Hello and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annalise Poorman. The Bloomington Redevelopment Commission met on
September 2nd. City Engineering Director Roy Ayton asked for funding to pay a disposal fee for lead-impacted
soil taken from the future site of the Bee Line Multi-Use Trail. Ayton explained that parts of the project
were already approved by the Redevelopment Commission. However, they had not anticipated a disposal fee.
We have already approved to the RDC the resolution to have them do the actual contracting work of picking
it up. What we did not have though was, because we did not know the quantities of soil until now, there's
a disposal fee that is from waste management to take the soil up at twin bridges.
They have invoiced us now. We've added that to our agreement with Caramida. So this addendum number
two to their resolution is in the amount of $11,666 and is the disposal fees from Twin Bridges. Board
members approved the request.
Later in the meeting, City Attorney Dana Kerr introduced a request to allow Weddle Brothers Construction
to temporarily store materials in the Convention Center parking lot, which is co-owned by the City and
the Redevelopment Commission. The storage would be for the duration of construction of the new Convention
Center expansion. Board member Randy Cassidy inquired about how the change might affect parking for
the Convention Center. Kerr responded that they had not negotiated those
terms. How's that going to affect parking? You mean current parking for the current park convention
center? Yeah, current parking. Yeah, I was going to ask that same question. That's my concern as far
as we're... I didn't negotiate that, do you?
Board Vice President Sue Scambaluri asked if the Convention Center was aware of the request. Board Director
Anna Killian Hanson then asked for more information about the deal. I wasn't even consulted about this.
I don't know anything about this.
Sounds like we have some additional questions before. Yeah, who negotiated this to begin with? Corporation
Council member Margie Rice explained that the Convention Center is aware of the request and that they
are in support of it. I did hear Dana just say that the Convention Center is aware of this. They're
super excited about the
convention center construction. They've been communicating on a regular basis with the CIB and their
representatives. And they brought this to our attention to bring to you guys through your consideration.
And so that's what we're doing tonight, granted to your consideration. There's been no concerns at all.
Talisha was on the original email when Little Brother said, hey, we're gonna need some area for staging.
And so they ask what area was available. And so Dana put this together for your guys' consideration.
But for sure, the convention center is aware of this request. And I think they're on board because they
want to do whatever they can to facilitate the construction of the convention center. Rice went on to
further explain the process of approval in an effort to clear the air.
As you can imagine, a lot of things that come to you guys have gone through a lot of different conversations
with staff before it lands in a public meeting. And so this is just an example of that. I think the
different boxes have been checked before it came to you guys for consideration. Secretary John West
explained that the issue could have been clarified better to avoid confusion.
Well, I think that this probably would have gone smoother if the resolution had maybe indicated that
the convention center operators were involved in this and approved it because the way we got it, it
was kind of a dead end topic. And as Randy said, it looked to me like we were just taking away parking
spaces that the convention center might likely need. So that was the issue.
The board ultimately voted on the matter and the request was passed unanimously. Next, Redevelopment
Commission member John West introduced a proposed agreement regarding Merrill Lynch's lease termination.
Okay, so we negotiated with Merrill Lynch their termination of their lease at Showers West. What they
requested was to
be able to stay until March 31, and they'd like to not have to remove their equipment and furniture.
They want to just walk away. And in return for that, the city would not need to reimburse them for any
moving expenses or anything under the lease agreement. So we considered it a win-win because the RDC
is not paying anything.
And they will be out. And we still got some tenants that we're working with. And so we feel that this
is a good way to go. And if others wanted to do the same thing, stay till March 31st. And we already
see not have to pay any moving expenses. Then they could step forward and do that as well.
Margie Rice stepped in to share her personal experience with Meryl Lynch and add her opinion on the
matter. Yeah, and I can jump in here. Meryl Lynch reached out to CBRE, which is a company that works
in multiple states. I've been working with one of their transactions personnel at Cleveland, and he's been
He's been interacting with Merrill Lynch in New York. And so the local team, I had originally reached
out to the local team, Eric Sewer and met with him, and then was quickly directed to these
other professionals to work with. And I think this is a great deal for the city of Bloomington. Frankly,
it's probably the nicest office space in Showers West. They had not long ago updated that office.
And so the fact that they want to leave their furniture And then I don't know exactly if they're going
to take any of the furniture with them But what they don't want the leave and their fixtures will not
be a problem for us To the city's advantage to walk away and they've been very professional they understand
the terms of the lease I think from a kind of more global perspective and
They have been very good to work with, and I would highly recommend that we take this offer.
The Redevelopment Commission approved the motion. John West then went on to introduce a similar proposition
in regard to the termination of the Bloomington Health Foundation's lease at Showers West. This resolution
is similar to the Merrill Lynch, but this is the Bloomington Health Foundation.
And the key terms that were negotiated with them was that the RDC would waive the lease payments for
August, September, and up to October 15, that they would leave the property by October 15 of this year.
And for their moving expenses, they
would they are asking for the sum of $19,542.50. Again, with the other potentials, Margie had mentioned
with litigation and things like that. The fact that they're going to be out earlier and be able to get
moved to a new location, I believe this would be
benefit to the RDC and the community. The motion on the Health Foundation passed unanimously. The next
meeting of the Bloomington Redevelopment Commission will be held on September 15th.
The Monroe County Commissioners met on September 4th and approved the schematic design for the Monroe
County Justice Center. DLZ project manager Scott Carnegie explained the process, saying the schematics
must be approved before moving on to the design development phase. Commissioner Jody Madeira says despite
roadblocks put in place by the state, the project should keep moving.
we know that it's important to move ahead and we know that there is a legislature that's looking at
us to move ahead. And so we need to send a very clear message that we are moving ahead. And I think
this is the clearest way to send this message. So. Commissioner Julie Thomas asked about the timeframe
for the project. Carnegie said that they have a tentative plan in place if the schematics and additional
approvals move forward in a timely manner. And then if we receive design development approval,
Then we have construction document presentation to the county and for approval on June 23rd, 2026. Receive
bids August 2026. Begin construction in October 2026 with construction substantially complete in June 2029.
The commissioners approved the schematic design, allowing DLZ to continue onto the next step in the
design process. Also during the meeting, Rural Transit Director Chris Myers reported that ridership
rates have remained similar to last year. He also explained that the program recently replaced
two 16-passenger vans. Going into next year, Myers said the insurance for the vehicles will be increasing.
Public transit is one of those high-risk areas just by the nature of being on the road the way we are,
unfortunately. We're at the whims of insurance and I hate it.
Also during the meeting, the commissioners ratified the renewal for the High Tech Crimes Unit Memorandum
of Agreement, totaling $285,000 annually for the next two years. The agreement covers the administration
and maintenance of the unit. The High Tech Crimes Unit serves multiple surrounding counties in addition
to Monroe, including Owen, Marion, Morgan, and Orange.
Um, so our high tech crimes unit is a hidden gem. Literally it is hidden back there, uh, in Ellisville
and it is something that we should all be very, very proud of. It enables us to do a lot of good work,
um, for a lot of counties. And, um, I'm personally very, very proud of it and honored that we have it
within our borders. The next Monroe County commissioner's meeting will be held on September 11th.
At the Bloomington City Council meeting on September 3rd, council members heard a resolution that would
designate the city as a certified Bee City. Chair of the Bloomington Environmental Commission,
Kerry Albright, presented the resolution.
I appreciate getting a moment just to talk a little bit about the Bee City USA program just so you understand
I'm happy to take your questions if you have them after but basically we are hoping for your approval
of a resolution that we would then submit to be a certified Bee City so as is
Common knowledge at this point, climate change and human practices are endangering pollinators.
Right now, I believe 35% of native bee species, for example, are at risk. And what we would like to
do is participate in a program that shows that Bloomington is taking steps and has taken a lot of steps
to protect pollinators.
So there are different reasons why pollinators are struggling, and a lot of those things are elements
that we can do something to address. Some examples are habitat loss and degradation, use of pesticides,
certainly diseases and pathogens, and a larger scope of the climate crisis impacting pollinators. Albright
went on to describe the rationale behind why the Environmental Commission believes that it's important
to cultivate a pollinator-friendly habitat.
And I'll just go ahead and read these are that it helps ensure the survival of vital species crucial
to our planet's functioning ecosystems the certification through Bee City USA which
Basically provides a framework for how municipalities can implement pollinator habitat improvement programs
It recognizes and it celebrates our city's ongoing work on cultivating pollinator friendly habitats
and removing invasive species And it joins Bloomington's other existing certifications. We're a bird
town. We're a tree city I believe we're a gold level bike friendly city So there's a lot that Bloomington
has to feel proud of and we'd love to incorporate this certification as well as well as some of the
different partnerships that we've participated in
project wingspan MC Iris Obviously the work that we've done the habitat connectivity map and then recently
IU was certified as a B campus So we worked with them as well on getting steps forward in the earlier
months of the year So we would be one of the first cities in Indiana. That would be the city We were
beaten out by Columbus and Avon, but we'd be very proud to be the third one and
City Council member Isak Asari said that he is supportive of the resolution, but he wondered how much
of the Bee City certification is symbolic and how the city could actually ensure success of the initiative.
Thank you so much and I'm super supportive of this.
amuse me with my line of questioning. Trying to understand a little bit between the balance between
what we're doing that's symbolic and what we're doing that would actually have specific outcomes to
our practices. Specifically within the packet, we outline annual requirements such as hosting an event,
submitting reports to Xerces, but
We haven't talked about like local evaluation. And so like beyond the required report, how will we measure
success in Bloomington? Like what do we want to see happen here? Urban green space manager for the city,
Joanna Sparks responded that the city is already following some of the guidelines outlined by the Bee
City certification. Albright agreed and said that the certification would give the city recognition
for work it's already doing.
and I will say for I answer your question that we're already doing lots of the things and it's It's
really exciting to have potential to be acknowledged and to have sort of an a license if this is approved
to Collaborate more deeply with the community on what we're doing because that's where our biggest impact
will be For the community as if we can can broaden our outreach aspect and as an
As an additional note,
Obviously, we will be following up on this with the EC's annual report. So it may be that there are
things that trickle through through collaborative events that we host or different outreach activities
that we participate in, but that would be something that informally we would be sharing. But as far
as an official report or evaluation of if it's worth it or if we're finding value just as a local group,
I think that as Joanna said, we have a lot of initiatives that are already in place at this point. So
it really is just kind of being able to be recognized for something that the city
already invested so much time and interest in. And I think that really clarifies it, like the work that
we're already doing, do you feel like there's going to be additional work with the certification, like
outside of some of the required, you know, alignment with some things that Xerces is doing? But it sounds
like, yeah, I mean, maybe not, let me not answer the question for you, but is there additional work
associated with this?
Certainly a little bit there and we will form a committee of composed of different members from the
throughout the community We already have commitments from be campus and I you be campus some the Monroe
County identify and reduce invasive species
sycamore land trust and of course the environmental Commission Carrie and Matt are gonna gonna help
us I'm get the I'm sorry Carrie Carrie and Shane and will actually yeah be be actually helping us get
our committee started and we We have requests out to to several other organizations just to help build
bridges and expand the work that all of us are doing individually and into a more of a collective effort, but
As the committee liaison for the city, I will be responsible for submitting an annual report where we
will, the Parks Department loves data and we love metrics and we love reports. So we will have information
to share for sure. Thank you so much. The resolution was approved unanimously. The Bloomington City
Council will meet again on September 10th.
Monroe County Election Board met on September 4th. ADA coordinator with the City of Bloomington Michael
Shermas gave a presentation on accessible polling sites. So many people around the county would know
me as directing the Bloomington Monroe County Human Rights Commission, but the other half of my job
is to be the liaison to the Council for Community Accessibility and the ADA coordinator at the city.
and we train volunteer surveyors on how to do accessibility surveys of businesses, generally restaurants
and retail kind of locations. But we have been asked in the past to do things like the Monroe County
Community School Corporation and the county itself asked us to do several of their facilities as well
as to work with the election board about
years ago or so to do all of the polling sites and we greatly enjoyed that. It increased the interest
of our volunteer surveyors getting to do something that was really about civic engagement and so we
appreciated that opportunity and we
worked out several things to help us make the polling sites more accessible and feel good about that
contribution. Shermas went on to make election board members aware of a new software that would make
polling more accessible. Since that time in the last year, we have purchased a software to help us with
that. And I'd like to say the difference is almost night and day because the surveys that we've done
in the past
I would have to say it lacked professional look to it and didn't really show it well in terms of what
we know and what we can do. This software, which is called Blue Dag, is a software that allows us to
do this on an iPad or a tablet or a smartphone, and a volunteer surveyor can be quickly trained. We
could train them within one hour, and then they can go out and
sites fairly easily. We've been working with it for a year and have learned how to customize it to the
purposes that we are interested in.
which is, yes, ADA compliance, but it's more about a functional accessibility. So how can people who
are blind and people who use wheelchairs get into places that they need to get into? And what kind of
barriers might they run into if they're not been addressed? So this software is fantastic at being able
to do that. You don't show anything that's fine. You don't worry about that. What you say is,
see if you see a barrier as you take a photo of the barrier. So say something is like paper towels are
54 inches high. You'll put them tape measure and you'll take a photo of it showing that this is too
high. And then when you compile a report, it comes up with
This is exactly why it's too high. You can see the photo and here's the diagram of what it's supposed
to be. So it offers the ADA rule and a diagram and an explanation of what it is. Included are like Indiana
building codes and whatever other kind of regulations and laws are relevant to this. He suggested a
similar software for the county to use for polling sites. Now the difference between
The software that we have and the software that I would suggest that the county might consider purchasing
is that that software is more customized for voting centers slash polling sites and takes into account
HAVA as well. It will also offer mitigations.
People frequently like, what does that mean exactly? My quick response would be something like, so let's
say that a bathroom has the soap dispenser that is too high. It's too many inches. It's above 44 inches,
so it's too high. A mitigation for that, there can be several possibilities. One is just to place a
soap squeezy thing that's there on the counter.
That's a mitigation. There are several other mitigations involving parking, path of travel, bathrooms,
the common areas where people might be signage. There are things that they can offer and say, here's
the suggestions if you can't fix this barrier.
And the idea is that we potentially do these surveys in the next couple months, and then you can prepare
all of those locations by the time that they would need to be addressed for the next election. Shermas
then said that the software Blue Dag could give the county a discount for services of around $12,000
per year. He recommended that the county election board implement the software. Republican board member
Danny Shields asked about the length of the contract and how long it would
be needed, Shermus responded. So is it required that this would be a long-term deal if we sign with
them? One year. Okay. And so then you... Because it's, you know, like, once you get it fixed, if we
don't change polling places, it wouldn't need to be fixed again. I would hesitate to say that just because
people frequently remodel, change things up, and remember,
I'm assuming, and you can correct me if I'm wrong in this assumption, that when you set up a site, you're
customizing that site. You're putting up cones, you're doing different things, and some things can change.
So I would say it would probably be smart to do it every couple of years to make sure that it stayed
accessible. But once would be better than not at all.
Election Supervisor Kylie Morland said she thinks the county could use the software once every four
years to ensure that they remain ADA compliant at polling sites.
I would say even doing it once every four years like in the non-election years when we're able to have
time to look at the polling locations the election board see if they're planning on using the same ones
and then the ones that we're not using update those with the ADA compliance with the software. I also
want to say thank you for giving us the survey on the parking lot at North Showers. That's where early
voting will be next year so seeing that and seeing the things that need to be updated beforehand is
This is great. Thank you. We need showers worked on before what? It would be, how soon, early voting?
Early voting will begin in April. Okay, January. Yeah. Okay, that's why we thought, oh, we'll give them
this so they know right off where they need to start. And this, the survey would be even more comprehensive
than this, but this is a start for you to be able to see quickly what kind of problems that need to
be addressed.
Democratic board member Penny Githens expressed concern about accessibility at the North Showers building.
Sherma said that he has received complaints about the parking lot in the past. Shields then asked about
ownership of the parking lot. North Showers is used for a lot of other things besides early voting and
I would think that the county would want that to be ADA.
Absolutely. I've had other complaints about that parking lot. Because I'm the ADA coordinator at the
city, everybody thinks that my powers extend far beyond that, and so I get complaints all the time.
And I've had complaints about that parking lot before, and it's never been kind of clear, like, why
it's not being addressed. But there are many issues with that parking lot. So who owns showers?
Well, the county has responsibility for that parking lot. I did talk to the building department and
our public works person. It was the city. Okay, city, you're on it. No, it's the county in this case.
Yeah. But I think there were plans, too, for repaving that particular parking lot, but I'm not sure.
Yeah, repaving and restriping are minimum. I mean, there's some things that wouldn't be too difficult
to deal with, the signage, but that's the issue, is repaving and restriping.
County Clerk Nicole Brown reiterated that the North Shower's location needs to be in compliance before
the start of early voting, saying the county has 12 violations concerning accessibility. Let me be sure
that I understand, because I appreciate the citations. The citations are, this is what it should be.
And then your finding is this is not, it is not compliant at this time.
If I read this correctly, Monroe County government has 12 violations not being in compliance
with accessibility issues so that if we are going to use it for early voting, we have at least 12 things
that need to be mitigated or brought as much as possible to put us closer to compliance. Yeah, I would
use the word mitigated.
heighten that word because in some particular cases some of those barriers we could negotiate. So for
example there's a stairwell that you get up to the second floor which I assume many of the people who
are going to the second floor to do polling work would go up there. It's supposed to have a continuous
rail and there is a section that's not continuous. That is a minor violation and doesn't
really affect most things because people can use the elevator. There's other things around. So for example,
that might be something that you could consider way down lower. And that's a further down the line barrier.
But some of the other things are definitely, yeah, you should get those fixed before you do this kind
of thing. The County Election Board will meet again on October 2nd. And that is all for Cats Week. Thank
you for joining us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annalise Poorman.
you