- Hello and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annaliese Poorman. At the Monroe County Commissioner's Meeting on
- September 11th, Health Department Director Lori Kelly said that emergency visits for COVID-19 cases
- have remained steady.
- According to a regional representative of CVS, CVS Minute Clinic locations now have the 2025-2026 COVID-19
- vaccine available for those 12 and older. So individuals can inquire about this in person or you can
- schedule an appointment online.
- The health department still has free COVID tests available. Individuals can walk in Monday through Friday
- from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to receive free tests. And our public health clinic has vaccines available. You
- can call 812-353-3244 for an appointment. Next Highway Director Lisa Ridge elaborated on her department's
- request to accept a quote in order to fix cracked road ceiling in Monroe County.
- By highway personnel, the lowest quote was received from RLH seal coding. The department would like
- to accept the quote for crack sealing in 2025. The commissioners approved the resolution unanimously.
- Later in the meeting, commissioners administrator Angela Purdy presented a resolution for a $6 million
- general obligation bond. Purdy shared what the funds would be used for. This is a resolution for a proposal
- of a $6 million bond.
- This projects are specifically for, so this bond is to cover the following projects and their county
- public improvement needs. Fees associated with the issuance of the bond, design plans for the improvements
- at the Monroe County Airport, remodeling of the showers building specifically for our voter registration
- and early voting and
- improvements within our Youth Services Bureau, our nature preserve, the courthouse ground, and emergency
- management has a need for additional sirens, and we're looking at cameras and other non-lethal force
- equipment for the sheriff. There's some additional need for some furniture, tools, and equipment by
- our aviation department. So these are all related to improvements and the incidental expenses
- in connection with these improvements are part of this proposed bond. The approval is for up to six
- million. That gives the council the ability to determine an actual rate, an amount for this particular
- bond. Purdy said this large bond would be spread out over six years covering all the items she listed.
- This bond is
- due to recent changes in Indiana code must be longer than five years. And so this would be a $6 million
- bond over six years. What we have done in the past has been a $3.1 million bond each year. And so that
- gets paid off that year, the following year. So this kind of drags it out.
- worse when you hear the word six versus 3.1 but the effect to the our community is spread over a longer
- period of time and it's smaller. The commissioners approved the resolution which will now be sent to
- the county council for a final vote.
- Later in the meeting, Commissioner Thomas said that there will be a celebration for Lake Monroe on September
- 14th. The festivities will include live music, food, and a cash bar in celebration of the lake's 60th
- anniversary. And I know there's Lake Monroe Day celebration at the fields on Sunday, and I don't remember
- what time.
- The commissioners will meet again on September 25th. The Bloomington City Council had a deliberation
- meeting with members of the public to learn more about the housing needs of city residents. Before beginning
- the meeting, Council President Hopi Stasberg shared how they define neighborhoods. Residents were broken
- up into smaller groups to discuss amongst themselves their housing wants and needs.
- After they all had the opportunity to discuss, representatives from each group shared the general consensus
- of their housing priorities and concerns. Council Member Sydney Zulek shared insight gleaned from her
- breakout group. I was in group six, best group ever. We had realtors, we had builders, we had homeowners,
- we had renters, we had Monroe County residents, Bloomington residents, so we got some good stuff.
- Everyone had some pretty similar ideals for what they were looking for when they approached housing
- So there were some people whose needs were met because they were getting them and some people whose
- needs were not met because they weren't and that is all about housing affordability walkability ability
- to live near loved ones ability to own a home or
- A lot of what we encountered was there was a lot of people who enjoy the Bryant Park neighborhood and
- the different neighborhoods near campus where they can walk to work. And unfortunately, the affordable
- housing is not necessarily near there, especially if you're looking to buy. And so that was a lot of
- what we talked about in terms of what we look for in housing. And then we ran up against a couple
- issues in terms of ADUs and just ability to build ADUs and then sell them once they're built due to
- lot sizes, which is a very complicated issue that I am probably not the best person to explain to you,
- but we will get there someday.
- Essentially we talked a lot about how we are missing the middle ground housing and that there are a
- lot of different people who are looking for around the $300,000 range maybe older folks who are looking
- to size down or Younger folks who are looking to buy their first home a lot of them are looking for
- the exact same kind of type of housing and that is what Limits it as well. So a lot of it is density and
- City zoning planner David Brent as said his group consisted of a majority of homeowners and a few renters
- He explained the concerns expressed in his group including public safety transportation and a desire
- to live within the city So we had we had a variety of different takes on Housing issues in our group.
- We did have majority homeowners as well as
- A couple of renters, but it was majority homeowners and then some of them expressed That they felt a
- little bit trapped, you know, maybe they wanted to get away from crime in their neighborhood or they
- wanted to be in a larger house or have
- or have more access to sidewalks, transit, more restaurants or amenities like close by. So some of that
- public infrastructure is what they were looking for. And then we also noted that just amongst everyone
- in the group there was
- a strong desire to live within the city So they did they did like their They did like being in the city
- and wanted to stay there. But when we were talking about moving around to different parts of the city
- Price was an issue of finding the right housing type that they wanted at that particular time so we
- discussed kind of a lack of options or lack of stepping stones to
- the goal of home ownership, if that's your goal, or to own a different type of home. Maybe that's a
- single family home in a neighborhood that has more influence and is able to get those amenities that
- they want and the maintenance of their infrastructure that they would desire.
- at their neighborhoods standards. Council member Isak Asari said that he was in a mixed group of renters
- and homeowners. He said both demographics expressed concern about the affordability of home ownership.
- Our group included renters and homeowners. And the message was clear amongst us. I think that Bloomington
- faces lots of pressures on housing, straining families, students, neighborhoods. Affordability was at
- the heart of it, of the things that we discussed. Single-family homes now being out of reach for many,
- medium home prices, far outpacing income growth, property taxes doubling since COVID, et cetera.
- One of the things that we spent a lot of time talking about our neighborhood concerns, how they're sort
- of adding to the pressures, lots of investor-owned rentals, changing to the character of blocks. We
- also talked a little bit that came up questions, sort of these overlapping questions about encampments
- and safety concerns, concerns around city projects, et cetera. So we had a broad, wide-ranging conversation
- around sort of our interest and needs in housing. We offered a wide range of
- solutions and ideas for the future. In terms of housing supply and diversity, people talked about starter
- homes, diversity of houses, condominiums, duplexes, family-friendly rentals, not just student housing,
- interest a little bit in density in particular places, though not interest in taller buildings. So some
- tension there. Policy tools, we talked about things like land trust, land
- banks, rental caps, limits on how many homes can be owned by investors, parking
- permitting questions, particularly for houses without driveways near campus. I think there is more on
- the side of people concerned about us building houses without parking minimums, accessible loans to
- new people, and even rent control, even though that's illegal. Forum-based zoning was discussed to shape
- the look and feel of neighborhoods, loosening restrictions to allow density where it makes sense. Director
- of Housing and Neighborhood Development
- Killian Hansen shared that residents in her group would like the opportunity to downsize.
- As far as if housing was meeting the need, most owners did say that their housing was meeting their
- needs, especially if they were smaller houses. If there were larger houses, they felt like maybe it
- was not meeting their needs or they would like the opportunity to downsize, but they were stuck by golden
- handcuffs right now with low interest rates. Killian Hansen added that homeowners who said their housing
- was meeting their needs had purchased their homes many years ago.
- when housing prices and interest rates were much lower. And I would also say that as far as meeting
- needs, one of the themes that I saw was that when people were happy with the housing type that they're
- in right now, they also were able to purchase them for 60 or $75,000 many years ago and adapt the house
- to be what they want it to be now currently. That's not an option. A second housing-focused deliberation
- meeting will be held on November 12th.
- The Bloomington Commission on Sustainability met on September 9. Commission member Tara Dunderdale proposed
- an amendment to a resolution for the Bloomington Urban Forestry Plan. The amendment would change the
- language to align with the city's existing policy. I pulled up the Bloomington Urban Forestry Plan,
- which the amendment that I'm going to propose,
- a lot of the we had a few different amendments that it turns out are all covered in what bloomington's
- urban forestry plan says the goal of their urban forestry department is so my recommendation for an
- amendment to this is to say whereas the city of bloomington
- says this already and just use the text of their documentation because they address all the things that
- we talked about like human health, equity, healthier neighborhoods, things like that. So it's already
- part of city policy that they maintain the urban canopy to those benefits so that to minimize the number
- of amendments but also to point out that this is already
- language that the city has adopted and this is already an area of intended investment from the city.
- Dunderdale also explained how preventative tree maintenance reduces the cost of reactive tree maintenance
- like trees falling across roads and on buildings. Commission member Jamie Scholl asked whether the recent
- stronger storms that have been hitting Bloomington have led to an increase in costs to the city. Dunderdale
- responded.
- With these massive storms, were you able to find any information of how much cost the city had laid
- out for some of these massive storms? For those instances? Yes, because the cost of hiring contractors,
- like you said, is going to be a lot more than that. So I wondered if there was a cost comparison of
- how that has increased, which would then offset, make it a convincing argument for
- this amount to be approved? Yeah. I mean, that's a good question. We're not actually proposing a specific
- dollar amount so much as we're proposing that they effectively the dollar amount has not changed. And
- so they've just continued the city has continued to approve roughly the same amount, but the sort of
- like value of that. And so we're not proposing a specific dollar amount so much as like higher than
- now. Yeah.
- Um, and also that it should like, you know, continuing to think about, I think we're sort of side long
- saying what Dave was saying earlier, which is that you can't, like, if you cut today because it's going
- to save you some money today, you may be, uh, paying more later and that the cost could be much greater.
- Yeah. We think that the sort of like implications could be much worse. The commission voted in favor
- of amending the resolution.
- The Bloomington Board of Public Works met on Tuesday, September 9th. Assistant Director for the Arts,
- Holly Warren, from the Bloomington Department of Economic and Sustainable Development, requested approval
- for the annual Wrapped in Love public art installation. The program wraps trees in handmade sweaters
- with art, symbols, and or language knitted into them. Warren explained that speech is exempt from the
- artwork because of the right-of-way policy.
- Starting in 2023 the city began a partnership with wrapped in love because the city's
- policies aligned with the perspective of Middle Way House that folks deserve resources when they are
- in a crisis. And when that took effect, basically what that means is that all of the art and the globally
- recognized symbols on those sweaters, as well as any language either on the sweaters or on the placards,
- become government speech. And when that happens, that means that that speech is actually exempt from
- our art in the right-of-way
- So that means that any globally recognized symbols or language that are represented as part of this
- installation are okay. The art will be installed starting September 15th and remain on the trees through
- January 15th, 2026. The request was approved unanimously by the board.
- Transportation Demand Manager Jeff Jackson from the Economic and Sustainable Development Department
- requested the board's approval to renew the license for their micro-mobility company, Bird. Board President
- Kyla Cox Deckard asked if there were any plans or concerns about ridership versus number of vehicles.
- Jackson shared information from the company on the number of trips per vehicle.
- Just a little over 58,000 trips on e-scooters over the last year and just over 5,000 e-bike trips, so
- about 9% are e-bike trips. According to Jackson, Bird currently has 500 units in the city of Bloomington
- and plans on adding another 200 by October 1st.
- Public Works Director Adam Wason added that the Board also has access to the ridership data as it comes
- in and that they could make adjustments to the number of vehicles hosted by the City as needed.
- Vice President Elizabeth Caron inquired about vehicles being left on sidewalks. Wason said that there
- are fewer instances overall since the installation of e-vehicle parking corrals. He also explained that
- the City is continuing to enforce parking for e-vehicles that are parked incorrectly.
- Over 350 fines were issued since the beginning of the year this year, you know when when staff sees
- Improperly parked scooters they issue the fines. They get the fines have been collected They're tending
- to happen outside of the core of the downtown because of the corrals being successful So, you know my
- hope always was as we got the corrals built we could focus more on the neighborhoods where we hear from
- the Residents that are trying to walk on the sidewalks that we're encountering the things You know,
- I know there are still
- there are still violations occurring. When we get word of them, we go and respond. But I couldn't tell
- you exactly if the number of complaints has gone up or down, but we could pull a report on that for
- sure. Wason said that it has been nice to have one handler for all of the e-bikes and scooters, and
- that there have been fewer issues since reducing the number of vendors. I'm excited now that we have
- one vendor. We have one point of contact.
- You know when we had the three in the four vendors when we were first responding to this it was Very
- much that disruptive technology approach to everything. I think we've got a better handle on it. It's
- not perfect They still are out in public in traffic all the things but I think it's gotten better overall
- and I think with having the one vendor will still be able to even Fine-tune it make it better. They're
- talking about putting in new corrals that they're going to be required to put in and thinking about
- location so
- Hopefully, you know we we continue to lessen those number of instances where they're causing an issue
- whether accessibility or otherwise President Kyla Cox Decker asked if the city felt satisfied with safety
- information from bird especially for people new to the city and to using the scooters Jackson said that
- bird has done a good job of responding to safety concerns birds been very responsive the safety requirements
- outlined in the package they
- Show up to events when when requested and other times that they schedule themselves They give away free
- helmets and do demo rides or do training for the for the e-bikes knee scooters. So the other part of
- having one vendor is that they've been very responsive and Both with responding the new reports and
- meeting their safety requirements and obligations the request to renew birds license was approved and
- The Ellisville Town Council met on September 8th and approved a loan from the People's State Bank to
- fix a leak in the fire department's roof. The roof replacement will cost just over $116,000. Chief Kevin
- Patton spoke to the board about the loan. We did get with People's State Bank and they drew up the paperwork.
- We're doing a three-year note. I do not have any intentions of it lasting that long.
- So basically we just need approval to go forward with this. It's what we discussed in the last meeting.
- The loan will be repaid through the cumulative building and equipment fund, meaning it won't cause an
- increase in taxes. The next Ellisville Town Council meeting will be held on September 22nd. And that
- is all for Cats Week. Thank you for joining us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annaliese Poorman.
- families in Monroe County. A contribution to children who are vulnerable and in need of an advocate.
- A staff that goes above and beyond to support and advocate for children in need of services. The web
- of remarkable people who are dealing with difficult situations. So many young people that are in need
- of help and trying to find a stable family.
- able place to live. Without the CASAs, to make that happen, many of them would be unable to find a good
- home. I love being that voice for the child who can't speak for themselves in court. It takes me out
- of my comfort zone and it also helps others. CASA means supporting our community. Being a CASA is making
- sure that your village is healthy and whole and that the children in your village