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 Hello, and welcome to "Cats Week."
 I'm Annaliese Poorman.
 The Monroe County Commissioners met on April 10th
 and discussed the ongoing measles outbreak.
 Health Administrator Lori Kelly shared
 that there are six reported cases of measles in Allen County.
 She highlighted that measles has a highly successful vaccine.
 Health care providers recommend children
 receive the MMR vaccine between 12 and 15 months of age
 and, again, between 4 and 6 years of age.
 Two doses of the vaccine are 97% effective
 in preventing measles and providing protection for life.
 Measles is highly contagious,
 especially for those who are unvaccinated.
 Even vaccinated individuals should remain cautious.
 Commissioner Jody Madeira said
 measles has become a cause for concern.
 I think this is a very scary time.
 I'm very glad that my loved ones and myself are vaccinated,
 and I urge everyone out there to get themselves
 and their loved ones vaccinated so we don't have
 the catastrophic loss of life that we've seen in Texas.
 The Health Department is hosting
 an MMR vaccine mobile clinic at noon through 6 p.m.
 on April 23rd at the Ellisville branch
 of the Monroe County Public Library.
 The commissioners approved a Bloomington Transfer Agreement,
 ensuring that county employees
 continue to have access to discounted bus services.
 Commissioner Thomas says she appreciates the program.
 It's really a great option for employees
 who, you know, live inside the city limits
 or in the bus service area and work here downtown.
 It's gonna be very useful. -Agreed, yeah.
 Additionally, the commissioners approved agreements
 with three on-call services,
 including seal-coding and paving,
 land surveying and civil engineering,
 and HVAC and plumbing.
 Madera said approval of on-call services
 is a straightforward decision,
 highlighting that on-call services
 are needed to run the county.
 This is one of those essential agreements
 that we just approve of, so.
 And, again, I think one of the things
 I would like to just mention, too,
 is that one of the things that I've learned
 getting into county government is it just takes
 so many cogs and wheels that you never see
 unless you watch these meetings, so.
 The commissioner also approved accepting the completion
 of a project extending North Lintel Drive
 as part of the North Park PUD.
 The next Monroe County Commissioner meeting
 will be held on April 17th.
 The Monroe County Council met on April 8th.
 During public comment, Monroe County
 Vote Center Study Committee member
 Alana Stonebreaker spoke to the council
 about the public hearing that they have held
 on vote centers and urged the council
 to continue to be involved in the process.
 Hi, everyone. My name is Alana Stonebreaker,
 and I'm a private citizen and volunteer for --
 as chair for the Monroe County Vote Center Committee.
 For the past two years, our committee has been working
 to develop a draft plan for adoption
 of vote centers in Monroe County.
 That plan is now available to the public
 on the Monroe County Election Board website.
 As a reminder, election center --
 vote centers in Indiana allow registered voters
 to cast their ballot in any designated location
 in the county, similar to early voting in Monroe County.
 This model provides greater flexibility
 than traditional precinct voting.
 Currently, 65 of the 92 counties have adopted vote centers.
 Yesterday marked the first public hearing of the plan.
 From now until May 19th, community members are invited
 to provide written feedback.
 The report and comment form are accessible
 through the election board site.
 At the hearing, 50 people attended in person
 and 30 more joined online, and over 30 individuals,
 including poll workers, rural voters,
 and student voters spoke in support of the vote centers.
 I want to thank council members Deckard, Feidl,
 and Henry for attending in person,
 and Council President Crossley for participating online.
 I also appreciate hearing two council members
 express public support for vote centers
 and their significance to our community.
 However, I want to note that in June 2023,
 when the committee began its work,
 the county council tabled a resolution
 to support the study, and has not revisited the issue
 in a formal way since.
 I have reached out about rescheduling the resolution,
 and has not been placed on subsequent agendas.
 In many other Indiana counties, the fiscal body
 plays an active role in the vote center process,
 including appointing a representative to the committee,
 and working alongside the election board
 from the start to assess financial implications.
 I believe Monroe County would benefit
 from a similar amount of engagement.
 While I understand the pressures
 of uncertain financial times, our shared values,
 particularly around democracy, and equitable access
 to voting remain constant.
 I respectfully urge the county council
 to not delay discussion until the public comment period ends.
 Instead, I encourage you to take up this important issue
 publicly before May 19th.
 Election Supervisor Kylie Morland
 is available to present the plan and present
 its financial implications.
 I am also glad to invite you to our upcoming May
 meeting of the election board, where
 we will be discussing financial questions
 about the proposal.
 Many of you have expressed support for vote centers
 privately and some publicly.
 The Monroe County Council now has an opportunity
 to engage meaningfully and visibly in this initiative.
 I hope you take it.
 Thank you for your time and your continued service
 to Monroe County.
 Also during public comment, Indiana University
 economic professor Gerard Glom informed the public
 about an opportunity to learn more about tariffs.
 Glom said that the purpose of the presentation
 is to educate members of the community
 on how tariffs could impact residents in Indiana.
 My name is Gerard Glom.
 I teach economics at Indiana University.
 When I go to social functions, people ask me what do you do.
 I say I'm an economist.
 And then their response is usually, ah, supply and demand.
 And then, dead silence.
 Evidently, lots of people find economics totally boring.
 The times when economics has been totally boring are over.
 Current and recent actions by the administration
 have brought economics front and center of the public debate.
 Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs.
 That's what we hear about in the news most of the time.
 Often, that debate is done in a vacuum information.
 It's based on non-information.
 It's based on nonsensical formulas.
 So in order to remedy that situation,
 we have invited Michael Hicks, full professor of economics
 at Ball State, to come down here this Saturday, 2 o'clock,
 to give a presentation on how tariffs that are in place,
 that are looming, will impact jobs in Indiana.
 How they will impact the Indiana economy.
 And all of you and the public in Monroe County
 is certainly invited to attend this talk
 to find out some honest, truthful information about what
 these tariffs might do to the quality of life,
 to jobs for Hoosiers here in this county
 and beyond this county in this state.
 So again, Saturday afternoon, 2 o'clock,
 the auditorium in the downtown library, from 2 to 3.30,
 you're all invited, the public is invited.
 And we're hoping that this will start a conversation
 and that more useful information about the impact
 of this particular policy will have
 on the quality of our lives.
 Thank you so much.
 During department updates, the sheriff's department
 gave an update on a new staff member.
 Sheriff Ruben Marte introduced the new jail transition
 director, Major Todd Smith.
 I wanna take this opportunity to bring you up to speed,
 reference our new transition team director for the jail.
 So,
 person standing beside me is retired Major Todd Smith.
 And let me tell you a little bit,
 he's gonna say a few things himself
 and be prepared to answer questions if you like,
 but I wanna say a few things about him myself first.
 Major Todd Smith has been employed
 for the state police for 38 years.
 He obtained his law degree from Indiana University 2004.
 He was also the chief legal counsel for the Indiana State Police for 18 years.
 Chief counsel through an entire construction process including site selection, procurement,
 contracting, design, owner representative, punch list, building turnover, warranty work
 of three Indiana State Police posts and three Indiana regional Indiana State Police laboratories.
 For over 12 years he served as general counsel for Indiana Sheriff's Agency.
 He was also primary policy author of the Indiana State Police and three Indiana Sheriff's offices.
 He's also the co-author of Correctional Policy Manual in compliance with Indiana Jail Standard
 currently in use in several Indiana Sheriff's offices.
 Todd has been my co-instructor training and cultural awareness for law enforcement for
 over 12 years.
 We have instructed over 10,000 students in this topic throughout the United States.
 Finally Todd and I co-instruct numerous programs to improve police community relationship.
 With that I introduce to you Major Todd Smith, retired from the Indiana State Police.
 Smith spoke to the council expressing their interest in the position.
 Hello, as Ruben said I'm retiring from my job with the Indiana State Police for over
 38 years, largely to work with this man again, Sheriff Marte.
 The duties and responsibilities of the director of the transition team have a tremendous amount
 of overlap with what I've done over the last 20 years with the Indiana State Police in my
 position as in legal and as chief legal counsel also in the 12 years that I've worked with
 the sheriff's departments across the state doing the same thing.
 I've already met with the team, I've spoken with Mr. Carnegie at least on a couple occasions,
 we're hitting the ground running and I'm really excited to get started in this position.
 Also during department updates the Soil and Water Conservation District shared a video
 with the council on the importance of the conservation in the community.
 District Manager Martha Miller shared that members of the public can access the video
 at the Monroe County Soil and Water Conservation District website.
 It's linked on our site which is monroecoswcd.org.
 After watching the video council members expressed their interest and support for the work that
 Miller has been doing.
 Member Kate Wilts asked Miller to explain for the public listening how the staffing
 for her position works.
 Miller responded.
 For letting folks know kind of purposes, the relationship between your office and the NRCS
 is what exactly?
 So Erica and I are Monroe County employees who work for a subdivision of the state of
 Indiana government.
 We are housed in a federal service center because we partner with NRCS.
 So NRCS is our federal partner.
 They do the big work with the big dollars out on the big farms.
 We do the stuff local and in house.
 And uniquely enough Monroe County is one of the only counties in the state who has an
 ongoing program with their county for some localized funding of this kind of stuff which
 is kind of unique.
 It's also asked about no-till and low-till farming practices.
 My question is I saw, you know, obviously that's about cover crops and planting immediately
 after harvest and a billion years ago when I was in school we learned about cover crops
 but we also talked about no-till and low-till farming.
 How do the two things work together?
 And they have to work together.
 So in the 1980s Monroe County Soil and Water was a forerunner in the state of no-till.
 Dale Conard was a big push, Joe Peden, those guys really aggressively went out there and
 pushed the market.
 Now we've discovered through science that the cover crop works with the no-till to create
 that biological community in the soil so that there's a better medium for growing.
 Basically you're growing underground.
 And so with that, the two work in that you're not flipping the soil upside down and destroying
 the microbiological dome and then the root systems are decomposing, allowing the critters
 if you will to find a thriving environment to live in.
 And I will say our chairman of our board right now is actually Clint Conard who is Dale's
 grandson.
 So two generations later he's really pushing the banner to get guys to do cover crop.
 So guys and gals.
 Thank you.
 The Monroe County Council will meet again on April 22nd.
 The Bloomington Board of Public Works met on April 8th.
 The first item on the agenda was a request by the Housing and Neighborhood Development
 Department to approve a continuous abatement on the McDonald's property on South Walnut
 Street.
 The property was notified of having repeatedly violated Bloomington Municipal Code against
 the littering of trash on any public or private premises.
 Board President Kyla Cox Decker clarified the purpose of establishing a continuous abatement
 to the public.
 The continuous abatement is something that the city can go to if there continues to be
 trash, garbage strewn about the property.
 But the city will only clean when that happens during the continuous abatement.
 So if one cleanup is all it takes and everything from that one cleanup on is in compliance,
 the city won't have to continue to render any kind of services.
 The board passed a motion of approval unanimously.
 The board also approved a request for lane closure of Pete Ellis Drive by the Peterson
 Company.
 President Cox Decker reviewed the time frame of the project.
 They plan on having a lane closure on Pete Ellis during one of the days of that date
 span sometime between April 9th and April 16th.
 That would also be happening during those nighttime work hours, not during daytime work
 hours.
 And they will use flagging as the traffic control device for that closure.
 Finally, the board approved and heard a request by Blackwell Contractors to conduct night
 work for water installation for 361 and 371 West Country Club Drive.
 Engineering Field Specialist Alex Gray explained the reason for this request, citing concerns
 over congestion.
 This has changed many times at this rate.
 So originally the permit was for December 2024.
 It was just water, and it ended up not happening due to weather and timing of all of the winter
 activities.
 So they ended up moving it.
 And now it has been added on to this time to have sanitary as well, which is on the
 opposite side.
 So they'll have work on both the north side of Country Club and the south.
 And because of that, and due to concerns about congestion and kind of backing up at the Rogers
 and Country Club intersection, we've asked them to do night work.
 And CBU and Blackwell are all able to do that, and they're willing.
 We use some traffic counts to kind of see what would be the best times for them to be
 able to work.
 And it seems to be that 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. is the time period.
 Gray also clarified that Blackwell contractors would be working on the project in early May
 rather than the early April timeframe that was previously established.
 Both lanes will be open during the day, and only one will be closed during the nighttime,
 allowing for traffic flagging.
 Public comment was heard from former traffic commissioner, Gray Alexander, who brought
 attention to the railing surrounding the sidewalk that cuts west of the Monroe County Convention
 Center on West 3rd Street.
 Now there's a more substantial barricade at the two ends of it saying sidewalk closed.
 And it's my understanding such a closure should come before this board because it'll surely
 take more than two weeks.
 And there's an argument, is it the city's job because it's such an awkward right of
 way there?
 Or is it the owner's job?
 Well, the landowner is the city.
 And so my concern is that it's getting swept under the rug potentially for years as they
 wait to find out what they're going to do with that hotel.
 And on the one hand, nobody wants to spend money when you know you're going to build
 a hotel there.
 But on the other hand, this sidewalk is pretty important and it's a very stressful pedestrian
 environment.
 Thank you.
 The Bloomington Board of Public Works will meet again on April 22nd.
 The Bloomington Utilities Service Board met on April 7th.
 The board discussed the approval of the consent agenda, which totaled to $62,831.
 Matt Havy, the Assistant Director of Finance, presented the agenda.
 That consists of the following agreements.
 We have one for Brehab Corporation for $2,690.92 to work on the main air compressor at our
 Monroe plant.
 Next one's for Affordable Fence for $16,700 to install a chain link fence with double
 gates at the Winston Thomas location.
 The next one's for Electric Plus for $1,865 for rewiring of the grid number two motor
 and a new breaker and conductors at Butcher Pool.
 Next one's in ViroDynamics for $2,182 for sediment sampling at the North Lagoon at Dilbin
 plant.
 The next one's with SCET Environmental for $13,190.76 to remove various elaborate agents
 and chemicals at the Monroe plant.
 Next one is an on-call contract for $20,000 with Corson Fire and Security for fire protection
 and repair services.
 This one is pending controller approval.
 The next one is Applied Technologies for $2,575 for the inspection and evaluation number
 3500-gallon ammonia tank.
 Next one is Applied Technical Services for $3,628 to perform ultrasonic fitness testing
 on steel piping.
 Board member Jeff Amen brought up some questions related to the EnviroDynamics LLC Dilbin North
 Lagoon Sediment Sampling Request specifically regarding the purpose of the sampling at the
 location.
 Assistant Director for Environmental Programs Kelsey Thetonia responded to the question.
 So the sampling for the sediment at the bottom of the North Lagoon is to prepare for how
 we're going to dispose of the material.
 We want to find out exactly what is in there since it's been many years since we've fully
 cleaned it out.
 So this company has a specific machine that can basically do a sideways core sample.
 So basically something down there that can catch a core sample, pull it back out.
 We'll do several around the pond to get a representative sample.
 Amon then asked if the pond in question had once been contaminated with PCBs.
 Thetonia responded.
 This pond at one time was contaminated with PCBs, is that correct?
 I am unsure if that is currently an issue, but I know that it was cleaned out about ten
 years ago, so I don't anticipate finding those types of issues, but we'll sample for everything.
 What is found in the pond will dictate the cost of removal.
 The consent agenda was approved.
 Later in the meeting, utilities engineer Caden Swanson requested approval for bid acceptance
 and a contract award for the Pigeon Hill Neighborhood Sewer Lining Project.
 This project is intended to help with infiltration in the area.
 Board member Kirk White inquired about how long the linings were predicted to hold up.
 Swanson responded.
 Yeah, we routinely check out the inspections, so every five years we televise everything,
 at least that's the idea, is everything in our system, and if there's ever any issues
 with the lining, then we make repairs accordingly, but generally we don't see many issues.
 We expect to get 60 to 80 years out of a liner, and that's generally what we've seen.
 The Board approved the request unanimously.
 The next Utilities Service Board meeting will be held on April 21st.
 And that is all for Cats Week.
 Thank you for joining us.
 For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annaliese Poorman.
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