- Welcome. We're at six o'clock, so we can officially start. I am Mayor Carey, and I have Director Tim
- Street with Parks here with me today. And if you're new to these town halls, these are an opportunity
- really to... I give you an update. I usually invite a cabinet member. We always invite the city council
- member from the district to come as well.
- I'll give an update. Tim will give an update. Councilmember Zulek is in this district and unfortunately
- she couldn't be with us tonight and sends her regrets and wants you all to know that she is available
- to you. So if you live in this district and we're hoping to see Councilmember Zulek tonight, please
- do reach out to her.
- She will be with me tomorrow, and I expect we'll probably have low attendance here tonight because tomorrow
- I have a listening session that is particularly targeted to hearing feedback about the Kirkwood closure.
- So if you're here tonight and you can't come tomorrow, please feel free to express yourself.
- I'm hoping not to spend a bunch of time on Kirkwood tonight, though, because I know people have other
- things they'd like to talk about. So these town halls are really meant for you. I'll give you some updates,
- Tim will give you some updates, but then, you all get to ask questions based on what you would like
- to hear more about. We do try to end on time, and my thanks to the Monroe County History Center
- for hosting us tonight. We do move these town halls around. So we have six council districts.
- We move them. So we hit each council district throughout the year. And on the months that I don't have
- town halls, I instead have traveling office hours. And that's a time that you can connect with me one-on-one.
- We do have you sign up ahead of time for those office hours so that people don't have to be
- standing around waiting for a turn. You know when you will have a chance to sit down with me.
- And as always, thanks to Katz for being here and making us accessible to the folks at home. I wanna
- wish everybody a happy Pride Month.
- In Bloomington, this mayor celebrates Pride Month. I know we've had a declaration of Pride Month that
- also came with a proclamation about nuclear families. And I want to tell you that we celebrate organic
- families here in Bloomington, which is all kinds of families. And love means love here. And we want
- everybody to feel welcome and supported in Bloomington. And I think our community does really
- great job of that. Let me start with a few updates, and I'm going to try to keep this super short, probably
- unsuccessfully. We are celebrating, in May, we had unanimous votes from
- council following the unanimous vote of Plan Commission earlier in the year for the first phase of the
- Hopewell development and we are really pleased with that that will provide compact lots some multifamily
- housing there and of course the core building is
- close to completion, and we're really excited about that. Hopewell is also home to our farmers market
- every Tuesday. Tim may mention that as well. So we hope that you come out and enjoy Hopewell Commons.
- We have it programmed with music every Tuesday night. So it's a great place to hang out, buy some produce,
- and listen to some music.
- I want to talk for a minute about SEA 285. That is the statehouse bill that illegalizes sleeping outside
- on public land. That goes into effect on July 1st, and I am pleased to say that in the past two years,
- we have taken a really strategic approach to
- to entrenched encampments. There were more than a dozen when I took office as mayor. When they become
- unsafe, we have been providing, when possible and almost always it has been possible, we provide a 30-day
- notice along with outreach to the residents of those encampments.
- for services and we have successfully closed down more than a dozen of those camps. There's only one
- remaining and we have already noticed it given the deadline that we have of July 1st. What the state
- house ruling says is that we can then only give a 48-hour notice and if there is no
- no alternative place for somebody to go, or they refuse to move, that we are compelled to arrest them.
- We don't want to be in that situation. So we have, we believe, only seven residents left in our encampment.
- That is less than half the size that it was when we noticed it. And so, what we've found pretty successfully
- is when we send outreach workers
- and work in partnership with the residents of those camps. They do move willingly. We really continue
- our call for reunification where possible. When people don't have supportive services and network here,
- we know that they will get services better.
- if they are close to where their family of origin is or where their most recent supportive network is.
- I wanna talk for a minute about infrastructure and roads. As I mentioned, Kirkwood listening session
- is tomorrow, so I'm not gonna talk about Kirkwood closure tonight. It is construction season now.
- And what I like to say during construction season is sorry, and you're welcome. You will see our trucks
- out, contractor's trucks out. We are spending this year, as of June 1st, we have already addressed 6,242 potholes.
- in calendar year 2026, not that we're counting. And we have $4.7 million of improvements along Kirkwood,
- Rogers Street, Grimes Lane, Patterson Drive, all coming to you this season. That planned work includes
- street paving, some sidewalk improvements and repairs, accessible curb ramps, traffic signal improvements,
- We have curb changes and stormwater infrastructure and median islands and bump outs for traffic control,
- all happening within that $4.7 million. So there's a lot going on in...
- on various streets this summer and thank you for your patience as we work to improve our infrastructure.
- You might also notice that we have a new raised sidewalk or crosswalk across Rogers near near Switchyard
- Park. If you don't notice the signage before you go over it, you will certainly
- notice the raised walk. So that is to encourage people slowing down and pedestrian safety there.
- And again, if you don't know this already, we will be closing College Avenue so that they can complete
- the overpass there.
- And so that's gonna be about a month-long closure. And I know that's a hassle. I am sorry, and we'll
- all be happy when it's done, but we are really pleased to be working in conjunction with the CIB on
- that, and to be able to do it at one of our slowest traffic times of the year. So hopefully,
- those alternative routes will work out for you. Talk a minute about community safety.
- You may have noticed that I chaired a meeting this past week in collaboration with County Councilmember
- Kate Wilts on the topic of the new jail. To be clear, the jail is paid for and run by the county, and
- there may be some things, while it is a county
- project, it's obviously a concern to our whole community. I engaged because it's a community impact
- project, and really, we needed to make sure that the county knows and that we're at the table when we're
- needed, that we're willing to partner in any way we can to facilitate the planning that they need or
- other things that may help facilitate
- ease of finding a new location for that jail. So not our project. I did chair the meeting. I will be
- on the working group. I am looking forward to this renewed collaboration with the county. We collaborate
- on many things. This is a new work topic for us, and I'm really hopeful that we'll make some good progress.
- Fire and police are all
- increasing their staffing. Fire is now fully staffed. Police is getting very close. We have a goal of
- getting police fully staffed by the end of this calendar year, so I'm very hopeful that we'll make that
- goal. Also, just a reminder or a news piece for all of you, if you see people in crisis this summer
- and it is not
- actively dangerous to the public, not a not a threat of crime. You see somebody out in the sun that
- looks like they're having a health crisis, you witness somebody having a mental health crisis, the right
- place to call is stride. So again, no imminent public danger. Desiree at the table over there has stride
- cards. It's a great idea to put
- that in your wallet so that you have the number handy, or you can just plug them right into your phone
- 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They have mobile outreach. They will go to the person who
- is in need and help them, or people can stop by. Again, 24 hours, 7 days a week. They have mental health
- professionals there. They are the right place to go.
- If it's not criminal activity that's imminent threat to the public, please do call Stride because we
- have been much more successful, ultimately, at getting people the help they need by using Stride. I
- am going to turn things over to Tim with one final shout-out. We have lots of great things going on
- this weekend. Friday is Juneteenth.
- a really important celebration, end of slavery. We will celebrate down at Switchyard Park. That goes
- on from 11 AM to 9 PM, so a good day-long festival at Switchyard. It's gonna be a blast. Always a fun
- time for the whole family. And that's on Friday. Again at Switchyard, then, on Saturday, we have Grand Faloon.
- This Saturday, we have Waxahachie giving a ticketed concert. We are really excited about that. And to
- talk more about all the fun things in Bloomington, our Parks Director, Tim Street. All right.
- Thank you. Thank you, Daniel. My name is Tim Street. One person applauded. I am the Director of Parks
- and Recreation. He does not.
- I am the director of parks and recreation for the city of Bloomington. I have a really great job. We
- get to make Bloomington healthier, more connected, and more resilient in a lot of different ways. With
- us tonight is Satoshi Kido, also our sports director. I'll just note that he's here in the audience.
- Satoshi's a great leader for our sports division and is also available to talk if anyone wants to talk
- about one of our sports related initiatives.
- As Mayor Thompson noted, it's a busy time of year. There's a lot going on this weekend. There's a lot
- going on this season. May and June are probably our busiest months of the year in terms of programming
- and things going on and preparations. We've launched our Banneker and Allison Jukebox Kid City summer
- camps. Those are in the middle of going on. We have concerts, a lot of concerts at the Tuesday market,
- as well as events at Switchard. Just this past week, we completed the Strawberry Shortcake Festival, which
- It's not our event, but we get to host it. It's a really big day. They had a 5K as well. Also, of course,
- FoodTrump Fridays are going on through the summer. We've had a lot of great crowds and great energy
- at Switchyard with everything going on. It's also a busy season because it's the season where we are
- most stretched, trying to keep up with e-reports and tree growth.
- limbs that overgrow trails, and all the things that come up during the course of a season that our staff
- are out there really working tirelessly to clean, to trim, to maintain. And we know every May, June,
- we get a little behind. We have to triage and get through things, and then we'll catch back up as the
- summer goes on. So apologies if there's some branches and things like that. We're doing our best to
- get to it.
- We are really excited about the new partnership with IU for concerts at Switchyard. This is a really
- great new mutually beneficial partnership to bring.
- Grand Faloon to Switchyard Park to bring more concerts to Bloomington to create a regional profile where
- people may start to hear about this and recognize the name Grand Faloon even more than they already
- have and travel to Bloomington in the summer to take in some of these concerts. So Waxahachie is this
- Saturday. I'm excited about that. I just found out they're going to be doing a little
- I don't quite know what to call it, but an art light display at the end of the show as well with some
- of the trees, like an LED lighting of the canopy on the way out. Should be very neat. Then in July,
- we've got Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch. And in August, we've got hometown band Duran Jones and the
- Indicators. Looking forward to that. We're dealing with a lot of facility.
- things. We have a lot of old facilities. This has been a big focus of our master planning, which we
- just concluded and adopted to the park board on June 1. A few things with that mills pool has been delayed
- opening this year because as we were filling the pool, it wouldn't fill, which means it had a leak somewhere.
- All of that is underground, we had to bring in a leak detection company to look try to figure out what
- was going on. Analyze of course mills pools from the 60s. There's a lot of
- Generations of wear on the pool, we'll say. The good news is, while I can't say we fixed the leak per
- se, we did enough to mitigate it that we are going to plan to open Mills Pool this Friday for the remainder
- of the season. And we are going to have to look at that more
- as the season ends, though, and bring in the company and take a look and see how we can really work
- on that. That, of course, is not our only old facility. Bryan Park Pool is actually even older, 1957.
- The ice arena, if you know, we had a leak in March, which is something we prepared for, and thankfully,
- it went as it should have, as we prepared for, but we have a working group of stakeholders that Keto
- and others are working with to talk about the future of the ice arena.
- Winslow Sports is another one that we're looking at in terms of just it's been around since the 70s.
- It hasn't had a lot of investment in recent memory. And things are just showing their age. So we have
- a lot of needs. We have a very diverse community that uses different facilities and recreates in different
- ways. Of course, there's pickleball. We always hear more pickleball, too. So what we are trying to do
- with our master planning and with our community engagement
- Right now, we are building a list of all of our top capital needs and basically building a menu of options
- of how we can invest and respond to those capital needs at the pools, at the ice arena, at Winslow Sports,
- all of those things. And spoiler alert, we don't have enough money to address all of those capital needs
- at once. So what we are necessarily gonna need to do is work with our board of park commissioners and
- ultimately probably the city council, office of the mayor, and of course the public on
- what we are doing to prioritize response to these needs and how we will invest in our community offerings.
- So our four master plan goals that we came out of our master planning with for the next five years are,
- number one, we need to have meaningful community impact. That's what I was talking about. We make Bloomington
- more connected, more resilient, healthier, all of those things. Number two is invest in what we have.
- We need to recognize now is the time for us to be investing in things we've had.
- and need maintenance and need care to last for future generations. Number three is financial sustainability.
- We've talked a lot about SEA-1 and its impacts and looming fiscal implications. And number four is how
- we do all that, which is with a strong connected parks staff. So that's a sort of internal focus goal
- to make sure we're taking care of our staff. So I anticipate we're probably gonna schedule, I don't
- have this yet, but after we get through Bloomington summer and get back to school, having a,
- I don't know if I'm going to call it a town hall or a public meeting, but a specific parks board meeting
- about capital investment where we can hear from the public. We can present the preliminary list of needs
- and start to talk about building a package of investment for what we are able to invest back in these
- facilities. I'll just mention a couple more things and then I'll
- turn it back to you mentioned crane balloon. Believe it or not, there's also a Sunday concert at Brian
- this Sunday. So we have that coming up. If you don't know parks manages for Bloomington, we are a tree
- city, the oldest tree city in Indiana. We are a bird town USA. Birds are town for not city for some
- reason. And then we are also a B city. So we manage those three things for the city of Bloomington.
- There are three great
- certifications that just show what we're all about. But June 21st through 28th is Bee City USA and Pollinator
- Week and BioBlitz. So we're going to have a few different fun events. There's going to be one at the
- Lilly Library in collaboration with IU. BioBlitz is going out and identifying certain plants and things
- like that in areas. So there's more info on our website about that. Of course, we're right around the
- corner from the 4th of July and the parade. We will have the parade again this year.
- The parade fell on a Saturday this year and we were kind of trying to figure out how to do market and
- parade at the same time. The good news is we are doing them at the same time. So Farmers Market and
- Fourth of July Parade combined downtown on that Saturday, which I think will be really fun. Farmers
- Market on Saturdays is going extremely well. We love all our vendors, our food and beverage artisans.
- Attendance is great. We think it's such a lively part of the downtown. This Saturday is also Youth Day
- at the market.
- which is really special. We've actually expanded that because it's been so popular where you'll see
- a bunch of the youth of Bloomington selling their wares, whatever that might be. Lastly, a couple of
- anniversaries and things coming up. We're going to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sherwood Oaks Park
- in July. I'm affectionately dubbing that the SO50. So we're just having a little fun with that.
- And actually, Bryan Park is turning 75 this year.
- So we're going to do a tree-related event later in the year in the fall, and we're going to celebrate
- the 75th birthday of Bryan Park. Then lastly, just project-wise, we don't have a lot of active projects
- right now, but we do have the Powerline Trail going in. That is why we put the raised crossing in at
- Switchyard is to better connect, not just for the trail, but in general, bringing pedestrians and people
- safely to Switchyard Park from the west. The Powerline Trail, as you drive by, you'll notice it's going
- to start to be built
- back under the power lines heading to the west to eventually connect with the summit development that's
- out there. But in the meantime, it will connect to RCA Park and the habitat, Osage development. The
- trail will be about a mile long. And a cool feature of it, because we cannot put vertical infrastructure
- in the ground because it is underneath Duke Energy power lines, we are going to be putting glow aggregate
- in the top layer of the asphalt.
- that will charge up from the sun during the day and then glow for a certain number of hours at night,
- just to give a little bit of illumination. And I think it's also gonna look really cool. So I think
- we'll be the second trail like that in the state, which is also pretty neat. I'm very excited about
- the glow rock. Me too, I really wanna see it in action. Jennifer, can I ask for your help? So we have
- this handheld mic. Jennifer will help pass it around for your,
- questions. You don't have to frame it as a question if you just want to hear more about something, whether
- we've talked about it or not. Now is your time. Do you want to go first? Okay. Is that a bid? I heard
- you talk about the
- more police officers now. And so I have a question related to that. As a bicyclist, I've been recovering
- from being hit by a motor vehicle two years ago, and I've been waiting for the day when Bloomington
- vigorously enforces its speed limit. And I've been told that we don't have enough officers, which made
- sense, but now we're getting more officers. But it appears that it's still not being done. So what is
- it gonna take to enforce the speed limit?
- Um, so, uh, we do have officers who, um, you know, enforce a speed limit. Um, we don't tend to have
- enough police to set up speed traps everywhere. Um, but, uh, we are actively pulling people over for,
- um, speed violations and other moving traffic violations, and, um, I'm sorry to hear that you were,
- uh, hit. Um, that is a, um, unfortunately, I-I think, um, there-
- Around the country, we're seeing more of that, and that has to do with many things. Distracted driving
- top among them. So my encouragement to all of us who do drive is to put down your phones and focus,
- and there's no need to go beyond the speed limit.
- And we do have some great bike ped infrastructure here, which doesn't solve all of the problems, but
- we're trying to do a happy medium. I have a question for each of you. So this is for Tim. I think it
- was about two years ago when this is for
- the golf course, Cascades golf course. When Jason was named as the new pro, you had a little celebration
- ceremony for him. There was talk about improvements to Cascades, and one was going to be like irrigation
- of the tee boxes, which haven't been done. When the new clubhouse was built, it was wired for security
- cameras for the parking lot, which have never been installed. So my car got broke into, I had three
- windows smashed.
- over a bag that was sitting there with nothing in it. So the wiring's there, and any more cameras are
- cheap. I have two offices, and one has 12 cameras, one has cost less than $500 for that system. So I
- wonder what kind of improvements are going to be made to Cascades? And what's the chances of getting
- security cameras?
- Great question. I actually have a meeting later this week about security cameras in general that we're
- talking about, and that's gonna be one of the points that we're talking about to see if we can use some
- available dollars that we have, not just there necessarily, and I'm just talking about regular security
- cameras, right, like just video recording. So that will be one location we certainly talk about. I'm
- sorry to hear about the car. In terms of improvements, things that are on our radar for Cascades right
- now, and I just wanna say Jason's doing a really fantastic job up there. He's an excellent manager.
- The irrigation is number one on our list that we're trying to figure out as part of that capital list
- that we're talking about. We're discussing using a revenue bond to basically completely redo,
- which is needed, 18 holes of irrigation. It's very old. Keto, do you remember how old that irrigation
- is on that?
- It's 25-ish years old, the irrigation system, for the original 18, because the other nine were added
- later, as you probably know. I think it's running on, we found out, like, Windows 98 or something like
- that recently. And that took me back. So that's not where we want to be with irrigation. So right now,
- we're talking, I was actually talking to the controller this week about it, we're talking with Reedy
- and Sons about how to work on a revenue bond to use revenue from Cascades to proceed.
- The other thing we're looking at, we're actually looking at partnering with a private donor about a
- new on-course restroom. Right now on which nine Keto? Corey and Ridge. So a new on-course restroom out
- there that would actually be plumbed. And then yeah, the security camera thing is another thing we will
- absolutely look into. I thought about doing a year report for some of the potholes in the golf cart
- path. Well, hopefully they're a little better.
- I am not a golfer myself, so I need to do better getting out there. But I do know we worked with our
- street department last year to pave quite a few sections. But as you know, it's an endless task. But
- we'll have to take a look and see if we can get some more of those filled. OK, so I won't do that now,
- because now you'll know who it is. Yes, no problem. So my question for you. It's OK if we know who the
- you report comes from. There is no shame in making a you report.
- how we create a list of what we need to do. Thank you, Tim. So my question is, when there's multiple
- employees from a department working on a project, what would be a reasonable expected time for a response
- from them? So if you ask for an update, should you hear something in a week? Should it be a month?
- is there any kind of guidelines from that? My... my just sort of common courtesy would be that somebody
- would respond to you within a week to say, we're working on it, at least. I think it really depends
- how complex the project is and what we're talking about. So a general answer would be... common courtesy
- is just to respond, I got your email.
- working on it. But this is a vague question. I can't. Yeah. So then the other part of this was we had
- to go through city legal. And once they did promise the project was approved, or it should be approved,
- and we're waiting on a letter from a department. It took us over three months to get a basic letter.
- And part of that letter, when we finally got it sat on the director's desk for over three weeks before
- the person signed it.
- as we're just, like a weekly basis, just say, hey, can we get an update with no response? So just putting
- that out there that there needs to be a little more communication, maybe, and maybe some oversight of
- when people respond. Yeah. So, Carol, I'll just invite you. You can send me a note if you're waiting
- on something.
- This is very vague, and I can't really follow up on anything this vague, and it's not appropriate to
- be more specific with personalities in a public setting. So this is probably not the right place to
- take care of that, but I am happy to follow up on things. And, you know, there may be a reason that
- something's delayed, and we're happy to try to troubleshoot.
- This is not a question. It's just a recent observation. In fact, I was meaning to talk to the mayor
- about it. We live fairly close together. They marked up the street next to my house for a storm sewer
- excavation. I know for various reasons I won't bore you with. I know what the marking codes are. And
- I called the city of Bloomington, water and so forth. And I got two calls back within 35 minutes. I
- was extremely impressed.
- you're getting good customer service, Ian. I walk my dog past your house almost every night. So he's
- doing great. Yes, I do just want to... I mean, we are really trying to improve customer service all
- over the place, but some of these departments literally get thousands of emails a day.
- So it's a job. Hi. Thank you for having these meetings around town. And I want to do two different things.
- One, as an individual, I can't come tomorrow night, but I would like to say that having worked in downtown
- development and redevelopment for many years, I really want Kirkwood to stay open.
- during the spring, summer, and fall, except when we have special events. That's the way you deal with
- those kinds of things in my mind. So that's my personal. Secondly, as Glenda Murray, president of Prospect
- Hill Neighborhood Association, I do want to say we've worked very smoothly with street,
- the engineering department right now to work on those changes that are happening on Rogers, while Rogers
- is closed now for 14 days, except that we need some more signage. My husband spent a half an hour this
- evening helping a giant tractor trailer back up Jackson Street, which is a narrow neighborhood street.
- And he turned at our house, and I think he looked
- I went running out, because I thought, he cannot do this. We've seen this before. And I was yelling,
- no, no. And he went straight south on Jackson Street, which is a narrow street. And then he was stuck.
- So he had to back up. And it took a long time. And Patrick was even helping him go this way,
- go that way, to get out so that he could go again. So we just need some more signage for the detours. OK.
- I, too, have experienced this summer with a contractor not having any signs up until it's too late,
- and you have to U it. There's not enough advance notice for a detour coming, or there's not enough to
- tell you where to go, or both? Right now, I mean, Rogers is closed as of this morning.
- And I was thinking by mid-afternoon, not too bad so far. We saw a whole lot more people on Jackson Street,
- which is a narrow one-way, not two-way street. But there's not much signage to say where to go when
- you can't go down Roger Street. Okay, great. We'll get some there. Thank you. Hopefully by morning.
- Thanks for letting us know. Thanks. And you can always call
- If there is an issue like that, our teams can get out there quickly. And we don't want the traffic backing
- up because people don't know where to go. So thank you for letting us know. Good evening. I just have
- a quick question for both of you. Let's start with the mayor. How are we doing on the Meridian project,
- the gigabit now?
- as far as how much is laid down and subcontractors and all that issue? So Meridian Project is back.
- After a long pause, we got... we, they got new subcontractors to do the install, and they've been working
- first on fixing problems that were left over,
- And then we'll be moving on to laying new cable and getting things done. I don't know off the top of
- my mind the anticipated completion date, but there is one now. So I can follow up with you on that,
- Christopher. But this has been really a marked difference from the last contractor. We've been working
- really closely with Meridian. You may know that I,
- issued several stop work orders on the last contractor. And we're really pleased to have somebody new.
- And, Tim, I appreciate your candor on some of the capital projects and the financial difficulties in
- SEA 1. Is it on the table from the Parks Board that maybe unloading some of the public land or coming
- up with new fee structures that benefit residents of the city
- Because I've seen a lot of when the financial struggles come that deferred maintenance term comes in
- and it really destroys a parks department Which we've seen a lot of examples over the years, especially
- with the the Great Recession from 208 Yeah, actually The 2008 reference is spot-on because Bloomington
- like many municipalities you can go back There was actually it was a study. I think it was
- out of Pennsylvania somewhere. I want to say Penn State they did a
- a combined aggregate study of municipal park department budgets from, like, 2000 to today. And healthily,
- you know, in the early 2000s, there was typically, you know, maybe a 15%, 20% reinvestment in capital
- every year. And when the Great Recession hit in 2008, 2009, what happened with a lot of budgets, and
- we see it with the National Park Service, we see it other places, in order to continue to operate services
- at a certain level, personnel, supplies,
- contracts, services, the capital line is what was cut. And the percentage across the country of what
- municipalities were putting into reinvestment in terms of capital, dollars, equipment, things like that,
- went down, down, down. And Bloomington was no exception. Bloomington was part of that same trend.
- So now, almost 20 years later, here we are, reaping what was sown with that lack of capital investment.
- It's a tricky challenge because when you have a bunch of deferred maintenance, how do you get out of
- it? How do you break the cycle and start fresh with keeping up with something apart from just building
- something new? Building something new is really exciting. You can get all people on board excited to
- build it, but you've got to also account for the ongoing expenses for it. So that's the puzzle that
- we're working on right now. And I'm sorry, I'm trying to come back to the first part of your question.
- Give me the first part again. I was stuck in the second part. So we haven't talked specifically about
- unloading public property. That would be a pretty drastic step if we said, you know what, we're going
- to take this land out of the public trust and we're going to sell it, for example. We have explored
- that a little bit with some of our assets that are more private or rental in nature.
- and are exploring that possibility. We end up being stewards of a lot of different things for the city,
- but not in terms of just parkland or trails or anything like that. Fee structure, that is something
- very much we're working on is our cost recovery. Oh, and resident, nonresident. That was the other point
- I wanted to come back to. We already do have a fee structure in place that is cheaper for resident,
- nonresident in some ways. In some ways, it's a challenge to implement
- because our software is also antiquated. So we are also looking right now at updating our software that
- we use to register for parks programs to one, make it easier and cleaner and quicker to register for
- parks programs, sports leagues, things like that, to encourage growth and good business and stewardship
- and everything like that. But we're also looking at our cost recovery goals in different areas. So an
- area like the golf course, for example, that is largely private benefit is expected to
- receive close to 100% cost recovery or more. Whereas when we do community event like the 4th of July
- parade, that's for everybody. That's not expected to cost recover. So that's some of the work we've
- been really working on studying and setting new goals. While we're talking about money and repairs and
- things, I started this evening by
- talking about how many potholes we've filled and significant projects that we're doing with sidewalks
- and ramps and repaving. I just want to note that in our state, we have repealed the gas tax. So Governor
- Braun repealed that gas tax. That is money that we use for these very projects. And so, there may be no...
- And you may not feel that hit this year, but you will feel that hit in the future. And so, that was
- done so you don't feel the inflation at the pump as a result of the war that's going on. But I do just
- want to note, people, you know, send lots of angry emails about potholes and other things.
- when they happen, and I'm just laying the groundwork. With SEA-1 and no gas tax, it's a double whammy,
- and you can expect we probably won't be keeping up with roads as well as we have been in the past. Awesome.
- She was noting that the sidewalks downtown have been repaired and they're clean. Paul. Earlier, I didn't
- know I could ask more than one question or a follow-up. I really appreciate what you said about distracted
- driving. Distracted driving and speed, in my opinion, that's 90% of why people get hurt. But I've bicycled
- about 1,000 miles in Bloomington streets this year so far, this calendar year, and I cannot recall one
- police officer pulling somebody over
- that I saw. There may be a philosophical objection to having more policing. I understand that some of
- my friends don't want more enforcement of moving violations. If that's what your administration's position
- is, I encourage you just to say that instead of telling us that you're increasing enforcement when I
- don't see it with my own eyes. Question about the parks. Technical question for you.
- about glyphosate? Do you know how much of it you use, and are there alternatives? First, let me just
- volunteer that about two weeks ago, I got pulled over on Walnut for changing lanes without a turn signal
- with no one around me. So they are out there. They saw me do that. Well, I did not monitor the entire
- police department. Just I'm volunteering my personal experience there.
- try to drive safely. I apologize for not using my blinker. Glyphosate is an important tool in our management
- of invasive species, and we try to balance that, of course, with how we apply it and where we apply
- it. So near water sources, it's particularly sensitive, and we use a particular type of glyphosate.
- And pretty much everywhere, we do not spray
- glyphosate like we are not doing foliar applications of glyphosate. Instead, what we generally do is
- cut stump treatment. So, for example, when we are taking on Asian bush honeysuckle or autumn olive or
- some other similar woody invasive herbaceous plants.
- Staff go through and volunteers, we have a massive weed wrangle program as well who help us go through
- and cut, identify, you know, get those out of there. And then while it's a fresh cut, the glyphosate
- is applied with blue dye to the stump itself. So that glyphosate goes directly into the root system,
- not out and about and around. So recognizing we have an integrated pest management plan that actually
- we're working on a periodic update right now.
- Glyphosate's not the only thing we use, but in talking to our urban green space manager and our natural
- resource manager, and in terms of their keeping abreast of best practices in other places, it is still
- a very important tool for us to use to combat some of those invasive species. Any final questions from
- people who have been quiet so far? There we go.
- I had two things real quick. One, I do not work for Tim, but I have met and worked with him and I do
- appreciate him, so I did want to put that out there. But I did want to say I really appreciate all the
- events and happenings at the parks and through the city. The ones I want to go to the most, I always
- have a conflicting
- thing going on, but I love being able to see how much is going on, and I really appreciate it. So I
- just want to let you know I think that is fantastic. I love it. I tell everyone I can, and we try to
- tell all our visitors to the museum about everything going on at Bloomington. And just having that stuff
- helps us as well. So I just wanted to say thank you for that. The other question I had, and I realize
- I may not get an answer today, and that's perfectly OK. As I live on the East Side and I try to frequently
- bike to work,
- I know everyone's gonna be shocked. It's always move in and move out. But there are so many times cars
- are just parked in the bike lane. And I usually, when I'm on my bike, I don't know if I can even get
- a ticket for texting while biking. I don't wanna find out, but I always feel like when I'm way down
- somewhere, by the time I arrive here safely out of a way, anytime I'd be able to do that, I feel like
- by the time anyone got there,
- the car's not gonna be there, so I'd hate to waste any police officer's time going somewhere where the
- person is gone, and as much as I'd love to be deputized to be able to hand out tickets to those people,
- I don't think that's a feasible solution. But I'm just curious enforcement on that, like what's, because
- it's not, those are the primary two times, but there's times throughout the year people park there,
- those throw flashers on, and I see someone like checking
- addresses obviously for delivery of sorts and it's just difficult because I'm not where I'm supposed
- to be as a cyclist and some of those streets just get narrow. So I'm just curious, that's all. Yeah,
- so I'll tell you Daniel, we'll
- We'll take ideas on this. We have had parking enforcement try to patrol those areas more frequently.
- We and we've been trying to notice times of day. It's mostly a problem, you know, things like that.
- Police obviously will
- ticket if they see it. But again, it's, you know, even if you stopped and called while you're on your
- bike, it's probably somebody running into a building to do something and running back, and it's the
- rudest place to park. So really, if you have better ideas, we've really been trying to step up enforcement
- on that. Because it's also dangerous. I mean, I know
- I know all of our cyclists pay attention, but sometimes when I'm commuting, I'm going at a pretty good
- clip, and I'm sort of like, okay, I'm in a bike lane, and then all of a sudden I look up and there's
- a car. So it can be very dangerous. So anybody listening at home, please don't park in the bike lanes.
- That's not what they're for. And again, outside of increasing parking enforcement and police enforcement
- of that, really open to ideas.
- It's a challenge. Yeah. Another one here. Hi. Hi. In a succinct nutshell, what is your overall vision
- for the progression of Bloomington as a whole? Awesome. Bloomington will be a city that
- where anyone can find a place to belong safely, and we'll have a thriving downtown that has a balance
- of economic development that supports a great quality of place and quality of life. Is that succinct?
- Not detailed enough, though. It's very broad. It's beautiful.
- thriving downtown, people belonging, community, especially in this age, a lot of people are... isolated
- in certain ways. I know I feel it. So I explore a lot of different places, trying to find connection
- and warmth, whether it's the park or various spiritual places, and here, today.
- seeking to kind of forge community, and that's really it, building the bonds of community. And I'm a
- very spiritual man, so that's... but I think there's a separation of church and state, I guess, in your
- philosophy. But I like to see our institutions transmit a sacred respect to the land and people,
- I think that should be imbued in institutions, but something to think about. Yeah. Thank you for coming.
- I hope you do feel welcomed here and happy to connect with you afterwards. You know, some of the things
- that you said are really important as we move forward. Our former Surgeon General,
- our biggest health crisis is a lack of human belonging, right? So we're lonely. And that was exacerbated
- by a pandemic, of course. But in a city, you know, part of my job is with public safety is to make sure
- people feel and are safe. So that comes up with
- with cyclists and pedestrians, but it also comes up with what you believe and what you look like and
- where you feel like you belong. And belonging is a much more complicated thing. And so, as a person
- who has been a student of community building most of my life, I really think that
- things like our parks, all of our sort of third places, so not home and not work. Creating enough of
- those, but not so many that they're not populated, is really important. And then, having the expertise
- to think about how those places are built, so that they encourage interaction and belonging, and,
- you know, as with parks, and maybe a place that you can find some serenity and solitude if that's also
- what you're looking for. So, you know, we are going to be talking a lot more about how Bloomington,
- we have branding that is forthcoming,
- And a major theme in that branding is that Bloomington always has been a place where you can find an
- amazing array of really gifted people in a million different topics. And you never know. I had one meeting cancel,
- on Tuesday last week, and I scooted over to the IU outdoor pool to get in a really fast workout. I only
- had an hour, so that means like a 20-minute workout. And I get in the pool, and I realize I'm swimming
- with an Olympic gold medalist. And she didn't kick me out of the lane. But these are the kinds of collisions
- that happen in Bloomington, where a middle-aged person can swim with an Olympian.
- and where our entrepreneurs bump into professionals who may be researching the solution to the problem
- that they're trying to solve. And so what we do as a city is to help foster that human potential and
- help foster those creative collisions. So thanks for that great question. We're trying to get
- better at it, and we're happy to have more voices at the table. So thanks for showing up tonight. And
- I think that's a great note to end on. For those of you who want to come to another meeting,
- tomorrow night, 530 in
- Council Chambers, and that's in the Showers Building. I'll be having a listening session. So this is
- not three minutes at the mic, but it is a solution-based listening session on Kirkwood, on the topic
- of Kirkwood. And I look forward to seeing some of you there. And I'll let Tim say any last things you
- want to say. He is all good. Tim, on behalf of our city, thank you for running an award-winning Parks
- Department.
- I personally wish I could hang out in the parks 100% of my time. So thanks for being here and taking
- part in improving your city.