We were ranked the best small city in the country to work remote. Wow. The cost of living, housing, and our highsp speeded internet before the trail or you recruit a brewery or a new employer. It starts with how you talk about home. That's literally from the top. It was just music to my ears.
It made me so proud. It showed that what we were doing is working. You know, if these kids want to come back and raise their families, people that are maybe looking to get out of the big city or just get a fresh start. What would your pitch for Tel City Indiana be? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Who's Your State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation.
This is our special mayor's megaphone series that we're doing in partnership with Make My Move, the platform where communities attract new residents with cash incentives, networking, and local perks. We're sitting down with mayors across the state to get their pitch about what makes their community a great place to live and why you should think about moving there. My guest today is Mayor Chris Kale. He's the mayor of Tel City, leading a southern Indiana community known for its strong heritage, riverfront location, and tight-knit feel. As mayor, he focuses on growth, livability, and making Tel City a place where families and businesses can thrive. With a focus on community development, economic opportunity, and quality of life, Mayor Gale is working to position Tel City as an attractive destination for both residents and employers across the region.
I'm really excited to dive into a little bit of the history and legacy of Tel City. This river town in southern Indiana has incredible history roots and we have a local historian on the podcast today. I'm excited to dive into what is making Tel City an attractive destination for people to move and to build a life and raise their family, all these fun things down here on the Ohio River. Mayor, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Glad to be here.
I am so excited. From the moment I walked in the door, we started chatting history and that is my cup of tea. I am like an Indiana historian and you legitimately are a published author when it comes to the history of Tel City. Correct. Yep, that's correct. What's the book you wrote?
Images of America, Tel City. So, it's a kind of a pictorial picture uh book of Tel City. Where along the journey did you become so obsessed with Tel City? I think it was it started at birth. You know, even even as a young kid, I remember uh learning history and taking a fascination with the history of of Tel City in our community and in the nation even. What was the first fact or story of the history of Tel City where you were just like that is so cool?
Like you know the average, you know, fifth grade kid is not that interested in their local history or just history in general. What was the story that got you hooked on Tel City? I don't know what story maybe, but I would probably say Schwitzerfest. As a young kid, I remember, you know, like even being like in first grade coming down in August because it was right before school would start and this festival celebrating our history of our community is what you know, I think that's probably the beginning of some of it. And this going in third grade, you actually get to go to the Tel City Historical Society as a field trip. And I remember going to the historic site as a kid and and learning the history.
So, I would probably say it started around uh that time and just the interest in getting involved. Yeah. Okay. Wait, what is the history? because this is the longest continual continually running festival in Indiana. Switzer is Yeah.
So it's it's my understanding, you know, I can't confirm 100% but they've always said that Switzerest even since co now for sure is the longest continuing running festival in the state of Indiana. Wow. Continually running. I was say where did it when did it start? Uh 1958 it was start of our centennial celebration. Yeah.
Okay. So 1958 centennial would mean that the town was started or the city was started in 1858. 1858 correct. Wow. And what's what kind of the roots there? What's give me a little bit of the history?
So Tel City was kind of a plan city. The Swiss Colonization Society came down from Ohio. Uh they they wanted to found a community based on industry and manufacturing. They wanted to be in a in a free state. So Indiana. Um as of course they came down the Ohio River.
They they fell in love with this area because they reminded them the hills and the valleys reminded them of Switzerland where a lot of them were from which hence the Swiss colonization society and they purchased the land and started uh plotting and laying out the city. They planned it with like amazingly wide streets. If you haven't driven around yet, you take a take a tour. Our streets are so wide I think you could land planes on our streets there, which is uncommon for like an 1800 city, right? It's all planned out, you know, north and south, east and west streets all laid out. Uh, the way they done that, Lyn, the story goes they made the streets that wide is so you could turn a horse and buggy around like a U-turn in the middle of the street.
I haven't read that in any documents, but that's just the old wise and it makes sense. So, I like, okay, I'll buy that. It sounds good. But, we were a plain city for a community on the High River cuz that's how they would transport stuff down, you know, on the river with steamboats and stuff like that. And that's and it was between Evansville and Louisville. So, it was a perfect stopping point.
Yeah. What What were the big industries? So you think about 1858 leading up to today in 2026. What what were the big industries and how has that shifted through the years at Tel City? So uh the early industry a lot of us was the woodworking manufacturing. So you had the Tel City furniture company, you had the Tel City Chair Company, which some people confuse as one or the other, but Tel City chair is the one that's more famous uh from furniture and I'll be going one of that later if you want, but uh wood manufacturing was pretty much our the dominant thing in the area.
We had a brick plant, we had a flower mill, we had uh all those different things. And of course, as time changed and and we've switched more switched more to like a um automotive type industry. Yeah. Where we have Waka Foundry, it's the largest ductile plant manufacturing in the country. Uh ATC manufacturing, web wheel, and there's some other you know industries that fit along that too. Yeah.
Okay. Wow. So I feel like a lot of this area of the state was kind of like the Swiss German woodworking like all that jazz. uh again talk about your heritage and the settlers there. Okay. So what I want to talk through is your journey to become mayor and where along the path, right?
You talk about being in third grade, going to the historical society, always being fascinated with Schweiserfest. Where did you know that you wanted to become mayor? I don't know if I knew when I wanted mayor, but other people knew that I should be mayor when I was younger. There were people that saw it in me and told me, you know, that one day that kid's going to be mayor and and they told me this later on. So my grandpa was the clerk treasurer for Tel City. He moved up here from Florida after World War II and he met my grandma at that time and he was clerk treasurer for probably 20 30 years.
And then um so as I got older uh I got involved I got on the city council. So I served for eight years, two terms in city council. That kind of got my I guess your foot in the door that got your love a little bit of of government. And then in 2019 I just said, "Hey, it's time to run for mayor. So I'm going to do this because I wanted to see our community grow. I wanted to see it get developed into to what I felt like it could be."
And I think we're doing that. But ironically, my my first election for mayor, I won by two votes. Two votes. Two votes. It was the closest mayor election in the state of Indiana that year. The highest voter turnout, 42% in the state.
Wow. So little Tel City, Indiana, 42% voter turnout. Two votes the mayor election. And so we had to do a recount and all that. So that's wild. So then do you do you like go into office of like, okay, you know, two people that is a wild like Yeah.
my mom and dad would have voted from her. You know, you can jokingly say that. Yeah. Right. Well, and then you got to get into office and you're like, hey, you got to have to put the the fact that it was contentious behind and you have to say now how are we all going to come together and move Tel City over the next six years cuz you know now you're at year six of being the mayor. Uh seven.
This is I mean well going into my seven got one more year after this cuz we was next year's mayor municipal elections. Okay. So, you know, you've been doing this for a minute and you're like, we have to unite everyone and start working to grow Tel City. So, what were the original initiatives? You know, what did you set out to do to make this a great place to raise a family, to make this a great place for economic prosperity? What were the initial uh initiatives that you set out to conquer?
Okay, so some of that kind of started when I was on city council uh working with PCDC. They started this uh comm this committee called the Quality of Life Committee back inc PCDC uh Perry County Development Corporation. Correct. Okay. For people for listeners out there that might not know all the lingo. That's right.
Those those acronyms get you. But yeah, so in 2010 they started the quality of life committee before quality of life was even like the buzzword the thing and we started doing events in the community trying to make things that people would want to move here. But so serving on council then I come to the mayor row um of course I come into office 2020 March of 2020 April COVID hits. I mean what a wild time to get your first like you this is you're the mayor now like what do we do? Yeah, exactly. Where where's the handbook for that?
There it was. There wasn't one. But we got through it. You know, it was tough times. Uh I had a very good staff and very good support, you know, helping me and just learning what to do and and working with the governor's office. Had excellent contacts there.
You know, what was changing and how to how to cope with it and get through it. But that gave us time to do a lot of planning, too. you know, when mayors normally are are away at this or away at that and it and also it brought us like Zoom and all these other, you know, streaming things that a lot of people probably wasn't using yet at that time but learned to use and so it saved time traveling but anyways it gave me time to plan a lot of things. We worked on a comprehensive plan when I came to office cuz the one prior was over 10 plus years old I think and so that gave me the playbook about the residents and how they wanted to see this community grow. Yeah. What was the feedback that you're getting from residents?
Cuz I think I've talked to now this is our fourth edition of the mayor's megaphone presented by our friends at Make My Move and I've talked to four different mayors and they said the number one thing you got to listen and you got to hear what your residents are saying. Doesn't mean you have to act on every single thing, but what were you what was the feedback you were getting from the community of Tel City? So we they obviously wanted to see growth. They wanted to see this people move here, families stay here. You know, you you see so many times in small communities where kids leave, you know, they go off to college, they start families elsewhere and don't come back. And they wanted to see the change in that.
And that was one thing, but they wanted to see better quality of life initiatives like they wanted to see, you know, place for the senior citizens. They had an old building. We did that. We uh the German American Bank gave us their headquarter building downtown. When they combined it into from three buildings to just two now, they gave us the building. We were able to re redo that into the senior center.
They wanted us, you know, something for the kids as far as sports goes. Uh, so we had ball fields that we tore down four ball fields, totally redid them all to the new Tel City Sports Complex we dedicated last year. And then we did redid the swimming pool the first year I came in too. Uh, it had temporarily closed for renovation stuff, but still wasn't open. And so we redid that, redid a lot of our parks. Then we worked on housing and trying to bring in new development with that and incentivize developers to come in and build that.
And Okay. Yeah. Talk to me about that cuz a big piece that a lot of mayors have talked about especially through this series is housing. Like housing just seems to be like top of mind. Is that uh something that you guys are thinking about here in Tel City? Yeah, housing is huge for us here in Tel City.
It has been something we've been really focused a lot on. Uh right now we've got eight new uh condos going up downtown. We've got another developer wanting to build uh think 20 to 30 apartments on Tel Street. We've got another developer going to build 40 units, 20 duplexes. We've built like probably 60 houses with infill in subdivisions. This some of them are just outside city limits.
So housing has really taken off here in Tel City. We have unbelievably grown in housing which is showing in our numbers as our population continues to increase. Okay. Yeah. Talk to me about what was the population in 2020? What's the population in 2026?
Okay. So when I came to office with 2019 the population was like 7020 and some change we'll say. They started the 2020 census which co did make that a little bit of a challenge but anyway so as of right now I think we're at 7500 and some odd like that. So we've grown like 250 people or more Intel city. Yeah. In a time where a lot of smallerized cities across the state are battling like the opposite like they're battling losing residents.
People go off to college and they don't come back home. And so like yeah you're talking about the right kind of housing. you know, you move back having quality apartments or having quality town houses, condos, and then houses you can, you know, kind of graduate and grow up into and have starter houses and then, you know, you get bigger and bigger and the whole nine yards there. So, I think it's like a getting the housing mixture right is super important, too. Talk to me about, you know, why Tel City is so special when it comes to raising a family, why the like the Tel City marksman lifestyle here is so special. I guess we could almost cause maybe a little bit of a village.
We look out for each other, you know, uh we help each other in their need and you know, everybody knows everybody. It's almost like the TV show she cheers a little bit, you know, everybody knows everybody. A little bit of a Mayberry even some ways, but we we look out off each other. So that's what makes TE say such a great place to raise a family. If someone's going through a difficult time, you know, a family maybe have a cancer, an illness, we we do fundraisers, we'll do bake sales, we we'll have chicken dinners, we'll do everything to help raise money for treatments for those families. uh but someone has a a fire or something like that, we will help find them housing.
Uh Habitat for Humanity here has built a number of homes like a huge amount and they'll continue to build at least one or two a year now. So I mean those are some things that I think has helped people raise families here. Well well that's interesting too cuz one I love it if you're on the inside if you are you know a local a resident you've been here you know everyone it's cheers but you guys have also you know been you have 250 new residents that have come back. What are the ways you find new people building community within Tel City to plug in and make new old friends? Okay, so one good thing in this Make My Move program that we have, we've had 52 54 uh people added to our community to tell Cities since that's come about. And part of the Make My Move, we were ranked the most uhospitable Oh.
in the country through their Make My Move. So, we give these welcome bags to people. We know it's got all kinds of goodies that really show them a taste of Tel City and and a lot of the great things about it and connections. We've had events where we were like a meet and greet where locals will come and the new people come and they can kind of make connections with new people in the community and it's really worked really well. Uh we done one of those a couple years ago and probably due to do another one. Well, I always talk about like, you know, there's a piece of it where you have to have the right housing, you have to have the right job.
Like those are like the the table stakes, but a big thing it's like you're an adult. It's like what's your time to friendship? Like how long is it going to take for me to make a friend like on a Friday night I'm going to go go to a you go to the football game with or go grab a beer with or go do whatever with and it's like getting people friends like genuine friendships is I think that's the stickiness of a community. It is and it can be you know u and and it is I'm sure it's happened here in in places you know some people like you know it just wasn't for me I just didn't meet the right friends or people that's going to happen in any community but I guess it was for us tell city you know if we see someone that's like a stranger that we don't know we walk up say hey how are you Chris Nice to meet you so where you from I just moved here great what do you do oh cool that is so cool I mean you told me right before we started recording about how you Okay so so Mayor Kayla is obsessed with the Titanic that's like that's public knowledge right it is pretty much public knowledge and you were just chit chatting at Schweiserfest a couple years back.
Yep. And you just happened to Wait, you tell the story better than I do. So, it I think I think it was like around 2018, 2019. I don't remember if it's back here, but um there was this I was I'm in charge of the Switzer wine garden. So, I'm we're sitting there. We're kind of not tearing down, but it's winding up and I see this lady sitting.
I walk up to her and said, "Hi, how are you?" And she says, "Hi, my name's Georgian. Nice to meet you. I'm Chris. Uh so, what brought you here?" "Well, I work for the company that owns all the artifacts of the RMS Titanic."
I'm like, "What?" And so I mean I literally like grabbed this chair and like about to like pass out at this point and and I got to know her and and it was so cool and welcome to this community and ironically later on she starts dating one of my best friends. I kind of like hook him up. Matchmaker. Yeah. So, I mean, it's that's how the small towns work, you know?
It's like having the, you know, cuz cuz there is a piece where if there if you there's a visitor in town, usually it's like, "Oh, you know, I kind of know who that is or I don't know who that is." And you walk up and say, "Hi, I'm so and so and welcome to our place and what brings you into town?" I know this firsthand. I went down. We were we were visiting Tel City last fall and I sat at the bar at the pourthouse. Yeah.
It was not 20 minutes. They could just tell like this guy's not from here. Literally three different people like stopped like, "Oh, what are you doing in town?" And I was like, "Oh, I'm I'm here like learning a little bit about it. I had come to uh I was like I'm very fascinated in the Tel City pretzel company." Like that's like a very historic thing.
Salty thing though of me. I'll tell you later about that. Literally salty, but yeah, cuz you know they don't make them here in Tel City. I do know they still have the branding though. They do. That's where the saltiness comes from.
I'm better now. I'm better. I I' I've come come around. But I do think that that is a special piece that certain communities talk the talk, but being a community that walks the walk and as someone walked in knowing like three and I'm a chatter. So like I I have like a sign on my forehead that says please come talk to me already and it was awesome. Like it truthfully Tel City walks the walk when it comes to that.
What I want to talk about uh now is affordability when you're talking of moving to small towns. So, it's no surprise. I believe the number is like something like in the 80s, like 80 counties in Indiana continue to have population decline and like nine or something like that continue to grow. Don't I'm not a fact checker guy. Go check the facts. But it's roughly that split.
And a big piece of this that people are you're getting feedback on is cost of living. So talk to me about, you know, just down the road maybe from Evansville to Indianapolis to Louisville to big major metros like you know some the unfortunate piece is being a homeowner is being extended or maybe not even possible like especially if you go to the coast. It's like it's going to be really hard to become a home home owner. So when it comes to cost of living, quality of life, like that whole piece here in Tel City, how are you guys helping equip these young professionals, young whether they be whatever the industry is to set themselves up for for a successful life in the future. When you talk of cost of living, utilities is a big thing. The big buzzword across the whole state of Indiana and other communities you hear about is electric rates are like outrageous.
I mean, you see people from Spencer County to Vanderber County to work county, they are like marching at the state house almost cuz the utility rates are high. Telsey Electric, we actually own our own electric utility here. We own water. You guys aren't in the cuz there's a big co-op down. There's like a huge thing that's like with one of the electric companies down here. Yeah.
So, we own our own electric. We actually purchase our electric from Impa, IMPA, U Indiana Power, I think. Yeah, it's acronyms like that. Um, but anyway, so we actually own our own electric utility here. Uh, of the 118 electric utilities in the city of Indiana, Tel City is number 18 for the lowest kilowatt per hour. Oh wow.
So I mean there's 100 more that's more you know than than us. I mean like Jasper they're through they're through IMPA. Troy Indiana they're through EMPA. I think Honeyburg and Ferdinand might be through IMPA. Verdis fortune that we own our own. So we can kind of control that.
And the city council sets the rates. Oh okay. It doesn't go through the the RU and none of that stuff. So I mean it guess it could at some point. So that is a big that's a big piece as utilities across the state of Indiana. How do you get developers to come in to a place like Tel City and put together these projects?
Well, a lot of it started again with the Perry County Economic Development, the PCDC. Aaron Emerson is our president of it. She has worked really hard in bringing new housing. Uh John Sheer uh he was part of the Perry County uh redevelopment commission. He worked very hard in getting some subdivisions. But we also have a lot of very good local builders that actually uh JK Forever Homes the Case Boats they actually have they bought a subdivision that was developed uh probably 10 20 years ago I don't know kind of a stagnant a few homes are built in it they have grown that I don't they don't have a whole lot of space left out there so they bought more land and through the ready funds were able to develop a whole another subdivision out there and they've already got one home sold and completed.
I think they've started well they started another one I think already now and that is phase one. So the between the local builders, Aaron with PCDC and John Sheer with the already the Perry County Redevelopment Commission, those guys and several others. I mean, I just don't want to leave everybody out, but was really the driving force and worked. So I'm I'm assuming a lot of high school seniors from Tel City end up going to places like Evansville or Bloomington for college, you know, or they're going off and getting jobs, doing all that jazz. What's your pitch to the 18 to 22 year olds on why they should come back home to Tel City and start to build their career here? I was asked to go speak to we have a a youth thing called we the youth.
It's a it's a brings all the schools together and it's a bunch of the high school kids. Some of them are juniors and seniors and so we had to sit down and meet with them for like mock interviews and I kind of went off the script for them and I I asked about it but I said, "Hey, so do you want to stay here? You want to be an attorney?" Right? Yeah. Do you want to move back here?
I actually I do. And I and before you hear, you hear kids say, "I can't wait to get out of here. I don't want to come back." I bet 90% of the kids I asked, "I want to move back here and stay here." I was like, it was this music to my ears. It made me so proud.
It showed that what we were doing is working. You know, these kids want to come back and raise their families cuz we have a need for attorneys. You have a need for uh, you know, dentist and and so forth. These kids are going in these these fields that they could get jobs anywhere in the country and they want to come back here. And it felt so good to hear that. What do you think is the driver of that?
Like is there some sort of uh action? Is there something in the water down here on the Ohio? It is gives like civic pride. It is. That's a civic pride. So, and that's another thing.
You know, restoring pride in in Tel City and in the community was a big part of thing I wanted to have. You know, you'll see some weird things from red street signs. The red and white street signs you normally see in communities are green. Tel city is red and white. That's our our color, you know, from the water tower to just really trying to be positive. Why is it the apple?
Is it just because of the marksman? William Tell. So the story of William Tell shot the apple off his son's head. I don't know if you ever noticed there. That's where it comes from. Oh, that's okay.
That that makes sense cuz I mean, yeah, you have the huge apple on the on the water tower. It's which I think when you want to be a a top tier, you know, smaller, you know, you talk about 7500, you know, person city. You got to have an identity. you do, you know, and the identity of the red and white street signs, the identity of the apple getting shot off the head, like and the the river one, I made it down last time I was here to like there's a bunch of artwork and murals down along the river. I was blown away. That's part of it all, too.
It's part of the whole pride thing. You know, we we want to restore the arts and humanities into the community, too. And, you know, everybody says historic downtowns, historic downtowns. We do have a historic downtown, but we don't have as many historic buildings as somebody like Madison, Indiana would have. you know, they have a tremendous main basically. I think they're they have the most historic buildings like in a downtown like in the country or something.
It's pretty big deal. Yeah. I'm trying to use the arts to kind of blend the the old the new and stuff that's built maybe in the 70s. It's a good way to to to marriage that together, I think. And I think that like you have a huge natural resource. The river runs literally right.
We can see it out our window here. Yeah. It's it's incredible. and you know activating that as more than just transit for you know cuz it's kind of cool the first time you come down you see a barge come through and it's like it's probably old hat for you all cuz it's like you're so used to it but I see it I'm like oh my god there's a boat let's go it's it's so cool you'd be surprised how many people in a small community like that have camps up at Rocky Point and in Derby and so forth in the county uh that have they go out and do their jet skis and they go out fishing and and and bow hunting for the Asian carp things and um they have these pontoon boats all up and down a high river. I mean, that is a huge thing here in Perry County in the summer. Recreation.
Yeah. Hunting and fishing. I do want to talk about that cuz some people's biggest complaints about small towns is there's nothing to do. And that's actually a lot of people's biggest complaint about Indiana is the perception is, oh, there's nothing to do in Indiana. There's nothing to do in a small town. I got to get out or I'm going to be bored my whole life.
What are people doing here in Tel City to keep entertained? That is a challenge at times. And I think part of the challenge is getting that information out there of what there is to do. you know, there, you know, at the pour house. They'll have live bands down the lot on the weekends. So, you can go out and do something like that.
U you know, you have the movie theater up there. You we have a bowling alley, which is currently closed. It's looking for an owner. So, if anybody's wanting to buy a bowling alley, hey, there's a plug maybe, right? But, uh, you know, things like that. Uh, you know, obviously still attending school sporting events is a big thing.
But, as you come into the summer months, there's stuff going almost every weekend, events going on. I usually find too, it's not that there's nothing to do. It's kind of like that. Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and you're like, "Where do you want to go to eat?" And you're like, "Oh, I don't care. Where?
Pick wherever." And then someone picks it and they're like, "No, I don't want to I don't want to go there." And it's like that constant thing where it's like, "Well, you want to go listen to live music?" Like, "No, I don't really want to do that." What sounds good? You know, it's like, "Oh, well, is it really the fact that there's nothing to do or is it the fact that you're that you just have to like go and do something?"
Like I've spent, oh my gosh, I've been on the road basically every weekend for 2 years going around random things in Indiana from, you know, from small German festival festivals in towns you've never heard of to, you know, the Holiday World right up the road all the way to the Indy500 to like, you know, the region up by Chicago and there is tons of stuff to do. There is there's there's no shortage of things to do. A lot of times you just have to take the initiative, right? And it's like building that uh that like muscle of taking initiative to like, you know, there's trails or the river, go watch the sunset on the river and have a picnic. Like that's something fun that only a few select cities in the state can can watch the sunset over the Ohio, have a little picnic up against the uh up against the river there. You'd be surprised how many people actually come here during CO u you know a lot of places were shut down during CO but what we have here in Perry County is a ton of cabins and I think our inkeepers taxes were well above projected as far as but because of co numbers you know you couldn't go stay in a holiday in as much cuz there was what were they going to do go to Holiday in and hang out?
I mean, but the cabins kind of they're set a lot of them are nestled on the Ohio River, so they're able to look out on the High River and just watch life be peaceful. And that was something so unique that nobody else offers, but we did. Yeah. When people think about, you know, big city and if you had to give the pitch to the big cities, the indie, the Louisville, the New York City, the Los Angeles on why a small town, why Tel City, what would your pitch be? Well, one of my pitches, one of my good friends, Jared Clayman, always says, you know, your commute to work in a big city could be 20 to 30 minutes. Your commute to from your home to your work here in Tel City, you'd be lucky to finish a song on the radio.
So, I mean, the commute is a big pitch. Uh, we're a safe community. We're a clean community. We're a community that is friendly. You know, you like you said, you someone just random and start talking to you that like, who are these people? That's just weird.
You don't see that. We do that here. Like, you're in Walmart. Hey, how are you? How are you? You may not know them, but they nod and say hello.
You go in other communities that don't exist. I mean, and not that these bigger communities aren't friendly. They they they are in ways, but I think you just kind of get mixed in everybody else in those other communities. Here, you're a part of us. Mayor's Mega Bone is sponsored by Make My Move, where you can find all the places that will pay you to move with up to $15,000 in cash and perks, professional networking, and relocation support. Make My Move is an Indiana based company and they've already helped more than 2,000 people move to communities across the state.
So, who do you know that should move here to Indiana? Send them this podcast and tell them about MakeMymove. Or if you're a leader excited about welcoming new residents into your community, go to impact. makemymove. com and get in touch with the Makemyove team. I love that our state is thinking about direct talent attraction like this.
It's just another example of who's your hospitality in action. Now, let's get back to the episode. you know, over the last oh man uh since 2019, 2020, adding 250 new people roughly uh to the population. If you could give advice to other municipal leaders across the state, you know, maybe they're a couple steps behind, maybe a young hungry mayor took over their city and they want to help grow population. What advice would you give to other municipal leaders? Well, talk to your residents that you currently have.
Find out what their needs and wants are too and start addressing those. But you kind of got to start with infrastructure, too. You know, I I can't take credit for all this stuff that's happened. There was so much planning before me. We had Tel City's always been blessed with good mayors and, you know, we've had challenging times and some of our mayors really helped us through those. But, I mean, they laid every mayor I felt like laid the next stepping stone to make Tel City continue to grow even though it was maybe felt stagnant, but they did.
Uh, in other communities that didn't happen, I don't know what to tell them on that, but I mean, but I mean, talking to your residents, getting that comprehensive plan is huge. Um, and just work on your identity a little bit. Work on that pride. The pride is a lot. The spirit. If you walk in a community that's negative, no one's going to go there.
I think it actually starts before even like the plan, before the trail or you recruit a brewery or a new employer. It starts with how you talk about home. Y and it starts like that's literally from the top. You know, someone who does a really good job of this. I I kind of like always compare him. Uh, do you know Mayor Chris Jensen of Nolesville?
Yes. Oh my gosh, he's a great guy. and he just like rattles off the America's hometown, Noblesville, Indiana, blah blah blah blah. And like you got to want the vibe of 100,000 people in Nolesville for there. And it's like the best mayors that I see are they just talk about their home with such reverence. And it's like, no, there is and they mean it.
Like when you look them in the eyes, you can tell that they are obsessed with their place. You're obsessed with Tel City. From the moment I walked in the door, I could tell it. And I think that that that language spreads to the community. And that's kind of what you have to get started. And that's what like I mean we've tried to do with the state of Indiana.
So often you're from Indiana, you walk in, you know, let's say you're you're at a wedding in Chicago, you meet someone and they're like, "Oh, where are you from?" And you kind of like put your head down. I'm from Indiana. Yeah. And it's like, no, you got to look them in the eye and say, "I'm from Indiana. Home of the largest single day sporting event in the world.
Home of like, you know, the Ohio River's down there. If you've never seen southern Indiana, everyone's like, "Oh, isn't it just flat in cornfields?" They've never been south of Martinsville if they think it's flat in cornfields. Exactly. It's pretty hilly down this way. Yeah, it's w like it's unreal.
And like I again from a small town in northern Indiana like took that for granted. Like the it's almost like three separate uh districts I feel like within the state of Indiana. You have like the north that's very grid flat, the glaciers, all that stuff. You have like you know the doughnut county metropolitan area there. And then once you get south, like Bloomington is kind of like the hill start. Yeah.
It's like from Bloomington all the way over to like you talk about like the Batesville, Greensburg, that area down all the way over to here. It's different terrain, different dialects. Like for some reason, I'm not sure how southern accents like they stopped at they didn't make it to Indianapolis and somehow they were like not in parts of southern Indiana, but Bedford. For some reason in Bedford it sounds like you just pick someone up from the middle of Alabama and put them in Bedford. I love it. like some of my I've met some some spectacular people from there.
It's it's so cool. Oh yeah. It's it's very very interesting when you think about and so the other piece I want to talk about um okay so we talk about quality of life we talk about affordability employers job career that whole progression a piece of you know growing a small community is attracting the right employers you have to get some remote work too like with the ability to do that you want people coming in but also why is Tel city a great place for business owners entrepreneurs for people that you know want to build a business here okay that's great you know again it starts back with the the paran economic development PCDC was formed in the 1990s and they they saw this the changes in industry and they brought in Waka Foundry and they employ over a thousand employees here and attracting them was huge because not only does Waka employ the thousand it's the ones that supply to Waka it's Adobe's street value that sells you know hammers and tools and parts and stuff to them that helps you know them it it's the the ones that that that kind of get you feed off those and so that brought the jobs but as far as working remotely something very unique that Tel City was awarded uh recognition for I think it was about two or three years ago.
We were ranked the best small city in the country to work remote. Wow. Why? What makes it the best small city in the country to work remote? Yeah, the cost of living, housing, and our high-speed internet through PSC. So like how do you measure cost of living?
They they measured it somehow looking at just I guess the utilities just overall how purchase things cost and how Yeah. you live like how far your dollar goes. Yeah. How far your dollar goes. Be interesting to do that that equation, right? It's like a dollar in New York City versus a dollar in Tel City like what you're going to get.
Yeah. And and you know you see that you know crazy example is like Las Vegas like you'll pay like $78 for a little you know pay seven or eight for any for like eight but here you're going to pay two bucks. Yeah. For like a bottle of water it's like $11 in Vegas and it's like 50ents you know at a local concession stand. Exactly. It's unreal the cost of like different things.
Of course that's different tourism stuff but still the cost of living is is way less here. So that was a big factor but a huge factor and it was the the the internet that PSC has invested all these fiber optics in Tel City and that's that's what attracted a lot of people here. PSC Yeah. Perry Spencer Communications. Okay. Local.
It's a local internet provider. Yeah. Yeah. What? Yeah. Highspeed.
That's huge for rural communities for sure. Another piece that makes up every great small town, you need the thousand employer or the thousand employee employers, but you also need like legacy staple main street businesses. Yes. And we have those. Yeah. I was say who are the like and I hate to also say like you know pick one or like when you think about a new person coming to experience Tel City.
What are the main street businesses that are just you know uh synonyms with community here? Well let's see here. Honest uh men's clothing store. They they like 1800s Roland's Jewelry 1884. I think they've been around since then. I mean Fischer's Furniture and Appliance.
They are a ginormous. I forgot how many thousand square feet they have, but they there's things furniture, appliances, carpet, outdoor equipment, grills. It's it's like everything allinone. Yeah. So, I mean, those are just a few of them there. I mean, uh Julie's Tel Street Cafe, they're not old old, but they are a legend here in Perry County in Tel City.
The patio up in, you know, that's another one. I mean, and the good thing is all these are locally owned. Yeah. We are very unique. Tel City up to just a few years ago, we our McDonald's was locally owned. The Wendy's was owned by a guy up in Jasper.
Even uh the Dairy Queen was locally owned. I mean, all these places or restaurants, you know, you think are big corporates were locally owned. And I that's I think that's again part of our hospitality. They they cared and they made sure that these restaurants were at their best at all times. And they still are even under these different ownerships. But that's the kind of thing I think makes a difference.
What kind of career pathways are like, you know, if these kids are going off like and what are they pursuing where they could thrive in Tel City? Well, u a good one is right now a lot of kids are are thriving in some IT stuff. We have N Island is what it's called. Um these these a family that moved here from India. They they started their business here in Tel City, Indiana. Uh they've got a new platform out there called Smart City which Tel City has has implemented and we're still implementing it and adding it and growing it and building it.
But uh it's going to be really cool once it gets up and going. It's it's kind of it's it's helps municipalities in a lot of ways with things, but it also helps connect residents through the municipality through messages and so forth like that, but also through businesses. So it's it's a really unique platform, but uh it is a big one. We've had several kids go off to college and come back and work for them now because they're continuing to grow their business. Yeah. Uh and then uh doctors, dentists, you know, we've got tons of dentists that were retiring.
I mean, we were deploy like, whoa, we only have one or two. I I I probably count on one hand if like five of them at least have went off to dentistry, come back and moved here. You know, attorneys is the next big thing, you know, going back for that. Um engineering, we had a a kid, you know, moved away and he's moved back to hopefully take over his dad's business in engineering. So, I mean, it's those kind of professions and then just your normal trades, your plumbers, your electricians, you know, Casey's electric here. They do solar fields all across the country now.
And this guy, you know, he graduated from the case boat. Uh he graduated from Tussy High School, went off worked for Tussy Electric for went out, started his own electric business, and has grown to a multi-million dollar business. He has now he's expanded it to like a building supplies, you know, housing, you know, 2x4s, wood, plumbing, electrical, open a business here in Tel City, expanding his business further. That's so cool. I do think like the main street entrepreneur is someone that's like you know homegrown goes out they start their business and whether that is like you know in IT and technology or that's in you know a local boutique you need all of it to make the perfect blend you do of a of a great small town. It's a big deal, you know, and and before mayor gig, you know, I I still have all these businesses.
I started off at, you know, bought a building. My parents were in rentals properties and they both also work full-time jobs. But I bought a building, remodeled it in 2004 and then uh put an antique store in sellar furniture. And then I went into buying a printing business. Knew nothing about photoshop and printing. Literally bought a printing business that went out of business, revamped it and opened Firehouse Printing.
Then I went in, opened Telar Gallery Museum and other rentals. So, you know, as a mayor, I've invested in my community personally, too. Yeah. And I want, you know, I want to see that community grow. Yeah. You know, so you got to put your money where your mouth is, I guess, kind of thing.
Now, I want to talk about the future. You talk about looking forward for Tel City. What gets you excited about the next decade of Tel City? The growth and development. You know, I was just literally trying to add up in my head just the other day thinking how much developments tell city got going on in 2026 alone. And just with I wouldn't really add it up really on pen and paper actually just in my head 25 to 26 million so far literally that's going to be that I know is the growth you know from the uh the housing to expansion of the school to uh there's an invention at Southern Power uh that that's just alone that doesn't count just your normal remodels and you know hey I'm going to do this or building homes here and there and there so it could significantly more but those are that's that shows growth and development so that really excites me for T city but we've also got these opportunities that are waiting for Tel City now soon.
The former Perry Camera Hospital, we built a new hospital here in Perry County. The old one was just recently demolished. It just finished cleaning up, demolishing like a few weeks ago. The site has to set vacant for 5 years as part of the stipulations for the grant that we got to tear it down. That gives us five years for planning. That site could be redeveloped to anything.
Wow. And I want the public input. We've had one public listening session and I want to have another one soon. And and I The five years gives us time to plan. What do you learn from a public listening session about like you bring you know community members come in they get a minute two minutes or whatever on the mic to talk about what they think. Yep.
We had Ball State actually I think they came down and helped us with some of it kind of orchestrated and they we we write them up like on like a dry erase board or the whiteboards and so forth and then people going to put like a sticky note or a star next to us and I like this and we keep expanding those ideas and growing them. You know it could be from housing to an indoor water park kind of thing or or you you name it. But to hear their ideas because I've never thought of that. That's a great idea. Yeah. And and I go out to the schools and I was talking earlier about that and I teach junior achievement and I had a third grade class.
I'm like I want to hear what the third graders have to say for this site. What do they want to see there? And it was so cool to see their ideas cuz you know we think of this, we think of that and and that's what I think is very exciting about Tel City. We're including our residents in this decision. Yeah. And we have another uh site the former General Electric G site that's that's some contamination.
And so they're doing remediation on it, but when that site is is done, they're going to tear down the facility and the city will can receive the property if we want it. And you know, it'll have restrictions on it. But I look for a lot of recreation that could probably be used on that site. And so I'm really excited to see what's going to come of that, too. When you talk about, you know, over $20 million of development being done, it is clear that Tel City gets stuff done. For other municipal leaders out there, what's your advice to actually get stuff done?
Not just talk about it, but be about it and put action to it. Be persistent. Don't give up. Really talk talk to developers. I mean, you know, if they're not going to come to you, you go to them. And but you got to sell them what you've got.
We talked about earlier, you got to put stuff together. You got to put little It don't have to be the most fanciest presentation, but once you get one or two in here, the rest will start coming. Yeah. Absolutely. And never forget that first one, though, because they're the ones who took that chance on you. I love it.
If you had one one final, you know, sales pitch for Tel City to people that might be listening to people that are maybe looking to get out of the big city or just get a fresh start, what would your pitch for Tel City Indiana be? It is community is a safe community. It is a clean community is a community that's the cost of living is affordable and it's community I think that everyone should come at least visit if if hopefully I want you to move here and live here and raise your family. What's the best time to visit Tel City? Well, probably August during Spritzer Fest is like my favorite time. Tell me about tell me about the fest.
Tell me about what's going on. Okay, so we talked about a little bit earlier how it's the longest community festival in the city of Indiana. But one thing we do is we block off our main street literally out front of our city hall and have a beer garden. We have a wine garden up here in the city hall park which is I'm the chairman of that. We have a road run which could have close to 7 800,000 people in a road run on a Saturday morning. Literally runs through the beer garden.
You have to move the tables out of the way for that. You got to earn you got to earn your ticket to the beer garden. You do. Exactly. And then we have kids rides. We have just you know typical carnival foods.
We have flea markets. We have even a pet show where people come bring their pets and show off their cats and dogs. Heck yeah. And snakes and ferrets. They brought some different ones. But what's the most unique What's the most unique pet that's been at the pet show?
You know, I don't know. I would say probably some of the ferrets. That's kind of different. Like Okay, cool. Snakes. Somebody brought a snake.
Turtles, you know, there's some, you know, your typically it's your cats and dogs they bring. That's fair. Uh but yeah, it's that's kind of cool. Uh there's a lot of good things that go on during Spriteerfest. It's like my favorite time of the year. It's when I feel like Tel City shines.
etc. The pride is just at it at its high and yeah, it's it's a good time. I love that. Okay, I want to talk I want to go into the history. Okay, so you talked about the the Swiss Swiss Colonization Society. The Swiss Colonization Society came through and then take me through like who what was the group that founded Tel City?
How did it like grow and morph and end up what it is today? Cuz I know you're a historian. So you were giving us like the full summary of from 1858 to 2026. What does that history arc of tell city look like? Okay, so like I said, the Swiss civilization came in, found the city. Um, they started laid it out for an industrial manufacturing and housing and so forth.
Uh, from there it just I think it's continued to grow and grow and grow. Was it like a trade? Because there are a lot of like, you know, boats and stuff that would come down the Ohio and have to like is it like a port? You could say it's important because we did have the uh we had several different uh steamer boats and and packa boats and so forth like that and warfar boats that would take the goods down the highway from Tel City chair. We have a rail that goes to the city. U it's not typically like your big Amtrak type rail but they actually did transport a lot of chairs and so forth uh cuz the chair like Tel City Chair was like a globally known company right you'll see in some articles that Tel Chair was not the chair capital of the world.
Oh, well, and like made some very fancy chairs, too. Like not just like your I mean it was kitchen chairs and that whole thing, but like where all were Tel City chairs going going to? Well, Telsey chairs they typically their most famous was their hard rock maple, their early American style uh furniture. Uh that was sold all over the country and the world even for that matter of fact. But uh in 1960s when Jackie Kennedy was restoring the White House, Tel City Chair was contacted to make chairs for the White House. these gold fancy ballroom chairs that uh you'll still see a replica of that chair today in the White House.
Tell city chairs were removed in the late 1960s. You know, these got broken, wore out, you know, getting rained on out on the lawns and so forth, but these fancy gold ballroom chairs and so they're still there today. The design is, but another company's making them for them now. So, that's a little bit of Tel City's claim to fame at the White House in Tel City. Yeah. Tell city chair here in Tel City, Indiana.
Get contact. That would be a crazy like phone call. It's like, "Hey, this is John Smith from the White House and we'd love to order some chairs from you." Ironically, I talked to them last two years ago to the White House or the chairs. The White House. The White House called.
Well, I I I talked to Yeah. I I messaged them about some history I had on it and so I had a phone call with them on the conversation and the curators and all. Yeah. Cuz I have all the original documentation from Jackie Kennedy uh from the Telsey Chair Company when they when they closed. I was and the family donated a lot of stuff to to me and the museum that we have and I was able to talk to them the White House about all these these are correspondents with Jackie Kennedy if the White House letter had everything on them. Wow.
So they're like what do you have? That's pretty cool. It is pretty cool. And so I went to the White House a couple years ago. I didn't get to see them. They were put away at that time but there is still one Tel City chair actually there in the archives.
Wow. That's very very cool. Okay. When you think about what your team, the city of Tel City has uh has accomplished over the past, you know, seven years since 2019, what are you the most proud of? The first one was a swimming pool was a really proud moment. Um, it was something for the kids to do.
It was something I needed done. So, I was very proud of that and very particular how I wanted it to look and the cleanliness of it. I'm, you know, I worked when I started my career started at McDonald's. So, McDonald's like instilled like cleanliness in me and so I wanted to clean. I like literally have those white gloves you can't open. It's not clean.
I was that strict with them on it. But uh the senior center was very important uh because you know helping that population. But the most recent one uh was a sports complex. Now I am not a sports guy. I am terrible at baseball. Like terrible like I was this just wasn't for me when I was a kid and getting that done cuz so many other mayors prior wanted this sports complex like 20 years into planning and trying to get it.
It was always the financial side just could make it happen. And we got lucky. we just from ready funds to different uh ARP funds so forth helped get that complex done for the kids and that brings in tourism that brings in something for kids to do and so seeing that done throwing out that first pitch was meant so much to me. Yeah. Um and now we're getting ready to dedicate next Wednesday the River Road project which is another project that several mayors prior to me was working on finally is getting done. It's a it's a walking trail and so that's going to be great.
And there there's just been so many of these projects that we've done and and I will say I have the best team. I don't have to worry about our departments because I know I have the best in the waste water or the best in the cemetery, the best in uh the police department, the fire department. I don't have to go check on them every day cuz I know they're doing their job. They know they're doing it right and they're doing it to their best ability. And and it's I'm lucky. I'm very lucky.
I love it, man. It is so apparent to see your passion for Tel City. Uh we have a few rapid fire questions here at the end. Okay, I love it. First thing, this one's not that rapid fire, but what's the perfect weekend itinerary for a guest in Tel City? Probably would come in and and stay in one of our cabins.
I think they're really cool. Um, they're not like in Tel City, but they're in Perry County, so they're they're just something about the coziness of them. And and our hotels, too, they're they're awesome. You could definitely stay at one of those, too. Um, depending on the time of the year, I would probably go up to if it's in the fall, I would probably it's like the second week in October. It's called the Shou Piner Little Village.
And you want to see true pioneer life, these are like there's six cabins that were uh disassembled and reassembled there. And it is amazing the authenticity of this. There is a stone jail. There is I mean there's all kinds of things there. So that is so cool. In the fall you can see the turn of the leaves.
This is a really beautiful time of year here in the community. Um during the summer months obviously there's tons of stuff boating, fishing and stuff you could do. Even you know you go over to Holiday World. That is amazing that it's a 20-minute drive from here. Yeah. And a lot of people do.
They'll come stay here in Tel City and you know experience stuff we have here from the restaurants, the shopping and things and then they'll spend a day in Holiday World too. Okay. So, we come down, we're staying in a cabin. Where are we where do we got to get dinner? Where do we need to get coffee in the morning? Like what are the what are the local jams?
Oh, there's a time, you know, you get the freezer. Uh that's right there on Main Street. That's what's the freezer? It's a freezer. It's called the freezer restaurant. It's been there since the ' 50s or 60s.
Uh it's a it's a cool diner style look. It's got the counter. It's got the booth set up like that. It's, you know, it's kind of narrow. It's not a huge thing. It's almost like the diner car size, but it's not a diner car, right?
It's it's a block brick building. And so that's really cool. You got Julie Social Cafe. They're just is amazing. Uh I tell you some really we got like the Post Restaurant on Main Street's really cool. It's in an old post office.
Oh, yeah. It's really cool. Lock and kill. It is amazing. They they're they're really big into the seafood fish part of the business, but also like their bison burgers. Uh they're amazing.
Um the pore house, we talked about that earlier. the patio. It's kind of like the buffet steakhouse kind of a place, but a really cool gym is called Behind the Times Bakery. Um, it's there on Main Street. It's a coffee, it's a very nostalgic style coffee shop. It's an old building that was originally built in the like 1880s as a bakery.
Had closed probably for 50 years. And I don't want to plug myself, you know, promote myself, but I bought the building, restored it, and then this this this individual rented it and turned it back into a bakery again after all those years. Wow. So, it's not a doughut bakery. They don't sell donuts. They do cakes.
They do pies. They do pastries and and cupcakes and muffins and scones and all these things. Yeah. And amazing coffee. Okay. We might have to go.
We have to go. You might have to stay here for a couple days now, you know. Come on. To experience it. And then I'll have to go ride the roller coasters up a Holiday World. Yeah, it's open.
I think it just opened. I think Yeah, you just did, right? Okay. I love it. What is your favorite Tel City tradition? I'm going to go back to the Switzer Fest again.
That is definitely probably my favorite Tel City tradition. Uh, you know, the opening ceremony of Spritefest is my favorite. Seeing the high school marching marksman band play. The marching marksmen. Yes. I love that.
It's awesome. They're amazing. They're they're they're they're a wonderful group of of teenagers and kids that have put their blood, sweat, and tears into something and really worked hard to make it something special. And they've received numerous awards and recognitions here lately. They're doing really well. But hearing them play the school song, hearing them play even national or Idol Vice and what their next set's going to be for their for their uh marching marksman.
So that's amazing. That's a good tradition. Okay, we've come to the final three questions where we talk all things Indiana. Yep. First, this is your opportunity to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana?
I would love to steal Shimp's confectionary in Jeffersonville. I'm going tomorrow. Are you kidding? Tell Jill and Warren I said hi. They're like the old time friends. Amazing people.
But it is so cool. Like and a really cool time to go is around Christmas time there cuz they're making all these candy canes and that smell of cinnamon and peppermint and all that is like oh my gosh it's so cool. I can't explain it. Shrimps. Shmps confection. This is like I meanund and something like really really old.
Yeah, they they're 135 years old. I think they're the last year they were ranked the best candy shop in the country which is like what that is amazing. the best candy in Jeffersonville, right? Yeah, Jeffersonville, Indiana. Yeah, they're pretty cool. Uh definitely would love love love to have something like that since 1891.
That's wild. Okay, now here's your opportunity to uh introduce us to someone that we need to be talking about. This is where we get new guest opportunities and learn about other inspiring people. Who's a Hooser we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. Plug a good friend of mine, Brandon Sackbun, mayor of Terote.
Have you met him yet? I have. He is a ball of energy. That guy is going places. He He Every time I ran, I'm like, "You're amazing, dude. Do you know that?"
He is really a talented, smart man. He is an Army Ranger veteran. Y He is like 31, maybe, maybe 30. So, another person is, and I don't if you've met her yet, is Stephanie Terry, mayor of Evansville, Indiana. She is another person that's going somewhere. She has done great things, I think, in Evansville.
Uh I I have a lot of respect for her. She's newly left just like Brandon was a couple years ago. So, uh, she's really one to watch out for, I think. I love it, man. It's incredible. Clearly, your passion for the state of Indiana, your passion for Tel City, it just like radiates through the room here.
It's been such so much fun hanging out. I have one final question for you. When you look back and you think of, you know, growing up in Tel City, being a lifelong hooer, the whole nine yards, I want to know, what is your favorite Indiana memory? I tell you, one of my is the ND500. So this weekend we have the um breakfast at the brickyard for the Indiana Mayors and the first time I got to go I remember walking in that and I'm not a huge race fan but walking in there and hearing those announcements and walking in that pigota which is that glassed in room there and looking down you're like I mean my eyes had been just as big as saucers like oh my god this is amazing cuz you know that is one that is the largest event in largest single day sporting event in the world. Yeah.
Like is it 300,000 people at se this year they sold out 350,000 plus. God, could you imagine the traffic? I would I'd have I'd have a nervous I'd have a nervous breakdown on that one cuz I'd like Yeah, you're going to need more than one song to get your You might need a complete playlist for that one. But uh I would say that's probably it for right now just off the top of my head cuz I just I just remember how I felt inside, you know, in my reaction. And said I don't know race cars, but I felt the energy. I felt the pride.
I felt the spirit of Indiana right then. Yeah. And I mean, you talk about the energy, you talk about the pride. I feel that for Tel City when I get to sit in this room and chat with you, mayor. It has been so fun to learn more about Tel City, learn more about the great stuff you guys have done and what is good to come in the future. One final plug for people out there that want to come explore Tel City that need to know about what's going down here in Perry County.
Give us the pitch. Make sure you check out Tel City. Come down. Give us a chance. U I think you're going to love it. You're going to find out this is a safe community, a clean community, a community that you can grow in and raise your family and be happy here.
We're about to head out on our tour and check out and, you know, get some lunch and hang out and see what's going on. So, we'll see you. We'll talk to you soon. All right. Thank you for having me. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater.
Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hooser State great. We'll see you next time here on Get
