It is 5 30 p.m. By my clock on Tuesday February 24th 2026. This is the regularly scheduled Board of
Public Works meeting on the agenda and posted on the Web site. There were links to a zoom meeting link
for anybody that needed to attend virtually. There's a meeting ID and a passcode for that also listed. So
If you are a member of the public on the zoom feed and you do need to offer any public comment this
evening Please use the raised hand or for the chat function for that for any of the given items. There
will be also a a
Petition and remonstrances at the beginning of the meeting for anything that is not on the agenda for
public comment Just a quick note for the board. Sorry for the late final packet. We were working on
the Tree the award for the High Street tree clearing contract turning those around quickly always can
be kind of a challenge from opening those at the work session to getting
Everything ready for the packet for your meeting. So sorry for that little bit of a delay. And otherwise
I will turn it over to Elizabeth Caron president of the Board of Public Works and we will kick off the
meeting. Thank you Adam. I called to order tonight's meeting of the Board of Public Works for February
24th 2026 and we will begin with messages from board members.
I actually have a message since this is my first meeting in the president's role and I would like to
thank my now vice president, Kyla Cox-Dekert, for her brilliant and thoughtful leadership of the board
and to thank her for the very large shoes she has left for me to fill and how much I look forward to
continuing to work together.
I'll piggyback that I'm not sure that we ever had a single member of the public serve for 10 straight
years as the president of the board. But Kyla did so very well and we appreciate her continued service
and know you'll do a great job as well as this. So thank you. Thank you. Now we'll move along to appeals.
First we have a noise appeal at 2 0 3 8 North Walnut Street.
All right. Good evening Adam Wason public works director. As you mentioned this is an appeal of a noise
violation for 2038 North Walnut Street Apartment 310 a. This was a noise notice a violation for a noise
that was issued on January 29th 2026 about 10 55 p.m. with Officer Tyler Bodie. And we do have the officer
with us today.
And so the appellant, this was issued after a complaint was called in for the address. The officers
arrived, they observed, or they witnessed the loud noise and talked with the residents at the property.
The property, the Tyler Bodie that submitted the appeal made note that they were, did have music going,
et cetera, but
They were requesting a warning in these situations. They're not issuing warnings and the citations are
always issued for this type of noise violation. The officers here as is and Adina from legal. Do we
have the appellant online or I don't believe the appellants actually here in person or online. So turn
it over the board for any questions. All right. Could we hear just.
Briefly from city legal if there's anything to add to Adams report Okay, thank you questions from the
board on this item Okay, are there questions from the public and again if you are online you can use
the raise hand function or chat and
Okay seeing none do we have a motion I move that we deny the noise appeal for 2038 North Walnut Street
and I second I will call the roll Cox Deckard I Caron I motion passes Next we have a snow appeal at
530 North Grant
I was gonna get a stellar introduction at him. That's Taylor from here Well aboard Taylor Brown city
legal this is regarding a notice of violation issue January 29th To 530 North Grant Street I'll draw
the board's attention to Bloomington Municipal Code title six chapters seven
Excuse me chapter six Titles seven no titles say whatever six seven six point. Oh seven point. Oh one
I had in front of my I just don't know the exact things Subsection a makes it the duty of every owner
of any premises abutting a sidewalk in all parts of the city to remove or cause to be removed all snow and ice
From the sidewalk to allow safe and reasonable travel on said sidewalk within 24 hours After snow or
ice has ceased to fall or in any way accumulate The next subsection states that unless in a designated
area downtown There is a minimum requirement of 36 inches to be maintained on sidewalks and
Provided data from the National Weather Service that shows snow stopped accumulating on January 26th
I know the new snow occurred after that time hand officer Sean Hampton provided the Actually issued
the notice and that was on the 29th to powder monkey LLC Happy to answer any questions Thank you
Questions from the board. I have a legal question about the ordinance but with the word accumulate does
that also include snow that has been brought upon the surface by other means. So blowing plowing other
activities that might take place in this instance the code
It specifies this could be instead of just snow falling it could be You know ice that builds up on If
they're shoveling like their front walk or something like that They can't just take it and then throw
it onto the sidewalk if that makes sense So they can't take it from their driveway and then put it on
this on the public sidewalks, right? So technically that would be an accumulation but not a
not actually precipitating from the sky if that makes sense. Well the reason I ask I know we have a
couple of these so we're going to talk about this more but you know in some cases in
There have been some questions about issues related to activities like plowing that then increases the
amount of snow that's on a surface and The the violations generally were issued a couple of days after
so it would have been in most cases after The plowing had for the most part correct ceased So I just
wanted that clarification that these citations were not issued like in the in-between period when
Snow had fallen but the plowing had not yet happened the plowing had happened snow had fallen the plowing
had happened and the clearing Still needed to happen Correct. That's the case with I think all of these.
Yeah, we're about to review. Yeah, and I'll just make note here So this is one of the biggest challenges
we have with in particularly monolithic sidewalks Sorry, we have Okay
This is for that address. Okay, perfect. All right. We see that you're here for the gold word gold worthy
miss Goldwater We'll get to your comment here in just a moment. So to go to your question Kyla is that
Oftentimes the sidewalks that are considered to be monolithic sidewalks are the sidewalks that are directly
adjacent to the roadway And there's no tree plot
So those are the most challenging when it comes to the snowplows You know past practice has always been
that you know We recognize that the snowplows are gonna move the snow off of the streets, but the sidewalks
still do need to be cleared That's been past practice for many years now as far as as long as I've been
in public works That the property owner is still expected to get that snow cleared. We do recognize
this was a large snowfall that I
You know was challenging for folks but in the end, you know, we do have plenty of examples where citations
were issued for a lot of addresses across the city for not having the sidewalks cleared. Thank you.
I understand we have the appellant online. So that's what's interesting is the appeal is actually.
from Powder Monkey LLC, which is a rental agency or a contracting agency, so that was what threw me
off with. Andrew, are you online for 530 North Grant? Yes, this is Susan Goldsworthy. Okay.
And I'm online, yes. Okay, the actual appellant is Powder Monkey LLC. Is that your business? Yes, I am.
Able to speak on behalf of pattern monkey. Yes Can you clarify that I'm a managing member and I'm a
property manager for okay pattern monkey. So yes, okay I can speak on behalf of pattern monkey.
Got it. Perfect. Okay It's now a good time for them to make comment. Yes, please. Yes, please. Go ahead
Okay, so I gave you a packet I believe you should have. What we're requesting tonight is a waiver for
the snow removal citation that was issued for the tenants and the property at 530 North Grant. We understand
and support the city's initiative to keep the city sidewalks safe and accessible. However, the extreme
circumstances of this winter storm within this time period did make it difficult not only for us, but
for the county, city, the state, IU.
Multiple people were having difficulties. So we are asking for grace based on the following factors
that we've not had this kind of a snowfall in decades actually We have a lot of property. This is the
only violation. We had the tenant that is there did call me on Monday and
They were requesting a snow shovel. I did have one here they but they couldn't get their car out to
come to the office to get one. Most of my people also lived out in the county did not make it and I
didn't have a car to take one because I wrote in with my husband that day and had one other person that was here.
We we actually started with the multiple properties that we do have. We actually started shoveling on
Sunday and Monday. So we had people working around the clock even before that accumulation period had
stopped. But people do need to rest. We had two or three companies ourselves spent thousands of dollars
on snow removal because we do believe it is very very important obviously. One of the crews they were
having trouble even went up to Greenwood because they had backed in and popped tires and these crews are
that we subcontract out. They're not just plying for me, they're plying for other people or shoveling
for other people as well. But another one, they were having trouble with their cylinders. I had talked
to somebody with IU and I heard 20 or 30 percent of their equipment and some of their equipment was
even new. They were having trouble during that period of time. This was not a typical
snowfall. The city, as you know, was also having trouble on that same day at that night in your packet.
You will see this is 15th Street and the street itself is not plowed. And I think we know that the streets
should be plowed. This is the Bloomington, the old convalescent center, and these sidewalks are not
plowed, which we're on the very same day. This is down by Showers building the very same day. I'm not
saying we shouldn't and the tenants shouldn't have it
Shoveled absolutely we want to have them shoveled, but we're just asking for grace that it be reduced
to a warning This time and to just be thinking with some common sense that everybody was having trouble
earlier that week We didn't even have a turn lane on the bypass to the Bloomington Hospital I've got
another picture in the packet that shows you 10th of the bypass So this that was the state not just
the city was having trouble or private contractors and individuals
But I know that one of the companies told me they couldn't even buy a snow shovel except for black lumber,
that those places were having trouble. I had seen some other people trying to use little toboggans and
trying to shovel out. So I think everybody was trying to work on this. I'm not saying that we shouldn't
be shoveling our sidewalks at all. I'm just asking that we do have some grace in this situation. And
I think we do take pride in our properties. We want to maintain them in a safe manner for all of our
residents throughout the entire city and the county.
We're just asking this be reduced to warning because it is an unusual storm. We don't get this type
of storm very often at all. And so I think it's made difficult situation for everyone. And so I would
just have to be reduced to a warning.
I appreciate the comments and you know, we do recognize this was a Challenging snowfall in terms of
the amount of volume What I see when the in the picture that I see for what the citation was issued
for was that there had been no effort at all made at this address when the citation was issued there
hadn't been any any clearing done what I can tell you is from all of the appeals and different
Conversations for all the addresses across the city that had notices of violation issued if there was
shown to be an attempt made Staff was working with them and in almost all cases if an attempt had been
made it appears that there was no attempt made at this property whatsoever This was the tenant that
called me on Monday to see if she could borrow a shovel They couldn't get their car out. She asked if
we could drop a shovel off I was unable to I had didn't even have a car myself, but we did offer a
If they could walk up to here to even get a shovel from us, they certainly could as well. I think they
were trying to shovel out. It didn't obviously you have a picture of that as well. But again, I point
you to some of the city properties that it didn't look like an attempt had been made on theirs either
in those pictures, if that's what we're going to go by. Not saying that we shouldn't have it safe. I'm
just saying this was a really
Big storm that caught everybody by surprise. A lot of people didn't even come into work for a couple
of days. A lot of people were out there trying to work. My husband and my son, they were out shoveling.
We were trying to do what we could as well. But I'm just asking for some consideration and grace in
this situation. Thank you. Taylor, is it fair to say, is it four days after that the snow, that the
ticket was issued?
Ticket was issued on the 29th accumulation according to National Weather Service stopped on the 26th
So Monday they had two inches and then that Thursday is when the ticket was issued. Okay All right additional
questions from the board I
like to know in a multi family residence such as this is that the property owners responsibility or
the tenants responsibility to clear snow. I have an answer but I'll let you answer first. I think that
always depends on the lease and the language in the lease. So whether it's lawn mowing or snow removal
some leases will stay at state that its attendance responsibility some leases will state that its property
owner responsibility. But I think that all comes down to the lease itself.
Okay. Thank you. Ultimately I will say as the looking at the the law and the statute itself it says
every owner of any premises. So ultimately statutorily the responsibility is on the owner. Thank you.
Is there any additional public comment on this item. All right.
None is there a motion? I move that we deny the appeal for 530 North Grant Street and uphold the notice
of violation Second I will call the roll Cox Deckard. I Caron I motion passes Next we move on to the
snow appeal at 801 West Howe Hi Taylor Brown city legal
This was issued by hand inspector Sean Hampton I Will refer you to the same codes already cited to you
this ticket was issued on February 2nd 2026 well after snow had ceased to accumulate This was the following
week, I believe I'll spare you from repeating the previous Arguments that it's going to be very repetitive the next
But I'm happy to restate should you really just be interested in Bloomington code? That's fine.
Thank you. Okay, is the opponent available either in person or on zoom? Don't believe are either mr.
Mrs. Newton in the audience Okay questions from the board for this
Notice of violation at 8 1 West how was it a single notice of violation at fifty dollars. Was that what
we're reviewing. Any additional questions. All right. Any public comment or question on this item. Seeing
none do we have a motion.
I move that we deny the snow appeal for 801 West House Street and uphold the notice of violation And
I second I will call the roll Cox Decker. I Caron I motion passes Next we have a snow appeal at 28 11
through 28 17 East 3rd Street Hi Taylor Brown city legal see previous arguments above this particular
Violation was issued by hand inspector Rob council on again February 2nd Snow cease to accumulate on
the 26th. It does not appear that there was any Attempt to clear this snow at this time as well I'll
just make note. This is on East 3rd Street on heavy
commercial area with lots of pedestrian traffic this would be in front of chilies and Arby's as a point
of Direction of which properties this is from And so this the notice was granted to The owner of either
chilies or Arby's yes, okay same property owner same property owner, okay Is the appellant Online or
in person today?
Any questions from the board. I'm having a little bit of trouble reading the appeal but I just wanted
to make sure I'm understanding their appeal. It looks like that they say they receive the notice by
mail on the fifth which would align with the notice being issued on the second on that
Friday January 30th, they received a call from the owner of the Chili's parcel about the citation So
were they issued two citations? I'm just trying to figure out how How that was communicated a warning
was issued, okay a warning and then a citation So a warning was issued on the 30th and then the citation
was issued on the second. Okay, and then Let's see
It says we immediately had our snow removed Removal vendor clear the sidewalks the snow issue was caused
from city clearing the streets therefore blocking the sidewalks we responded immediately So that what
their appeal is stating is that They after receiving the warning
They did a clearing but then somehow following January 30th February or January 30th 31st. Let's imagine
this happened by the 31st that somehow it became so blocked by plowing activity that it was then covered
again. I just is this.
This silly I have the inspector here. Yeah, so let me make a comment and then Rob I think can clarify
here So what's East 3rd Street here is a state road? I can tell you from our practices within with within
the city. We were not going back and clearing all the way to curb lines I'm not sure if the state went
back and cleared to curb lines here or not These would that would have been an in dot route so I can't
clarify specifically there But did you ever see any effort for snow removal Rob? I
Hi board Rob council from the hand department on the second when I issued that ticket previously I had
spoken to the restaurant manager and said hey guys you know this needs to be addressed. This is a hazard.
She said of course we'll get on it and I think that's what they're alluding to and they reached out
when I returned there on the second. Nothing had been touched at that point. That's when I issued that
ticket. So.
Like it was bad guys. I mean it was piled pretty darn deep I will say that you know, the state trucks
had pushed a pretty significant mound onto the sidewalk I'm sure it was very difficult for them to clear
but as Adam stated before this is a very high traffic area It needed to be cleared. I tried to speak
to him as friendly as possible and then I got you know nothing out of that so Thank you, and we have
no photos of this location. Is that correct? There was a photo Jeremy did you?
send that photo in. I had a photo looking down Third Street and Taylor might have it. I might have missed
it. That one is not in the packet that is not in the packet. Okay. Yeah. We're not going to be able
to show it on the screen at this point. I do have it.
Okay. Any additional questions from the board. None. Any questions from the public on this item. Again
if you are online feel free to use the chat function or raise your hand and zoom. Okay. Seeing none.
Is there a motion.
I move that we deny the appeal the snow appeal for 28 11 through 28 17 East 3rd Street and uphold the
notice of violation And I second I will call the roll Cox Deckard. I Caron I motion passes And our last
snow appeal Contains for notice of violation appeals for 10 13 North College Avenue Taylor Brown for
city legal
This is four for the price of one as president so eloquently stated Issue the notices were issued January
30th the second the sixth and the ninth On the so for your Ease of access on the weather data I highlighted
in red the
First was when the last snowfall accumulated and then in the next The next 1 2 3 4 Highlighted portions
again in the red circles were when the tickets were issued As you can see there was no snowfall after the 26th
Just make quick note here. So you see there are four four notices of violation after each notice of
violation. No progress had been made in any of the subsequent photos through the February 9th final
notice of violation there. Okay. Is the appellant online or in the room tonight. We were just not sure
who one of the online.
OK. Questions from the board. I'm trying to I see the photos that are included and I'm just trying to
gain a sense as to like is there
Is there an obvious reason why those sidewalks would appear to not be like contiguous with the property
to me? It looks like the sidewalks belong to the Property and there's not a lot of lack of clarity there.
I just want to make sure I'm seeing it right though It's not like a stretch of sidewalk that somehow
Apart from the property in a way that would cause them to not realize it was we have our inspector can
explain it to you Sean Hampton
Neighborhood compliance officer with the hand department the sidewalks in question were along college
and then the adjacent along the side 14th Street. Yes And yeah, there was no attempt to clear those
When I spoke with the person that was working there at that day they said that they had no idea that
they were responsible for that and questioned the city bus stop being there too and
And that is on their property. So they are required to clear the snow. I'll just make note the sidewalk
sits behind the bus stop and the tree plot. There's two driveway and three driveway entrances to this
property one on 14th two on college. The sidewalk sits behind the driveways. I'm looking at the Google map.
Overview right now without the snow on it. So the the sidewalk is contiguous from ramp to ramp on 14th
all the way up to 15th Street There's the next apartment complex to the north that you can see in the
pictures had cleared their snow But they do sit off the roadway about six feet. So this wouldn't even
really be an issue where Plows were pushing that snow up there either Okay
And it may have been the lack of awareness since the appellant isn't here we can't clarify this but
the lack of awareness could simply be a lack of awareness of the ordinance that requires the sidewalk
to be cleared. Not so much that it was not the sidewalk that was part of their property. And it does
look like the address for the business is at the local address but the appears that the property owner
has an address in Chicago. So I'm not sure if that how long that property has been in the same hands
or not. OK.
Just thinking back to the last appeal and the first, was the first one given at that address a warning
or a citation? A citation. And so the first on this one was a citation instead of a warning. Yes, because
it was five days after the snowfall. Okay, thank you.
And I might have misstated whether or not Rob actually issued did you he did Rob did issue a warning
on the East 3rd Street ones on the 30th after talking to the managers Trying to and this is the same
day the 30th Okay Can you I'm sorry to ask you to repeat this but could you When you spoke to someone
who was working in the business, they said that they were not aware that it was theirs Yes, and then
no progress was seen thereafter. I
So they had admitted that they have a contractor that plows their drug or the parking lot and that that
contractor may have piled the snow on the sidewalks as well. And they were unaware that this was their
responsibility to take care of. Even after speaking with that, they waited till the very end when the
snow was melting to address it. And actually the pictures pretty clearly show that the parking lot was
cleared onto the sidewalk as well.
All right. Other questions from the board. Questions from the public on this item. All right. Seeing
none do we have a motion.
I move that we deny the snow appeals for 1013 North College Avenue and uphold the four notices of violation.
I second. I will call the roll. Cox Deckard. I own I motion passes. Thank you very much. Thanks.
Thank you. Now we will move to petitions and remonstrances which is a time for questions about anything
that is not on tonight's agenda.
If anyone has a question about something not on the agenda, please come to the microphone and council
chambers or if you were on zoom use the raise hand function or chat Thank you now we'll go to the consent
agenda on tonight's consent agenda is renewal to with IMI for concrete supply
bid acceptance with milestone contractors LP as primary and ENB paving and secondary for the asphalt
supply. Contract addendum to asset condition project imagery with IMS and payroll. Is there anything
that needs to be removed from the consent agenda tonight? No. All right, any questions from the board
on the consent agenda? No. No, any questions from the public? None on Zoom. Hearing none, is there a motion?
I move that we approve the consent agenda for February 24th of twenty twenty six. I second. I will call
the roll. Cox Decker. I Caron. I motion passes. Now we'll move along to new business. First our new
business is the preliminary engineering contract infrastructure engineering incorporated or IEI for
third in Woodlawn and third in Hawthorne signal replacement project.
And I see that we've made no short thing to the agenda title since yesterday's work session. Apologies
for that. Neil Copper with the engineering department. So this is a project to replace two existing
traffic signals at Third and Woodlawn and Third at Hawthorne. We have selected infrastructure engineering
incorporated, IEI, to perform the preliminary engineering.
for this project. The contract amount is set at a not to exceed of one hundred and three thousand nine
hundred and forty seven dollars. We're tentatively expecting construction in summer of twenty twenty
seven. Staff has reviewed and supports this contract and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Thank you. Questions from the board. Questions from the public on this item. Do we have a motion.
I move that we approve the preliminary engineering contract infrastructure engineering incorporated
for third and Woodlawn and third and Hawthorne signal replacement project. Second with a motion and
a second I will call the roll. Cox Deckard I Caron I motion passes. Thank you. Next item is to award
the high street multi use path tree clearing contract. The bids were opened at the work session yesterday.
Jason current with engineering again. This project is for the multi-use path along High Street This
is for the tree clearing aspect of it bids were open like you mentioned yesterday at the work session
Excuse me again. This is for tree removal in selected areas and installing tree protections along particular
areas along that section maintenance of traffic and the project will include lane restrictions while
the tree removal process is going on and
Bids yesterday there was three Bluestone tree was at sixty one thousand thirty eight and twenty one
cents. Gerald and tree experts was at fifty three thousand four hundred and forty five dollars and Monroe
LLC was at thirty nine thousand five hundred and fifty. At this current time Monroe LLC was the lowest
responsible responsive quota and engineering recommends that we award the contract to Monroe LLC. Any
questions. Thank you. Questions from the board.
I infer from the recommendation that we don't have anything outstanding related to Monroe LLC. Everything's
in good standing. The proposal was all in alignment with what the engineering department had anticipated.
That is correct. Yes. Yes. Everything was passed within our open gov computer system so we were good.
Thank you. And I have no additional questions. Are there any questions from the public on this item.
Seeing none. Is there a motion? I move to award the high street multi-use path tree clearing contract
to Monroe LLC Nice second. I will call the roll Cox Deckard. I Korone I motion passes. Thank you Next
we have the contract with Stewart and Associates for elevator consulting All right, you get me for the
next two Adam Wason public works director This is a contract with Stewart and Associates Stewart
Steward and associates for engineering consulting services for the Morton and Walnut Street garage elevators
they will do a review of Both of those elevators and the work that was recently completed on them to
assure Quality assurance they'll do an on-site electrical elevator visual inspection assessment of current
equipment and condition
quality review of recent alterations Provide a report and any follow-up the total not to exceed on this
one is eighteen one thousand eight hundred dollars Thank you questions from the board on this item no,
I'll just reiterate what we had discussed in the work session which was the
This is reviewing specifically the elevator work. It's not associated with some of the other work that
we have done recently on those garages. That was a question I had asked and it was confirmed it was
specific to the elevators.
Yes, so the Walnut Street garage had a major rehab project over the last couple years and the Morton
Street garage had a full replacement of the elevator over the last couple years. Those projects went
longer and had some challenges and so this is kind of a third party inspection of that work to make
sure that everything is as it should be. And just to clarify, both elevators have been signed off by
Homeland Security. They are currently permitted all of those things. This is just more of the
An audit of the projects as much as anything is this kind of audit typically requested after Such work
is done or there are likely issues based on I will say this with With my legal representation in the
room. These projects did not go like we would have liked them to they
The vendor had a lot of problems with their subcontractors with a lot of staff turnover on their end.
So projects that were supposed to take eight to 12 week eight weeks in one case and 12 weeks in another
took a couple years. So this is our follow up to make sure that we are before we make final payments
on those projects to really have a third party independent review. Thank you. I hope Audrey's not mad
at me. Other questions from the board. Any questions from the public on this item.
None, is there a motion? I move that we approve the contract with Stewart and associates for elevator
consulting. I Second I will call the roll Cox Deckard. I Caron I motion passes Next we have the contract
with route where for Recollect software. There you go on behalf of Lazarus Sears director of our sanitation
division Adam Wason here. This is a
Software system that we use to both push information out and allow the public to get information from
with website outreach tools for our sanitation waste collection recycling operations.
And so we had a contract before you earlier in the year that we pulled did some more negotiating with
the software provider got a bit of a reduced cost want to give this another year to see if it can really
improve our communications both to our residents and when they need information about various aspects
of sanitation collection. So we request your approval. Thank you. Questions from the board. We talked
a little bit yesterday in the work session about
How residents may use this or not be aware of it. Could you just talk a little bit what we spoke about
yesterday how you might be trying to increase.
Residents use of this software. Yeah, so It's become more dynamic to the the company that Purchased
the recollect software as a larger company They've added some new features to this but residents can
just go to our sanitation web page sign up for this service So if we have a great example of when we're
pushing information out during the recent snow storms We had a two-day delay of sanitation services
So anyone that signed up to receive information was getting that sent directly to them, but via their perfect
preferred communication method, some of the things that we're looking to integrate into the system.
Right now we use some Google Forms online for if you want an extra Friday pickup or if you have an appliance
pickup. We're hoping to integrate those requests directly into this system. And so just trying to make
it more robust as we move forward with this next calendar year. Thank you. Questions from the public
on this item?
Seeing none. Is there a motion? I move that we approve the contract with route where for recollect software.
I second I will call the roll Cox Deckard. I Caron I motion passes Next we have resolution 2026 dash
zero zero six for the 2026 outdoor dining guidelines Get this to short person height
Good evening Cassie. We're need Department of Public Works I'm going to summarize the staff report that
we presented in full yesterday at the work session Staff recommends that the board adopt resolution
2026 dash 06 and approve the 2026 outdoor dining program guidelines The recommendation maintains Kirkwood
Avenue as an open public right-of-way while continuing to allow parklets for outdoor dining This approach
balances stakeholder interests and maximizes overall public benefit
Under the ordinance 2025-02 staff update the outdoor dining guidelines each year through the Board of
Public Works The ordinance also authorizes the city engineer to temporarily or permanently suspend all
or part of the program See the memo that we included in the packet suspension of seasonal Kirkwood closure
which cites lack of participation and impracticality which we discussed yesterday as well
Kirkwood serves a wide range of users, including restaurants, retailers, service businesses, visitors
and motorists, event organizers as well.
Regarding a full street closure has been mixed with business surveys reflecting approximately a 50-50
split which historically it has been that split and it was during this last outreach period as well
of more than 25 restaurants located along Kirkwood 5 Participated in outdoor dining during the previous
closure period construction on the 100 block will further decrease participation
None of the non-restaurant businesses activated the street and several expressed concerns regarding
access and operational impacts.
operational observations indicate that while outdoor dining spaces were active during peak meal periods
a 24-7 closure resulted in extended periods of underutilized public space and increased public safety
concerns during lower activity hours as stewards of the public right-of-way staff's responsibility is
to consider all perspectives and recommend an approach that serves the corridor as a whole and
Maintaining the street as open to vehicular traffic while permitting parklets supports outdoor dining
in a flexible format preserves accessibility for service businesses promotes equitable access to the
right-of-way inclusive of downtown festival organizers and reduces extended periods of inactivity staff
Respectfully requests the board's approval of the outdoor dining guidelines Thank you Board questions
on this item
As we talked quite a bit about this during the work session yesterday, we reviewed the ordinance language
and understood the relationship between the city engineer the relationship between public works related
to this ordinance and the relationship of the City Council related to this ordinance which what you've
brought forward today Basically includes information about all but it is
Part of the ordinance that public works will review this on an annual basis And and bring forward the
outdoor dining agreement will come forward to public works on an annual basis So that's the part that
we are reviewing and understanding today City Council has governance over the ordinance and any adjustments
to that ordinance city engineer has governance over the recommendation to cease or change
the use of the street in this way due to the different Situations that you described and this so I just
wanted to capture most of our conversation yesterday was around the relationship between these different
entities and Why we're hearing it today Why we would anticipate hearing it today and in future years
when we're making these decisions Yeah, I'll just add a quick comment to that
Is that you know you see a memo from the city engineer about You know being the authorized and you know
staff person that can make the call on this
That was not done in a vacuum or just by the city engineer that was done with the support of all city
departments that are involved in this That's the public works department the economic sustainable development
department planning and transportation mayor's office police fire You've got all of the different departments
that are supportive of this approach. It is good middle ground And you know, I'll just further say that
I kind of mentioned this yesterday in the work session This is a very typical Bloomington issue in some
ways that you've got very
Passionate folks on both sides of it. You got some folks that want it completely closed year-round All
day every day. You've got some folks that want it seasonal. You got some folks that don't want it at
all And so this has been a challenge for staff we're trying to thread the needle for lack of better
terms here with trying to you know, really balance all of the users and the You know this being a public
right-of-way, so we think this is a good approach and
Just want to further say thanks to Cassie and all the folks that have been working on this. It's been
a big staff effort Something else that's mentioned in the report is that the plan is to conduct a Kirkwood
corridor study starting in 2027 If that Study is engaged. I'm assuming that the contract for that study
will come to the Board of Public Affairs
Works as well as with the other corridor studies those have all come to you. I wouldn't see why this
one would not okay So just for clarity this is it's mentioned in this report, but that is a decision
the Board of Public Works would make In a different meeting the other what we're deciding today is about
the outdoor dining For this summer not specifically the corridor study or some of those other elements,
correct? I
I'll just make just a couple other quick comments because I
I can't help myself but okay, you know two things that We've talked about a lot in the last couple days
around this outdoor dining and the Kirkwood closure aren't mutually exclusive They're still gonna be
outdoor dining. There's still gonna be opportunities. It's just it's not the full closure and Cassie
made another great statement that I want to credit to her she's you know in some ways folks want it
to be kind of like a bourbon street environment at night and then during the day more of a pearl street
environment out in Boulder if anybody's been out there and
Those are two hard things to intermix and make happen and balance. And you know that's that's the sort
of thing that the Kirkwood study would really look to like what is the highest and best use. What does
it look like. We're simply not there today. Any other questions from the board. No. All right. Any questions
or comments from the public. If you are in person you may approach
We have no members of the public comment on this online for this And seems no public comment in the
room With that you're good you're allowed to If you would state your name at the mic, please sure, my
name is John Santos I'm a business owner in the Kirkwood neighborhood I
I wanted to just point out like a basic concept that seems to be lost is that this is a public You know
Kirkwood is a public access and public parking and the closure Whatever you guys do. I'm okay with that.
Just you know, but whatever is done should be done with the you know with the benefit of the entire
public in mind not five businesses that are financially profiting from it and
while the rest of the businesses are losing parking spaces and these parking spaces aren't replaced.
You know there's not a new one that when they're closed their clothes that's that many less. The more
people that are there the more we will do. What I am seeing is it started for me hearing it from the
customers about them whining about they can't find parking they can't even drive around a block because
of the closure and all that. I didn't think much of it at the first but then I'm seeing
When I walked down Kirkwood 24 7 the dining spaces aren't even being used and there's all these empty
spaces that could have been used by the you know the restaurants and then someone else also pointed
out another issue of Emergencies if there's a fire on one of these buildings, you know, you got to remove
barriers Some of these barriers are concrete Barriers things like that. So that would be an issue
Handicap people I got a friend this handicaps and he can't park in front of the business He wants to
go to because all those spots are taken away on every corner You know if you want to make it a pedestrian
place make it a pedestrian place You know like like your rails to trails or whatever But if it's going
to be shared I mean it's not I'm not seeing it being shared because the only thing place is benefiting
other places using it for dining and
And the cost you know frankly the cost of retail space on Kirkwood is a lot more than what you guys
charge for the for taking that street away. So you know I'm just I'm just here to kind of point out
it's a public thing. Just keep in mind what's actually benefits everybody. I mean I love some of these
restaurants. I like going there. It's nice that they got extra seating so I know I can get a place.
But at the same time
It wasn't their place in the first place. You know it's a place that people should be able to drive
through and park and visit other places. You know a lot of times people are if they're there a lot of
decisions that they might go there for one business but then there's a lot of impulse of decisions on
other businesses to go to too. So just being there convenient you know right now people have to know
the secret places to park and stuff like that but it's still spots are still taken away.
And that's the part. And then summer, it seems great in the summer, but no one wants to be out when
it's raining. No one's going to be out on asphalt when it's really hot. But summers are also the times
when a lot of businesses struggle in Bloomington. So anything that helps them get through the summers,
I think the first three summers for us was disastrous. I think we've been in business for 41 years,
and it was just disastrous. And I've heard a lot of other business owners tell me that, you know,
you'll make enough money during the school year that it doesn't matter if you lose money in the summer
and that was not true. It wasn't until we started breaking even in the summer and making money in the
summer that our business actually became viable year round. So it didn't matter about the students.
It's the town people. I think what helped us through covid was you know a lot of places were closed
and the university was closed and there was a lot of town people that came to Kirkwood and they said you know
It was a great opportunity. It's the first time they actually had parking and places to go. So they
thought it was a great opportunity to try new places. We also survived by you know like what's it called
the curbside pickup which we couldn't have had if we were on a closed street you know but that actually
helped save us. We had a delivery service established but obviously we had no dining anymore or anything
like that and it's nice that you guys
Offered dining for some but only five are taking advantage of it over five blocks. And and that's you
know and they're definitely benefiting. You know that's great. But charging them a couple of hundred
dollars or whatever it is you know is free in the beginning and then I think it's a nominal fee now.
But that's not that's not benefiting the public. I think that's just benefiting certain places. And
that's the only thing I just kind of want to point out is just think in terms of what's really beneficial.
Most of the people are not going to come here when it's sub zero to speak out about it. They're not
going to come during a game night to say but everybody criticizes but they're not going to come forward.
So I thought I'd take the opportunity to come here and just say that. Thank you very much. All right.
Thanks. Any other comments.
I just wanted to add something that we did discuss yesterday, but we didn't clarify today. With the
parklet program, that is looking at the spaces directly in front of the businesses. So if businesses
are opting into that parklet, they're looking at basically the spaces that are directly in front of
their own storefront. They wouldn't be picking other spaces that might impact other
Businesses, they'll be picking the spaces right there in front of their Storefront All right.
Thank you. Do we have a motion? I Move that we approve resolution 2026 dash zero zero six the 2026 outdoor
dining guidelines I Second with a motion and a second. I will call the roll Cox Deckard. I'm Caron.
I motion passes. I
Next is staff reports and other business. Good evening folks. Adam Wason again. I'll try to be brief
as we've got a little longer than we normally do. But do you want to make note of a couple of important
things or not important but recent events. Just want to say thanks to our partners over in Monroe County
government and others. You know we had another tornado touchdown in Bloomington last week and
once again became very lucky as a city proper you know for that tornado to stop to have its last touchdown
right west of I-69 right before city limits over there and the heart of the city just you know just
really recognizing how lucky we were that there wasn't a major incident within city limits there want
to say thanks to our friends at the county.
Humane Association Andrew Krebs and their team dr. Sarah nickel and others doing great work to try to
get that facility back up and running on the west side Partnering help. We're trying to help with the
animal shelter wherever we can there But just want to make note that you know, that's two tornadoes
in almost the same very similar path within a 10-month period so these weather events seem to be more
active and that west side corridor seems to be the hot spot and
Know from personal experience as well that you know, so just you know Thankful to all the crews that
were responding that night public safety all the linemen out there doing the work for the power grid
Just want to thank everybody for those efforts and trying times and a big shout out to Jamie Nibel over
at the Monroe County Emergency Management Agency Jamie does great work to make sure folks are keeping
up to speed with exactly what's going on You know minutes after it was going on. Jamie took my phone
call. We were coordinating So just want to highlight that partnership between the agencies that all
respond and say thanks again and
Of note there is a cleanup that the Van Buren Township is promoting for this Saturday in the area for
residents So if you look up Van Buren Township, whether on Facebook or social medias or their website,
they'll have information but planning a cleanup for This Saturday for the general public to come help
So wanted to make note of that and otherwise I'm you know we had a lot of conversation about snow this
evening and I'm just really really glad we're not in New York City and the East Coast right now seeing
what they're dealing and digging out of. I said my well wishes to our public works friends out East
because it can't be anything but challenging. So that's all for today and thank you. Thank you for your
service. Thank you.
Next we have approval of claims any questions on claims tonight Any public comment on claims Seeing
none is there a motion I move that we approve the claims for February 24th 2026 in the amount of one
million two hundred and seventy nine thousand seven hundred and thirty one dollars and sixty seven cents
Nice second. I will call the roll Cox Deckard. I Caron I motion passes
And with nothing else on the agenda I will call for adjournment tonight.