Okay, it is December 10th, 2025 at 12.05 p.m. This is the meeting of the Wellington Urban Enterprise
Association. Is there anyone on the cats? Just cats? It's just cats right now. Okay, we'll see if Elissa
jumps on that.
Let me start with the roll call. Sure, Dan. Brad, why don't you lead us off? Roll call. Brad Whistler
here. Holly Warren, Economic and Sustainable Development. Deidra Ressa, ESD. Marion Morgan, board member.
Heather Robinson, board member. Michael Huber, board member. Jane Coopersmith, board member. Virginia
Gutierrez, board member. All right, welcome, everyone. All right, Dee, I know we have
It doesn't look like a lot of items, but we have some big discussions in today's agenda, including our
budget, which I know we will get to that. We have a couple of other things, but minutes are first on
the list. Are there any comments, questions, corrections to the November minutes? If there are none,
I would entertain a motion to
Let's move to approve the November 2025 BMA board meeting notes. We have a second. Second. All those
in favor? Any opposed? Okay. She carries. Thank you. All right. Dee, it looks like we have some unfinished
business. Do you want to talk about that? Yes. So our unfinished business is the historic facade grant
for First Christian Church. The last meeting we
Discussed our scoring rubric and kind of the bounds in which we have decided to evaluate grants as they
come to us. As First Christian Church is just outside of the geographical boundaries of the BUDA, but
provides a lot of services for the area and for BUDA residents. We're taking this into consideration
for a $40,000 request.
To for me from your work on first Christian church. We've kind of seen this a couple times. I don't
know how far you want me to go through the grant application. But I hope everybody's reviewed it and
open to discussing. Well, I think 1 of the pieces, if, if I can just recall from our last meeting when we.
And Alex was great. She provided some clarity for us and how the bylaws are written. And I think we've
had as a board questions around, you know, can we fund things that are outside of the boundaries of
the UEA? And we've kind of been back and forth a little bit on that. And last year we had a couple of
situations where we said, no, just this request is outside.
of the zone and based on how we were interpreting the bylaws, we did not. But with this interpretation
legal, I should say legal guidance and interpretation of the bylaws, what we determined that there were
three specific areas that we could consider. That would be if we're outside of the zone area,
Does the request aid employment of zone residents? Does it improve the physical environment or does
it encourage retention turnover capital in the zone, even if it's outside of the zone? And the conversation
and why we asked you to bring back the request today from the church is that we said, you know what,
we think that
this just being outside of the zone, but does fit into this criteria that we could say that this long
standing institution is a benefit to the zone based on this. And therefore that rubric, which Steve
put together is very helpful. And I think that that will aid us moving forward and will create clarity.
So that's just kind of a little bit of the background from last month. And so,
I will kind of leave it there and others to comment. I would support this grant. They're a great partner
in. Addressing some of the needs of the house folks downtown and because they are just basically abutting
the orders, I think this is a really reasonable. Request fully support it.
Other thoughts or comments or. I agree well. Sorry, I missed the last meeting, so I hope I'm not. Being
redundant, but. My concern is just that we're consistent in the way that we're applying this and that
and we're being clear and transparent to the public about it. So if if in fact we're adopting this new
guidance as our official policy and that is.
clear on the website to anyone who's going to apply, and those conditions are consistent, then I don't
have any objection to it. My problem all along was that we say no to some people because they're outside
now. We say, yes, this is what we need. I just want us to be consistent. So is there any kind of update
about how we're presenting that on the application?
There's no official, and I'm happy to do this, and this is something I think that all of the, now that
we do have a sparring rubric, that's something that we do need to let people know. It's like, hey, this
is how we base our, how we decide that you're going to get a grant or not. So that will be incorporated
with all of that, and all of the grants do need to be updated in general. Could we add just a paragraph
or something to the VBA page, which I know is really in fact,
The statement about eligibility criteria, that is a quote of Alex's. Yeah, sure. That's what I'm looking
for. Because if you go to the application page on the website right now, it says available to. And if
I were outside the zone, I would just walk away. Yeah, right. Okay, excellent.
This might be something for another time. I don't think it's directly related to their request, but
I think that let's say for instance, they did have some type of emergency need because they do serve
a lot of unhoused. Would there be anywhere in the grant where if they were just on the border of the
zone that it would be OK that the board could make a determination that it would be an emergency or
would that be muddying the waters too much? Because I mean, I think there are times when
You know, that could be a consideration also, but I don't know. But consistency is important. So I was
just saying there would be a time pressure factor as well as the location that possibly the time pressure
factor, or maybe they're providing some unusual service that actually is going to be extremely beneficial.
to a lot of people who were in the zone. And I mean, that can happen, especially now in this economy,
in our environment, just in people's, just in the world itself. And I can see those types of things
potentially coming up. But if we're... It makes me nervous from a management perspective, just that
like, if it's not exactly within our guidelines, like we, I think you retain a lot of flexibility and
have the how about
Like what people can do with the funding, even within our specific grant programs, but if we're making
exceptions for specific organizations, I feel like that could really get us in trouble. Okay. And a
number of levels. So I, I don't, I wonder if there are other ways we could address. Okay. I appreciate
that. That would fall off in our rule set. So we need Deacon. Yeah. Okay.
But that's maybe responsiveness. You want them to be able to be responsive. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean,
I agree. It's hard because people can start talking and then, you know, I had an emergency too and we
served this many people and so it could get so at the end of the day, you know, following the rules
is what you have to do. I mean, I make my students do it, you know. I mean, they have all kinds of crazy
things. Listen. Yeah. All the record. We can talk about it another time over there.
You know, you got me consistent, so I get it. Well, I think that brought me to a really good point,
Dean. It sounds like you've already got that on your radar. Making sure as we get into 2026 and these
online portal is consistent with the updates and the clarity that Alex provided for us and these three
criteria along with that rubric so that it will
For those that would like to apply, they'll have an understanding of how these decisions are made. I
think the transparency is always the path. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it is time for some of the,
I mean, every year I am trying to improve upon the grant programming that we're doing and trying to
make it more clear and trying to learn from the mistakes that, you know, maybe could come about or
things that were unclear before in the application process, because it makes my job easier when it's
like, oh, this can just go straight to the board. This is fine. And not that I don't love speaking to
the people, because I do. It's fun talking to people about their projects. But sometimes I realize,
oh, that should have just been in the grant guidelines. So yeah, so I appreciate that. And yeah, there
will be some updates on that. Sure.
Are there any other comments, questions, thoughts about this? Mary, I think you essentially made a proposed
approving this. So I don't know if we, is that human emotion? Do you want to answer? Sure. That's the
word I was looking for. Move to approve. What is there? Historic beside. Move to approve the historic
beside crest.
Grant for First Christian Church. Do we have a second? I'll second. All those in favor say aye. Aye.
Aye. Are we opposed? All right. Yay. Okay. All righty. Good deal. So we are going to go back to the
video. Okay. It's time for the budget.
Do you let's let's talk about we get to that part.
Okay, for this year's grants. Oh, that's right. This year's grants. I'm so sorry. Yeah, so I forgot
that Holly needs to talk about this year's grants before we talk about the 26th grant. So, Holly, yeah.
So this is for spending the rest of the Arts Commission Arts Grants Fund. So every year the BUA allocates
$50,000 and trusts the Bloomington Arts Commission to do a rigorous review
process for two grant categories each year to allocate that money. But then we always come back to you
to make a recommendation and get them approved before we send those MOUs and money out. So our first
grant cycle of the year was our Zone Arts Project Grant Cycle. So this is for organizations
artists, arts groups, working within Bloomington to create really public facing programming for our
community. As part of that cycle earlier this year, the BUAA allocated $27,983. Thank you very much.
For this current operations grant cycle, I'm proposing that the BUAA allocate $23,500 in arts and grants to
501 C threes who have arts focused missions and
The way we judge these grants is they're available for any arts-focused 501c3 whose annual operating
budget is $500,000 or less. We can award them up to $5,000. When we are reviewing these applications,
we review them for organizational capacity. We make sure that they have what it takes to get the work
they tell us they're doing done and community impact. Again, we always want to award the groups that
are doing enough for as much for our community as possible.
Again, we're looking for folks who facilitate involvement in arts and cultural activity, provide an
opportunity for folks in our community to participate in the creative process, advance the quality of
arts and the availability of arts in the zone specifically for more product money, and then just celebrate
and enhance the identity of the zone. Again, we are recommending an allocation of 23,500 for this cycle,
and I've included in this packet a list of everyone. I'm happy to go through those. I know sometimes
when we're trying to stay
money y'all can just tell me what you think ask me questions about that I do want to point out though
with that twenty three thousand five hundred dollar allocation I'm a little over my fifty thousand dollar
budget there's an additional one thousand four hundred and eighty three dollars and I'm proposing that
we pull that additional fourteen hundred and change from the fifteen thousand discretionary spending on city
Let arts initiatives lines in our arts and culture budget. That's what I'm proposing. We pulled that
additional funds for it because we haven't spent any of it yet. So I'll start stop there and you ask
me any questions you have. So the amount would be. Overall, if you approve this entire thing, the overall
amount would be fifty one thousand four hundred eighty three dollars. Okay, yeah, and that's it that
fifteen thousand that you're going to pull the extra out from.
Is also correct. Yes. I look through the list. I fully support the organizations listed here and I'm
sure I know you have committee and you do the due diligence and reviewing those applications and so
forth. I don't really have any questions.
And then the other thing I wanted to point out to you all is one thing we realized is that four hundred
or four thousand dollars was never paid out to the Lotus Festival last year as part of their operations
grants. And I think basically I think they just dropped the ball and it fell out of my head and I never
followed up from them to get their Ugarify form. That grant period is basically still active.
My recommendation is, again, we draw from that $15,000 line in the BUA budget for this year to be able
to give them that money. Again, I think that they serve this community in a very good way, and I would
like to be able to give that money to them if possible. But again, I will leave that decision to you
all. Yeah, I mean, if they were awarded the money and it just simply didn't, the administrative side
of it didn't happen, I don't think that
They shouldn't be penalized for that. I mean, those things do happen. And you said they were the ones
that noticed this. Yeah, so basically, I'd be shocked. And I was like, if this happens every year, you
always have to remind people, especially for the E-Verify, because before this year, you had to have
a document notarized. And it was just a pain in the butt. So I followed up with it and was like, hey,
just a reminder. You didn't need this. And they didn't respond. And then I think I was like, OK, move
it over here. What's the crisis?
So, has there been a change or anything? Last year there wasn't a leadership.
change that I know of. I think there might have been some staff change, but yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah.
Yeah. This seems like... Yeah. Yeah. I'm surprised too, especially, you know, having the table. Yeah.
Having worked with them pretty consistently, you know, it was surprising. Yeah. But yeah. It happens
sometimes. Yeah. Okay. That was improved in 2025? That was improved in 2024.
Yeah, but the grant period goes through the end of 2025. Yeah. And for the 2024 balance for the arts
and culture grants, it looks like, and this is from the budget versus balance sheet, it looks like there's
about $28,000 of unspent funds. So there's room in there to cover it.
Okay, so if the grant period is the end of this month, then maybe this needs to happen. Yeah. Yes, that's
so they receive the money and spend the money. Right. Exactly. And I anticipate that they will be able
to do that because the grant was written for this year's Lotus Festival. So, I'm sure you'll just reverse
them for expenses from that festival. Okay. All right. Any other questions on the grants?
So, it looks like it'll end up being a total of 55, 483. Yes, that right. Okay. We have a motion to
approve motion. 2nd.
And I think we've had Felisa joining us, so we'll need to do around the room again. Hi. Sorry I'm late,
guys. Hi. That's OK. Do you want to start for the approval of this grant? Yes. Felisa Spinelli, yes.
Mary Morgan, yes.
Heather Robinson, yes. Michael Hover, yes. Jane Cooper-Smith, yes. Virginia Gidear, yes. All right,
thank you all so much. It was a long way this year with all the tests we're seeing statewide and federally.
Yeah, for sure. Thanks, Holly. Thank you, Holly. Thank you. OK. All right, now it's budget fun time.
It's budget time. Where do you want us to be on the summary? Yeah.
If you'll note, I did send updated pages today. I received the financial statements from November, yesterday
evening after I met with Heather. And so I updated those numbers. So we have actual numbers as to what
our income really was, and that kind of changed things a bit. And then after meeting with Heather, you
can see that the first table is a little bit different.
exactly how much is going out without pulling from our cash reserves. So the proposed budget totals
$696,000. It's $609,500 and $3,000. Wow, guys. I was really late doing this. I'm so sorry.
And that's six hundred and ninety seven thousand dollars that has this running at a deficit of about
two hundred and seventy seven or two hundred seventy eight thousand dollars for the year. If you'll note.
In 2025, we were supposed to run at about $176,000 deficit. However, from all of the back pay that we
received from Catalan Novo Nordisk, the total income for 2025 was $834,000. So substantially over what
we thought, where we thought we were going to be at the end of 2025. I feel comfortable.
with running this deficit, and I will show you why in just a moment. We can get into the details, but
I want to show you the overview of this because I did update the budget pages. And let's see, I think
this is the important one. Sorry, I'm bad at navigation. Let's see if we can make this bigger.
So these are the running totals for the past 2023, 2024. We were at a surplus of $175,000 in 2023,
or $170,000 in 2023. We ran a very small deficit in 2024 when everything was all said and done. And
as you can see in 2025, we are
running way above our expected spend. Can I ask a question? Yes. That payment from that particular filer,
what year does it go back to? It looks like back to 2023, doesn't it? So we got payment for 2023, but
there was no payment in 2022.
or I'm sorry, no, they were paying all the way up to 2023 and we didn't get payment for 2024 and the
numbers for 2023 were off by a few hundred thousand. Okay, so the 2023 net income here, positive net
income is the total income is low because it was missing the payment that we received in 2026. So I
guess what I'm trying to say is the,
surplus that we saw in 2025 really kind of would be allocated over 24. Yes. 23. Yes, because so I can
run up to the top of this. Yeah, I mean, I don't know that I need that many weeds. I just sure it's
not a problem. So if you see the zone membership
fees right here, we didn't get paid for anything in 2024, and we ran a very, very short deficit. We
did get paid in 2023, but it wasn't the correct amount. So running that very short deficit with not
being paid, we did a pretty good job of running the numbers and running the money correctly. And then
that 2025 year to date, so then we see an increase in 2025 because that, in spite of other
Ease of throwing off that filer had additional major investments that they're claiming. Yes. And then
2025 reflects back pay. So 2026 is really just reflecting increased investments at that site. Yes, that's
the projection for that. Okay, thanks. This is all cash basis. So,
That's kind of just the basic summary of the deficit that we're looking at running at. Getting into
the weeds, so expenses. Administrative allocation of $168,000 for management of the BUBA. This includes
an increase of professional services and staffing.
insurance, accounting, advertising, marketing, the technology resources and overhead used by city staff.
Just for that part, the fees that the VA had been paying in the past were not adjusted for COLA. They
weren't adjusted for staff increases as far as wage and things like that. So it was time to just update
that agreement. So we figure out the numbers for that. You can get into the leads in that just a second.
And then you all have been so supportive of me over the years and I greatly appreciate it. And I have
been talking about adding an additional person to help me out. So I have included $25,000 for
an administrative consultant to help me with some of the work that we're doing.
So that's administrative and staffing. And Dee's using the word consultant deliberately because to add
a staff position, it would have to go through a full process with city council and an appropriation
ordinance to create the position. And we can do that if the board thinks that's necessary. We just can't
do that until next fall when we run through the budget.
process. So I think Dee's idea is to use this funding to hire someone who can help administratively,
but on a consultant basis. Yeah. And this is a good trial run. So if this becomes successful and we
do want to put it in the 2027 budget, then we have a clear understanding of what that person's role
will be and how they can assist. So
kind of thinking of it as consultant pilot sort of situation. And having a staff person, I mean, through
that process would be more expensive, I assume. It is, yes. This would be a W-9 employee. This, yes,
this will be like a 10 and a 9 employee. Okay. All right, yeah. Moving on, arts and grants education.
$92,000, $93,000 in programming for resident education, expanding K through 12 education support, $56,000
in entrepreneurship for programs and scholarships benefiting business, education, technical assistance,
and entrepreneurship.
About 260,000 for arts and culture initiatives and that does include the hundred thousand that we had
allocated for 2025 for the arts incubator and we'll talk totally about that in a little bit.
And then zone improvement, 120,000 in grant funding to directly assist small businesses and nonprofits
with physical improvements emergency assistance and assistance, financial aid, and an appropriation
of $20,000 to sustainability to fund to seal energy efficient grants.
specifically targeting zoned residents. This climate and sustainability line had been in the 2025 budget
and it went unspent and now it is officially dedicated to something. And then the one-time expenses
of converting around $100,000 of existing loans held since 2020 for the rapid response fund grants.
We did talk about the income a little bit before. Like I said, it's about $134,000 and the projected
gross income just for 2026 will be around $519,000. Did you remind us what amount is in our reserves?
We have about $3.4 million. I was just looking at that on the balance sheet.
from last month. I'm in on that too. From October, I don't know the number. Sorry, I said that.
Almost $3.5 million in total current assets will discharge. Yeah, it's over.
It's over 3.5, but we're going to discharge several of those FFBs. So we just kind of look at like cash
and deposits and so forth, 3.49 million in that range, at least in October. So it's a solid amount of reserve.
So that's going to be that's going to be decreasing to roughly what? Well, if we get this charge, a
hundred thousand dollars, it looks like he has a hundred thousand dollars, which is included in those
total expenses. So the net income, there we go. Two, seventy seven, five or three hundred thousand.
So that would.
essentially since we are, the operation is on a cash basis that would technically if every single thing
spent that's been budgeted and every dollar that you've forecasted. So that would be cash. Yeah, I mean,
it's all just cash. It's not technically reserves as far as it's structured. It's just cash that sits
in banks and there's some CDs or something so there's,
You have that, but as far as just cash that you- And that wouldn't affect the interest income much at
all then? Not for that. Although the rate cut, there's another rate cut, so interest is going down.
The earnings in general. So if you're in the bond market, think about it. The bonds were great a year
ago. So we would see
a reduction in the cash that's sitting there. But as far as the interest that we're getting on it, it's
still substantial. It almost makes up for losing the $100,000. Could you also remind us what percentage
of your time is BUAA? About 40%. Okay.
I asked Dee to track all the staff hours that go into it. So she, Alex, me, I was pretty nominal, our
administrative coordinator, Susan Coase. I don't know if you all have met her, but she's one of the
people that makes it happen. She's awesome. And then Cheryl Gilliland, right? I don't know if Holly
was in there. So she looked at everyone's
labor hours according to their salary along with a technology percentage that came from the ITS department
and calculated that along with the COLA for 2026. So it's a real number that's there. And then the idea
with the support person is just that even at her 30%,
there is more work to do here to truly market the organization and successfully get the funds out. So
I think there's a lot of work to do on top of that. But we don't want to pull Dee away completely from
the small business work she's doing across the whole community, which is really important. Yeah. Thanks.
So, yeah, as we get into this ministry, so thanks for going through that Jane. I appreciate it. And
we do have more breakdown of that if you'd like to see those individual numbers. So, that agreement
ends up coming out to about. Ninety thousand dollars, which is a little less than, or I'm sorry, a little bit.
Yeah, a little bit less than doubling of what it was before. I think that when you look at the cross-study
and how our wages went up considerably. And so to reflect that and bear some of the cost, it only seemed
right. $25,000 for the administrative consultant.
Do's and subscriptions, we put 2,800 in there and that is actually talking about the IT costs specifically.
So, you know, that's us using DocuSign and Dolby and all the other little things to get this thing going.
It looks like our insurance expenses will remain about the same. There was no indication that there
would be increase on accounting and tax services.
Project administration has been increased about $5,000 to do a thorough, you will see in the packet
that there is some projection in there for the next five to 10 years. It's a pretty rough, they're pretty
rough projections. We'd like to do something in depth for a five-year projection.
The $10,000 to support marketing is expanding of programs, of programming. So that's all of our grants,
all of our business incentives. And I'm getting assistance through Ivy Tech to do that. And I mentioned
that a couple of meetings ago that we had been working on kind of a short-term strategic plan for the
marketing. So that's where that's happening. Miscellaneous expenses.
is exactly what it is. It's something offset. We need to pay for it and pull it out of that. All right.
Any questions about that part? It might be helpful to leave that on the screen a little longer, just
because there's a lot of information in there. And then just projecting out.
Whenever there's an increase in personnel, like future years, that's a commitment, right? And we're
confident that on the revenue side, we can support that. At least that's what our best guess is now.
That's what our best guess is now. The projections, and I had Stone Municipal Group help me out with
those projections. They helped me out with the eases. Those projections are out to
33 or 36 or something to that effect. Actually, let me scroll down to, let me get to those so you can
see that chart. Oh, I hate this thing. I'm sorry. Jesus, I'm good at technology, but you have no idea
how bad I am at it. This is probably a good one to look at.
Okay. And this is post-SEA 1 or? Yes, this is post-SEA 1. To cover that super quickly, I make brief
mention of it close to the end of the budget memo. But most of our income from property tax is coming
from real estate property tax, not personal property tax. So the hit that we got from SEA 1 is not as
bad as we thought it might be. It ends up being about $12,000.
So not, not related, not, not relating to terrible. So this chart shows the eases that we have right
now. If we do not add anything, if no additional. Companies decide to sign on to the participation fee.
So this is just the life cycle of the current eases. Absolutely. So that, that cliff.
Really reflects like we did nothing, but we did absolutely nothing. We're in our expectation is presumably
we will be the sun. Yeah. And I think there's a huge opportunity in that, uh, real property. I mean,
especially thinking about what's going on in the trades district, you know, what we was going in and
then having some tech investments. And then, you know, there's a new development going in.
adjacent to NOVO. NOVO continues to grow. So I think it's realistic that that revenue would grow. And
so it's great that Dee has these productions from Stone, but one of the line items in the 2026 budget
is to get realistic
What we can do. What's that? 30,000 right there. Yeah. I appreciate that. I felt that's what that might
mean. Yeah. So that was a request just being transparent. Heather and I had a really nice conversation
about like, what is it? What does the BVA want to be when it grows up? Like, what's it doing now? Is
that sufficient? What more could it be doing? Is it being strategic? And it was really just,
I don't know, just good.
conversation that Heather had observed that if we want to think critically about what we're doing at
all, we have to have really good projections for what our gravity was going to look like. Otherwise,
we're just shooting in the dark. So that's kind of what triggered Dee to add that. And that's how those
projections will differ from this.
Yeah. And maybe we'll get some leads out of it too. Yeah, absolutely. And it's a considerable amount
of income, even if we don't do any, like that's a considerable amount of money. So even, even if, even
if 2032 is the drop off, there's still, I mean, we would have, we would have spent a lot of money for
us to be defunct by 2036. We'd have to spend it pretty quick. Um,
Which is not impossible if that's the way that it looks, but I don't foresee that drop off happening.
At least I'm not going to try not to let it happen. That's really good information, Dean. I appreciate
seeing that because it does give us an idea
Now, this year, we do have a couple of expenses that we may not, well, for one, the FSP loans, that's
a unique situation. I have that. It's the $100,000 for the Arts Incubator. I don't want to presume,
Holly, what you might ask in the future, but that may not be an expense that we would have. There's
a couple of $100,000 in there that are special, if you will. But that's still based on those projections
that we were trying to say,
you know, net pretty flat. We're still not, you know, with those numbers based on where our expenses
are now, we wouldn't quite hit that. But to Jane's point, it sounds like there's opportunity and with
an admin helping support you, Dee, and I hope that that too then frees up some of that time for you
to seek the additional ease. It's not like a huge amount of decline. It's not like, oh, we need three
or $400,000.
another 100, another 150,000 would pretty much net us out in expenses. So, you know, something great
to see those projections. And then I think, you know, next year will be an important year for us as
an organization to kind of see how that goes and how, you know, can it ease it.
Can we grow that revenue, what it looks like, with the support that you've got and so forth? So I think
that would be a good year for us. And the good news is we do have the cash. We have the cushion to be
able to say, okay, it's a year transition. We recognize it's going to be a negative budget for next
year, but we've had, you know, if we look at the three years, it was like 500 in the calculation, some thousand.
dollars that we've added to our, basically to our pot of money. So I think we're, we're fine with that,
so. Okay. Moving on to grants, education. I made mention of SEA 1 earlier.
Unfortunately, our school corporation has been hit much harder by this. And I do want to thank the board
for approving an additional $25,000 to go to the MCCSC. That pushes the grant total to $75,000 for 2026
for their emerging workforce technological education grant.
which is great. So what I've done to kind of make that work, I've redirected funding from uncategorized
grants, which perform the DEI training grants, and then unbudgeted grants to hit that obligation. Look
over here. That's the education budget. So to get to that 92.5,
The 75,000 for NCCSC, we have $15,000 for resident economic independence scholarship, which is funny
because I get a lot of them the fourth quarter of the year. So that never changed a couple of times
before I sent you the budget. But that money is dedicated. And then Lemonade Day, which is a nice favorite
to participate in and give money to.
Does anyone have any questions about the education grants? Oh, and one other thing I did, this is broken
out into education and entrepreneurship before there was a combined category because we had an SBDC
in there. This just kind of cleans it up a little bit so we know where we're putting those funds directly.
I'm just curious, Andy, on those,
Um, scholarships and, and I always support the $15,000 mountain mountain here, but it just, it just
doesn't look like those funds are really being tapped at that level or utilized at that level. So, um,
knowing that there are other areas maybe where we can always push a little, I mean, I'd wonder if we'd
be seeing that by five is.
Something that I consider. I want to push back on that just a little bit because we because we're devoting
so much money to marketing right now and marketing these programs. I'd like to try and do the 15,000
again this year and if we see that that's still an issue, then I then I will definitely take
into consideration lowering the lowering. I think that's a great use of a consultant. Yeah, I think
we can do it. I think so too and I really this is why I'm really excited about having a consultant because
It's not so much that it's not difficult to get the grant together and get all of that stuff together,
but it is time consuming because there's checking and making sure that, you know, it's like, okay, well,
I need this form now and that sort of thing. So having an additional person to help me get those out
and the sooner somebody gets one,
the sooner they're gonna start talking about it. And I need people to start getting them and talking
about them because that's how I get rid of them. Maybe a neighborhood, like if your time is freed up
from pushing paper, you can do things like go to the neighborhood association and talk about the program.
I think there's just, it's hard for people to understand the footprint and what it means and what they
can get out of it. Yeah, absolutely. So, all right. And when you say that's the, oh, I'm sorry, Regina.
Oh, no, I didn't have anything.
Is that the same for the business economic enhancement scholarships there too? So you're yes, both of
those you would put into that same. Yeah, I really want to push the scholarships more the individual
scholarships more this year. I think that that's that's a very reasonable goal with some additional
help. Okay. Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, those are.
Yeah, love to see all of those grants. Now that we have deployed a fair number of staff on diversion
and prevention, I think that one of the clients they're working with would be great candidates. Oh,
yeah. So I'd love to just help push that out. That's great. All right. Okay. All right. Moving on to
entrepreneurship.
I'm going to have to leave that one. I'm really sorry. But I think you have a quorum. Yes, because Felisa
is here. So we are good if you need to go.
So our budget commitments to entrepreneurship direct this board an hour to around 50 zoned residents
through an annual allocation of $45,000. And I didn't finish that statement. I'm so sorry. That goes
to Cook Center. Cook Center Ivy Tech has been an invaluable resource. I think I probably talked to Steve
at least four or five times a month.
directing people to him and they keep great records of who's in the zone and how they're assisting them.
And so we can get some good data from about our residents and our entrepreneurs in the zone. The 2024
and 2025 funds were spent in 2025. So the expenditure there,
for the grants is a little bit higher than annually. So it ends up being, we missed the payment in 2024.
So we paid them for both 2024 and 2025 this year, which is why that line is high. However, we have allocated
the $45,000 for next year as well. Additionally,
Some of that marketing work and consultant work to get scholarships out there and all of that is going
to be wrapped up into the 2026 agreement with Cook and Ivy Tech.
they've been great partners to us or we've been great partners to them and they would like to return
the favor. So that will be incorporating that into the proposal for next year. So that $45,000 will
directly help the BVA as well. We talked a little bit about the business enhancement scholarship for
economic development courses, business workshops, and professional organizational membership dues or
conference registration. I didn't
use a lot of these this year. I think I had more last year. I really like this scholarship, and I would
love to give out so many more. That allocation for this year is $10,000. And then the zone day passes,
we actually have been having people use them, and I completely forgot to ask Victoria before I left
the mill today how many had been utilized.
I do think that these are great and I think that marketing means is going to help us a lot. This is
only about 50 passes for the year. The membership is quite expensive and a day passes kind of costly,
but I think that's a good resource if we can push this out. Maybe even potentially doing a combination with the
Um, scholarships that we have. Yeah. And unpacking out a little more. This program is really important
for helping entrepreneurs have a sense of belonging. So entrepreneurship can be a lonely activity or
starting up a nonprofit can be a lonely activity. And so having access to a place like the mill,
I don't know, beats down any kind of imposter syndrome, people, community, adds to the resources. So
I would also say.
I mean, I think it's a great deal, even at the full membership. I know it's not accessible for everybody,
but for 205 for a month, it's better than having your own office. Yeah, it's cheaper than having an
office. Yeah, for sure. But Victoria and I are working to try and do some more Main Street small business owner.
kind of things there. I know that Victoria Kelly, the head of operations, if you've not met her, she's
fantastic. And I'm really trying to get non-tech small businesses, non-tech small businesses to feel
like they can be there because I think that the misconception of the mill is that it's only for tech.
And that's- They do have a bro culture. There is.
We want all kinds of people to come to the trades. We're doing our part by trying to get people to stop
taking meetings in the mother's nursing home. Victoria's all over. Wow. Do you have any evidence of
people who have
Uh, been awarded the day pass to then get a membership. I didn't have any, um, I used to talk to Victoria
about that because that would be interesting. Um, yeah. And right now there's no, like, there's no limit
on how many day passes you can get for the year because we haven't expended all of them at least since
I've been here. Um, I think that if we see, I think that.
Victoria's good about keeping your eyes open about that stuff. So we'll we'll see how that pans out.
But I'm excited to have some marketing behind it and pushing it on socials and things like that. And
just I'm really excited to have.
Every time, help me out with that stuff because it's, it's very hard to promote a non profit and then
also do a full time job, which I'm sure some of you in this room have actually done. And then, let's
see what else.
I just want to take a quick pulse, D, because I know we've scheduled this meeting to 1.30, but I just
want to make sure we're not going to lose anybody. Is everybody good? Is everyone good? Good until 1.30.
Okay. Cool. Let's try it. Let's shoot for 1.15, 1.20 here. Okay. Sounds good. Where's Holly?
She's on a call. We can always jump ahead. For sure.
Absolutely. So the zoned proof of grants. I am really glad that the board has taken on these grants
and really supports them. These are like the first grants, the first programming that I ever created
when I started here at the city. So I'm glad that you're utilizing them. We'll sit down to here. I did
do a little bit of a decrease on these this year.
Let's see, it was $5,000 out of the accessibility modification. We haven't utilized that a lot. However,
those modifications do tend to be pretty expensive. I didn't want to decrease it too much just because
I was just trying to cut some corners because I saw the bottom number and deficit and was trying to
do my best to not make it any worse, I guess.
So, five thousand dollars there, I added ten thousand dollars to the business building improvement.
We have gone about sixteen thousand dollars over budget this year for that, which I think is great.
I'm happy to add some money to that. The safety and security grant, we did not spend all those funds.
So I dropped it by about 5,000. So the five from the accessibility and the five from the small business
safety and security were put into the business building improvement line.
The $20,000 for the SEAL energy efficiency grant program, which was the sustainability kind of ambiguous
line from last year. And then the direct assistance, small business and community support. I did decrease
that by $15,000. And this, honestly, this is mainly because I don't have enough hands to run another
micro grant program.
of $25,000. I think $10,000 is manageable for me at this point in time. We'll see how that changes with
some assistance, but I thought that just to make sure that I'm getting them out to people in a reasonable
amount of time. So you think the SIL funds, because we haven't, we've had the 20, well, let's see, trying
to figure the years here.
So it didn't happen in 2025. We didn't have it budgeted before that, or if it did, just none of those
funds were spent. We did not have it budgeted before then. So you think that in 2026 there's likelihood
that this will? So this is going to be administered by sustainability. So that is two grants.
They are super stoked that they can have $25,000. Those are actually going to be put out that you can
have applicants for and expect that to be spent. They expended all of their funds for that program this
year, so to have an extra $25,000. I would say we're pretty excited. Who's the staff there now? That
is Sean Mia and Jolie Carey.
And some really very talented O'Neill fellows that make out fantastic, fantastic people. Do you want
me to talk about all of the budget categories under arts?
I'm just going to let you talk about that. Hi, everyone. Thanks for continuing to support the arts.
It means a lot, especially now. We've got just a few different categories of spending that we'd like
to propose for 2026. Again, we'd like to recommend an allocation of $50,000 to the Bloomington Arts
Commission's two grant cycles. Even though we went over our budget this year, I don't recommend necessarily
increasing that budget for
26 because the fact is there are only so many groups that apply within the and so I wouldn't want to
accidentally allocate 60,000 dollars and we only end up spending 48,000 dollars it could happen next
year. So there's that 50,000 and then I'd like to continue to allocate 40,000 dollars to just
city identified arts and culture expenses. And so that would give us, I'd like to continue
to give Constellation Stage and Screen, who runs the Waldron Arts Center, a $25,000 operations grant
again next year. And that's basically, I think what we've learned since we struck that deal
with Constellation Stage and Screen in 2023,
Running the facility is hard, especially if you are a theater group who doesn't have knowledge of how
to run an individual arts gallery, which they have done a magnificent.
job doing and your building is over 100 years old. So I'd like to allocate of that 40,000 discretionary
spending, 25,000 to constellation stage and screen. And then I'd like just to keep that $15,000 as open
discretionary spending. If like we did this year, we go over a little in our grant allocation. And then
the other field is that $100,000 that you graciously awarded us for 2025 to spend on our arts incubators.
So as a reminder, we partnered with Secret Lease Group to manage 10,000 square feet of their warehouse
down on the B line. We have a great space where we're going to do artist studios. So you gave us that
money at the end of 2024. We have not spent it yet, and I'm going to explain why. So when we asked for
this money, we were
In the process of applying for a ready 2.0 arts and culture grants so when ready released its 2.0
grant funds, the lily kicked in 65 million dollars to give to.
cultural arts and culture sticks and bricks entities, basically. And we had done a feasibility study
in 22 that said you guys need artist studios. So we were getting support there. ROI, Regional Opportunities
Initiative, who is facilitating the $65 million in grants through the IEDC, who is giving the money,
strongly encouraged us to apply. So at the end of last year, we started applying and we needed matching
funds. And so that's when we came
to the BUBA and ask for those matching funds. But we submitted the application at the end of 25, and
we're given a lot of hope that we were going to be a successful applicant. So we were very excited that
we already had the space rented. We were letting artists use it for larger scale projects. And then
The Ready 2.0 folks just kind of pumped the brakes. Nothing bad happened. Basically what they realized
is the IEDC just does not have experience awarding arts and culture grants and they wanted to make sure
that they were giving these funds out and just
The most useful way possible. So they stopped the application process and they hired a like arts and
culture consultant for each of the regions in Indiana to do a cultural planet to identify the
biggest needs in each region. We're part of the uplands region. So IEDC would have a good idea of what
kind of projects they should be looking for for funding going forward. I was made a member of the steering
committee for the consulting group that we were assigned for that project. And they are wrapping their
draft of their plan now for our region.
The top thing they have listed as a need is artist video space. So I'm very happy. So again, basically,
once this report is put out into the public, the IEDC will then reopen their application portal, we'll
all reapply in quarter one, and then we will hopefully get funds. But because there was just this question about
Are we going to end up being a viable candidate? There was a lot of confusion once they paused the project
to like what's going to happen. I was really nervous about.
Spending a hundred thousand dollars on anything that we might just have to give back at the end of twenty
six. So we kind of slowed down our initiatives to do things like put in in a accessible entrance or
install age back or do a lot of programming in this space. But now that we're getting really good indications
again, that we're going to receive the funds. I'm like,
Okay, let's do this. So we now are in the process of working with someone to install an ADA ramp and
we're also looking for someone to help us with the HVAC. We also earlier, well, I guess at the end of
last month, we moved in our, like,
Frontiers artists cohort who are now working in the studio. So we have eight early career artists and
two mid-career artists who are kind of acting as their mentors and they're in the space and they're
working in the space. And we're also doing professional development workshops with them. They will continue
in the space until the end of 2026. So with all this momentum and having renewed confidence that we
will have the ability to really
blow this space out, probably beginning in the middle of 26. I'd like to ask for the ability to keep
that $100,000 for our 26 budget to pay for things like ADA ramp, professional development, and other
build out of the space.
It seems focused on visual arts. We're still trying to determine whether or not we want to do music
and other types of arts. We definitely want it to be a multimedia space. But I think we're realizing
a couple of things while we're working in this space. Number one, sound travels. And so we just want
to be respectful of artists to be quiet.
And the other thing is I realized since we've like been like just kind of building theoretical plans
of the space out 10,000 square feet goes really, really fast. And so we're kind of realizing
that this might not be the space for like a performance venue or something that might have like sound
and everything. Correct, correct. And so we're actually, as we're learning more about what these funds
are going to be available for in the new year, we're thinking maybe this space should be all visual
arts, like visual arts home medium, of course, but maybe we should be putting like sonic things or like
an all-we-do performance venue. Maybe we should be working with another entity to put a grant application
to Ready 2.0 available for that.
Definitely, I would see this incubator space if we were to choose to only do this space for visual arts,
I would still be looking for opportunities to expand to have other sites. I think we could consider
ways we could access ready 2.0 money to do that in the future. Okay. Thanks.
Um, the other like historic cyber outreach every year I say I'm going to move into building improvements.
I'm just going to do that right now. It's funny. I was just thinking, you know, I think that just goes
under there. There. I think it just goes into that. That changes the numbers in the amendment a little
bit. I think that makes sense to put it there.
And I'm glad you mentioned that, because I'm sitting here thinking, you know, we did just approve a
$40,000 grant for the church. And because of how I know the timing of this works and you're operating
on a cash basis here, that $40,000 is going to head into 26. So,
Knowing that we have a $50,000 budget, but technically we would have a $10,000 balance. So I might propose
that we increase the budget of that line item. I know that will increase the bottom line deficit for
next year, but I think otherwise we will find potentially that we'll have, we'll run out of money for
that line pretty quickly.
So I just kind of throw that out there for other people's thoughts on that. Yeah, that's a great idea.
Thoughts about increasing it by the full 40 because to honor them, what D is proposing here, 50,000
next year, or what's the appetite before the increase? Because for every amount we add there, it does
raise the deficit at the bottom.
Just yeah, we've got their 10,000 left over. So really the $30,000 increase. Um, well, to get it to
get off this budget will actually be 40. If we put the full 40 in there, it would increase the bottom
line, but for the budget would go from 50 to 90. So that's a big budget. So.
We would know though that we just approved something that's going to hit next year. So instead of having
a variance in the budget, we're just going to say we've increased this budget because of what we already
know. But again, that grows our deficit at the bottom by 48,000. So just, you know, so then we're over
300,000. Yeah, so we can move that up and come up. So, you know,
You know, welcome feedback on what others are thinking about that. So that makes it 3.17. Yeah. 3.18.
Yeah. I think it makes sense. I don't really have a position to that. In the scope of things, the deficit
based on the cash that is available right now isn't an issue.
if we're running deficits for multiple years, it would become an issue. So because of the net income
we've gained is just this year alone, you're projecting D, is my looking at the right line? Yeah, 428,000.
So it won't even eat up basically what the surplus from this year. So again, just,
knowing that it is a deficit with the net of the past three years positive, is it something that the
board feels comfortable? Otherwise, then we have $10,000 for facade grants. Increasing it to the full
$40,000. Okay. Other thoughts? Anyone?
No, I mean, sitting where we are about cash reserves, I see no reason not to increase that, especially
knowing what our profit is. And I think also because it's utilized. Right. If it were something that
wasn't used, you'd have to try to find money anyway. So I think. And they were doing a really great
job of referring people and getting them through HPC.
To get to get their projects improved. So, um, actually, we, he, there was one that he sent me for this
meeting, but since we were doing budget, I was like, that's gonna have to wait until the first quarter
next year. So, so, yeah, and I think this just really touches on like the.
physical beauty improvement of the buildings downtown, like that fox construction site there on 4th
Street, that building looks beautiful now. It looks pretty great. So it really enhances the beauty of
our downtown too, while respecting the historic nature of many of the buildings we have. We've had many
facade grants this last year, seems to be one of our most popular.
Okay. All right. So, okay. So, um, we've been through arts, we talked about zone improvement, um, and
we can talk a little bit more about the, uh, RF loans. Um, I mean, you guys have approved this, we've
gone through this quite a bit. Um, after looking at what we have left, um, as far as outstanding loan
principle,
it's around 99,900 and something. So I just said $100,000 to take care of the loan principle. When you
do factor in everything, it ends up being around $128,000. What we're talking about, late fees,
all interest, all of that. After Heather and I had a discussion about it, when I figured up the grand
totals, I was factoring in
Every single payment from every single loan that we hold, however, some of those businesses have dissolved.
We're just waiting for paperwork from them to say, Hey, we were not here. So that extra $28, $29,000
is some of that.
Once again, not every single business that applies will be eligible for the conversion. So there may
be some leftover that we'll still be dealing with. That's probably a broader discussion as to what we
do with the outstanding loans because they are supposed to be paid off mid-2026.
So, we'll have to have a discussion as to what to do with those outstanding ones. So, I'm really trying
to push everyone to at least apply. So, we don't really have to take any further action on anything
that's outstanding. And then we discussed the income, we kind of hit that first time. So,
In summary, the 2025 year-to-date income will be $834,000, expenditures of around $405,000. Well, it's
changed now that we put that in. So it's more like $450,000 for the positive balance of more than that.
We're projecting an income of $519,000, suspensions of 100, it's probably gonna be more like 700.
And $30,000 somewhere around there. And then the loan conversion allocation. And so our deficit's gonna
be more like around 300. Yeah, go back down to that sharp D for sure. Yeah, just so we can visually
see it. Thank you. There we go. So since we've added
the facade increase, the grant increase there. I think that gives us a clear picture then of where we'll
be. And to your point, the RF loan may not be the full 100. But I appreciate that it's the possibility
that if every single loan was converted to a grant, this is what it would be. That's what we'd like
to plan for, should that be the case. Awesome.
I know I said we've got one minute. I'm sorry. I don't want to rush anything. D, awesome job in getting
this budget. Thank you for all your thoughtfulness and putting it together and putting the additional
years in there. It's very helpful and information and the charts that you've gathered about the ease
of revenue over the next few years. I think all of that's really fantastic and helpful information.
So if there are there any questions comments or anything else on we need to vote to approve the budget.
Yes, we do. Okay. So before I was. Yeah, before we get you so anger. I'm so like, I already know. I
look at the draft calendar. I already have possible budgets. Second.
Unless there's some serious last 11th hour, we're going to prove this today. Is there any, if there
are no other comments or questions or anything on it, I would entertain a motion to approve the 2026
budget with the adjustment that was shown on the screen of adding the additional $40,000 to the facade
grant line item. I motion. Do we have a second? Second. All right. And then we'll need to do the roll call.
Felisa, do you want to lead us off? Felisa Spinelli, yes. Brad? Brad Whistler, yes. Mary Morgan, yes.
Heather Robinson, yes. Michael Hober, yes. Virginia Gethier, yes. All right, the back of the chair.
Thank you so much. That's great. I think it was going to be a second reading. I feel like there was,
well, and there were some like last minute
like things that happen. Also, dedicating 30 minutes to making sure we have time to go through the budget,
three minutes wasn't a very good idea. Yes, I would recommend this in the future. I actually have put
that into the calendar. So that was like the last part of the business is the draft calendar. All I
wanted to say about that was take a look at it. If you think that there are things that we should add
or things you would like to see, let me know. There's like notes, staff,
board and presentation. So have at it and slowly filling it in. And I will send another back before
our first meeting in January. Oh boy. Oh, right. Thank you. Thank you. Happy.