Welcome I will call this meeting to order. It is Wednesday August 19th 5 31 p.m. And with the chief
deputy clerk, please take the role Here daily here Rallo Ruff Rosenberger here and flaring here
Welcome everybody. This is the Bloomington City Council's departmental hearings for the 2027 budget
This is night two of four sequenced over two weeks And the rest of the meetings are Monday and Wednesday
next week same time 5 30 p.m If you go to bloomington.in.gov budget, you can find all the relevant materials
including the Budget book that the mayor's administration puts together links to the meetings and the schedule
Tonight we have departmental budget presentations from the planning and transportation department that
is allotted 20 minutes the engineering department at 20 minutes the streets and traffic division of
the public works department 10 minutes the parking services division of the public works department
10 minutes and Finally City of Bloomington utilities at 20 minutes as well Termine folks. We did have
a motion on Monday to structure a
this meeting and council deliberations for the week or for the two weeks rather. And so the details
of that are after the department's presentation we will have a period of questions from council members.
The max time allotted for each council member is three minutes and then we will move to any public comment
on the department's budget proposal that is two minutes per speaker available here in the chambers or
by raising your hand in the zoom
screen online, and then finally back to council members with up to three minutes each for comments on
the department's budget. So that will be the sequence for all of the department and division presentations
we're hearing tonight. And with that, I think we can go ahead and get started with the planning and
transportation department first. Welcome Interim Director Coyne. Thank you. I am Interim Director Lynn Coyne.
Transportation Department. Also with me here this evening are Jackie Scanlon, Assistant Director, and
Ryan Rubling, Director of Planning Services. I mentioned them because I came late to this process, which
is a large process, and their help was invaluable, and I'm grateful for that. So if we could go ahead
and start. It's up to me, right? All right. The department, as you know, is 18 staff, one permanent
part-time.
Our budget change in total is increased by $88,126 which represents cost of living increase for salaries
and insurance and those other factors as well as $46,000 for a new vehicle. That's the only thing we're
adding to it. I'll discuss that in a minute. Our key budget areas for the year are the downtown corridor
and sub-area planning study which we'll talk about.
Also development of our safe routes to school plan for one MCCS school and our quick build safety projects.
Highlights of last year, go through those briefly. We were awarded a $1.44 million grant from USDOT,
thank you very much, for corridor studies and transportation improvements. Our match is 20%, that's
what you see in our budget this evening in the package.
We also awarded eight thousand dollars in local motion grants. So on to the priorities and goals for
2027 Top priority is downtown Bloomington corridor and sub area planning study That is the Kirkwood
corridor study from Rogers over to Indiana. That's a high priority for us that is 265,000 which is our
match from the local
local match for the DOT grant That also our safe routes to school and our quick build safety projects.
We have allotted seventy five thousand for those quick build projects. So the downtown study project
Is designed to call together all the work we've done in the past. It's been 20 years since there was
a Sorry to interrupt you just for a moment. I think our slides are not progressing and that's up to
me. Sorry about perfect. Oh good. I
Thank you, and if you could speak out just a little bit or a little closer to the microphone that might
be helpful as well I was relying on councilmember Piedmont Smith to tell me when to change Thank you
Thank you very much I'm looking here I need to be looking up there and also our quick build safety projects
Which I just mentioned where we have allotted seventy five thousand dollars for that Those are projects
where we are able to respond quickly to safety concerns and needs
in our transportation area. We can use temporary services, we can test things, whereas the longer term
solutions, as you know, take quite a while to fund and study and design. So our initiatives for 27 implement
the recommendations from the development review audit that's rolled into the second one. So what that
is, as you know, we had an audit of the
Development processes the permitting and application process and that indicated that it was fragmented
We have three major areas involved of that. We have planning transportation We have utilities and we
have engineering and a permit comes in it needs to circulate among those three departments and what
we're Already begun with a staff led initiative is to create concurrent processing and what that means
is is when a
permit comes in or an application comes in, it will automatically populate to everyone that's involved
in that type of application. That will be done through the EPL software. Our department, we're cooperating
with Katziger and Utilities and Andrew Sibber and Engineering to coordinate input into EPL so the software
will drive a lot of that process.
It will have timelines. It will have a portal so the applicant can look in and see the status of their
permit. And we will know, most importantly, is if someone in one department comments on it that it impacts
another, we will see that in real time and be able to respond and not recycle that application. So that'll
save a lot of time. So to be more efficient, staff time will be reduced and we'll be able to process
things quicker.
That's our goal in that. A second major emphasis of the report is the transparency and communication.
We have a lot of emphasis on that. We will continually cite the UDO so that people understand the source
of where we're coming from when we make comments on their applications or their permit applications.
Also in terms of communication,
be as helpful and communicative as we can, assist them through the process. It is a long, complicated
process. The UDO is 384 pages and it's our job to help people through that, help them navigate that
and understand it and do our best to make it as clear as we can. So couple that with a revised application
process, we should be able to improve
shall we say customer satisfaction, as well as processing time. There were a lot of recommendations,
but those two are the main ones we've already begun to implement, and they're in process. So long-range
planning and community visiting, that's the long-range plan for downtown Bloomington, the downtown corridor.
We're looking at a South Walnut Street plan, the North Walnut
Area of study is underway. It's moving along very well. We're in community outreach and communication
on that. The hope with the downtown plan is it says create a conceptual design shared street and try
to address the issues that have been coming up along one at a time or occasionally arise, coordinate,
organize those and try to deal with as many of those as possible in one process. So we have a coordinated analysis.
Public engagement, that's a major part of what we do. Last year there were over 60 outreach events,
public meetings, stakeholder conversations. Our goal is to make sure that when we roll out a project
or whether it's transportation or whatever it is, that everyone who has a voice in it has had an opportunity
to speak to it.
that elevates community acceptance. So that's our real goal is to help people understand some of the
newer concepts that are coming around. To that end, I'll shamelessly plug Safety Week, which is coming
up August 22nd. Three events, one with the IU Office of Sustainability is a guided bike tour from campus
that will help show them where they can get their groceries, other areas around campus that are important.
The 26th will be traffic cones. This is planning traffic staff will be down there, and you can get an
ice cream cone and talk to our staff and learn about what's going on. And Kittickle Mass, that'll be
at Bryan Park, and that's on the 27th, five to six, and that's to help kids going back to school learn
safe biking practices and encourage them to use their bike to move around, so get them started young.
So that's our, and we'll continue those obviously throughout the year. Our challenges, as always, improving
transportation safety, but we're doing our best to address that through the projects we mentioned. The
large amount of money it takes to initiate some of these significant traffic safety plans. We continue
to develop strategies in cooperation with engineering.
And we'll do our best to move funding along as we can develop that. The quick build strategy that I
mentioned earlier is a step in that direction. We can prototype and test things before they get into
permanent design. And our process improvement we've talked to. One thing I wanna make clear, we're gonna
try to get these permits through quickly, the applications. Some of them we'll get to know. I mean,
it has got to follow the UDO.
going to alter from what the requirements of the development ordinance is. So I'm blazing through that,
but I'm here to answer your questions. Our overall goal, safer, more efficient transportation, and a
department has transform processes. Now, some of you did ask questions about measurements of how many
this, how many that, performance, and so forth. I can't tell you that now, honestly.
But next year when you hear this, you will be able to get those major. That's part of the process. By
putting this information into EPL, we will be able to do real time status of how many permits are there,
where are they in the process, how many went through, how many had to come back, why. Explain those
reasons and develop that kind of data reporting mechanism. That is a big part of the goal of concurrent
processing that we're working on. So, sorry I don't have better data for you,
I'll get you better data next year. It won't be me, but someone will have better data when they come
to the next meeting So with that I thank you for your time Appreciate your patience and tolerance and
I'll answer whatever questions you may have Thank you very much for your presentation may have set a
speed record That's the way I am As a good reminder at the end of your marks there as well that Council
members are also submitting written questions online which are available to you all in real time and and
Will be Answered to the extent possible and posted for the public as well With that we can open it to
have some words for questions. That's more of Piedmont Smith Yes, I wanted to ask whatever happened
to the Walnut College corridor study Was it completed where their conclusions drawn? It is Thank you
for that. It's very close We have just a little more community outreach to do which I expect to take
place in the next two
Couple of months and then it will be ready to go. So it's in process. It's near completion. Is there
any money in the budget for next year to implement any of that. No.
Ryan Roebling planning services manager. There's no budget in the plan for the budget in next year.
We're looking for federal grant dollars to fund that. So that's the target for the next couple of years
for College of Walnut. I'm sorry. What was the amount. Oh you don't have. We don't. Yeah we don't have
it but we are looking for federal grant dollars to help fund the project. That's why they're here.
And then my other question is what projects from the straight safe streets for all action plan will
be pursued in 2027 and what's the funding situation for implementing that plan? Well, then I'm going
to go back to Ryan on that one because that's a detailed answer that is not in my thing. So have that.
I'm so sorry. Can you repeat that question? What projects from the safe?
Streets for all action plan will be pursued in 2027. And what is the funding situation for implementing
the plan for planning purposes? We have the downtown corridor study coming up and South Walnut Street
corridor study coming next year or starting this year, excuse me, and then Transfer engineering has
the remainder of the project based budget. I believe 10th Street is the priority project for next year, but
Director Seaborg could answer that better than I can So The downtown corridor study in the South Walnut
Street corridor study are in the safe streets for all action plan. Yes, they are both I did has Studies
in it. Yes, the plan is one of the items in the safety action plan calls for future corridor studying
so that we can both target future grant dollars, but also have a plan and community outreach prior to
Actual implementation so that we are ahead of the game rather than playing catch-up So with the 30 seconds,
I have left. Is there any actual build out of transportation improvements planned for next year?
Yes Again, that is a question for engineering, but we do have funding in the budget for next year Thank
you. I will ask again when we get to engineering. Thank you. Yes Thank you additional questions. I see
councilmember Stossberg and then comes my morale. Oh
Thank you so much. I have a couple questions. I'm hoping that they'll maybe either be short answers
or things I need to follow up with on paper. The first one, I guess, is you didn't mention any UDO changes
with respect to goals next year. So are there any specific pieces of the UDO that are being looked at
for updates next year in terms of developing things that we need?
Every year there's a process. The department goes throughout the year collecting situations where there
were conflicts or things came up with the UDO that caused problems that were unforeseen. So we are going
through that process right now with staff. They're being assembled. We're evaluating them for which
one we bring forward. One of the things, and there's a long list of various conflicts or something,
I'll just give you an example of what we might be thinking of Well, I guess I'm gonna interrupt you
because I only have two minutes. All right Is there anything that's gonna require use table changes
in terms of like budget for? Mailings for use table changes. No, so none of that. No, these are procedural
structural changes to avoid remedy gaps in the UDO and things like that. Okay, um
The second follow-up you mentioned the 60 public engagement events throughout the year Do you have any
idea how many unique residents gave input at those events? Oh my goodness We do keep that data, but
I didn't compile at all. Okay Quite a few yeah, we can we can provide you that information. I'll follow up with
That in one of the written comments then and that will give you guys take a look at that data since
you have it And then the last question I have actually has to do with your actual line item budget stuff
under Other services and charges then you have other services and charges down at the bottom that in
2027 was almost $600,000 and then in
26 was almost $600,000 and in 2027 it's about that too. So I guess I'm wondering what all is included
in that other because it feels like an other category for the other and that just Those are the The
funds that we we mentioned 265,000 for the Kirkwood study 75,000 for the quick build safety projects
We have fifty thousand for community safety projects. That's the bulk of that number. OK. So that's
the line item for like some of these actual projects that you're doing and it's just like categorized
under other. Yeah that's where they come out of. Yes sir. OK great. Thank you. Because my brother makes
Thank You director coin I I had a question about so the wanna college study is pending and Given the
findings of the of that report. What role will the council play in its potential implementation? There's
been some you know, I Guess differences of opinion about the role of council in title 15. I wonder if
somebody from planning could elaborate
Various street modifications and things like that will will to what role will the council play in any?
Implementation or will the plan simply be reported to the council? Anyone could you repeat the first
part of that question? Yes So the one a college study is pending. Yes when it arrives There'll be presumably
a presentation to council and then there will be a decision about implementation given funding constraints and
Maybe federal funds what role will the council play in its implementation? I Honestly don't know except
as it may be necessary to approve funding If there are funding programs that require your approval,
I don't there may be Actual you do map changes that come out of that Particularly with the downtown area
You know what should be in what should be out. So you'll definitely play a role if that comes out of
that process. OK. So changes in relation to the UDL appropriation of funding Mr. Rowling did you have
something.
Yes, council will have final authority to the final study will be adopted by council as an amendment
to the transportation plan So you'll see this study and then for implementation. Mr Okay, so we'll have
an up or down vote on that. What can we amend it? You can definitely amend it. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it's
a it's an addendum to the Comprehensive plan technically so you can it's your document to amend. Okay
terrific. Thank you for that
The two yeah, the two plans will be effective be the transportation plan in the comprehensive plan and
those are for your to approve Additional questions from council members. I Am seeing none With that
we could go to public comment on the planning and transportation departments budget proposal a reminder
you will have two minutes if you are in chambers and you would like to comment please go ahead and step
to the podium and
And if you are joining us online this evening and would like to comment on this department's budget
please use the raise hand feature in zoom or if you're having trouble with that you can always message
the meeting host and we'll get you on mic to share your comment. Any takers online. We do have one.
OK. Please state your name for the record if you will and proceed. Good evening council for budget
Workshop part two on just a quick quick word. I just want to commend interim director coin and department
for taking Structure points audit seriously. They didn't have to do that But the audit gave us a pretty
clear roadmap and I appreciate the response which isn't simply hey, let's add staff It's about improving
the process and making permitting more predictable and efficient. It's exactly the direction the business
community wants to see Thank you for your time tonight Thank you. I believe that was mr. MG from the
chamber joining us online
Any other comments online or in chambers? I am seeing none So we can return to counsel for any comments
on the planning and transportation department. Oh one more Yep, no worries, please. Go ahead. You can
set your name for the record and you will have two minutes It's Paul Russo quickly I hear a lot of words
that I really appreciate such as safety and sustainability and transparency and I want to know
how the public will be able to measure the effectiveness of improvements in transportation dollars that
are, I mean, as taxpayers, we're all wondering how to measure the effectiveness of our government. And
my experience so far with getting data from the city has not been positive. And so I'm wondering if
there are any
Anybody could comment about how we're gonna know that safety isn't increased. How will know
that sustainability is increased? Thank you Thank you Any other commenters online Still seeing none
in chambers. Okay, we will return to counsel then up to three minutes for our comments Councilor Marala,
please ask an additional question Yes, you could use your time in that way. Yes
Whomever would like to feel this is a good question. I assume say the downtown the whole plan the college
Walnut College quarter study if it's implemented We're gonna benchmark this we're gonna have we have
data Before and after that sort of thing and that will be accessible to the public. Absolutely. Okay.
All right. Thank you Additional comments councilmember Piedmont Smith
I just wanted to to say for the record that I understand the downtown corridor and sub area plan study
will include Kirkwood Avenue and Considerations towards making that a pedestrianized Street or shared
Street So I just want to make sure to get that on the record that is going to be part of the study that
we're funding for next year Thank you additional comments
I will follow up briefly on mr. Rousseau's comments. This came up in a recent Transportation Commission
meeting on which I serve Mr. Hank Duncan was with us Proposing some metrics that they're going to begin
measuring with respect to safe streets for all and that process isn't quite yet finalized but staying
plugged in through the Transportation Commission is one way to See that process unfold and I think we
are looking for metrics to measure improvements in safety or
Worsening safety conditions year over year. We'd also welcome input on what those metrics should be
through that Commission Additionally, I think it does go to We do measure other things like you know
mode share so percent of people walking biking that kind of thing on the sustainability front And some
of those other metrics I think it does go to a broader implication that we talked about in night one
of budget hearings of outcome-based budgeting and the need for a clear discrete and you know
meaningful set of measurements across all the department's work that are shared that are you know, kind
of formally adopted that we can actually Budget to plan to operationalize city government to we're not
there yet. But that is I think a theme will be talking about some this year Okay, any other comments
on? planning department budget planning and transportation Seeing none we can move on to our
next presentation for the evening That is the engineering department which has 20 minutes
We have director Andrew Seabor with us if you would like to come to the podium, I guess share your name
for the record and welcome We look forward to your presentation Good evening council members. I'm Andrew
Seabor the city engineer and the director of the engineering department I look forward to providing
you with an overview of the engineering department our 2027 budget proposal and some of the department's
initiatives and challenges for
Please know that I'll be happy to answer any questions after my presentation or in follow-up dialogue
in the coming weeks. To quickly introduce the department, we oversee use of the city's right of way
through permitting work done by other entities, managing capital infrastructure projects, and making
data-driven decisions regarding transportation operations. The department comprises 17 full-time positions,
one part-time position, and two summer interns.
I'll describe more details here shortly, but as a quick preview, the proposed 2027 budget reflects a
$3.7 million decrease compared to 2026 with the largest need revolving around capital project funding.
To set the stage for what lies ahead in 2027, I'd like to quickly reflect on some 2026 departmental
highlights. This year, the department expanded to 17 full-time positions and we were able to fill all
positions for the first time since 2022.
Our turnover is also down as we went a full year without a single staff departure. Thank you to HR and
Evers for supporting all that. Given the needs of being a growing department, sharing a suite with other
growing departments, engineering also relocated to Showers West, so no more workspaces squeezed in former
hallways. The team I'm here representing is a full of all-stars. They care deeply about the city and
the people they serve,
They support and push each other and frankly I think you'd struggle to find a more knowledgeable and
professional engineering team in the state. This year the department continues to play a pivotal role
in the development of Hopewell. Construction supporting the core project in Hopewell West is essentially
wrapping up and design and subdivision work for Hopewell South is actively moving forward.
We've also made great strides in the city's efforts to coordinate meaningful safety and accessibility
improvements into what would have formerly been routine maintenance maintenance projects features that
encourage improved speed limit compliance and providing pest improved pedestrian crossings have been
added to multiple city streets. In addition to physical improvements operational improvements to things
like signal timing are being deployed to better reflect community adopted goals and in response to city
council requests.
While I could keep talking about the great team I'm representing and what they are accomplishing, I
need to transition to what lies ahead in 2027. The engineering department's work and priorities are
guided by the community's adopted plans, like the comp plan, transportation plan, and safe streets for
all plan. Additionally, I believe our initiatives are in alignment with the council budget priorities
such as maintaining and enhancing city assets, transportation, economic development, and more. At a
macro level,
the department's major initiatives really don't change much year to year. However, specific projects
and programs within each initiative can change. One of our priorities is stewarding the city's public
infrastructure. This includes things like capital planning, asset preservation and rehabilitation combined
with safety and multimodal improvements and seeking grants.
Another priority focuses on community investment and collaboration. This includes things like Hopewell
and Summit PUD development support, stakeholder coordination, development review, and right-of-way use
management. The last priority focuses on building an effective and resilient organization. This includes
things like staff development, project management that includes quality control and fiscal responsibility,
and improvements to things like processes, policies, and standards.
This slide summarizes the engineering department budget by category and compares the 20 27 proposal
with 20 26. The engineering department's 20 27 budget proposal is approximately three point eight million
dollars. This budget proposal is significantly down compared to 20 26. However the 20 27 budget is more
comparable to 20 24 and 20 25 which are summarized in the budget memo but not captured on the slide.
It is also important to keep in mind when reviewing these numbers that the engineering department manages
projects and receives funding from sources that are not captured in the slide. Some of those sources
include TIF other departments like City Council federal funds and state funds dialing a bit into some
of the proposed changes. Our personnel line is up eight point four percent which is a reflection of
cost of living adjustments and step advancements in tenure.
The department supplies account is up slightly to support increased fuel and oil and additional allocation
for other supplies and uniforms and tools to reflect workspace and staff needs. Our services budget
is down slightly to offset increased supply needs. This decrease was achieved by refining expense estimates
to more precisely reflect anticipated costs.
And finally, capital outlays reflects a significant decrease attributable to the elimination of ED lit
funds and a decrease in allocated CCD funds compared to 2026. While this decreased value appears significant
in isolation, bond allocation pursuits are planned to support capital investment in projects that will
maintain and enhance transportation infrastructure assets. Speaking of capital projects,
I'd like to take this opportunity to remind folks of the life cycle of a typical transportation project.
I tend to think of this project as having five phases, planning, design, right of way acquisition,
construction, and operation and maintenance. Some projects like a maintenance effort or traffic calming
project may be able to take place within 12 month period. While other projects can easily consume at
least three years of time or may be planned out years down the road, depending on funding availability
and prioritization.
The planning phase is generally led and facilitated by the city's planning and transportation department
who you just heard from. In this phase project concepts and general direction are identified. Key questions
about prioritization and funding tend to also be included. The engineering department is typically involved
in this phase of a project but generally in a support role. The following three phases design right
of way and construction are phases in which engineering is typically the lead department.
In the design phase we look to engineer solutions that reflect city goals and priorities including balancing
issues like constructability future maintenance needs stakeholder input and property impacts. Speaking
of property impacts some but not all projects require acquisition of right away in the right away phase
we look to mitigate property impacts and make fair offers based on industry best practices and legal
requirements. And finally in construction we advertise and award contracts.
oversee the construction work, coordinate pay applications, review change orders, and ultimately transfer
the asset to the departments responsible for their management upon successful closeout. The final life
cycle phase of a project is generally led by the public works department, but depending on the facility
type or other other departments like CBU or parks may also be responsible. That being said, the engineering
department supports this work much like we support the planning phase of a project.
A focus continues to revolve around exploring and implementing enhancements to what might have been
traditional maintenance projects. In essence when an asset requires a major maintenance focused investment
we are asking the question should it be put back just as it was or should modifications be explored
as the city continues to have new and different types of infrastructure. We're becoming more mindful
of the different and increased maintenance needs the city is responsible for.
The engineering department is involved in coordinating many more initiatives than the examples provided
on the prior slides. We recognize that there are many areas we can and should improve. However, there
is also only so much time in a week and so many resources available. This requires the understanding
that in order to say yes to doing something, it also requires the need to say no to something else.
Looking ahead and reflecting on this annual budget proposal naturally raises questions about capital
project funding.
Future funding uncertainty is a result of statewide legislation makes it difficult to project a long
term capital investment plan. This highlights the importance and value of prioritization while not directly
a part of the annual budget proposal. Further legislation regarding bonding opportunities will be presented
for your review that will allow the city to continue investing in and maintaining and enhancing the
city's infrastructure assets beyond the city's expected revenues. Staff continues to seek new and additional
external funding sources.
As a couple examples we just heard about the successful safe streets and for all grant where we're getting
money from the US Department of Transportation and two point four million dollars in requested earmark
funds have been approved by the House Appropriations Committee and we are hopeful will be approved by
Congress later this year. These outside funding sources are great opportunities to invest in the community
but also pose challenges to administer as they include new programs and processes to navigate.
Engineering plays an important role in the review and oversight of development projects, especially
as they impact the public right away. These projects provide great opportunities for investment in the
city. However, they can also produce natural conflicts and can consume significant staff time, which
is especially challenging given the city does not have control over the timing and quantity of these
projects. Not specifically within the annual budget.
We anticipate presenting a new program focused on improved lighting for intersection and roadway visibility
within the forthcoming GEO bond proposal. The SS4A plan identified this as an immediate action item
to develop in 2027. Using the street lighting program as an example, in referencing the numerous
opportunities that continue to present themselves, there are always opportunities to refine and define
roles and responsibilities. It is not always entirely clear what department
body or sometimes even agency is responsible to manage certain things. While these tension points can
be a challenge to navigate, they also produce opportunities to engage and collaborate with others with
the spirit of learning and serving the community. Thank you for your time and your consideration of
the engineering department's budget proposal and updates on some of our initiatives. I'm happy to answer
any questions that you have.
Thank you very much for your presentation. You did not beat interim director coin, but you did come
in well under time Okay councilmember questions for director seabor I see councilmember Rallo Thank
You director seabor On page 12 of the budget it describes a
Several safety related projects from engineering that don't appear in budget requests But will be included
in a new 2026 general obligation bond request. Could you elaborate on that? Yeah, I don't have that
page in front of me, but I'm guessing it's the list of projects There's probably four or five that we
anticipate presenting to you in a forthcoming budget proposal Are you wanting me to walk through what
each of those projects are? Could you just mention them in brief? Yes, what they consist of?
Yes, there is, let me just get my sheet. What page did you say that was on? Just want to make sure I'm
using the right words. I have the projects. Is that what you're looking for? Sure. Sorry about that.
So we have an allocation set aside for safe streets for all priority network sidewalk or bikeway improvements
that would be bicycle pedestrian focus improvements on the high priority network identified
in the transportation or the SS for a plan. There is a series of crosswalk projects that we receive
MPO federal funding for. And so there is the local match needed to continue to support those investments.
There will be an allocation proposed for improvements to 3rd Street specifically Close to Rogers the
Rogers and Madison traffic signals are some of our older signals needing replacement And we're also
looking at some roadway infrastructure changes tied to the ongoing Kinzer Rogers Madison corridor study
plannings leading and
There's a funding request in there for 10th Street. You've mentioned that's gonna be one of our bigger
projects. We're moving forward So they'd be construction funding to help support that project and the
last one is the lighting improvement program I mentioned in my report Okay, wonderful. Do you have happen
to have a ballpark of what this? request will entail and Also, could you is there any consideration
of the Hawthorne in that water? any signal ization there
That has been discussed at all In the new bond were roughly four point two ish million dollars of engineering
projects based on the spreadsheet I'm looking at right here And then I'm sorry. I missed the other part
of your question There was a there's a traffic light that was placed in operation at 3rd Street in Hawthorne and
To help pedestrians there's not a companion one at Hawthorne and at water since Hawthorne is a greenway
Has that been discussed as a signalization it? Certainly has been discussed. It's not actively moving
forward at this time a project I know that's one of the roads probably a future corridor study that
planning will be leading but not Anticipated in 2027. Okay. Thank you Additional questions councilmember
Piedmont Smith
Yes, so I wanted to bring back the question that I asked Mr. Coyne What projects from the safe streets
for all action plan will be pursued in 2027? I think you may have touched on that a little bit already
and what's the funding situation for plan implementation? Yeah, and I guess my first reaction is that's
a maybe a tricky question actually to answer Part of me wants to say everything that we're doing is
a part of or related to the SS for a plan what they're
or at least a project or investment on what would be identified as a high priority corridor or intersection.
That being said, there might be opportunities where we're doing maintenance projects where some investment
is happening on other facilities. But those investments are likely some of the suggested enhancements
that are also in the SS4A plan. So that's my first reaction. What are the high priority ones that are
in the plan that you're
planning to implement next year I guess the SS for a plan identifies like just high priority corridors
to focus it doesn't really say projects but they also there's programs and things that's where the street
lighting comes in but some of the projects I think like planning mentioned that is a significant investment
will be the 10th Street corridor I'm happy to follow up with a more a better answer if you want to do that
Let me switch gears for another question then. So for the lighting project you were describing, I know
the Commission on Sustainability and Resilience has been talking about a dark skies initiative. So when
you consider new lighting or new guidelines for lighting, do you consider the impacts on the natural
environment and on the homes near where the lighting is installed?
I guess this will honestly the street lighting program would be a new thing for us to be really implementing
in a meaningful way when we've done some projects like first street street lighting has been added when
we're doing intersection improvements were evaluating intersection lighting. But in this kind of robust
way it'll be a relatively new thing for engineering.
I know just from speaking a little bit with some of the staff involved in supporting those commissions,
I'm not particularly involved in the process, but there certainly are standards that when it comes to
street lighting, like how much lighting should be provided, what type of lighting, how uniform is it,
where is it directed? Those are all measurable things that we either should have in code or in adopted
policies and standards. That's my opinion.
I might ask you to follow up on that in the written questions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us on my two of our glorious budget hearings. I had a question
about traffic this week. So please let me know if this is a better suited question for public works.
OK. Then I will ask. I will ask right now.
I've gotten a lot of feedback from constituents, especially in district six that traffic was tough yesterday
to navigate I'm curious if You could speak to where that breakdown might have happened at least let
me back up a little bit tougher than in years previous So I'm curious if you could speak to maybe why
and how we could prevent that next year Yeah, that's a really good question and maybe another really
complicated question too because there's so many different things happening in different parts of the city and
There's a combination of city projects of various natures I just became aware of a closure that happened
that was not permitted So there's also that's where our right-of-way use management and enforcement
tools come in one that happened on 17th area so so some of that may be related to so If there's maybe
more specific locations or issues, but moving week is always just a busy hectic week recognizing there
are a lot of ongoing activities right now and
As we're trying to wrap up a busy construction season. Thank you.
So I have a question that maybe is kind of similar to what councilmember Piedmont Smith was asking that
you couldn't quite answer but I figured that I would ask it anyway because in your memo under the first
priority and goal you have is to plan and deliver infrastructure investments that preserve and enhance
the city's transportation systems and so I guess like that's My first question was well, what are the
project priorities for 2027 that are going to deliver infrastructure investments? So are there specific
Projects that you were thinking of when you wrote that paragraph Yeah, and I think I just provided a
written response to Piedmont Smith's written. There's maybe more to it too, but listed some projects
Like a high street project a Dunn Street multi-use path project 10th Street Those are some of the bigger
projects that we'll start seeing moving
But I'm also honestly really particularly proud of the coordination that's happening when we're leveraging
what public work staff are doing and we're taking most of those opportunities to make sure we're improving
safety and accessibility more than we might typically have in the past. Great. Thank you. And I had
a couple more to you about the
Lighting program. Are there specific areas that you're already knowing to target for? Enhanced lighting
or is that all kind of like to be developed next year? Good question. The answer right now is it's to
be developed once we make sure we get the funding is Approved and it'll be a new thing that we're developing.
Okay, great And then I still have another minute look at us be really speedy here and
So now I actually have time to get into your actual line item budgets. So under your supplies line and
services and charges, you have significantly less budgeted for 2027 in motor repairs. And I was wondering
if you were specifically expecting fewer repairs. Because in those sorts of lines, it's always kind
of like, why are we
Budgeting half what we budgeted last year for it I can try my best to answer that in that generally
those numbers are provided to departments from the department that manages those vehicles But I can
also say that we've recently Been replacing and making an effort to replace some of our really old vehicles.
So we're expecting less maintenance needs Okay, great and
The last one which maybe you'll have time to answer has to do with your dues and subscriptions line.
So in twenty twenty five the actual expenditure was less than two thousand dollars and then in twenty
twenty six the budget went up to almost thirty nine thousand dollars and then is it thirty six thousand
dollars ask for twenty twenty seven. And when I looked now I don't have time for it. All right. That
one anyway when I looked in the quarter to like year to date.
Not very much of that was spent and so I guess I'm kind of wondering why you need the full amount for
2027 if it hasn't been spent 2026 so I will follow up with that though and the written questions because
I Can yield some of my time for the answer I guess just to quickly answer you asked a similar question
last year. I'm remembering we changed a lot of our last year our software annual fees into that
From another line. So that's why it bumped up significantly in this year's budget And my guess is we
just haven't because we're starting to get the invoices for that the renewal of those those Programs,
okay So you do probably expect to have to spend that whole line before the end of the year that it's
just more of a second Half of the year expenditure. I do. Okay. Thanks Council more rough Thank you
Director Seaborg is there a document that lists that breaks out all transportation capital projects.
I mean I know there are projects listed in the NPO document. I know there's the transportation plan
but is there is there a single place where one can go and see every project
and where it is in terms of the five stages that you talked about when you started your your comments
in these five phases of project where they are and what's been roughly spent so far what the what the
cost what the total projected costs are and funding sources. I mean is that does that exist. Is that
something that if it doesn't exist would it be hard to put together. That's a thank you for that question.
That's a good question.
My first thought is I would encourage folks to look at our department web page. There is a page dedicated
to our active projects. So that should have a list of the vast majority, if not all, of our ongoing
projects. And when you click on each one, it would say roughly where it is and what its schedule is.
It might even talk somewhat about funding sources. But I don't know if it will provide you the cost
information you were asking. But that would be a really good starting point.
And that might be one I'm happy to follow up on and think through it might be harder than we think to
get it exactly what you're asking for. OK. I may follow up with you at some point about the idea. But
thank you. Any remaining questions. Seeing none we can go to comments from members of the public. If
you would like to comment you can raise your hand and zoom online or step to the podium here in chambers.
Seeing none in chambers. Okay. You can unmute them and please state your name for the record and you'll
have two minutes. Good evening. Paul Russo again. I appreciate the work and the expertise of Mr. Seward
and his fully staffed department. And so my comments are not necessarily any should not be taken as
any sort of an attack against any of them.
But I have a really strong objection to money being spent for multi-use paths as a transit bicyclist.
Multi-use paths are things that are traveled by pedestrians of all kinds, including toddlers of age
two, three, and four, because I see them on the beeline. And to expect a transit bicyclist to use a
multi-use path instead of the street
is I don't know how to say this. It's insulting. It's unproductive. It's not practical. And it feels
like a way to get the bicycle out of the way off the street. So I'm not a big fan. To whatever extent,
the city's budget is paying for multi-use pads. I object. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comment.
We have any other comments out see one here in chambers go ahead and state your name and you'll have
two minutes Hello, my name is Colin Nielsen. I Just wanted to say that as a recently hired concrete
tester for patriot engineering I it's been really cool to see all the projects the improvements that
the city's been carrying out on his streets Such as like the Kirkwood project and Grimes and Patterson
and other improvements that brought changes like pedestrian islands and curb bump outs and
and humps as well and also like truck aprons too. It's been really cool to see all those carried out
because I'm already seeing them working as I'm there on the job sites and it's with slowing car traffic
down through infrastructure rather than through speed limit signs and through also reducing pedestrian
crossing lengths and improving their visibility as well.
So I appreciate all those improvements coming by and I also think that like the improvements coming
to Kirkwood I think that They these kind of project demonstrate that you don't always necessarily need
to have bike lanes on a street in order to make it safer a bike to crop to go through it as long as
car traffic is brought to a reduced speed to where to where a bicyclist feel safe traveling there though if I
You would want to prioritize more high speed or heavy traffic through like collectors like College and
walnut. I think it makes sense to introduce bike lanes to corridors like that That would feel less safe
and currently do feel less safe And yeah, I just want to say I appreciate all the work that the planning
department puts into
Planning out these projects the engineering department puts into getting the specifications done for
these projects and the construction crews that are involved in carrying them out Thank you so much any
other commenters online Don't see any here in chambers either so we could go back to council members
for any comments on the engineering department budget this councilmember Rallo Thank you anticipating
increasing debt service for
further bonds At times where we're anticipating I Don't know what we're anticipating actually in terms
of economically but it is safety related projects and I think that we ought to consider as a safety
related project the continuation of the Weatherstone Hawthorne Greenway spent almost I think three-quarters
to a million dollars on those improvements and
A lot of people thought those improvements didn't improve things much But one thing I think that wouldn't
prove that greenway and make it very effective would be signalization at Weatherstone proper crossing
so that people could cross there and and also and at water and and Hawthorne so I mean we all can experience
it hillside and at water are very busy arterials very very difficult to cross and
Especially at water has a lot of pedestrian traffic to the university and and bike travel So I would
just like to put that and people's radar that and if I'm anticipating Approval of a bond for safety
related projects. I sure hope that appears We'll see. Thank you Comes over Stasburg
I just wanted to speak for a minute about the Roger Street improvements. And one of our public commenters
mentioned that, too, in terms of the pedestrian islands through a little anecdote that I was driving
with my kid recently. And I expressed how great they looked. And my kid said, why did they even do that?
It slows down traffic. To which, of course, I was like, well, that is literally why they did that. And
kid was like, oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense.
Anecdotally does seem to be working but not only that I think that when those things happen it suddenly
gave said child who I'm trying to anonymize to some degree that Realization that on a street that they
usually only Travel down in a vehicle that there are people that travel down that street by walking
right, or by bicycling. And so slowing that traffic really matters because we don't live anywhere near
there. And if we're going to bicycle, we bicycle on a different street. And if we're going to walk,
you know, yeah. So it kind of gave them a better appreciation and understanding of how streets that
we might individually associate with a certain type of travel, other people associate it with a different
type of travel and how important it is for all of these streets to be able to safely accommodate all
types of users and
transit, you know transportation experience, so I guess I'm saying thank you for for Prioritizing these
sorts of projects through the engineering department things That's my peanuts Well, I wasn't going to
comment but since I live on South Roger Street and I do take my bike I also appreciate the slower traffic
and There's work being done
Near my house right now to put in new curb ramps. So I'll thank the street department for that Additional
comments Just briefly I wanted to recognize and thank the engineering department for one of the things
and the 2026 highlights which was the signal retiming study which included implementation of leading
pedestrian intervals in many of our high pedestrian areas around the city
Because of staffing reasons that was kind of a long time coming I think three or so years since the
council had directed that change via resolution And along with another council directed change of limiting
right turn on red in those high pedestrian areas Both of those safety interventions have pretty dramatic
implications like 40 50 percent reduction in crashes by people driving into pedestrians things like
that. So that's going to save lives and prevent injuries And so the capital improvement projects the
safety by design
Are the main slice I suppose but these smaller interventions too that are data-informed to go a long
way And so that's a great thing that happened in 2026 Thank you to the engineering department for your
work and for your presentation and we could move on to our next one for the evening which is with the
streets division, I believe of public works I see director Adam Wason coming to the podium and some other
Folks from our public works team entering from the hallway So, please go ahead if you can introduce
to yourself for the record and you'll have I believe ten minutes for this divisions presentation. Alrighty
Good evening folks Adam Wason public works director for the city of Bloomington
Always an honor to be in front of you for our budget requests on an annual basis. I won't lie this is
a little weird in the new format where we're doing more of the topical based I usually get to start
with our administrative division budget and give you an overview of the whole department. But with this
format it's just a little different. So just a few first general comments. I do want to send a big dose of
Public works mojo up to our colleagues in the communities north of us as we've all seen over the last
several weeks There's major flooding going out throughout central and eastern, Indiana and public works
employees in those areas are the ones responding to help and We just send all the best wishes to them
and their recoveries in that in that same
Line of thought public workers and especially employees and divisions like Street Department or Street
Division of Public Works are also first responders in my book. They're the folks that respond
when Emergencies happen like we're seeing up around Indianapolis. And that's the same thing that happens
here in Bloomington I also just want to make a quick note that
We're just a few weeks out from having our American Public Works Association national accreditation
something we are very very proud of something that for those of you that have been on council for many
years have heard me talk about for many years. And so as of the end of July we are a nationally accredited
public works agency and we're very proud of that.
I'd also just want to start with a big thank you to the team at the street division. So whether it's
our laborers our operators Our supervisors our administrative team There are big reason for success
like we've had with the APWA accreditation and
Big thanks to Joe and divinder. He's our deputy director of public works This is his first year in that
role and he's helping oversee the street division sanitation and fleet divisions But big thanks to Joe
and then Dan Bittner our director of operations down at Street Jeff Morris our deputy director down
there Ron Arthur Freddie love Tony Carroll and Dana workmen our numbers genius down at public Street vision
The hard-working crews that are doing all the duties of the street division are represented by 47 full-time
staff members And we have an overall budget Request this year. That's about 82,000 more than last year
some are key needs and issues for 2027 that we're working on and I'll have some more slides about our
efforts on all things infrastructure maintenance and investment whether that's street
Pavement and maintenance sidewalk and ADA accessibility and then of course all of our winter weather
operations So far to date in
2026 we've got nearly 9,000 potholes filled. We're at about eight miles of roadway that we've paved
in-house so far We have a lot more happening with private contracts I think many people saw all the
great work that happened on Kirkwood as part of last year's budget request where we were able to eliminate
trip hazards in the court the iconic corridor of Kirkwood from Indiana to walnut and
We've been making significant upgrades in our ADA ADA ramps throughout the the city and then again achieve
that APWA accreditation Overall for 2027 were I mentioned this in a different email the other day But
this is one of our more challenging budget years as you all know and so what we're really trying to
do is balance all of our all of our efforts with the community's expectations and
and then continuing to invest in our infrastructure with either modernization or being responsive to
community needs. One thing that you'll see in a coming report to the city council is we've finally gotten
all of our pavement and sidewalk data delivered to our team. And so I think we've got a report scheduled
in early September where our contractor will come in and give a big overview of all that project. But
wanted to note in our presentations today,
Good news is is our pavement had our pavement condition index rating has gone up to a fifty eight point
eight from our last I think it was fifty four in our 2023 Study and then as part of this year's budget
overall, we're investing nearly four million dollars into street maintenance and restoration and one
big note that we'll talk about in more detail with our report on overall pavement such
What that report is going to show is that it's going to be a 30 million dollar investment to raise our
overall pavement condition across the city to mid 80s, which is a very desirable number to be at and
This chart has a lot of lines and a lot of a lot of explaining to do but so overall you know, this chart
is going to show you the various funding levels that
If we do nothing what our the black line would show at the bottom. There's what would happen to our
pavement Condition index numbers and then everything with the various levels of Incremental increases
to our overall budgets so I could spend a whole hour more talking about
PCI and sidewalk information with you, but we'll save that for another day when it comes to sidewalks
We do have a sidewalk condition index rating that shows about 75 citywide We have about a million dollars
that we're asking for for sidewalk investments next year and then overall When we look at the entire
sidewalk network the the study is estimating that we would need about a sixteen point three million
dollar investment to Get all sidewalks in the community up to that
375 rating as well So again, it's just different way of showing that and this is a brief overview of
our overall ratings for sidewalks community-wide And again, we'll get into more detail as we present
that to the council and get all that data Publicized on the be clear portal
Some of our big 2027 initiatives, so we are continuing our major investments in street and sidewalk
maintenance We're again gonna ask for the full maximum 1 million dollars in the community crossings
matching grant program We're increasing our well, we're gonna continue our efforts that we started in
2026 here for our snow response with some of our high pedestrian high
High priority pedestrian network areas and then always focused on traffic management and safety So just
to the community crossings grant program, so the work that's being done on Kirkwood Patterson South
Rogers, that's all
part of our big twenty twenty six project. What we're hoping to look for look to apply for in twenty
twenty seven for the twenty twenty seven funding is a major payment maintenance project on college and
Walnut from 17th to the bypass. Also looking possibly at Dunn Street from 17th to the bypass as well.
And that's again going to help us leverage state funds to improve our overall pavement condition citywide.
We're continuing major investments with our ADA ramp and accessibility improvements. So Just for counsel's
background and knowledge
Whenever we go in and do any type of mill and pave we are required to upgrade all the ADA ramps in the
corridor that we're milling and paving So we're always going to continue focusing on that As well as
just trip hazard reduction in the sidewalk network something that we've been super successful with is
our as you'll see in the third column here third row down
Over the last several years where you've eliminated that literally thousands of trip hazards across
the city. They've just kicked off their Contract again for this year. So that number will only rise
But I do want to just point out some things with our with these numbers So when it comes to our lane
mile paving you'll see year to date this was a couple weeks old at this point but we still expect to
be in the 18 to 20 miles of
20 lane miles of paving for this year both in-house and contracted the ADA ramps will go up
pretty significantly as well and then We'll continue our pothole repair efforts into the winter season
So that will only go up. I did want to just kind of give a brief overview of our budget requests 2027
budget request overall is thirteen point three two three three two million dollars roughly eighty thousand
dollar increase from last year
This is from a variety of funds So it's going to include our local road and street fund the motor vehicle
highway fund the motor vehicle highway restricted fund the cumulative cap Improvement fund the cumulative
cap development fund the parking meter fund and all of those will then total out to that thirteen point
three million dollar budget the street division is our largest division of all public works, so It's
our largest budget request as well
And just a couple other things that we're seeing for 2027 that we You know, we've all seen what fuel
prices have been doing throughout 2026. So we're continuing to manage and Try to be within our budgets
on that but one of the big issues that we're seeing coming down is
Salt supplies throughout the Midwest are quite low right now. So Our salt barns are rather full But
we do have some concern going into the winter on making sure we can meet all of our demands for salt
supplies Hoping we don't have quite as intense of a winter as last year And I am happy to answer your
questions with four seconds left Thank you What questions do we have from councilmembers Councilmember
Piedmont Smith
Yes, thank you. Mr. Wason first of all the slide presentation in the Google Drive does not include The
two charts about road conditions and sidewalk conditions. Oh We updated those this afternoon. I thought
we got those included so They'll be updated because they came in this afternoon just before the meeting
we didn't get those materials Yeah, those were late updates. I apologize for that. We're trying to get
those from the contractor. Um, I
In your memo you talk about your aim is to ensure safe and smooth transportation routes for both motorized
and non motorized transportation users. Does this mean bike lanes as well. Are you also responsible
for making sure that those are maintained. We do we do some of that work as far as bike lane maintenance.
We also partner with our friends at the city of Bloomington utilities with their sweeping program.
I see James in the back James was sending us some fun emails this last week about some new equipment
that they're looking to trial or use to do bike lane sweeping. So yes it's a team effort. And then is
the street division responsible for side paths or is that.
Yes, so based on city code a traditional sidewalk would be the adjacent property owners responsibility
and side paths become the city's Responsibility for maintenance snow clearing etc. So is that the Street
Division? Yes Okay Thank you. Yes on a winter weather event You will often see Joe or Danny or Ron and
one of their smaller pickup trucks working on all the side paths So those are not like you said those
are not responsibility of
Property owners, so those do get cleared of ice and snow. Yes. Okay. Well, that's something Thank you
Councilmember Rallo, I Really appreciate you take you taking the time in effort to To look at the long
view projecting out the maintenance for streets and sidewalks. It's really helpful so You said the black
line is doing nothing then there was a steady state line. What line do you aim to to
hope to fulfill. In a perfect world, we would be looking at that bright pink line at the top. So on
the right side of the slides for you all too, that's going to be
It's a lot of data points there. But basically that shows the incremental spending increases needed
to reach different target levels No community. There's not a community in the state of Indiana anywhere
near an 80 citywide Rating, you know, so that that's what you would dream for if we could get above
60 in the next several years I think we'd be doing really well, but it does require increased investments
in a time when Funding is not increasing Well, I want to ask controller
About that fifty eight million dollars just became available today from the governor Allocated to local
governments. Do you do you know anything about that for for road road improvements? I mean essentially
that additional funding is just replacing the funding lost from the gas tax holidays and so there's
I don't we don't anticipate seeing any great influx of of money We're just hoping that and we believe
that that that money from the state will at least keep us whole During this time when no gas tax was
collected. I see doesn't mean much for us then it just keeps us where we are Yeah makes for a good headline
though. Yeah Additional questions Councilmember Stasberg
Did I hear you write director waste then that you said that College and walnut between 17th and the
bypass was being prioritized for repaying next year For community crossings, okay. So does that mean
there's gonna be other upgrades along We always work with engineering to look at the transportation
plan what other safety improvements can be made? absolutely, I guess I'm kind of wondering because I
that is part of the college walnut corridor study and there are potentially extensive changes that have
been proposed. And so I guess I just want to know how you guys are like collaborating and thinking about
that in terms of potentially large changes in that area and not wanting to like needing to make it safer
as soon as possible but also not
Wanting to invest in something that then is going to have to be removed later on for a different investment
This is a challenge we face on a regular basis with our large our large-scale paving needs You know
the long-term future possibilities of the corridors versus actual pavement maintenance You know a fresh
coat of pavement on a main thoroughfare like that is gonna last hopefully ten years if not
Hopefully 10 probably closer to six to seven based on traffic volumes and such so we look at community
crossings as you know an opportunity to make safety improvements, but also focus mostly on pavement
maintenance Okay, and I guess the and let me I sorry I should have meant and yes We are coordinating
with other departments to make sure that we the types of pavement maintenance Improvements we would
make would also be compatible into the future knowing that that is a giant proposal for that whole corridor
Yeah, and I guess the other thing that I'm
particularly concerned about with that segment is that currently the speed limit there is 40 miles an
hour and my understanding is people tend to speed through there anyway and that is of course by Miller
Showers Park and there have been a lot of pedestrian safety concerns so to put fresh pavement on that
as it is even if you enhance crosswalks
That don't actually make people stop that that's just of concern to me in terms of the overall picture
of that corridor and Yeah, so that was maybe more of a of a quam at but I just want to make sure that
that's considered and If I could just comment on that though Understanding speeds in a corridor like
that could be higher than we would like I don't know that you could directly correlate with
Fresh pavement with higher speeds after that Pavement made the longer you go without improving pavement
the more it costs in the long run to improve it. So we identify our paving priorities based on the PCI
indexes and overlay that with the type of roadway it is and being a main arterial entrance to the community
that's going to require more pay
Repaving more often than your typical neighborhood residential street. Yeah, I mean I get that and I
appreciate that but it's also much easier to drive faster on nice New pavement, so I just am expressing
that safety concern of that area And wanting to make sure that that is addressed as a primary piece
of that repaying. Thanks. Thank you additional questions from council members council member rough
Talk at all about or inform me at all about materials costs increases relative to other costs increases
and Also project into the future a little bit on materials costs money not equipment necessarily or
but materials costs
In a simple gesture, they're going like this and they're continuing to rise So we see what's happening
with fuel costs which directly relates to asphalt cost being a petroleum product What I can do is I
don't have any specific Numbers that I could provide right off the top of my head right now but we could
provide you some analysis and some projections on and
The cost per ton of asphalt over the last several years that we've been paying do some review on that
But yes, we're seeing it go up. We are concerned about that the price of salt salt a good example as
well. It's a commodity that Even for what we may be able to get it will come at a 25 to 35 percent increase
From what we've seen in years past. So these are real numbers that we're trying to trying to
Live within so did you would you say paving? materials supply As as dramatic as the salt Probably not
quite as dramatic as it's all but let us do a little We can we can run some numbers on that and put
it in the written questions and kind of show you some examples of what we're seeing The other one that
you'd mention equipment to whether it's dump trucks triaxles Sanitation trucks. Those are all Quite
the premium as well
So finally just on the same exact topic real quick Suppliers local suppliers Are that how's that front?
How does the materials suppliers? Is that being Constrict is it consolidating are we seeing less? Come
to competition. Is that contributing in any way do you think the prices and
Whether or not the lack there's two main outfits for your materials you've got in EMB and milestone
have their own material facility so I think it's the old Rogers quarries out there off of Ord Road are
now EMB's facility and then milestones got their facility out by 445 and I 69 there just on the Green
County border. But those are your two main suppliers for asphalt and for asphalt. Just two. OK. OK.
Thank you.
Questions I Have a few One was he thought up with an email to myself and a few other council members
following a constituent Concern about maintenance of brick streets in historic districts kind of north
of 7th Street near campus there Could you tip share a little bit more about the challenges
with me maintaining brick streets over time and any? current plans to try to work on that I
Yeah so I can tell you this has been on an agenda for our IU city coordination meetings for probably
last six seven years at least as a long range topic of concern of how do we how do we find the limited
funding that with the limited funding we have available how do we
How do we prioritize improvements to those brick streets. I can tell you we focused on it a bit in 2018
2019 looking for some grant opportunities. We're not successful in that. And then we had a whole coded
period where we were just trying to, you know,
maintain operations but it has come back up again. I appreciate Miss Cole in the neighborhood reaching
out and reminding us that there are some obligations the city committed to back in 2004. So you know
the main effort right now is we've inventory there's about nine or ten block frontages that need full
restoration at this point. So we're doing some outreach with our friends at utility to understand what
the underground utilities are like.
They'll need replaced. We're getting cost estimates on what we think each block frontage could cost.
We're also doing a property inventory to say to really look at who owns all the property from 7th to
10th Indiana to Woodlawn where all these streets are. There's a.
not an elephant in the room, our friends over on campus at IU, they're mostly IU affiliated or on properties
outside of a few owner occupied and rentals. So my overall hope would be that we would be able to prioritize
all of our relationships with the university, maybe the state house and others to try to prioritize
that over the next several years. But I'm guessing it would be several years before much progress would
be made just with the amount of planning and utility coordination that would need to go into it as well.
But I'm hopeful. Thank you. One brief follow up with it comes to snow removal on multi use paths. We
had a deliberation session a few months ago in which we identified some gaps and they didn't get cleared
by the city. And then I'm curious how you and your staff manage
That at a systems level I think that we've improved gradually over time But probably there's still things
that come up where it's like, oh we missed this one How do you all manage that to make sure that you
get it the next year that kind of thing? Yeah, so we've got it all mapped, you know So we use our city
works asset management program to map all the locations where we do snow control Where we have it whether
it's contractors whether it's our city staff You know some instances it's in dot rights of way where
we're actually doing that snow control efforts as well as they don't and they don't
Snow-control on their pedestrian facilities, but it's all mapped and then you know if we've missed something
we get the phone call Yeah, but thank you. Appreciate it any other questions before we go to public
comment seeing none Members of the public who would like to comment on the streets division public works
budget Raise your hand online come to the podium and chambers Seeing no in-person takers do we have
any online I
We are back to this council members for any final comments on this divisions budget Councilor Aralo
Thanks, just to say I appreciate your work on street maintenance I've seen just anecdotally
great improvements and It was a concern. It seems to be a priority from the survey. It was just Data
collected so other people are concerned and I know it's tough
Incline I suppose but I appreciate you focusing on it. So, thank you Other comments that's my treatment
Smith Just to acknowledge that we do as a community still have a problem with The fact that our Sidewalks
are often impassable because of snow and ice
I think that I may have mentioned this on Monday night in the context of another department But it's
something we still need to work on I know it's the property owners responsibility But the fact is that
it doesn't get done and it puts pedestrians in jeopardy Walking in the street. So just point that out.
Let's work together on finding some solutions. Thank you Thank you additional comments Sure, just a
few just to follow up on the
Snow removal item. It was the multi-use path on the north side of Patterson between Morton and and Rogers,
I think new hope for families had cleared cleared their section, but that the additional section Wasn't
this winter. So it's just a FYI if that hadn't been communicated I appreciate that you all document
that map that and update your maps to manage through a continuous improvement process. We heard similar
things from Tim Street and that's that's much appreciated and
Agree that we still have work to do. I'd be curious. I'll follow up in questions written questions about
Some of the the ways that we've the public works has tried to spend a small budget allocation. I think
I might be like $50,000 on augmenting snow removal and other ways in high pedestrian areas that kind
of thing So I'd be curious to hear more about how that's gone and if we're anticipating any changes
The other thing that I with the community crossing grants I'm also always kind of thinking about like,
okay like are there ways that we can
better leverage this to move in the direction of infrastructure safety improvements that we that we're
planning for and For instance, we added bike lanes to College Mall Road. I think in the first year I
was on council through some Deliberation we had in sessions in this chambers and you know and that was
one area of marginal improvement that we were able to accomplish through that that moment and on something
like North walnut between 17th and the
The bypass I wonder about I mean obviously we're not going to invest in like an overhaul of those three
blocks of the walnut corridor that we have this major study in capital, you know project in but I do
wonder about The the the quick build project, you know, what does it actually cost us on a lane mile
basis or I guess it
Yeah, the land mile basis to put in temporary materials like we have on 3rd Street along campus for
instance to significant effect in terms of the safety of Bicyclists and other you know scooter users
that are in in those lanes. So we do have striped bike lanes they might even be buffered in a few areas
on along Miller Showers Park, but Obviously, it's not a comfortable place to bike and we've also had
crashes including deadly crashes on North walnut generally
With people using bike lanes, so that's that's a thought of maybe we can and I can follow up and getting
written questions about how you receive that as a Department but it's another idea about how to make
incremental progress even when we can't do the big infrastructure improvements in a synergistic way.
So Those are my comments any others Okay
When you see when you said temporary materials, I thought you were referring to like gravel or Yes Ballards
or you know what I mean? Yes. Okay Moving on we are To the fourth of five presentations for the night.
This is going to be the parking services division of Public Works. I believe director Wason Will be
presenting again also
Michelle wall parking services manager was listed on the presentation Thank you again for your presentation
and to streets division staff for joining us for that portion. Perfect Yeah, so I've got Michelle wall
Jessica Goodman and Charlene Lawson our leadership team at the parking services division I've got them
online tonight. They're in the midst of their busiest busiest busiest of weeks right now and we've had
some staffing shortages there, so I've
We've given them the permission to be online to help answer questions as needed. But first to start
off with again a big thanks for the staff and parking services. So our whether it's our parking enforcement
officers our customer service and security specialists at the parking garages our administrative team
of customer service reps financial coordinator and then the leadership team of director wall parking
garage manager Jessica Goodman and
Charlene Lawson our new parking enforcement manager who took over for Ryan Cox who was able to retire
this year our longtime city employee ran so Big thanks to the whole team that makes the whole parking
system work So not only our parking staff enforcement staff out helping manage our parking assets, but
also doing much more Parking staff are our special events setups set up specialists So if you see an
orange barricade in the wild whether it's for a park lit a special event
or any other use the team and parking enforcement is the one are the folks that are Deploying those,
you know getting them from the parking garage delivering them to the events or to the sites and removing
those so It's not just parking enforcement that they do. It's so much more beyond that They're going
to fill in for the crossing guards when we have crossing guard absences and
You know We manage with with the same team at parking services We've got a group that's managing the
thousands of residential and garage permits that are issued every year So it's just a real big operation.
I mentioned our school crossing guard program I do want to make a special shout out to anybody that
might be listening online If you've got a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the afternoon,
you want to earn a few bucks we're always looking for staff members to help in our elementary school zones for
Crossing through our school crossing guard program overall so as a division overview
Parking enforcement is going to handle all of our downtown parking meters the park mobile system. That's
not only The enforcement side but also all the technology and maintenance that goes with it We've got
our four city-owned parking garages our five surface lots in the downtown We do all of our special events.
Like I mentioned the neighborhood residential parking permit program, which I'll talk a little bit more
about based on some revelations this year and
and parking enforcement generally. I do also want to make a note that we've had some a comment come
through online through the report system about how we try to manage the parking system. Our number one
goal is to actually manage the assets as they exist on the streets. So helping encourage turnover things
like that. But in no ways are we ever trying to be out there to be punitive or overly to be overly punitive
in any way.
really out there just trying to enforce the rules for all the users of the system and applaud the whole
team there that is doing that. I think I've said in some previous budget hearings you know nobody likes
to get a parking ticket and our parking enforcement staff are probably the most verbally abused staff
in the whole city. So I always just hold them in high regard for the way that they're able to deal with
that in the field and day to day. Overall it's 26 full time staff members across the whole department.
Key budget change for twenty twenty six is a two point eight one four million dollar increase that's
currently budgeted. I'll talk a lot more about that as we go through the slides here as you as council
was present was a couple of weeks ago now the Walker parking study report was presented to the council
and a lot of what we'll talk about today is the result of the recommendations of that parking study
and the next steps there.
So overall we did that final review with the council or got the final reports in June of 2026 presented
that to the council a couple of weeks ago. You know the overall goal here is to just improve the overall
parking network to have it work best for all users.
at the same time looking to and improve the customer experience whether it's With wayfinding and signage
to make it easier for them to use the system but then also to support the overall priorities of the
administration Council Transportation Commission and others so When we talk about our 2027 priorities
a lot of this has to do with investing in the parking system So parking meters were originally installed in 2010
2013 when we I was part of that discussion and Typical useful life for a parking meter is seven to ten
years We're doing a lot of maintenance on this old equipment and so knowing we need to make investments
both from the technology the parking technology The parking meter system and more we do have a two point
five million dollar capital
budget item in this in this budget request to Help implement that as we go through after we go through
the full stakeholder vetting process with You know the community the Transportation Commission City
Council and everything to find to figure out those final decisions on on where we head with it one of
the things I mentioned though is it's that kind of
making sure we do the appropriate amount of communication out of why it's necessary why it makes sense
at this time and to take the input of the community to help us move that forward. I mentioned neighborhood
parking permits that's gotten a lot of attention lately and just wanted to talk about that very briefly
here. So we've got we're up to
We've got the zones that are listed here are shown here on the map for our residential neighborhood
parking program. What we've seen in the last year and what we've been working with our friends and planning
and transportation and housing neighborhood development on is really understanding the impacts of the
redevelopment of single family properties to multifamily
Multi unit properties and as we were getting into parking permit season here We were seeing that we
were going to have some pretty significant impacts of that so we've been collecting a lot of data working
with hand and planning to understand what the overall
percentage increase of bedrooms has been on certain properties and what that impact would be for neighborhood
residential parking permits. We've worked through a lot of that. We've made sure we worked with property
owners rent units that had gotten them in the past to make sure they're getting them again this year.
But this will be a big focus of conversation as we move through any of our ordinance updates related
to implementing the Walker study. We would also hope to include that in the conversation.
overall for parking services Again, the big increase is the 2.5 million dollar investment that we're
earmarking for upgrades of the parking system The overall 2027 budget and is going to be seven point
seven million Which is again a big increase but the vast vast majority of that's all with the earmark
for parking technology improvements and
so beyond the improvements with the The technology and the meters systems and such we also realize we
have to do a rate review for both the on-street parking and our garages for Looking at the revenues
into the future and how we want to manage the system We're working
with a I'm not sure if it's what it's gonna be called from the Transportation Commission whether it's
gonna be a subcommittee or I think the word task force has been thrown around I don't always love that
term but to really come up with some recommendations that would meet the the goals of the study and
the needs of the residents and visitors using the parking system so with that I will be happy to take
questions and Appreciate Michelle Jessica and Charlene being here to back me up
Thank you for presentation and thank you to the parking services folks for joining us as well. Do we
have questions from councilmembers councilmember Stasberg Kind of a quick and easy one first under your
Goal number one of replacement of parking technology. It says that two and a half million dollars is
Becoming a placeholder from the parking facilities fund but farther down it says that it's the
From the parking meter fund and I just want verification over which one of those funds that's coming
It would not be the parking garage facility. It's possible that we would We would look at the parking
facilities fund for upgrades to the parking garage equipment But anything on street would be the parking
meter fund or potential bonding opportunities. Okay, so the typo is in the first goal, okay
And then the second thing I wanted to ask about so I went to taste of Bloomington this year and I had
a car full and we went to the 4th Street garage and saw that There were folks there were attendance.
They're collecting a flat fee for parking that day And I was wondering if that was the first year that
you had done that for special event parking and just like how that went in terms of
from revenue perspective but also like what you heard if you heard anything from people who might have
I mean I know I often go to the garage because it costs less to park in the garage than it does on the
street and it's like I didn't really care it was fine it didn't matter but I also hadn't seen that really
advertised anywhere and so I'm just kind of interested in what kind of reaction you've got
Yeah, so starting with your first question of have we done that in the past our first attempt to do
that I have a chuckle and a smile on my face because that was for the eclipse and It didn't really pan
out as we expected in terms of the amount of visitors here locally. So this was our our big This was
our our first time where it really was effective so the whole thought process behind this is
We charge a very low flat rate. I think we charge $3 for the day. And the point, what we're trying to
achieve there is when we have these large scale events in the downtown, we have the ability to do special
event pricing. The whole purpose of that is to lessen the amount of time it takes to get out of the
garage when the events are over. So you've prepaid and instead of each, you know,
The whole hope is that if you're parking in the garage, you're going to take your ticket with you. You're
going to pay at the kiosk and you're going to be able to zip right out of the garage. You also have
the ability to pay at the gate. And when you have, you know, I think we've had events in the past where
we've had big things downtown where, you know, 40, 50 cars are queued up and it's taken forever to get
out of the garage. So that was our attempt to ease that this year and it worked really well. I can get
you some revenue numbers. I don't have those off the top of my head.
I might follow up about revenue numbers. Just I'm just kind of curious. I'm not sure it matters That
does seem like a general good benefit and I'll talk more about that during comment. Thanks Additional
questions from council members, I see councilmember Smith Yes, um director Wason does this division
handle scooter parking enforcement and
They help assist with it. Yes Actually was just on the phone with our bird rep today noting a couple
locations We needed some assistance with so they do they'll make note. They'll reach out. We'll Robert
with bird our new rep locally has been real real helpful with that. So, yes So When you say they help
out so that is the city staff the only city staff that
Works on parking problems with scooters right. Yes I would other than a staff member that may see it
in the field report back. But and do they how do they handle it. Like if there's a complaint.
Either called in or through your report. Do they go out and move the scooter or they contact Bird? Well,
we usually always try to contact Bird to have them deal with their own products You know the the caveat
here is they're focused mostly in the downtown area in the parking meter zone If it's a residential
issue One of our neighborhood parking enforcement officers might assist Oftentimes in a residential
area if they see a parked scooter blocking a sidewalk, they're gonna move it off the sidewalk. They're
gonna just
take care of the accessibility issue but we know it's still a challenge. We know we don't have 100 percent
compliance with people parking where they're supposed to. We're having conversations with ESD right
now about possible renewals of that contract and what we need to see improved from the current contract
and in future contracts. But it is parking enforcement staff that assist with that. Do you have a sense
that there are.
It's getting better that there are fewer parking issues with the scooters than yeah the downtown geofencing
Of the corrals has been super helpful They will the last communication we had from Bird is that they
will there will be a financial Penalty to a user if they leave it outside of the geofenced area the
corrals that we have downtown We're still seeing it on occasion. But I think in the downtown it's had
a tremendous effect. I
Okay, I might follow up with your department at ESD to get some more. Yep details I think D is helping
with that right now. So thank you Additional questions a customer rather than customer rough Constituents
have noted that trash recycling and or recycling containers sometimes sit on sidewalks for multiple
days Is it feasible?
the parking enforcement could Hand housing neighbor. There's a cans at the curb part of code that hand
is responsible for enforcing so if we get you reports that you know a Specific address is leaving their
cans out for several days hand staff do that as part of their compliance efforts. I see Okay, good good
to know. Thanks Thank you
I just had a quick question about the technology the parking technology parking meter technology upgrades.
You've written in the outline slides that building public understanding support is a challenge
and opportunity for the coming for the future. I'm wondering I was unaware till just the other day that
There are blocks where they you can only use park mobile. I was unaware of that. And the if we move
to kiosks are there are we going to be seeing more of that or are is someone going to be able to use
cash for a spot paying at a kiosk.
I think it's fair to say at the at the at a majority or high percentage of places currently there's
there's the opportunity to use cash card or Park mobile on I can get some information on exactly how
many blocks are Park mobile only but I know it's North College between like 12th and
2015 There's a block on South Washington That was park mobile only after some changes to the configuration
of Washington Street But there are certain number of spaces that are park mobile only It is that a part
of any of the contract with park mobile Is there anything in the contract that says we will have a certain
percentage of spots that are park mobile only spots? Is that if there is I'm wholly unaware of it. I
don't think there is no I
Okay, so I will just say that for now I'm I'm a Concern about that. I'm opposed to it You know, you
have people so I did not have parked mobile day out until I Told the other day when I tried to park
on South Washington across some da Vinci's that's the block you're talking about and I realized I put
in your credit card all these things
There are people with credit issues. There might be people that are correct there's it just seems to
be a problem that An equitable, you know an opportunity problem for certain segments of the population
if we have and they're put its publics, right? There's public spaces, right? They're public. Yeah parking
and I think it needs to be equally accessible everywhere and that includes having the option of not
having to pay 50 cents extra to the
Parkmobile or whoever gets that extra money And and have your credit card status good and be able to
do the app I just I just wanted to make that statement now. This was a recent experience I had yeah,
and again the vast vast majority are gonna be all three options There are just specific locations, but
I understand the concern and it'll be the robot It'll be a very robust part of the discussion of what
technologies we move to with its kiosks single space meters dual space meters
License plate reading technology will be a big part of the conversation So we expect it to be a robust
conversation with both the Transportation Commission and the council if we were to come with ordinance
updates Well, thank you And I am glad to know that it's not part of a contract with Park mobile that
they have a certain amount of guaranteed Park level only spots I appreciate your representing the thoughts
of Dan combs here All right other questions I
More from custom umbrella. Just was short just to follow up. Yeah just for clarity. So So when the scooter
company They collect a fine from the user That's violating by leaving on the on the sidewalk, but we
don't we don't We don't find bird we don't get any revenue from the
We get revenue from Bird on an annual basis part of their I don't remember what the number is for I
guess I'm talking about for for five nations. Yeah. No and I'm and I what I'm trying to think of the
exact term he uses email I'll have to follow up in a written response on that one. But yeah we don't
collect the fine that would be issued to the user for improperly parking it. I think the thought for
Bird is that they're sending staff out to fix the problem and that's why the fine is
Issued but yes, we'll follow up there. Okay. Thanks. I have a brief follow-up question which Piggybacks
on council member all those first question this came up in our discussions on Monday some of the challenges
with trash and recycling containers blocking sidewalks a major accessibility challenge and really the
the the inability of hand enforcement staff to be able to like respond to or keep up with that in a way that
with a level of service that rivals our parking enforcement services. So that's where it came up. And
we wondered if there's, I mean, it seems like a process efficiency opportunity if there are people that
are actively monitoring the neighborhood zones, you know, to be able to assist in issuing citations
where there are accessibility barriers created by carts left, you know, 24 hours past the time they're
supposed to be there. What are your thoughts about that as a cross-department collaboration opportunity?
We're always wanting to be good collaborators good partners and be willing to consider innovative ideas
on how we do things. That could certainly be a good conversation. You know the key for us is we're we
charge staff at sanitation with making sure that they're trying to leave them in the most ideal spot to
maintain accessibility throughout the community. And so we have we have followed we have you know kind
of spot checks and different things. There are certain areas there the monolithic sidewalks tend to
be the most difficult or a monolithic sidewalk with a retaining wall next to it. Those tend to be the
hardest ones to get you know full accessibility. But we're open to all conversations about how we could
yeah how we can improve that. Thank you.
Any other questions we can go to public comment on the parking services division budget proposal any
commenters online Raise your hand at the zoom or here in the chambers, please step to the podium Not
seeing any takers online and None in chambers we can go back council members for comments Councilmember
Rallo Just to say I
I'm in agreement it seems to me Although I maybe I could be convinced otherwise that if you know hand
is is charged with property maintenance of various kinds and you know, they have their hands full Whereas
you have parking, you know enforcement Patrolling and there's a violation blocking of trashkins blocking
sidewalks. It seems you know, maybe fairly straightforward to find the
To to address the problem as it's as it's noticed as it's seen so I'd like you know some consideration
of maybe whether that's and you know The most efficient way in which we deploy resources additional
comments councilmember Stossberg I'll just follow up on the taste of Bloomington special event kind of
flat rate parking thing and I generally would say that I support that for special event parking and
it definitely seems like an efficient way for folks to exit because I have been sometimes stuck in lines
like that. I mean the other thing that it did is once I paid the flat rate I was like there right. And
I'm like hey I'm here for this while we're downtown. Let's do this and this and this because we had
to pay this flat rate parking.
And so that could also be another sort of way to encourage more than just say people going to the one
special event but also doing other things. And the only thing is I didn't see that advertised anywhere.
So maybe we just need to like work on making sure that the public is then aware that we're doing something
not usual for certain types of special events.
I don't know if you're also planning on doing that for pride for example which is coming up later this
month. I'm not sure if that was in both of the parking garages or just 4th Street garage but that would
be my plea is to make sure that we're just really
Communicating pretty clearly because I do tends to like, you know I mean I get all these city emails
right and I tends to read You know press release kind of stuff at least skim them and I just don't remember
seeing anything like that So you don't need to respond. It's just comment time But that's just like
feedback from a user and wanting to make sure that our community is kind of like prepared for that because
it was also at that moment I'm like, oh gotta grab the three dollars in cash and and so and there was
like the wait was the line coming in and
As opposed to the line going out and that also can be awkward if people aren't prepared for that different
sort of action as they go into the garage. So great idea. It just you know refining a little bit in
terms of process I think would be great. I don't think I have other comments. I also support maybe.
Exploring some ways that we can do something different with the trash cans on sidewalks Which it's not
such a problem in most of district three, but as a problem in some other areas And I have other questions
that I'll end up submitting online. Thanks Just very briefly do expect that for special events and some
of these really big football weekends We'll do the same and we did try to get the word out through social
media, but we'll do more as we move forward Their comments
I just think this would be the right time to say thank you to director race in and also Cassie Wernie
for being so responsive when I had a lot of questions about the parking permitting process and They
were very helpful in working out a solution that worked for as many people as possible So just kudos
and thank you so much Other comments Briefly on the neighborhood zones front. We do have issues to figure
out there. No doubt that
We've also requested changes to the UDO that would impact that there's lots of opportunities for improvement
in terms of how we price it how we treat visitor permits how we think about The variance across different
neighborhood zones. So those are some policy conversations We'll definitely need to move into this year
to make improvements for for residents that are equitable and inclusive and also on the Trash and recycling
can front director waste it brings up a good point, which is that sanitation staff are
Actively, you know emptying those those bins and putting them back And that there's I mean it sounds
like they're already playing an active role in trying to avoid accessibility issues wherever possible
but that we have a bit of a broader systemic issue and you know with with Some specific areas, you know
that that our space constrained one option is to put them in the street and when there is parking on
the street that works relatively well as long as there's space for it and
But yeah again one of these areas where there's not an easy answer, but it is a problem. That is a real
Civil rights and accessibility issue and something we need to keep working on and finding ways to improve
Thank you for engaging some of the questions and ideas that we had on that front There aren't either
comments that will wrap up The two divisions we had from public works this evening. Thank you again
for being here Thank you for your presentations and we'll move into our last departmental presentation
of the evening
Comes to us from city Bloomington utilities. We have director Catherine Seger Here with us if you could
introduce yourself for the record you have 20 minutes for the presentation. Thank you Good evening council
Catherine Seger utilities director and tonight I am presenting the 2027 City of Bloomington utilities budget
So the mission of the city of Bloomington utilities is to enhance the quality of life in our community
by providing safe sustainable and high quality drinking water wastewater and stormwater services in
a cost effective manner promoting public health economic vitality and environmental stewardship. CBU
currently has one hundred ninety one full time staff and four permanent part time staff. Our key budget
change from the twenty twenty six budget is
in addition of seven point five million dollars. And one of the key budget topics this year is that
we have implemented our water rate case with the new rates showing up on our customers September bills.
This has the largest impact on our budget and allows us to have continued investment in the modernization
of mineral water treatment plant and the distribution system improvements including water main replacements
and booster station upgrades.
First I'm going to share with you some of our successes in each utility since our last budget presentation
starting in water First we rehabilitated our fluoride system, which has been operating consistently
since the beginning of the year and delivering fluoride to our water We also rehabilitated one of our
vital pumps at our intake tower or low service pump number four and
We installed secondary backwash pump, which was a requirement by item and Our chemical feed line project
is closing out by the end of the year providing redundancy and reliability to our water treatment systems
In wastewater we have done the rehabilitation of our non potable water pumps at Blucher pool wastewater
treatment plant and
We've also replaced the VFDs or variable frequency drives at Blucher Pool wastewater treatment plant,
which improves the energy efficiency of the plant.
We have replaced the suction lines and the pump station at Dillman and the finish the installation of
a fifth blower And this is a capacity improvement that will increase the wastewater treatment plants
permitted capacity from 15 million gallons per day to 19 million gallons per day and Increase its peak
flow capacity from 30 million gallons per day to 40 million gallons per day In stormwater we have
Released our Clear Creek renewal feasibility study RFQ and RFP and We now have a firm selected for the
feasibility study We have completed the Winslow rain garden as part of our continued commitment to partnering
with the city of Bloomington engineering for the installation of green infrastructure and right-of-way
projects where possible
We also this year had an O'Neill fellow who delivered a report on E. Coli sampling project in Clear
Creek and its tributaries. This report included recommendations and where higher concentrations were
found to guide our illicit discharge elimination program. We are also hoping to finish by retention
facility at 8th and fountain.
Also wanted to give an update on our assistance program, which we've made a lot of strides in this year
So in 2025 CBU budgeted a hundred thousand dollars each year for the program But participation levels
do not fully utilize the available funding This prompted updates to the program that include two big
shifts first shift is consecutive assistance and
Previously customers receiving direct payment assistance were required to pay two bills after every
three months of support Under the updated program customers may receive assistance consecutively provided
that they reapply and continue to meet our eligibility requirements The second big shift is program
flexibility customers were previously required to apply for assistance before being shut off and
That requirement has now been removed allowing eligible customers to apply even after their service
has been disconnected as long as they meet program requirements to have this is the service restored
We again budgeted a hundred thousand for the program this year and so far we have assisted a hundred
and fifty two customers and spent forty nine thousand seven hundred and seventy six dollars through July and
which is about halfway through. So this is keeping us on track to spend all of the funds we have allotted
for this program for the first time. All right, now I'm going to move on to our 2027 priorities and
goals. This budget prioritizes maintaining or enhancing our existing assets with a focus on reliability
and climate resiliency.
several of our goals center on upgrades and modernization of our water treatment plants and throughout
our distribution system. Multiple projects focus on electrical improvements, which strengthen the resiliency
of our systems. We are also going to be focused on goals that center on building resiliency to the impacts
of climate change, such as increased intensity storms. These include our relief sewer project and multiple
stormwater system improvements.
And now we'll go through those individually. So first is our distribution system improvements. CBU will
be updating and replacing equipment at the South Central and West booster stations, which have met or
exceeding their life expectancy. This project will fully modernize both stations with new pumps, valves,
controls, electrical system, SCADA and telemetry. Design for this will be in 2026 and 27, with construction
beginning in 27 and 28.
We also plan on completing several large water main replacement projects with full neighborhood replacements.
I also want to take a moment to highlight this photo that was taken during our work on the second street
modernization project, which was jokingly called the world's worst hot tub party. But in all seriousness,
I think this picture does a really great job of illustrating the hard work and difficult conditions
that goes into a lot of these projects.
Also the estimated total cost for these projects is eleven point one million for the combined design
and construction Okay, next is electrical and control upgrade at Monroe water treatment plant Critical
electrical upgrades will be made to the water plants transformer and switch gears emergency generators
variable frequency drives and associated conduits and duct banks these electrical upgrades
will be accompanied by
by improvements to our SCADA system, including replacement of our programmable logic controllers or
PLCs, and conversion of our system to a more modern system platform. This will increase reliability
and cybersecurity at the water plant. The estimated total cost for this is $10 million. We also have
upgrades at Blucher Pool Wastewater Treatment Plant. We will be improving the dewatering and solids
handling systems.
This will include the replacement of our belt press system with a new screw press system Improving the
efficiency of our treatment processes and reducing cost of waste disposal Design will be in 26 and 27
with bidding for construction occurring in 27 Estimated total cost is 2.3 million for design At Dillman
We are at the Dillman wastewater treatment plant. We are starting our phase 2 electrical upgrades and
The second phase of our whole plant electrical upgrades will begin. This project will include the replacement
of the medium voltage switch gears, the main substation for the plant, and the addition of a plant-wide
emergency generator. The design is slated for 26-27, with bidding for construction in 27. The estimated
cost for design is 500,000. Next is the lower cascade stormwater culvert.
The goal of this project is to connect to the north walnut box culvert and the old state road 37 or
lower cascades box culvert. This will eliminate erosion improve flow and capacity and protect our sanitary
sewer that's in this area. The total cost is seven hundred and fifty thousand. Next is our Clear Creek
renewal project.
Our goal is to convert the hundred-year-old limestone block open channel that confines Clear Creek south
of West First Street into a more naturalized urban stream channel with water quality treatment amenities
The study phase is underway and will run into 2027 with designed to follow in 27 and 28 the study phase
will include the
Include the development of no fewer than three technically feasible alternatives that aim to reduce
the regulatory floodplain for potential redevelopment within the corridor and will provide innovative
stormwater treatment technologies Our total cost for the study phase is five hundred thousand Next is
our Winslow sports complex detention We will be partnering with the Parks Department to improve the
detention of stormwater runoff from this facility
We'll be combining innovative water quality treatment techniques to improve the quality of the runoff
specifically from the parking lot We'll be incorporating stormwater detention to lessen the impacts
that large storms have on our downstream neighbors Further enhancing our communities resilience to climate
change The estimated total cost is seventy five thousand for design. I
And then finally we have our utility service center at the Winston Thomas property with implementation
of the water rate increase. You will now be in a position to resume the design and make progress towards
the plans for the Winston Thomas service center. Plans are currently at 50 percent with the ability
to resume design work this fall.
Purpose-built service center improves logistics for field crews allowing faster deployment and better
emergency response It also allows for stronger protection of our capital assets such as specialized
service vehicles and supplies which are currently being stored in the elements Building a service center
that meets the needs of the utility moving forward is an investment that will save resources over time
and the estimated total cost
Design is 2.5 million and then 2.3 million for construction management So in challenges and opportunities,
you know, one of the biggest challenges is that the cost of projects are only increasing So I see it
as our responsibility to our customers to find ways to mitigate these impacts on our rates and
In an effort to do so we've been fairly aggressive this year in pursuing outside funding opportunities.
So I'd like to highlight a few of our successes on that front. So first we secured a five million dollar
state revolving fund loan which is low interest and partially forgivable from the Indiana Finance Authority
to replace lead service lines and aging water main infrastructure.
We also secured two point five million dollars in congressional funds for our booster stations and another
potential seven hundred thousand for Dilman relief sewer We also have a pretty strong application for
FEMA's flood mitigation assistance grant that will help go towards our Clear Creek renewal project and then
our Clear Creek renewal project along with some of our other climate mitigation projects were recently
added to the county's multi hazard mitigation plan which puts us in a position to access additional
funding sources like brick funding. All right. And I'm going to wrap up with plenty of time. And this
is our 20 27 revenue budget summary.
So in water we have a twenty eight point eight million dollar budget which represents approximately
a 25 percent increase due to our newly implemented water rate in sewer. We have a thirty one point five
million dollar budget which represents a slight increase anticipating a possible rate increase in twenty
seven. But we are currently uncertain on timing.
That is a conservative increase and the same is true in stormwater with a four point eight million dollar
budget. With that you know the budget request from the city of Bloomington utilities allows us to provide
safe sustainable and high quality drinking water wastewater and stormwater services in a cost effective
manner promoting public health economic vitality and environmental stewardship. Thank you for your consideration.
I'm open to questions. I also have our CBU crew here if you need any detailed Responses, so thank you
Thank you very much for your presentation and proposal Councilman Rollin Yeah, thanks for that Presentation
I had a question about could you unpack a little bit further the the cost of the of the new service
center 44 million dollars I believe is that is it still is that the correct total cost for construction?
In total in total forty four million dollars. So we are current since we have had the water rate case
We are currently reengaging to have that estimate updated because it has been so long so I do not have
a Solid estimate for what the total construction and total cost for the Winston Thomas service center
would be right now It is more than that Okay, so the increase in water rates in part will service that
debt. Is that likely?
The increase in the water rate will service that debt service the debt service. In other words, we're
going to bond for that, I assume. Yes. And then we've got to pay debt on that. Would that come from
the new water rate? It will come from both water and wastewater. We will service the debt in all of
our utilities because it will serve all of our utilities. OK. It'd be great to know to what extent that
will that will be required of that.
Customers will have to pay in addition for that new service center My with time I have a remaining I
was concerned about it's been a lot of attention for cyber cybersecurity concerns and a lot of warnings
a lot of potential hacking of systems Could you are we hardening our systems for that purpose or to
prevent that from happening? Absolutely. Okay. We've been very active and engaged and
and working with ITS as well to make sure that we are Not vulnerable for the types of attacks that we
are seeing Okay, so we won't be vulnerable to cyber security any breaches I Cannot guarantee that we
are not vulnerable to any cyber security threats But the cyber security threats that we have seen thus
far we have made efforts to make sure that we are not vulnerable to that Okay
To the type that the types that we got it. Okay. Thank you Additional questions from council members
council members Stossberg and then Piedmont Smith Thank you It's great to hear that the assistance program
is being more utilized this year and I guess I was wondering and turned like just real quick first in
terms of advertising for that and communicating with customers who might need that assistance is there
like are you
Targeting in any way as customers who may have like missed one payment or two payments with like a hey
Here's this option if you qualify for it sort of like inserts and their bills or anything like that
Or are you generally waiting for folks to come to you? So we With the rate increase we are putting bill
inserts about our financial assistance program and that's going to all customers we do have our
collections person who does reach out to customers individually we Yeah, we do some targeted outreach
but for the most part we try to do broad outreach to all of our customers Okay, thank you. Um, and then
the other thing that I wanted to be sure to ask you about tonight was that earlier this year you brought
a rate change with regard to septic drop-offs and
You know, we had a lot of questions about that. There were a lot of community concerns about that. It
ultimately didn't pass. And I was just wondering if you could give us any kind of an update on how that
is going. There were several like pieces of trying to upgrade some of those systems so that you could
better differentiate the type of waste that was being dropped off to more accurately charge those providers
based on or those customers based on
what it took for you guys to process that waste. So where are you in that whole thing. Yeah absolutely.
And so we will be providing a written response. This was a question that was asked by council member
Piedmont Smith. But just to summarize we have actually Stephen Stanford our pretreatment coordinator
has done an
excellent job of designing a sampling program to sample the waste that we are receiving to verify that
that waste is see where it stacks up against the EPA estimate that we were using because one of the
issues that we had brought or that was brought to us was that the EPA estimate was potentially outdated
or not reflective of our own community. And so we are currently doing samples of that high strength waste.
So that is one aspect of it. We are also looking into way station technology at the plant so that we
are able to charge not just per truck but for how much is in that truck. And so both of these things
are happening in tandem right now. Very very rough estimate of how much that would cost would be around
a million dollars.
to in like for the equipment and the installation and design of a way station essentially Yeah, and
then we are hoping to bring an updated a septic rate to council with our next sewer rate Adjustment
request. Okay. Great. Thank you so much.
Director Sager I wanted to ask about the Clear Creek renewal project which is very exciting to me. I've
talked a little bit with Jane Cooper Smith and ESD about it and I'm wondering what neighborhood input
there there could be with this project. What engagement you might have with people who live or have
a business near near the
renewal site. Absolutely. So we've already started some essentially preliminary outreach to adjacent
property owners. But as part of this study that we are warning the RP for part of the study a huge component
of that is outreach. This is a big project. It impacts our community and we know that we need to have
input from the community. And so there will be
Multiple community input sessions there will be at least I think two or three sessions with community
where you gather input and potentially these alternatives are shown to the community because we've requested
that there are at least three feasible alternatives. Three feasible alternatives. Yes.
It's handy to have the text on the zoom so I can I love captions catch things that I didn't hear. Okay.
Well, that's great. Sounds good. Thank you teleprompter in reverse Because I'm a rough I just want to
follow up on Councilman Smith's Clear Creek renewal questions and believe me, I'm not being Skeptical
or anything. No one once would like to see Clear Creek
Cleaned up more than me. I've been waiting in that creek fishing that creek from Dilman Road all the
way down to Gore Road for 40 years and so it's very exciting to me, but I mean if we the the estimate
for in the presentation for the study phase was five hundred thousand dollars half a million dollars
What are we talking about in terms of a potential
Ballpark cost of actually implementing what we are gonna maybe be paying half a million dollars for
just for a study Yeah, so It's hard to have an estimate when you don't know what's technically feasible
yet And these are just the steps you have to take to make such a big project done. Well So I think we're
being very deliberate with this study
You know at the very least what we need to do is improve that channel. So we know that we have to do
something and that would be the most cost effective alternative is to just improve the channel improve
the channel walls. You know that is something we have to do. But depending on what we choose to do as
a utility and as a community. Yeah those those costs could get up there.
And the pay paying paying for what could be a massively expensive project How was the funding going
to go for it So the funding for a project like this Again, I wanted to highlight how we are aggressive
with seeking outside funding because we recognize that this project could be a very large project but
additionally
We anticipate that a fair portion of it will be funded through the stormwater fee and we've we don't
typically bond for projects in stormwater because they don't come up to the same amount as some of these
larger projects at the plants. But this would likely be a project we would bond for and then pay for
through that stormwater fee.
All right. And then I in my last 20 seconds just it'd be nice to get at some point an update to council
on the still speaking of stormwater on the sort of overall sort of stormwater initiative. I remember
you and I have talked before about like finding opportunities to do little stormwater improvement things
wherever in the community we can just seizing each opportunity as it appears or as we think of it. Be
nice to somehow get out.
Comprehensive plan on where we're at with that and what what the strategy is from here forward? Absolutely.
Yeah Additional questions council members, I'm not seeing any So we could go to members of the public
for comment on the city of Bloomington utilities budget proposal for 2027 Anyone in chambers that wants
to come out, please come to the podium. I'm not seeing well member the public still with us Thank you
for being here
Or members online who'd like to comment if you want to raise your hand and zoom virtual hand Seeing
none, okay with that we can come back to council members for comments on utilities proposal See councilmember Stossberg
Quickly kind of send out some appreciation to the whole utilities team out there It is really really
this valuable essential service that they provide to the community of clean water of adequate treatment
of our storm water of maintenance of those storm water systems so that You know, we can better manage
heavy rains and flooding and things like that and Management of our of our wastewater so that we can
You know keep everything clean and there is a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes of that and
you know, I For those of you don't know I host exchange students on a regular basis and every year inevitably
they say is this water safe to drink and there are a lot of places in the world and even in this country
where you have to say no that like I would not recommend drinking the tap water and this is not one
of those places so I
I'm just really appreciative toward that and I mean one of the things this budget shows is how much
it really costs to maintain the kind of infrastructure that is necessary to provide that to the community
and It it is a lot, but it's also just an incredible Necessity you can say in terms of our community
needs. So that's all thank you so much Additional comments councilmember Gallo
Yes, I want to echo that it's very important and But I did want to just reflect a moment on anticipating
rate increases, which no one likes of course, but necessary nonetheless In part because of inflation
in part because of some variability I'm sure prices of certain materials specific materials that are
needed. There's deferred maintenance or replacement costs of piping and things like that but
We're also going to have a new facility expand an expansion for a new facility and Just to say that
this is a reflection of growth of the community And those costs were never essentially internalized
to those who benefited from that growth necessarily So the current residents will see the rate increase
in order to subsidize a larger facility so this is something that has
Bothered me for some time. I'd like to unpack that further. I don't think it's fair necessarily for
the current residents to subsidize growth if growth occurs growth may be inevitable and you know some
quarters people want it but those that benefit from it should be paying for it and not necessarily those
who are just you know current residents that see more traffic have more crowded schools need to pay
for new facilities etc.
So it's a conundrum that I think deserves attention and to be addressed and packed a bit. Thank you
Additional comments I'll echo in a few of those themes first just appreciate the attention that director
Ziger has shown to the bill payment assistance program and finding ways to improve that and bring the
assistance to more folks who are facing economic insecurity and Have trouble accessing these essential services
So yeah, it's just notable, and I appreciate you sharing the highlights from that here. Also, echoing
Councilmember Stosberg's comments, I work in the utility regulatory sector, not water, electric, in
my day job, but I do have an occasion to interact with a lot of regulatory staff and folks from across
the country at conferences and events, and there's a much broader trend of municipal water utilities
that are really not in good shape.
from an infrastructure perspective, financial perspective, and a lot of privatization as well as a result
of that, which almost always leads to less local control, higher rates, et cetera. So just noting some
of those things that we shouldn't take for granted here in Bloomington. So thank you again to all of
CBU and the staff for being here with us tonight for the proposal. That is the end of our presentations
for tonight, and that is
at the end of our agenda. However, before we adjourn, if there's no objection, I did want to offer a
brief moment for a report from Council Member Zulek.
Yes. Thank you. I was asked by a constituent to share an event. There will be a vigil for a peaceful
vigil for the detainees of the ice Miami correctional facility held on Friday August 28th at 850 p.m.
On the southeast corner of the Bloomington courthouse square. Again this is going to be a peaceful vigil
and it is sponsored by the Indiana organizing project for anyone who would like to Google it.
Thank you. Thank you for that report.
And with that, we are adjourned. We'll see you back here Monday next week.