- Hello and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annaliese Poorman. At the Monroe County Board of Health meeting
- on September 18th, Dr. Michael Teague, a new appointee by the county commissioners, introduced himself
- to the board. I'm a primary care physician in Bloomington and have been with
- IU Health for roughly 13 years. I'm also the physician leader for primary care. So one of the things
- I've been doing is a lot of the hiring of the physicians and the nurse practitioners and trying to address
- a variety of the access needs that we have that are across the country, but also of course, very complicated
- here as well. So I do that a lot. I did my residency at Franciscan up in Indianapolis and I did my medical
- school and undergraduate here in Bloomington.
- And so now I've lived in Bloomington longer than I lived in Indianapolis where I was born. So this is
- kind of my home. I really like it here. I'm interested in this. Just as I have been responsible for
- a lot of the primary care needs within IU Health throughout the region, this felt like a nice step toward
- being more available to help the community. Because I view that job and take that very seriously of
- the hiring of providers and trying to sort out a lot of the complicated scheduling issues to get patients
- seen and folks taken care of from taking care of the chronic disease management, keeping them away from
- the hospital, all of that. This was a logical next step for, hey, I want to know what the county is doing.
- But also I think it's important for the county to know what we're doing as like the largest primary
- care group in the region. So I think I bring something to the table to try to help kind of come alongside
- together to work together to take care of the local community. So that's me.
- Next, the Board heard an update on the leak in the fluoride tank from the Bloomington Utilities Director,
- Catherine Zager. Zager said that the tank has been leaking since the end of 2019. She said they hope
- to develop a solution to either fix or replace the tank to provide fluoride in the drinking water by 2026.
- Due to some leaks in our chemical feed system that supplies our fluoride, CBU has been unable to deliver
- the recommended 0.7 milligrams per liter of fluoride since the end of 2019. Our bulk tank, which is
- our larger, we have two tanks. We have a bulk tank and a day tank. Our bulk tank was relined in 2022
- from a leak, but it continued to leak after that relining.
- Temporary delivery systems were tried, but they pose significant safety risks to staff. With
- the hydrofluorosilic acid, that is one of the most dangerous chemicals we have at our plant. And so
- some of these temporary solutions were not fully safe for staff to operate. We're currently testing
- all of the components of our system to determine if additional relining of our 20-year-old tank will
- be effective.
- We're also exploring additional options if relining the tank is ruled out. Our goal is to have a safe,
- temporary, cost-effective solution finished by the beginning of 2026 so that we can safely continue
- the use of fluoride. Zager said that the tank's lining and the concrete underneath it were corroded.
- County health officer Sarah Ryderband asked how other counties store their fluoride. Zager said that
- the storage requires consistent maintenance of the tanks.
- The Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees met on September 17th. Financial Officer Gary Letelier
- spoke on the library's 2026 budget and offered insights on some of the changes. The adoption of the
- 2026 budget will take place at the October 15th board meeting. So in August,
- We received the county's total assessed value figure for calculating the 2026 library property tax rate.
- The total assessed value for 2026 is about $11.1 billion. That's a decrease of about $95 million from
- last year. It's a slightly less than a 1% decrease.
- The assessed value figure not only includes residential property, it also includes commercial property,
- business inventory, and equipment. Next, Library Director Greer Carson shared his monthly report.
- a couple of highlights. First, once upon a time, our annual summer reading program was primarily for
- our youngest patrons and focused on the importance of early literacy. And while that remains the cornerstone
- of our annual program, it has since grown to include all ages and audiences. Preliminary summer reading
- numbers for 2025 suggest that we had our highest ever teen participation with 665 summer reading program
- guides distributed to Monroe County teens. We'll hear more about this year's summer reading program from on
- as part of her children's services update here in a bit, but it's really great to see more and more
- MCPL teams getting into summer reading. Also in teen services, our special education classroom visits
- will soon include Bloomington High School North on a bi-weekly basis. Last year we began hosting similar
- scheduled visits from Tri-North Middle School, so we're happy to have BHSS join in this program.
- We have replaced the Ellitsville fire door, and this is something we've had on our list for a long time.
- You probably don't ever see this door unless you're in the building when there's a fire alarm or a power
- outage, but it's recessed in the bulkhead, which used to be dark purple, that hangs over the threshold
- as you move into the Ellitsville children's area. So we had that work done recently as kind of connected
- to some of our other Ellitsville renovation work. We're glad to have that finally finished. Communications
- and Marketing Director Tory Lawhorst
- spoke on the library's media relations policy and some changes that have been made in order to keep
- up with modern technology. At the Monroe County Public Library we are committed to transparency, consistency,
- and professionalism in how we communicate with the community and the media. In today's digitally driven
- world public expectations around communication have changed and so have the tools and platforms we use
- to share information.
- The decision to update our media relations policy was made to strengthen the way our library communicates
- with the public, the media, and our community partners. As a publicly funded institution, it is critical
- that our messaging is clear, consistent, and reflective of our values and responsibilities. Updating
- our media relations policy was essential for several key reasons, including reflecting modern communication
- channels, ensuring consistent messaging and clear expectations, designating specific spokespeople,
- aligning with legal and ethical standards, and to protect patron privacy and staff.
- With these reasons in mind, we put together a team of MCPL staff to provide a variety of experiences
- and viewpoints to see how we could best make these updates. Next, Children's Services Manager Anhalika
- Kondalaria gave an update on their programming. She shared some of the activities that children are
- able to participate in at the library, like the summer reading program and games, and the ways that
- these activities are beneficial to the children. So there was a fourth grader who came in and wanted
- to do Battle of the Books because
- they did it at school. But you can only do it in fourth grade. And so she was disappointed. She loved
- it. She wanted to do it so much. So Reagan told her, fill out a comic card. We read those. We want you
- to fill them out. And she's like, nothing is going to come of it. I'll do it. And so Battle of the Books
- ensued. So this highlights that our staff really wants to interact with our patrons. We want to hear
- what you want to do, especially from tweens. And so Battle of the Books is a trivia
- Kind of like a pub trivia. They have to read 10 books over the course of about five to six months, and
- then they come together as a team. And we have questions for them, and they have to fill it out. We
- got 21 teams, 80 participants. We had 175 people in total. So that's the audience and also the tweens.
- And if anybody knows a tween, I was hoping for 10. 10 people, two teams at least.
- So we were overwhelmed. As you can see, it was in our conference rooms. It's jam-packed. We did partner.
- This is a great example of how our team goes out and tries to partner with the community. Next, the
- manager of the library's Southwest branch, Kathy Riley, gave an update to the board where she highlighted
- their cooking program for young children. We have expanded out the possibilities of what children are
- capable of and hopefully modeled something that you go home and keep doing.
- Oh, they're capable of wontons. What else are they capable of? What should we be trying at home to keep
- doing this sort of expansion? And I was like, yeah, because we got a comment card saying, I know, like,
- you know, I love my kid. I think they're capable of great things. But the possibilities of what they
- are capable of at this age, I have branched out on what we're going to try at home. That's our goal.
- So if you want to come to a cooking program, I highly recommend it. And if you have a three through
- six year old, yeah, come. The next library board of trustees meeting will take place on October 15th.
- The Bloomington City Council met on September 17th where they heard an ordinance that would increase
- the city's water rate by 21%. This comes after the city's utilities service board recommended the adoption
- of the ordinance during their September 8th meeting.
- City Clerk Nicole Bolden provided a rundown of the legislation. This ordinance amends the rates and
- charges in Title IX of the Bloomington Municipal Code entitled Water to reflect increased costs of supplying
- water and services to customers and to make debt service payments on bond financing for required capital
- improvements.
- The council will continue discussing the water rate increase at future meetings with an expected vote
- on October 22nd. The council then heard an ordinance that would create a new fund to set aside money
- for fiber installation. The fund would contain $1 million, which they received from an insurance claim
- due to the failures of the previously hired fiber installer. Clerk Bolden provided an overview of the
- ordinance.
- Ordinance 2025-34 to establish a fund for the proceeds of the surety bonds secured for work on fiber
- optics network for the city of Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana. The synopsis is as follows. This
- ordinance establishes a dedicated non-referring fund to hold the $1 million received in the surety bond
- payment on bond number 1160465 was called due to failure by Meridian Infrastructure North America Corporation
- Subcontractor, AEG,
- to properly install fiber within the city limits. Damages were incurred by the city and certain notice
- of violations were issued by the city of Bloomington engineering department against AEG, who was working
- on Meridians behalf for violations of title 12 of the Bloomington municipal code regarding work performed
- in the right of way. Appropriations of the funds will be requested by the city of Bloomington controller
- to the city council at a later date.
- City attorney Margie Rice presented the ordinance and provided some background information
- on the legislation. So in 2021, the city entered into a letter of intent with Meridium to do kind of
- a public private partnership to install fiber in the city of Bloomington. And a master development agreement
- was signed in June of 22.
- TIFF was created, what's called a SpiderTIFF, was created in June of 22, and everything sort of proceeded
- from there, and fiber was starting to be installed throughout the city of Bloomington. Earlier this
- year, around February, we started hearing some noise that there were some problems with a subcontractor
- that Meridium had hired, which was AEG or TrueLine,
- They've had some different names. So we did some due diligence, ended up, the legal department in late
- March filed a notice with the insurance company that held the bond for AEG True Line. So when people
- do work in the right of way, they're often required to get a bond, an insurance policy essentially,
- to protect the city
- from any damage done in the right of way. Rice continued saying that they want to create a separate
- fund for the money that they received from the settlement. We filed a written notice with the insurance
- company. It was Sampo International doing business as Lexan Insurance Company. And we had a million
- dollar bond. And so long story short, we submitted information to them
- in late March and we received a check for a million dollars on July 8th. It was given to the controller's
- office. She's held it. It could just probably be deposited into the general fund. However, we would
- like a separate fund to be created to hold this million dollars so that, and then we will be back to
- the council to ask for appropriations of that million dollars. So tonight I'm not asking for appropriation.
- We're just asking to create the fund. That million dollars will be deposited in there, and when we're
- ready to come back and ask for appropriations, we'll come back. It's really too early to tell how that
- money is gonna be spent. We have fines related to AEG's work in the right of way. There are actual repairs
- being done in the right of way, but Meridium,
- who we have the agreement with. Remember, the city never had an agreement with AEG. We had an agreement
- with Meridian. They've been a great partner. So far, they have been very responsive. We've gotten another
- contractor out there doing work in the right of way. They are also bonded. And repairs are being made.
- I'm sure there are still issues that need to be remedied. But it's too early to tell right now where
- we're going to need that million dollars, so we're not asking for an appropriation.
- This is just a fun creation. I can tell you that this has been a true collaborative effort on many city
- departments. So while we are the ones who started the legal action to get the bond payment, there's
- been a ton of work done by engineering and public works, ITS, controller, the mayor's office has been
- involved. Just a lot of different agencies or departments within the city have had to be responsive.
- to getting the information to the insurance company and getting the information to the new contractor
- to start doing the repairs. The ordinance passed unanimously. Next, the council heard a resolution requesting
- a recommendation from the Food and Beverage Tax Advisory Commission on how to spend food and beverage
- tax revenue for the Capital Improvement Board's 2026 budget.
- Treasurer for the CIB, Jeff McKim, presented the resolution. You will remember that the Capital Improvement
- Board presented our 2026 budget request to you a few weeks ago during your budget work sessions. Because
- the CIB budget is funded by the food and beverage tax, statute requires an additional procedure specific
- to that fund source. Statute requires the Common Council as legislative body of the city
- to request the Advisory Commission's recommendations concerning the expenditure of any food and beverage
- tax funds. The resolution in front of you would make such a request for a recommendation from the Food
- and Beverage Tax Advisory Commission, otherwise known as FABTAC.
- After Fabtech meets and makes a recommendation, approval of the CIB's 2026 budget will come back to
- Council in the 2026 Civil City Budget Appropriations Ordinance, which is one of the three appropriations
- ordinances the Council will consider during your budget adoption process. The Council approved the resolution
- by a vote of 8-1 with Councilmember Kate Rosenberger dissenting.
- The Richland Beanblossom School Board met on September 16th. Edgewood Junior High School counselor,
- Callie Schlemmer, introduced the Lead and Learn program, which began last year. The program works with
- high school students to lead a panel discussion for junior high students. Then the high school and junior
- high students together attend a panel from professionals. One student, Navea Scott, expressed her gratitude
- to the program for giving her more confidence
- in her future. The panel really taught me that it's not as scary as it looks. There are pathways to
- get you to where you want to be at the end of high school and set you up for college and really going
- to it really helped put an ease on my nerves and helped me figure out what I was going to do when I
- got to high school.
- Director of the Bloomington Success School, Christopher M.G., explained that the program seems to result
- in more engaged students. So what have we seen? We've seen the questions are better. The students are
- more engaged. I have my O'Neill fellow do these panels, and this is Friday morning for a college student.
- They're excited to do it. The panelists, more engaged students that used to be very
- at least on a middle school level, very passive, just kind of taking it in and you're like, okay, okay,
- but now it's really a game changer within that. And that's something that I think everybody's benefited,
- the volunteers are benefiting from just a much more rewarding experience. I think the high schoolers
- just seeing
- how those professionals are modeling talking to younger students is a big deal. So it works on a lot
- of different levels on them. And we saw it last Friday. And it's great to be a part of this where something
- as simple as career exploration has taken on this sort of innovative look that I think is ready for
- the 21st century, ready for tomorrow's workforce. So I'm excited to be a part of this and help out any
- way we can here at the success school.
- The program will be hosting more panels in the future, which will cover topics like nutrition and culinary
- arts, business and marketing, agriculture, engineering, and the trades. Superintendent Jerry Sanders
- commended Edgewood Junior High School on the programs and experiences that they offer. If you think
- about putting all the pieces of the puzzle together, as you put the pieces together, the picture starts to
- and come to life of what you're trying to build there. And if you think about all the edgwood schools
- are trying to do in terms of internships, the innovative learning center, the student run businesses,
- that all this is just providing our students with knowledge and experience
- so that really they're taking the guessing game out of what they wanna do someday. They're basing their
- decisions, important decisions on actual factual information. And I think it's so cool that we have
- students talking to students about these important issues. So great job, junior high.
- Later in the meeting, the board approved a two-day training workshop for the school's mental health
- team members. The training would take place over Zoom and offer follow-up consultation if they have
- any questions. Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Barrett explained more about the training.
- These are some strategies that we have learned about more through our IU team that comes in. They work
- with our students. So Heather Ormiston is our partner there. These strategies are meant to be more on
- the fly that we would use with students. What we tend to do now is more pull out. So they may come down
- to the office, meet with a mental health provider for a certain period of time. And so these strategies
- are about increasing the amount of time that they're actually in the classroom, so ways
- that we can connect with them in passing periods, ways that we can connect with them at lunchtime so
- that we can maybe dig a little deeper in terms of
- some mental health counseling, but not pulling them out of instructional time to do that. So that's
- really what these strategies are about and the goal that comes along with that. It's a lot of language
- and just how we approach students and the types of students who would respond to these strategies, because
- as we know, it's not gonna fit the bill for every single student we have. Later, members of the school
- board's leadership team gave updates on the Teacher Appreciation Grant, otherwise known as TAG.
- limiting awards to no more than 20% of certified teachers in a district. As a result, the Indiana State
- Teachers Association, or ISTA, is opposed to accepting the money. Co-president of the leadership team,
- Ty McGinnis, explained the reasoning behind the decision. The general, I don't know, reasoning or logic
- behind ISTA's opposition to accepting the money is that because it is
- limited to 20% of teachers. We believe that this will create an environment of competition rather than
- collaboration. And we know that the counter argument to that would be, well, why do we wanna leave this
- money on the table? And it's just kind of a monkey's paw situation where we believe that it's more trouble
- than it's worth.
- President Dana Kerr ended the meeting by thanking legal accountant Christie Bartlett and Community Access
- Television Services. I want to thank Christine and she worked so hard. We have so many agreements and
- other things and policies going on and she's always right there to lead us in the right direction and
- we appreciate her. We appreciate our friends at Cats and coming out and taking good care of us and keeping us
- out there in the public's eye and so that they know what we're doing. The Richland Beanblossom School
- Board will meet again in October.
- At their meeting on September 15th, the Bloomington Redevelopment Commission discussed Resolution 25-116,
- the approval of an addendum regarding the property on 714 South Rogers Street. Director of the City's
- Department of Housing and Neighborhood Development, Anna Killian Hanson, explained that there is a mold
- problem on the property.
- This is an addendum to an already passed resolution for mold mitigation at the 714 building. When they
- got in there, they found that there was mold growing even on steel and just on the main level, at least.
- So it's going to require an additional amount that would increase it by $50,000 for the remediation.
- for a total not to exceed of $75,000. The commission moved to approve the resolution with four in favor
- and one opposed. Killian Hansen then spoke about a resolution with Vet Environmental Engineering for
- remediation services at Hopewell. The property is contaminated with arsenic, benzene, and other
- petroleum-related chemicals due to a gas station that was formerly located on the property.
- As you're aware, we approved that to go in and do the remediation, contamination remediation at Hopewell
- West. So primarily at the corner of 2nd and Rogers Street. Again, when they got in there, they ended
- up hitting three fuel tanks. And so as a result, the costs have increased to dispose of these oil tanks.
- So the original resolution was for $152,486.26. The addendum adds $63,404.33. So something that's required,
- it's something that we really needed to take care of. And this is still aligning with our IDEM contamination
- plan as well.
- Assistant City Attorney Dana Kerr, a former environmental consultant, added his perspective on the proposal.
- To me, there could be additional tanks. Under the road? Because, no, because they're, looking at the
- sand board maps, when I looked at them, it looked like there were two generations of gas stations there.
- The first one is shown in 1947, I believe, and it had three tanks behind the building at Sec Cate Corner.
- These are along the roadway and these were 10,000 gallon tanks. In 1947 you did not use 10,000 gallon
- tanks. Two, three thousand gallon tanks were more than normal. So it is possible as they continue doing
- their work and go farther west that they could encounter. Now those tanks may have been removed, they
- may not have.
- There's just no way of knowing. I know that on one site that I had back when I did environmental work,
- there was two generations of gas stations. And when they built a new building, they poured the foundation
- over top of the old tanks. So the only thing I can tell you is on sites like this, you just don't know
- what you're going to find until you get into them. You really don't. The resolution passed unanimously.
- Killian Hansen then discussed another resolution with Vet Engineering for mold inspection at the Trades
- District Garage. Essentially, as you know, I've been reporting to you guys that we've had some issues
- at the Trades District Garage with the HVAC equipment. Really it started with the fact that they are
- oversized and there is no hot air reheat on them. So it's short cycling instead of drying out the air.
- We've had an incredibly hot and humid summer
- At moments of time this summer, we had water dripping from the duct work in addition to condensation
- on the walls. So we are working on a solution right now. We think we we are hoping fingers crossed,
- everything crossed and got it figured out. The tenants have not been able to occupy the space right
- now. They're federal subcontractors and are
- tied to really specific standards. When we met with them recently, one of the things that would make
- them feel better is to make sure that there's no additional mold growth going on in the building as
- a result of the condensation from the HVAC units. So this particular resolution is for $1,300, 1309.38,
- excuse me, for that mold testing just to confirm.
- We have no signs of it. We haven't noticed anything, but we really need to do an indoor air quality
- sample to confirm. That resolution also passed unanimously. The Bloomington Redevelopment Commission
- will meet again on October 6th. And that is all for Cats Week. Thank you for joining us. For Cats and
- WFHB, I'm Annaliese Poorman.