And welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annalise Poorman. The Monroe County Election Board met on October 2nd.
The meeting began with a brief citizenship update followed by Election Supervisor Kylie Farris speaking
on voter list maintenance in Monroe County. And then voter list maintenance since July 1st, we have
processed 7,558 voter voting records.
Through the voting list maintenance hoppers in SVRS, 6,523 of those voters have been made inactive,
814 have stayed active, 189 have been canceled, and 32 have been rejected. Ferris followed up by addressing
concerns regarding the new early voting location.
And then I'm going to just bring up some concerns that we're having with the 2026 early voting location
right now. We were informed that our look at date for moving in will be February, and we're just starting
to get to that point of we're trying to prepare things for next year and make sure that we're going
to have enough time to get everything turned around, set up, and be organized enough to
push through with that, but we're also wondering if there is going to be a discussion among us, the
election board and election office staff, if there should be an additional place as a backup in case
if construction is not completed in time. I also think that it would be a great idea if we could probably
get Richard Kreider in on some of these conversations so that we can get a better understanding of where
we're at in general on the new location as well.
She went on to share that she had created a list of elected officials that members of the public can
easily access.
And so I created one earlier this year. I want to say it was about January, February is when I very
first started working on it. And then we got busy with voter list maintenance. So it kind of got pushed
back a little bit more. But now we're getting to that point of where individuals are coming in wanting
to know who's going to be up and what offices will be opening up next year. And I think this will be
a great addition to the website. So individuals have that access directly on the website.
The election board then discussed creating an accessible map of the districts for citizens to utilize.
Clerk Nicole Brown briefly touched on a concern that there will be redistricting ahead of the 2026 election.
Let you know that clerks have been made aware that the governor is calling for redistricting ahead of
2026. I don't know what that picture looks like.
In fact, none of the clerks know what that picture looks like at this time. We have expressed concern
that if that redistricting occurs right up to, you know, butting up to the first day of candidate filing,
that that is going to cause a significant amount of confusion. We believe our lobbyist for the Clerks
Association is articulating that to the people who have the most contact with the
governor but we are awaiting that and so it does not make sense to me to put that map up when it could
change depending upon the governor's decision and we are still waiting. I have no further information
on that. Clerk Brown went on to discuss her desire to make polling more accessible in Monroe County.
Monroe County is in partnership
with the city so that if you go to a polling site, and I saw this at the library so this is not my original
idea, that there's this emblem where they're kind of shaking hands and it is a accessible site at the
Monroe County Library because the city has worked with ADA to get the library in compliance and I'd
love to see that at our polling sites even if it's only temporary. The Monroe County Election Board
will meet again on November 6th.
The Ellisville Plan Commission met on October 2nd. The commission heard a petition for the voluntary
annexation of three parcels of land. Town Planner Denise Line presented the annexation case on behalf
of petitioners Michael and Megan Ripley. Petition by Michael and Megan Ripley to voluntarily annex three
parcels totaling approximately 71.93 acres of land. Subject parcels are located at 5711
Northeastern Valley Road, 4601 West McNeely Street, and 4.10 acres, parcel number 53-04-11-100-010.000-011.
In appointing annexation, we will assign an address to that parcel. This is a super voluntary annexation,
and contiguity of the parcels are as follows.
5711 North Union Valley Road is 20% contiguous. The 4.10 acres is 49% contiguous, and 4601 West McNeely
Street is 34% contiguous to the town of Ellsville, and 100% of the property owners are parties to the
petition. The properties are currently zoned Agricultural Residential, AGR, by Monroe County, and are
recommended to be designated
has agricultural AG upon annexation. Properties will be located in council ward three. The plan commission's
action shall be in the form of a favorable, unfavorable, or no recommendation town council, which takes
final action on the annexation petition. Staff recommends a favorable recommendation be forwarded to
town council.
with a recommended zoning of Agricultural AG for all three parcels upon annexation and petitioners are
present if you have any questions. Plan Commissioner David Drake clarified that the petition is for
annexing the property from the county into the town limits. Right now this is just an annexation of
the property into the town limits. It's going to have the same zoning in the town that it had previously
in the county.
We do not know at this point if there are any future plans for the owners of this property to do anything
with it. But once they have future plans, if they have any, they will have to come back to the plan
commission and then the town council to have the property rezoned if they wish to use it for a different
use. So all we're doing right now is annexing this into the town limits and that's it.
Community member Jim Perry asked for clarification on the zoning designation. Town planner Line responded
by saying that Monroe County and the town of Ellitsville classify zoning terms somewhat differently.
I just have a question. Maybe Denise can address it, but you said it's agricultural residential county,
but then you said if it comes into this town, it would be agricultural. Is there a difference?
It's just zoning districts. Monroe County calls their agricultural, residential, AGR, and we just call
it agricultural. So what does that mean, though, in terms of the zoning? Okay. Because obviously residential
is in the county, but it doesn't say residential in the town. You said agricultural. So is it agricultural
land solely, or is it
Is there prospect for some mix? It's owned agricultural which includes residential. We just don't call
it agricultural residential But as you say there would have to be a Proposal for the use of the property
for other than agricultural in our zone is that if there were a proposal that came forward for residential
that would be
be sustained for that. So if somebody say purchased it or if the petitioners decided to change the zoning,
they would have to petition the plan commission for a recommendation to town council and then town council
would be the final authority on any rezone. Yeah, but if it permits residential, then there would be
no need for rezoning if somebody came forward with a residential proposal.
How much residential does the county allow in agricultural residential? Well, in Ellis, I don't know
about the county, but in Ellisville, it's a minimum of two acres to be, two acre parcels to be considered
residential. And that means what? I mean, for residents to be, residential be allowed in agricultural.
In other words, they would have to have two acre lots if they wanted to make this, make it residential
in an agricultural zone.
Each lot would have to be two acres minimum minimum correct Local resident Richard Dillman asked the
Commission about who will maintain McNeely Street the town's plans for future Annexation and how this
would impact the tax rate for the property Who's going to take care of the McNeely Street from this
point on if it's accepted?
So when we annex properties into town, we also annex the streets. Will McNeely Street be annexed? It'll
come into the town inventory, yes. That portion. The whole street? That portion. Just that portion.
Only the portions that are adjacent to the property being annexed. Okay. And the road is the road. So
in other words, everybody that lives across McNeely Street that borders this annexation are now bordering
The city limits, if this is accepted, is that correct? Yes. Yes, the town limits. Okay. Does the town
have any future plans on annexing all of your open spots? If you look at GIS now, you guys have got
a lot of it. We do, but the state has made it virtually impossible to involuntarily annex
areas, so we can only take voluntary annexations. I mean, it's possible, but it's extremely difficult.
Okay, and that's just a question. The other question I had, I've always wanted to ask this. What's the
tax difference? If you're annexed into the city of Ellipsville, how much more do you have to pay for
taxes? I don't know. That's a hard one to calculate. I know, but isn't there a benchmark of like maybe
3 cents, 30 cents a thousand or something like that on assessment? No. On the paper it says the effective
annexation of the estimated tax rate increases from .5673 to .5645 for 2526. That's a number nobody
probably knows. The planned commission approved the voluntary annexation by a unanimous vote.
The next meeting of the Ellisville Plan Commission will take place on November 6th. The Monroe County
Commissioners met on October 2nd. The meeting started with department updates, including information
that COVID-19 is currently trending down locally. Dr. John Baten then spoke to the Commissioners about
an Indiana geographic data sets grant.
Yeah, so this is a grant that we applied for and were awarded. It's just for under $30,000 to essentially
try to enhance some of our core data sets to align with next gen 911 kind of recording standards of
the state. In addition to that, we're going to be using this funding with
Cultivate Geospatial Solutions, which is a company we've been contracting with and have a good relationship
already, to kind of, I don't want to say just overhaul, but really strengthen our GIS database and make
sure that things are going to be running faster and smoother and be more secure moving forward. So yeah,
we're here today to basically get the approval so we can hit accept on a button and then we get a contract
that comes out and we'll need signatures and things like that.
Baten had been awarded funds for the grant previously and received unanimous approval from the commissioners.
Commissioner Jody Madeira then moved to approve the Convention Center management agreement. Yes, our
current agreement expires at the end of the year. And with the operations of the Convention Center,
they need to make sure they have contracts in place for things such as catering, audio visual, and things
like that. So we like to get this approved
well before the end of the year, we've actually probably been working on this contract for six months,
trying to figure out how to accommodate the transition that we see coming with the CIB and the completion
of the expanded project and things like that. I think at the end of the day, we kind of came to the
conclusion that
those conversations really need to be happening between the CIB and the CBC and those groups. So we
tried to keep the contract much the same as what it has been historically. We did make some changes
to clean up some of the confusions that we think will help the future conversations between those two
groups. The funding being the particular area that I think we probably hit the most because I've been
looking at this contract for
15 years and I still didn't understand it as completely as I should have or needed to. So we kind of
tried to make it a little bit clearer how the money flows from their operations as it goes into an account
held by the Convention Center management company who pays the day to day expenses.
And then after those are paid, it goes into the county fund, which is then used to pay the convention
center management company their management fee. So these are all the revenues we're talking about with
this contract originate from the use of the convention center. The commissioners approved the management
agreement unanimously.
Next, the board heard about an agreement with VET Environmental Engineering. The agreement concerned
a dehumidifier installation and long-term stewardship plan at the County Justice Building. Commissioners
Administrator Angie Purdy presented the contract explaining that this was in response to mold contamination
at the site. This is
as a result of the mold response and remediation process that occurred at the Justice Building in,
I believe, August September. And there's actually two parts to this. So this is the first part, because
these are both flat fees. Based upon the information that was gathered during the August-September issues, the
Primarily, the issue with elevated relative humidity. I'm going to read this from VET as being the primary
cause of much of the identified biological growth. And elevated relative humidity is reportedly attributable
to a poorly functioning or improperly calibrated HVAC system. And that was what we found is that the
HVAC system, someone who shouldn't have changed the calibration
caused all kinds of problems. That coupled with just the inefficiency of the building design, the aging
infrastructure has all added to the elevated humidity that's within that particular building. So as
a result of that, they are proposing the installation of dehumidifiers. And those were going to go into
three stairwells.
and anticipated that those will be on the third floor and three dehumidifiers on the third floor and
three on the fifth floor. And then their condensate drain will be plumbed into existing drain waste
lines. And that their proposal also includes the necessary electrical connections. They're also proposing
a long-term stewardship
plan which is going to help us not only now but in the future to ensure that our buildings and that
we and staff are able to respond appropriately to water intrusions because it's mold and water are the
two things that are the problem and we have problems with this building in that some of the windows
on one of the sides of the building
they leak and that causes problems as it comes into the building and the floors. And so she's proposing,
they're proposing kind of an oversight, it'll be a living document that will help us and everyone to
understand the building systems, the operations and the ongoing challenges that we have. The contract
was approved unanimously. The commissioners will meet again on October the 9th.
The Bloomington City Council met on Tuesday, September 30th. The meeting began with Councilmember Kate
Rosenbarger expressing grief for the recent attacks downtown, including the murder of Sean Sullivan
and the assault of Robert Ballard. Councilmember Isabel Piedmont-Smith also commented on the violence,
stating that this is a nationwide issue that should be examined thoroughly. I appreciate Councilmember
Rosenbarger calling out the names of those who were
attacked this weekend or two of the names. But this is a national problem and something we need to pay
close attention to locally from not just when these terrible public violence incidents occur but as
we move on in government and policy making.
Next, Piedmont-Smith introduced reports from the special fiscal committee, which discussed the setting
of salaries for elected officials for 2026. Councilmember Courtney Daly responded to the discussion
by saying that she did not agree with increasing salaries, especially right now. I think considering
all of the SB1 and the federal funding and all the cuts that are happening to budgets everywhere and
everybody tightening their belts, I'm highly uncomfortable with the idea of
increases for elected officials right now. Councilmember Rosenberger expressed her desire to hold off
on discussing the matter until all members were present. I would I don't know I'd rather have a different
kind of discussion I guess two of our council members aren't here tonight and I think in this case it's
important that all of council is because I don't know seven out of nine doesn't feel great for talking
about our salaries and I think they are too that tend to have pretty big opinions.
Yeah, or perspectives on things. So I don't know. I don't think I'm the only one that missed the discussion
point of this. So I would just like to do it a different time, whether it in regular session or something
more casual too. Bloomington resident Kevin Keele suggested that perhaps the council could look to the
local median household income for ideas on paying elected officials. As a citizen of Indiana, if anybody
from any city in Indiana asked me what I would suggest,
on how to compensate elected officials, I would think a good pinpoint, a baseline to use would be the
median household income. Like for the median household income for Bloomington is 50,156 per the Bloomington
Economic Development Corporation. I'd say, hey, that's a good figure. Take 50% of that, you got the
city council, four times that, the mayor maybe. I mean, it gives you a good idea
of where you really sit in comparison to the median. We're not talking the real taxpayer, the individual
citizen out there. I think that would be a great benchmark to use. So I suggest I would suggest that
for any elected official. So anyway, I just throw that out. Good luck.
Next, Director of Economic and Sustainable Development, Jane Cooper-Smith, introduced Resolution 2025-18,
which would establish the geographic area surrounding Miller Showers Park and IU Memorial Stadium as
the stadium district. Cooper-Smith described the benefits that the city hopes such a designation would
have on local businesses. Naming a thing is a powerful action.
This action in particular will strengthen Bloomington's identity as a college town. It's not the only
part of our identity, but it's a key piece of what makes Bloomington who we are and why we have the
resources that we do.
It also highlights activity that is already happening in and around this area. With 2019 changes to
the UDO, the student population has indeed been driven to the district. Any time of day, you can see
people walking, dog walking, biking around an area that previously functioned as a pass-through.
And again, that's the area surrounding Miller Showers Park. And while student housing development has
driven the student population to this area, businesses continue to welcome a range of patrons
To the neighborhood whether for personal services professional services food or drink. So I think it's
a really Lovely balance in a diversified area for this reason. We have a mix of residents in the area.
We have students and we have Businesses attracting and serving students and long-term longtime residents
of Bloomington permanent full-time year-round residents there are also a number of underdeveloped properties
in the area that I believe will be positively influenced by the creation of this district and
Councilmember Rosenberger questioned the name for the district and whether the Maple Heights neighborhood
needs to be included in the map. I would like it if Maple Heights can be consulted in all of this. So
mostly I do need to leave early but I would be voting no on this tonight just because I think like process
is very process is very important to me and economic development impacts streets houses humans you know
and so I think that if we
I kind of relate it to if we have duplexes as a conditional use that you know, there are multiple meetings
and neighborhood Approvals for a two-unit home. I think that we should just have approvals for like
where this district might be and how it impacts Neighborhoods I know that the naming is it's a name
and I totally understand everything just like you can use it or you cannot use it to advertise Sort
of with the geography of the name of it. I know it's in relation to this
In the process for the river district, but like in my mind if something is called a stadium district
the stadium is in the middle so just like It is a ways from the stadium. So people have asked like what
other names, you know Like if you don't like that name, what other name and some folks said like city
market, which there's not really a market there But there is I guess one market a grocery store, but
also like no dough, right? Like north of downtown I was just trying to put out some ideas because people
were like have an idea if there's nothing like I understand that
So could you discuss a little bit your perspective on resident engagement when you are doing economic
development such as this.
Cooper Smith stated that the Maple Heights neighborhood was not consulted because the plan was not seen
as being, quote, harmful, unquote, for residents in the designated area. A resident of the Maple Heights
neighborhood, Sarah Alexander, objected to the plan, stating that it would only encourage more short-term
residents to move to the area.
While I appreciate the efforts to activate the area surrounding Miller Showers Park, I am afraid that
whoever made that map doesn't seem to have any understanding of my neighbourhood, or perhaps Bloomington
at all. The defined borders include 13th Street, which doesn't exist at all in the proposed area because
of the railroad tracks, and North Kinzer Pike isn't on the western boundary but runs sort of three quarters
of the way over. Jackson is actually on the west. So,
Perhaps I should not be surprised that the proponents of this resolution don't understand that while
some businesses line the edges of the neighborhood facing out, most of it is zoned residential, including
my own home, which is included in the proposed area. I object to the connection of this residential
area to the stadium in any way. The only result of such a connection would be the further encouragement
of short-term rentals.
Such properties sit empty most of the year, creating hollowed out neighborhoods where it is impossible
to foster relationships with the people with whom we should be able to build actual physical communities,
which is to say nothing of how short-term rentals inflate the cost of housing. Council Member Stasberg
agreed that it would be in the best interest for the new map not to include Maple Heights and recommended
that they postpone consideration of the name change until the next regular session.
The motion was approved. The Bloomington City Council will meet again on October the 6th. And that is
all for Cats Week. Thank you for joining us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annalise Poorman.