- and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annalise Poorman.
- The Monroe County Capital Improvement Board met on December 17th and discussed construction updates
- on the Monroe County Convention Center. Weddle Brothers project manager Andrew Sherry said the construction
- has been moving forward despite the weather. He said the construction will require closures on College
- Avenue between January 26th and February 12th and again from February 13th to sometime in June. Sherry
- explained the reason for the closures.
- We're going to have lifts and everything like that, but it will also allow us to button up additional
- demo curves, pavement, things like that, set storm structures that way that whenever summer rolls around,
- we can complete our asphalt patches, our curb work, and everything else that ties into the project.
- Next, Galen Cassidy and Holly Warren gave an update on the signature artwork for the Convention Center.
- Cassidy said the recommendation committee had 180 applicants that they had narrowed down to 10. Warren
- said the selections were based on past experience, craftsmanship in their art, and staying within budget.
- This was a very hard job. Everybody was very talented and brought a lot of different skills to the table.
- So now for those top contenders, we are reaching out to those that we would like to be our five finalists
- to confirm that they're still interested in the putting forward a proposal in the spring and to discuss
- next steps with them. Once we have those five finalists, we will come back to you just to share more
- information about
- who they are, what they've done in the past and our procedure for getting them just more familiar with
- the project. So they're set up to give us the best proposals that they can. And again, we will be looking
- for them to give us those proposals of actual potential art for the Convention Center expansion in spring
- of 26. So we're really excited about that. The final artists will receive $5,000 for their work, which
- Warren said is standard for the art industry.
- Next, the board heard an update on the Convention Center Hotel from Bloomington's Director of Economic
- and Sustainable Development, Jane Coopersmith, who said that the Redevelopment Commission has not been
- able to reach an agreement with Dora Hospitality. She said that the Redevelopment Commission passed
- a resolution supporting the site for a host hotel, but did not approve incentives, which left a major
- funding gap.
- She also explained that the City Council limited support for the convention center to money collected
- from the food and beverage tax. Board member Adam Tease said Dora Hospitality wants to put the hotel
- on the Bunger Robertson property, but that the funding gap makes it difficult. As we announced in October,
- we had asked that at the end of this 60-day period of time,
- we have some indication that a deal was imminent. And it sounds to me, and you can correct me if I'm
- wrong, but at this point, there does not appear to be a path forward with this particular property.
- To tighten the funding gap, the board has reduced the scope and amenities of the host hotel. Vince Dora,
- with Dora Hospitality, expressed concerns that by reducing the hotel's features, it could lose marketability.
- the RFP and the scope of work that we did on one of the two, tentated in an upscale hotel with the Host
- Conduct Center. It would help the team over at the visited Bloomington to keep the cell in the Conduct
- Center. I mean, they need that nice upscale host hotel to steal from the city of Louisville and all
- the areas that bring business and tourism into the city of Bloomington.
- And at that level, that's the reason for the gap. We've been working closely with the city to present
- other options that reduce that scope of work and therefore reduce the cost and therefore reduce the
- incentive package task. It's chicken and egg though because every time you present a reduction in scope,
- we also lose the ability to market the hotel or the convention center.
- Board member John Wyckart noted that the Host Hotel is a way to draw in convention center goers, not
- merely a place for people to stay for a night. The Host Hotel is designed specifically to attract conventions.
- So if in my career I wanted to go to a convention where I were being sold on a convention, you wanted
- to know what the amenities were in the host hotel. And clearly that's what we need to attract conventions,
- which is our goal. This hotel is not simply a place for people to stay overnight after an IU football
- game and then drive home the next day.
- It's designed to attract 600 people to come to a convention and want to stay here in our downtown in
- walkable distance to a lot of other outside amenities in a nice place. Weichart said that the hotel
- needs a bar, a restaurant and a fitness center. He supported the idea of Dora Hospitality looking at
- other locations for the hotel before coming to a decision.
- I don't know how we further reduce the scope and still have an attractive host hotel for conventions.
- I think we've done what we can. I think if we can offer parcels to the South and West, that's something
- else, obviously, that ought to be considered an incentive because it doesn't have price tags on it.
- But the hard work will have to come between now and then with Mr. Dora looking at those other locations
- and seeing if he can make it happen.
- and reporting back to us in January that he thinks he can. Dora said that the company is still committed
- to the host hotel project, whether it be on the Bunger Robertson property or at a different site. The
- Bloomington Board of Public Works met on December 16th, where they heard a proposal to close portions
- of South College Avenue to allow construction of a sky bridge for the Bloomington Convention Center
- expansion.
- Public Works Director Adam Wason outlined the request from Weddle Brothers Construction. As you recall
- earlier this year, Weddle Brothers came to us with a phased approach to what they expected to be some
- of the lane and road closure requests that they would be coming forward with. This is one of the big
- ones they're coming forward with. This is basically a two-week closure of College south of 3rd Street.
- To facilitate the installation of their skybridge And then so that would be from the January 26 through
- February 12 dates for a two-week period with traffic being detoured over to Rogers
- Then from there, from that February 12th through a end of July time frame, or end of June time frame,
- there will be a request, this is a request to have college in a one lane southbound configuration from
- February 13th through June 26th. Engineering field specialist Kyle Baw expanded on the effort to install
- a sky bridge for the convention center.
- Other public notifications that we're working on So sign boards are planned to be out no later than
- November or November. Sorry January 5th of 2026 to let the traveling public know when and where to expect
- those closures so as Adam mentioned the vehicular detour would be from Third Street to Rogers and then
- back over on second the planned pedestrian detour is going to travel east and
- down Walnut and then back over via Second as well. Yeah, as Adam also mentioned, we have included the
- communication that's being sent out at this time to the affected property owners. So we're looking at
- those folks in between College Walnut, between Third and Second from North to South, of course.
- So that's all in process at the moment. We're still working on some of the particulars of the actual
- temporary traffic control plan. We're working to get that shared with emergency services. So we really
- feel like we're crossing as many boxes off as we can for something this large, but we still have some
- time to get it all wrapped up.
- Board Secretary James Roach asked about access to the traffic control plans for the project. Boss said
- he will make sure board members have access to that information. I seem to recall during yesterday's
- work session, the packet included the actual maintenance of traffic plan. And I don't see it in today's
- final packet. It just had the two maps. What we included were the two maps showing
- Where the closure the phasing of the closures? I don't know that we we've kind of gone back and forth
- with you all on do we give you the full maintenance of traffic plan with all of the tiny little legend
- items showing you where every single sign is based on MUT CD standards for temporary traffic control
- plans Getting this down finally there's probably a happy median between nothing and
- The full engineered plans. Yeah, so Did we that median was added today? I don't know if we added it
- too late to get it included in the it should be you should have it On paper. I'm so sorry. Yeah, and
- that's my Map I think yeah, so that so this will show the plan detours for these for each closure And
- my apologies wasn't on there originally. No quite. All right permits meeting this morning I was like,
- I think we want to put the
- Reader's Digest version of this detour in there without everything, so that's why you got the printed
- copy for this today. Board President Kyla Cox Deckard asked about coordination with properties affected
- by the closure.
- I know you had mentioned the coordination and communication with the other properties that are affected
- in the closure area and we specifically talked about I believe the midtown loss midtown loss. It's the
- larger apartment complex right off of Smith and South College.
- Yeah and so it sounded like one Smith was gonna be a potential entry point for that property. I'm curious
- about my sister's closet which sits in the same zone. What's the access point for them during this closure
- and detour? So that's a part of the detail that we requested from Weddle Brothers. I don't know if Andrew
- you've spoken to any of them on that level of detail just yet but we will be having
- A requirement for all of those properties to have a access plan for this period of time And it may involve
- having to come north on walnut to Smith To kind of circle. Yes Smith will be open and Smith will be
- open and walnut will be open South of Smith like it isn't gonna have construction activity there So
- it may require my sister's closet patrons to come either up
- Walnut North, west on Smith and then back south on College because Smith and College will be open to
- traffic. The board approved the closure request and noise permit unanimously.
- At their meeting on December 15th, the Bloomington Redevelopment Commission heard a resolution regarding
- the host hotel for the Bloomington Convention Center expansion. Director of Economic and Sustainable
- Development, Jane Coopersmith, said this resolution concerns Dora hospitality. She explained that a
- gap in funding is preventing the city from making any progress on the hotel.
- From the beginning of those negotiations or discussions, the hotel developers described a significant
- gap in order to deliver on the scope of the host hotel. When the city, on our side of the negotiations,
- required full land value as was previously requested, that amount simply appeared as a required subsidy
- in a different part of their pro forma.
- So the city considered a range of partnership structures to determine how best to advance the project
- at the site. And this body approved expenditures totaling $400,000 to advance investigation of the site
- and design of the building while it continued negotiating with the developer. Initial site work, like
- soil borings, has gone forward. No design work has advanced in the absence of a letter of intent with
- the developer.
- Corporation Council Margie Rice said the resolution does not establish an agreement with the hotel developer.
- The resolution before the commission would simply indicate that the redevelopment commission supports
- a hotel at the convention center. This resolution shall not be construed as approving the final development
- terms, a land conveyance, or a specific financial structure, all of which shall require separate RDC
- review and approval.
- You are not negotiating in this resolution a deal with a hotel developer. So let's just get that off
- the table. What you are doing in this resolution, if you pass it, is signaling to the world, to the
- city council, to hoteliers, to the CIB, that the roughly 2.4 acre bit of land that you own that is in
- need of redevelopment,
- underdeveloped property in downtown Bloomington. You are signaling that you think this is a good location
- for a hotel and you may make it available at a nominal cost. Nominal meaning, by dictionary definition,
- very small or below the real value or cost. Not saying you are, just saying you might.
- Deborah Meyerson added an amendment that removed language that could be interpreted as committing the
- city to sell land at a reduced or nominal cost for the host hotel. The commission passed the resolution
- as amended with member John West voting no. The next redevelopment commission meeting will happen on
- January 5th.
- The Monroe County Commissioners met on December 18th. The meeting began with County Health Administrator
- Lori Kelly providing an update from the Health Department. According to the Indiana Department of Health
- Dashboard, as of December 16th, there have been no increases in emergency department visits for COVID-like
- illness, but wastewater concentrations are continuing to trend up.
- According to data from wastewater scan, we are now seeing moderate levels of flu, but very low levels
- of RSV. The health department still has free COVID tests available. Anyone can walk in Monday through
- Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to pick up free tests. And the public health clinic located at 333 East
- Miller Drive has vaccines available. You can call 812-353-3244 for an appointment.
- Later in the meeting, Highway Director Lisa Ridge discussed a change order for the Morris Creek Road
- stormwater project. So our milestone Morris Creek Road project, they paved it last November, so November
- 2024. They spent 2025 doing minor finishing up touches. So we're closing out the contract and getting
- everything finished out. So the total of our under run
- was $74,628.58. There was one change to the treatment of the subgrade that cost an additional $6,939.40.
- So our total under run was $67,689.18 below the contract.
- The commissioners approved the change order and then next resolution 2025-58 was introduced regarding
- notice to homeless encampments. Jeff Cockerill explained. At that work session, the discussion, the
- request was that the commissioners allow or require 30 days notice in the event that we are going to
- remove a homelessness encampment.
- Um, so this resolution recognizes that it also recognizes that we won't issue that 30 day notice until
- March 2nd of this year or next year, 2026. Sorry. In the future, a little bit there. Um, and that, that
- this will, this is enforced unless, uh, the commissioners get notice from, or, uh,
- Unless you rescinded any notice meeting or if the emergency is determined, an emergency is determined
- by law enforcement, the Monroe County Health Officer, or if the removal is requested by the city of
- Bloomington. So I think we've we've covered our bases with, you know, I used the word if something became
- unstable at that, which granted is a pretty generic term. Right. I agree with them. But but those are
- the people who can help.
- who will let you let you guys know if it's unstable. And of course, if you can determine on your own
- if if it's unstable, that is. And then it also has a section that where the where you are going to request
- other Monroe County and city of Bloomington elected leaders to meet and discuss steps to address the
- homelessness in the community. So those are kind of the two components of this resolution.
- County Council member Peter Iverson made a public comment regarding the new resolution. The resolution
- is a little hard to find. So I just wanted to encourage folks that when you go to the Board of Commissioners
- website, you have to go down to the all the way down to the agendas and packet section to get to the
- resolution. I will say this the meeting on December 11th was really helpful.
- And the county council stands in solidarity with you in wanting a working group to talk about these
- issues. Clearly this resolution is is a first step toward that. And we see it as that. And I would just
- encourage you in the now therefore section.
- that when you direct people to give that notice, that 30 days notice, that it not only include Mineral
- County staff, but also those street outreach folks, particularly through the contract that we have through
- Health Net. So thank you for this. And I look forward to continuing this conversation. Another public
- comment regarding the resolution came from a resident of the Thompson property, Ashley Chaunting. It is
- Honestly, it has so many caveats as to make it almost meaningless as protection against winter evictions.
- And it is very concerning to me the lack of transparency and the lack of community involvement that
- are involved in the proposed next steps. So we also look forward to continuing this conversation with
- you guys via the means available to us. The next Monroe County Board of Commissioners meeting will take
- place on January 8th.
- The Monroe County Community School Corporation Board of Trustees met on December 16th. President of
- Monroe County Education Association, Jennie Noble Kuchera, discussed a resolution on the agenda which
- would eliminate the Title I teacher supplemental pay stipend of $2,000 per year. She asked what could
- be done to help retain teachers. We have roughly 225 teachers.
- who will no longer receive the supplemental pay, it will be a decrease for them. And so the question
- that I'm asking here on their behalf is what are the alternative sources? It seems to us that the legislature
- with this just has one more notch on their belt of public education dismantlement. So the teacher
- appreciation grants from the state, they're only gonna go to potentially 13% of our teachers.
- And that's only if the IDOE deems them eligible. So my question to our community, to the school board,
- and to our administration is, what then can be done to help retain the teachers who work hard every
- day directly with the population of our most school-dependent kids? Thank you.
- Jeffrey Henderson then presented Resolution 2025-26 Supplemental Pay for Teachers and Priority Schools
- under Title I Guidelines. Board members Erin Cooperman and April Hennessy commented on the discussion,
- saying that it is a hard decision to make. And I suppose on the heels of that, just to say that it's
- a hard decision because we so greatly appreciate the teachers that serve at our Title I schools. Yes.
- As we appreciate all of our teachers.
- We understand that that comes with special challenges. Indeed. And we implemented this because we understood
- those particular challenges, especially in retention. But I do think that we know that at this point,
- we are in this spot where we have to make these kinds of fiscal decisions in order to be able to make
- other sorts of offerings.
- So yeah, I agree. The board approved the resolution. Henderson then provided an overview of facilities
- management in MCCSC and expressed the importance of supporting facilities management. Quality facilities
- support quality instruction. The operations staff is the backbone of our school system. These hidden
- heroes take care of daily tasks that keep our buildings safe, clean and maintained so that our teachers
- can concentrate on providing our students
- with excellent educational experiences. The director of building operations and the director of construction
- facilities and safety, along with our skilled maintenance staff, monitor the uptime rates of our HVAC
- systems, our pool filtration systems, our fire alarm systems, our plumbing systems, and our electrical
- systems. They respond quickly when any problems arise.
- They also monitor the quantity of work orders received and how long it takes us to resolve the issues
- identified by staff. The directors and I frequently visit schools and when we're there, we take the
- opportunity to speak to staff members and principals about any concerns or needs that they have with
- regard to their buildings. In conclusion this evening, I'd like to again share why this work matters.
- On this slide, you can see several recent examples of the investment that MCC SC makes in a variety
- of spaces. Maintaining high quality facilities allows us to uphold our board's priority to sustain excellence
- in our schools. As such, ensuring the state of the art academic, ensuring state of the art academic,
- athletic and performing arts facilities continues to be one of dr Winston's top priorities. We see every day
- that our facilities directly support our students by providing high quality educational spaces where
- our children can learn and grow. Winston expressed gratitude for the hard work of MCCSE employees during
- recent inclement weather. She responded to complaints about school delays by stating that there are
- many students and employees who live outside the city limits where road conditions can be considerably
- worse during severe weather.
- Winston expressed that safety and security of employees is quote one of the hardest decisions that a
- superintendent has to ever make end quote. I want to take a moment just to acknowledge our deep deep
- appreciation and recognition of our facilities team. The last couple of weeks we've had inclement weather
- unexpected in great levels with freezing and
- thawing, refreezing, and very unsafe conditions for our buses, for our employees, and for our students.
- And what many people don't know and what Dr. Henderson was really alluding to is the fact that while
- many of you are sleeping, they are out getting business taken care of. And so I definitely want to just
- begin with just that acknowledgement of appreciation. When he talked about the number of tons, how many tons
- I smell did you say 250 tons or something like that yeah that's that's just unbelievable and and and
- yet they do it quickly they do it without complaint and and and probably not as much appreciation as
- our entire community should share with them I say that because I do recognize that
- We've had three days of weather in December, when generally speaking, we don't get those days in December.
- We usually get them after the holiday break. So there's been a lot of unexpected aspects. And there's
- been a lot of frustration, quite frankly, in our community. There are family members who don't quite
- understand the decisions that have been made, the factors that go into that decision making, and the
- painstaking
- hours and time that it takes to kind of get to that point in time. I can assure you that Dr. Henderson
- and I and other members of our facilities team are up at 2.33 o'clock every one of these days that we've
- had to have conversations and discussions around what are we hearing from our meteorologists? What are
- the roads looking like? Are directors in our facilities and maintenance and construction departments
- and transportation, they're out driving the roads while you all are sleeping. The MCCSC School Board
- will meet again on January 27, 2026. And that is all for Cats Week. Thank you for joining us. For Cats
- and WFHB, I'm Annalise Poorman.