Rameen: Coming up on City Spotlight, season nine continues and we're back on location in Marshall.

First we'll talk with Marshall Mayor, John Hasten, about completed and future public works projects, plans for a new subdivision of homes and starting a TIF district in Marshall.

And we'll close the program with a feature on a Marshall tradition, the latest edition of the Marshall Autumn Fest.

We're talking Marshall next on City Spotlight.

[music plays] City Spotlight is supported by Consolidated Communications.

CCI is honored to salute the cities and their leaders in the area, as well as providing TV, Internet, and phone service for the local homes and businesses.

We live where we work, and are proud to support the communities we serve.

More information available at consolidated.com.

Hello and welcome to another edition of City Spotlight.

As you can see, we are out of the studios and we are on location.

We are back in Marshall as we tape here at the end of summer 2022 on September 19th.

We're back in a familiar spot, Marshall City Hall, and we welcome back to the program for a second time.

John: Thank you very much.

Rameen: Mayor of Marshall, John Hasten.

John, pleasure to see you again.

John: Thank you very much.

Glad to have you here.

Rameen: We had John on for the very first time here on City Spotlight at the very beginning of 2022, so two times in the year.

There we go.

We're glad you're back.

John: You never know, there may be something going on in December even.

Rameen: We'll see.

We'll see if we can get a third time maybe.

Glad to be here.

We are taping the day after the conclusion of 2022 Marshall Autumn Fest.

We're going to talk about that with John, we're going to have a feature later on in the program on it.

So a big part of the program will be the Marshall Autumn Fest and there's good reasons for that.

But John, we have a nice list here.

We're going to kind of go in the order that you presented.

John: Sure, sure.

Rameen: And let's start with the Fox Run Road Repair.

And I understand that's on the east side of town.

John: It's on the east side of town behind the golf course.

The history of this is, back when... Oh, we're going back when, before I was born, that's been more than 70 years.

The new 40 came through.

They had a lot of dirt left over, they used it to make a dam for the golf course so they could dam up the water and have a water supply.

Over the years that was never a problem.

And then a subdivision was developed back behind the golf course.

And so people were using the dam as a road, which it was never intended for.

As the need for the road increased, they widened it, but the materials they put in it wasn't up to par.

And so we had some slippage along the north side of there.

It became a situation where we were concerned that the dam may give or roads become hazardous to drive.

Some work was done on it about four or five years ago.

It didn't fix the situation, so this year we decided to go in and actually what we did was we built a new road.

And just to the south of the old one, we were able to...

The project took most of the summer and it is finished now.

Very proud of what we have.

We think that we've eliminated the problem that has been plaguing us for 20 years.

And hopefully, if you get a chance to go back and look in there, you'll see it.

It was well done.

Rameen: As we've been talking, seeing footage of it, very good.

Thank you very much, John.

We're also going to talk about something that you talked about the last time we had you on.

Maybe retell our audience about the park on the east side of town... John: Okay.

Rameen: ... you're trying to get going.

John: Yeah.

Jerry Forsythe, a wealthy man who is a Marshall graduate... Rameen: Champion of the community.

John: Champion of the community, has done a lot for this community, from ballparks to everything else, has offered, I think it's... What?

15 acres as a city park.

Rameen: Good size of land from what I remember seeing the first time.

John: Good chunk of land.

He's got architectural firm developing the ideas for pavilions and locations for different activities.

We weren't sure when it was going to be started.

We know that we were looking at it anytime this summer where it might be started.

But as supplies and everything are backlogged... Rameen: Understood.

John: ... it's going to take a while to get it done.

Probably be a two or three year project and it's still on board, we're still looking forward to it and think it's going to be a great addition to the city.

Rameen: And again, this park will include what again?

John: We actually did a survey among people around town.

It will have some soccer fields down there for the league, we expect of a pavilion.

We've already got ball diamonds and basketball courts and other places around town so we were looking for activities.

It'll have a walking trail going around it, activities that you don't find necessarily in other parts of Marshall.

And make it a place for families to gather and for groups to get together and enjoy themselves.

Rameen: Notice the trend here on all the communities we've covered on City Spotlight.

Hearing about the walking trails, got to have those walking trails... John: Oh, you got to keep walking.

Rameen: Absolutely.

And a lot of walking was done just prior to us taping here on September 19th at the 2022 edition of Marshall Autumn Fest.

I have several comments I'd like to make just from my one day of taping on Saturday the 17th.

But John, I know you want to talk about the success.

This has been a staple to the community for over 50 years.

John: Over 50 years.

I can remember being a boy, coming down here and seeing, at that time I saw it as a fair, but it was the Autumn Fest and it was fun for everybody.

Games, food, activities.

This year, over the last few years, this was huge this year.

We had tremendous crowds.

Rameen: There was a lot of people there on Saturday when I was there.

John: There were, and Friday night, the bands that played on the Bandstand, some great bands, variety of different kinds of music.

The car show on Sunday had over 80 vehicles.

It keeps expanding every year.

The various booths that are around town and the activities.

Tremendous number of people.

I don't know that I've seen a crowd this big it.

It's great for Marshall, but it's also great for the people who come.

It's an activity they can enjoy with their friends and their family and have a great time with.

Rameen: I taped the Saturday festivities at Marshall Autumn Fest prior to our taping with John.

So you'll see that feature coming up, teasing that a little bit.

Jennifer Bishop was interviewed.

I also interviewed a lady who had come back to town who lives somewhere else in central Illinois and she was enjoying the parade when I talked to her.

And that was her favorite thing when she graduated.

You'll hear how long ago she graduated from Marshall High School.

So she is a long time resident back then.

Festivals like this, the word homecoming... John: Very much so.

Rameen: Always gets associated with it.

John: Very much so.

And you don't know how many different class reunions timing themselves to be part of that.

Rameen: I saw T-shirts there, and Jennifer Bishop also noticed it.

Class of '82 was celebrating a reunion.

John: Yeah, exactly.

And I wanted to throw out some names for you because some people that did some wonderful jobs, Nora Swalls is the director of the Chamber of Commerce.

Jennifer was that, Jennifer Bishop was before.

They still worked together for this year.

They did a marvelous job heading up the committee.

Jeff and Buffy Warrens have been on it since 1996.

They are retiring from the committee, but that they've been key in bringing us along.

And Shannon and Fatty Trudeau, it's a nickname, Fatty Trudeau have worked on the committees for 14 years.

So we've had stability in the committee and keeping it going and I think that that says a lot.

Nora will have to replace them at some point, but Nora's got her feet wet here a couple of times now, so she'll keep it going.

It'll be great.

Rameen: Good support there all around, and more people need to step up.

And for a community of this size, I'm not rating or judging a community based on the length of their parade.

But for a community of this size to put on over an hour long parade, wow.

John: Yeah, I mean... Rameen: It's quite a parade.

John: People come from everywhere.

We had Martinsville Fire Department in our parade.

People come to watch and people want to be a part.

The COVID time and everybody being sequestered, people are tired of being locked up.

And they want to get out and go do things.

Rameen: I think maybe we're past that part of it and it was reflective of just how many people I saw on Saturday, at least.

John: Yeah.

Oh, it was tons.

We were in great position.

Rameen: Hundreds, for sure.

John: Yes.

Rameen: I'd like to be able to just stress.

Once again, I've been to Marshall so many times now, this is our ninth season of City Spotlight.

I've been to all the major things, I think.

From the lemonade stand contest to the Walldogs, and checking off the Marshall Autumn Fest is going to come again, definitely down the road.

What does it say about Marshall?

What does it say about Marshall, John, again to reemphasize why it's so important for the community to have all these outdoor activities?

John: We are a hometown.

This is Mayberry, only in Illinois.

Rameen: Correct.

John: We are the hometown.

You go around, you know who people are.

You see people.

Now, you know when someone comes from someplace else and they're enjoying it too, but we're proud of our town.

We're proud of what it looks like.

We're proud of the people and the efforts that they make to make it special.

And this is a special period of time for us.

And not every town has that opportunity to put enough together to have such a great experience.

And I will say this, there is some discussion of doing something in the spring.

It's not done yet, it's not finalized, but there's a group in town that, it's looking for an activity maybe early May or something.

So if we can get a spring and fall activity going and bringing people in, that'll even be better.

Rameen: May and June are quite pretty months after you get through the rough patches of the start of spring.

John: Exactly.

Rameen: In Illinois.

So we're talking about what's been staples of the community.

The last few items we're going to talk about, John, are things moving forward to continue to improve.

I know we talked about Fox Run at the top.

But let's talk about, off to the east side of town, you have 10 acres for some starter homes.

John: Starter homes.

Marshall is probably not unique in this.

This is something that is pretty common, I think, in a lot of places.

You have trailers that are for rent, you have apartments that people can rent, you have houses that people can rent.

And then you have the $250,000 home that is available but not affordable for most.

Rameen: Correct.

John: Especially young couples just getting started in life.

We're wanting to build starter homes, 1300 square feet.

In an area, we got 10 acres that we have the option to buy on.

We want to develop that into a little bit of a subdivision and provide starter homes for that young family.

They'll probably live there 10, 15 years, buy something better, bigger, and then that home would be available for the next starter family.

We want to...

When kids graduate high school, and think about it from your own home and when your own school district, where do they go?

If there's no jobs here, or no homes to live in here, where do they have to go?

They have to go to the big town or elsewhere.

We're wanting to find places that our kids can stay, that we can keep Marshall kids in Marshall.

We've got jobs available at ZF, at North American Lighting.

There's places in Terre Haute, Robinson, Casey.

There's places where people can find jobs.

Rameen: You're in a good location.

John: We're a great location for a bedroom community.

Rameen: And most importantly, you have interstate access.

John: And we have...

Yes we do.

We have interstate access.

So we're building more of those bedrooms for people to be able to stay in.

And it's a small enough community that you know who's around you and you know who your kids are playing with.

It's a safe place to be in.

And so, maybe you don't want to live in downtown Terre Haute, but you're not that far away from a 15 minute drive to work.

Rameen: You aren't.

Very good.

John: Exactly.

Rameen: And the location we're talking about for these starter homes would be in the vicinity of the park that we just talked about.

John: Exactly.

It's going to be north of the park, where people would have access to go have some fun and stuff down there.

So it's a process, we're developing the plans, we're getting the ideas put together.

We will not take ownership of the property till the end of the year.

So one of the other things we have on there is about a TIF district, which is all part of that in where we can utilize some of the tax increments for the infrastructure that would be needed in that 10 acres in the surrounding area.

The TIF district will be able to upgrade perhaps drainage, sewer systems, gas lines and things in the surrounding area to go along with it.

Rameen: All right, let's go forward into that.

You hear about TIF districts, communities start them at different times.

Why is the time now for Marshall?

John: Far as I know, Clark County or Marshall, I know Marshall for sure has never had a TIF district.

It's not that we absolutely have to have one simply because we haven't.

But it does provide us an opportunity to provide the city some money to upgrade sections of town that are considered by the term blighted, where they need some uplift, they need a facelift, they need some help in the infrastructure that's going on in the road.

Rameen: And what you've just talked about with the parks and that subdivision, that's just that one little section of town in 2, 3, 4 years could see some major, noticeable visual improvements.

John: Exactly.

Rameen: So a TIF district can help other areas as well.

John: Exactly.

The South Elementary school is not very far away, but there are no sidewalks between the South Elementary School and where Mr. Forsythe's park is going to be.

If we can... Part of that TIF district money could be used to build those sidewalks so that kids from the South Elementary School can participate in activities over at the park.

So that people in the new housing we're talking about building can have access to the walking trails and have their own park in their backyard at that point.

So the TIF district will provide us the funds to help to do that for the community in that part of the town.

If it works out successfully, we may look for other places to put TIF districts in so we can upgrade other parts of town.

Rameen: Wow.

Fantastic.

Look forward to seeing future progress with that.

Also, you mentioned South Side School.

On the south side of town, you're looking for potential businesses to go behind a couple of noticeable buildings behind the highway department and the extension.

John: We still have the 31 acres on the south side.

I think we talked about it last time.

Rameen: It's a good size of land.

John: Oh, good chunk of land.

It's going to be, I'm going to use this term, free.

It's free for businesses who want to start up here in Marshall.

Rameen: Wow.

John: Jerry Forsythe owns the property, it's farmed right now.

After December, the crops will be off.

If there is a business or industry that wants to start up in Marshall, we've got the interstate close to us, route one is right down past it.

Rameen: And this spot is south route one.

John: It's right along route one on the south side.

We want to be able to offer free ground, and we will develop the infrastructure for businesses that want to start up here in Marshall.

This would be a good starting point.

We think that Marshall's a great place to be.

Come and visit with us and talk about it and we'll see what we can do for you.

Rameen: On the opposite side of route one, you have obviously all those different businesses, food, gas, near the interstate.

John: Yes.

Rameen: So build up route one I guess on the south end.

John: Exactly.

Rameen: Quickly, last point.

I noticed you mentioned this right before we started, we hit the record button.

You have a project possibly going on with Indiana State called Sustainable Cities.

John: Sustainable Cities.

It was brought to us by Indiana State.

They have series of students enrolled in classes, from medical to athletic training to building and engineering and all of that.

And they want to utilize what they're teaching in class in a practical way.

So last year was the first year they've done this and they did this in Sullivan, Indiana.

They evaluated the entire town, they look for ways to offer ideas for improvements and how we might do things better.

And this year they asked if Marshall would be interested and we jumped at it.

We said absolutely, any idea is a good idea.

We may not be able to do it right away, it may be something that we have to plan for in the future.

But any idea that makes Marshall better is an idea that we want to hear and evaluate and see what we can do.

Rameen: Fantastic.

Talking a little bit about things over the years, like the Marshall Autumn Fest that have been staples of the community and a lot of projects in the works for the next wave of things, John Hasten, Mayor of Marshall.

Congratulations again on another great Autumn Fest and all that you have going.

We look forward to following up on all these future projects.

John: Well thank you very much.

I will say this, I never claim to be the smartest man in the room, but I surround myself with smart people.

There's a lot of good people working here.

Rameen: Hey, that's what leaders do, put good people around yourself.

John: Try to do.

Rameen: Thank you, John.

Coming up next here on City Spotlight, we'll have a feature on the latest edition of the Marshall Autumn Vest.

But first, let's take a look at some of the upcoming activities going on in Marshall.

[music plays] You were telling me off camera that you used to live here.

Tell me about growing up here in Marshall.

Lynn: I grew up here.

My parents live south of Marshall where my daughter lives now with her husband.

And I went to Marshall High School, was in the band and we had GAA at that time.

No sports.

So it's always nice to come back and look at the band and watch it march down the parade.

So I was here just to enjoy the small town atmosphere.

It's great.

[marching band sounds] Rameen: What do you remember about this festival when you were younger?

Lynn: When I was younger, being in the parade, in the band, marching down the street in front of the crowds, it was awesome.

We had a band of about 109, and it was big at that time and that was the fun part of it.

And walking around the square at night.

Jennifer: It normally doesn't rain.

It's either hot or cold and we're right in between for probably the first time in many years, so we're very lucky.

I'm Jennifer Bishop.

I am the vice president of Marshall Autumn Fest Committee.

Autumn Fest has been around for a little over 50 years.

No one can give us an exact date, so we're going with around 50.

I wish we could celebrate some birthdays, but we're around the 50 year old mark.

It's our annual festival that we have every year.

We have everything from 20 food trucks, free entertainment, a hundred plus vendors selling anything and everything.

Again, free entertainment all weekend long.

We have a 5k, we have a pancake breakfast, we have a huge parade.

We have a top pool on Sunday and we have one of the largest car shows in the Wabash Valley.

I have been part of the Marshall community for about 12 years now.

I enjoy just seeing people, everyone coming around and the class reunions, people getting together and visiting and the people they haven't seen in a long time.

So that's probably my favorite part.

Right downtown, right down at the courthouse.

Our famous landmark of our bandstand.

Everything happens around here.

We're lucky that all the surrounding businesses are able to work with us and they don't close down.

We work around them on Friday while everyone's setting up.

So again, it's a team effort.

It just brings a lot of people to town.

Brings a lot of commerce and economic development to the community.

A lot of people from outside, a lot of people travel very far to come to this festival every year.

It's just a lot of fun to see everybody together.

[parade sounds] It's a three day event, there's a lot of different aspects that go in.

So a lot of the non-for-profits have fundraiser events going on.

So it's a huge team effort to pull this together and it's a big undertaking.

We've probably already started planning for next year.

Not probably, we have.

Rameen: Every community seems to have, regardless of size, an annual festival or sometimes maybe they have two really good ones.

What does this Marshall Autumn Fest mean to this community?

Lynn: Oh my gosh.

You can see right now how the streets are crowded.

It's just a great gathering of, I'll say hometown people.

I taught here for three and a half years and I have met many of my, I'll say former students just from last night till today.

And then my classmates, I graduated in '67, and I've seen a lot of my classmates already here.

So that's fun just to come back and reunite with some of them.

Jennifer: Every year we have over an hour long parade and it's usually huge and a huge variety of entertainment or tractors and businesses.

And I had one lady go away with almost a entire bag full of candy.

So yeah, it's just a lot of fun to see everyone together.

I think we had the class of '57 and the class of '82 go through the parade today.

And I know of two other classes that got together in the evening for other classes.

Or they'll have their own a little dinner on the side as well.

So you'd be surprised how many classes get together and just come back and listen to some amazing music.

We have amazing sponsors that are able to let us keep this free for everyone that comes.

So we're very happy, very lucky.

[music playing] So we actually had a board member passed many years ago and her sister took it on, she retired this year.

And someone just told me that they went out and saw her memorial tree, and it was late at night and normally the light isn't very bright, but they went by last night and it was shining so bright last night.

So it makes me really happy to be able to carry on the tradition and honor that they have started for this community.

[music playing] [applause] I love that people just love getting out, not sitting at home, and seeing their friends, seeing their grandkids maybe in the parade, getting together with people.

There's so many activities around, so people are pretty active around here.

So I'm glad to see everyone come out and enjoy themselves, because isn't that what life is about?

Everyone works together.

We have the Masonic Lodge having a spaghetti supper, you got the BFW doing a fish fry.

So everyone works together to not overlap each other, so everyone gets a piece of the pie.

I think that's the biggest benefit of being in a small community.

Everybody isn't looking out for each other, so we're all here to make this community better and that's all trying to do.

Rameen: The transformation of the community, there's been a lot of additions visually in the last decade.

Lynn: The lions are one of the big... All the lions and all the businesses.

That's cool.

I was trying to think of something we could do up there that...

I mean, we have a consolidated school with a lot of little towns, it's Oakwood High school.

But after seeing the lions all over the businesses here, I would love to go up there and try and do something.

But we're the comets, so kind of hard.

But I'd love the lions being added to the community and all the businesses, and I wish we could do something like that up there.

Jennifer: If you haven't been to Marshall, there is so much to enjoy.

We have a huge state park.

We've got another park seven miles down the road, two lakes.

We're right off the interstate.

We got 22 murals now.

We've got 44 lions, all decorated around the community for all different types of things around the community.

Every service, every business you could think of is here.

So definitely worth a drive, day trip.

Amazing restaurants.

We've got a great new coffee bar that just opened up.

It's worth a drive and a good afternoon adventure.

Especially even in the county.

Even if you don't have enough to do in Marshall, which there is, you can drive to Casey, you can drive to Martinsville and see things along the way.

So Clark County has a lot to offer.

I've been here for 12 years, so I've really enjoyed seeing it grow and blossom from not seeing very many people walk down the street for lunch or in the weekends to, we see people walking through now.

We see people stopping.

I saw someone just the other day stop for the world's largest gavel.

This last year we had geocaching, we had over 200 people in town geocaching.

So there's a lot to do here.

And so it's just growing.

It's growing.

People have taken a lot of pride in this community and I'm glad to see enthusiasm catch on and keep growing.

Lynn: It's just great to see all the people who participate in it and they wouldn't have to.

And it's great that they do that and that the support is here with all the community.

So that just shows how strong Marshall lives.

City Spotlight is supported by Consolidated Communications.

CCI is honored to salute the cities and their leaders in the area, as well as providing TV, Internet, and phone service for the local homes and businesses.

We live where we work, and are proud to support the communities we serve.

More information available at consolidated.com.

[music plays]