Washington Mayor David Rhoads was the speaker at Wednesday’s virtual Washington Rotary Club meeting. The local Rotarians have been meeting on their computers through ZOOM during the pandemic. The Rotary Clubs newly installed president, Terri Kelso introduced the Mayor who reviewed several community projects. Mayor Rhoads reported that Phase 2 of the old U.S. 50 project from the west city limits to S.E. Third Street should get underway within the next week to ten days. Rhoads also reported that there has been a lot of progress on the construction of the state mandated phosphorus removal building at the Wastewater Department.
The Mayor also announced that next week the parking lot at Eastside Park will be resurfaced and the park will be closed to traffic for the week.
Rhoads also reported on the I-69 interchange area. He said that Huck’s expects to be open for business in October, and that there is a lot of interest from two prospects for the shell building. Alliance Barrier Films will be starting their fourth work line, and the City will be running a dedicated utility line to the Alliance Barrier building. Mayor Rhoads said the City continues to work closely with the County and the Daviess County Economic Development Corporation to attract business to the the I-69 area, and said that the City is pursuing prospects to locate in the area.
In other potential projects, the Mayor said the Chamber of Commerce is looking at sites for a potential Conference Center, and the Daviess County Economic Development Corporation is looking at a possible location for an events center in downtown Washington. Mayor Rhoads also reported on a recent meeting of the Mid-State Corridor proposed highway. The Mayor said that the potential routes have been honed down to five potential routes and that four of the five routes would be beneficial to the City of Washington and Daviess County. But the actual choice of the route for the proposed highway is still six to eight years in the future.
