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.