Return of 'Coffee with the Chief' proves popular

Jan. 23—Maggie and Moe's was bustling Tuesday morning as citizens crowded in for "Coffee with the Chief" — that would be Terre Haute Police Chief Kevin Barrett, whose department was footing the bill for the attendees' steaming beverages.

"We are re-establishing 'Coffee with the Chief' — it was done years ago and we felt with our initiative of being more community involved, this was a good way to get out and say hello," Barrett said. "Meet the people in the community, so they could learn more about us and we could learn more about them, what they need or see in their neighborhoods."

Barrett said he considered the event a success.

"We've got some good people coming out to say hello," he said. "And the weather's bad — so to get people to come out to say hello under these conditions, that's a good thing. ... We don't want to work behind closed doors and closed windows. We want to be out in front of people."

"As police officers, we're part of the community, too," said Sgt. Justin Sears, the department's public information officer. "We're not just the police. We want to make sure people know that and have the opportunity to reach out to us."

"I was fortunate enough that the police chief invited me," said Terre Haute Fire Chief Darrick Scott. "I think going forward it'll be 'Coffee with the Chiefs.' It'll be a twofer from this point forward, hopefully we'll do it once a month. Get out in the community and let them ask questions of their servants."

"We're going to do it throughout the city," Barrett agreed. "We're going to hit local businesses that serve coffee, and say hello to the neighborhoods."

"I think it's a great idea for the citizens to be able to ask direct questions of the fire chief or police chief," Scott agreed. "We get to interact with them, they get to find out what we're all about and we get to find out where we need to build our strengths and what our weaknesses are."

Natasha Vollendorf and Nancy Hoopingarner enjoyed their opportunity to chat with the chief.

"We're chief officers of Mustard Seed Sanctuary, which is a brand spanking new nonprofit that we're going to establish here in Vigo," Vollendorf said. "It's a trauma recovery center, and Chief Barrett wanted to meet with us to know more about our organization. That's big in their hearts."

"It's awesome for community involvement," Hoopingarner said of the event. "It's a perfect opportunity for our leaders in our community to build relationships within the community. It's just a great idea across the board."

The two women have also had discussions with Mayor Brandon Sakbun.

"We talked about a few things, mainly animal control issues," Hoopingarner said. "I sit on the animal control mission board and we have a huge problem in Vigo County with stray animals.

"We have a huge feral cat problem, so Brandon and I have talked a lot about that, and I'm super-excited about some of the things that he's ready to implement, some of the grant money that he's going forward with."

She added, "The animal control issue that we have, it's not just about suffering for the animals, it's so significant because it's also a public safety issue for our community."

Barrett said many of the discussions he had been having were citizens expressing their appreciation for the job his department does.

No one, however, had so far asked him his thoughts on the Oscar nominations, which were announced the same morning.

"I'm a movie guy, so that would actually be a relevant question," the chief said. "'Oppenheimer's' my front-runner."

The next "Coffee with the Chiefs" will be March 6 at Little Bear, 2720 Lafayette Ave.