is a concept supported by the I-69 engineering team called value engineering, in which closing the southbound bridge would bottle up the two-way traffic on the remaining bridge, thus causing enough frustration among motorists to push them over to the toll I-69 bridge, Staton said. This is a method to pay for the bridge, he said.
“It’s certainly not fair to the people of Henderson,” the mayor said.
Another reason cited for closing the southbound bridge is that the maintenance costs reaching millions upon millions of dollars for a structure that has 30 years left of useful life, Staton said.
In a recent interview with the Hendersonian, Staton also spoke of a plan to create a local frontage road that would run parallel to the new interstate, connecting Wathen Lane to Barret Boulevard. He said having that in place would allow businesses on the 41-strip to move there if their sales decrease when the interstate bridge is completed and if the southbound U.S. 41 bridge is closed.
The construction of the frontage road is in its early stages. He said local leaders have met with some owners of the land that the frontage road would pass through and all were receptive to the plan. Staton said the project would take 5-7 years to complete with a price tag of $20 million to $25 million.
Staton said the frontage road would provide 1 ½ to 2 miles of road and 200 acres of development space. Its entrance would be about ½-mile from the planned I-69-U.S. 60 interchange, he said.
Additionally, plans have been discussed and a report has been written detailing different possibilities for what could occur on the 41-strip when the new interstate bridge is open. Some of those are mixed developments that include residential uses, less lanes of traffic and methods to make the area more pedestrian friendly. But Staton, and other officials the Hendersonian has interviewed, said any plans couldn’t be put into place until it’s known what the effects of I-69 turn out to be.
Police department improvement
In another issue, Staton said the Henderson Police Department Chief Sean McKinney will submit an improvement plan to him.
Staton said McKinney identified that he needed to do a better job connecting one-on-one with his officers on the front line instead of filtering communication through administrative staff.
Staton said that McKinney has not yet submitted the improvement plan, but that the chief is currently working on it. The mayor said he has had talks with McKinney and understands the basics of what it will entail.
“He wants to take steps to make sure (officers) know they are a valued and important piece of the police department,” Staton said.
Staton said McKinney has weathered tough times as chief—when numbers have been low—and supports him and wants him to lead the department in better times, when he has a full staff.
The police department in recent years has not been fully staffed. And in 2023, seven officers left the department, while two joined, causing an already worrisome situation to become more difficult.
It has been a department priority to increase the number of officers on the street. In January, four new officers joined the department, Staton said, an addition that leaves the department at five to seven officers short.
But three recruits are currently at the Department of Criminal Justice Training in Richmond and three more are about to start, Staton said. Assuming no losses in the next year and all those in training start at HPD once training is complete, the staff would then be fully complement.
Staton also said that the chief, police department staff and city officials are looking at ways to bring interested young people into the department.
One effort includes the start of a law enforcement program in the CTE unit of Henderson County High School. Former HPD officer Jermayne Poynter has been hired to teach law enforcement classes at the high school, Staton said.
The mayor said that would give young people a chance to learn about policing as a career and get excited about it, possibly creating a funnel of sorts to the local department.
He also said the city is looking into placing a minimum age for a public safety officer at 18, which would allow a younger person to get out and respond to wrecks and other traffic calls.
Staton also said the city wants to hire a human resources specialist that is dedicated to public safety. This HR specialist would work specifically with the police department, fire department and 911 dispatch.
He said the four areas of focus for that HR specialist would be recruitment, retention, culture and mental health. A mental health focus is important for public safety employees because of the traumatic nature of their jobs, and it would help those employees with their day-to-day lives while also remaining viable city employees, the mayor said.
Inner City improvement continues
Staton said the Inner City Improvement plan has gained momentum this year. There were about 15 members of each group last year when the program began, and getting those participants wasn’t always easy, he said.
This year, 20 people have already signed up for each of the five groups, and the sessions haven’t yet begun, he said.
Orientation is scheduled for Feb. 15 at the Municipal Services Center, he said.
The Inner City Improvement Plan is an initiative that has set aside $1.2 million over a 4-year period to complete projects in the East End. In its first year, participants from five groups worked together to first discuss needs of the focus they were charged with and then create projects addressing those needs.
Groups this year will focus on public safety, affordable housing, economic development, youth engagement and mental health. Each group will be charged with one initiative to develop while also being able to pursue their own ideas, Staton said.
These include:
- The public safety committee will investigate the need for a domestic violence shelter
- The affordable housing committee will work to create a plan to build an affordable housing development
- The economic development committee will find ways to redevelop the Letcher Street corridor, from Washington Street to Clay Street
- The youth engagement committee will convert the old Jefferson Elementary School into a haunted house that is age appropriate for both pre-teens and teens and open Oct. 1-31. Staton wants local high school actors and theater participants to get involved
- The mental health committee will determine the East End’s mental health needs and create matches with available resources while also defining what needs to be brought to the area
Retail store recruitment
The mayor wants to create an intentional retail recruiting plan that would identify stores the city needs but doesn’t have.
“There’s no concrete way to do retail recruitment for our city,” Staton said.
The mayor wants to develop a strategy for city officials to go to retailers and attempt to lure them to Henderson. He suggested the city needs a high-end grocer, two or three high end hotels, high-end chain restaurants and more family-oriented activities.
Parks and Recreation master plan
Staton said a 10-year master plan for the parks department will help the city prepare for some upcoming decisions, most notably what to do with the aging Atkinson Park Pool. He said the pool has about 5-10 more years of useful life, so a plan on how or if a city pool will be built after that must be determined.
He also said most activities at city parks are focused on children from 3-9 years old. He’d like more for those aged 10-18 years old.
He said there’s also a local push to erect statues for Henderson’s Medal of Honor recipients, Luther Skaggs, Jr., and Gary L. Littrell. Staton said a parks master plan should address the best practice in getting these statues in Henderson—location, style, size.
Increased funding for roads
Staton wants the next budget to include a 10% increase in funding for road repairs and to increase that each year for the next ten years. He said one of the core functions of government is to take care of roads, and funding in the city’s budget for roads hasn’t increased in the past five years.
