- Hello, and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annalise Poorman. The Monroe County Council met on May 12th, and
- most of the meeting focused on the debate over the proposed new county jail and justice center at the
- North Park site. County commissioners brought the North Park proposal back before the council for a
- first reading, with the final vote delayed until the next council meeting. During discussion, Sheriff
- Ruben Marte stressed the urgency of moving forward. But I can tell you this.
- Every day, every hour, there are people in that facility. But not everybody in this room sees except
- for me and my staff. And I'm telling you, it's very difficult. I'm telling you, it's getting worse.
- It is getting worse. I can't tell you anymore about the elevator breaking down. I just can't. I don't
- know what else to say about that. Down because of the mold. The mold.
- me to clean the windows, the bag that I showed some of you three years ago with the filth in there that
- some of you didn't want to touch. Those windows now have to be cleaned professionally, which is going
- to cost $30,000. I can't save money now doing it myself because of the moment. So when people say you
- could go ahead and remodel that place and no,
- During discussion, councilmembers questioned commissioners about long-term planning, public transparency,
- and whether the county is moving too quickly because of pressure tied to the ACLU lawsuit.
- County Commissioner Julie Thomas argued county leaders are balancing both financial concerns and legal
- deadlines. I've consistently heard that it's too much money. And it is a lot of money. It makes my eyes
- water to think about how much money this is. And that's a huge commitment.
- This is a big decision, probably the biggest you'll make as a council member. It's huge. I respect the
- gravity of that decision. But we right now are thinking about time. Near the end of the meeting, council
- members debated whether to vote that night or wait until all council members could be present for a
- final decision.
- A motion to approve the North Park purchase failed in a one-to-five vote with council member Pete Iverson
- casting the lone vote in favor. The Monroe County Council will cast its final vote on the North Park
- proposal at its next meeting on May 26th. The Ellisville Town Council met on May 11th and heard estimates
- for resurfacing town streets. Town attorney Darla Brown presented the bids. The first bid is from Lent's page
- And the bid is, the total bid for South Deer Run, East Benjamin Street, South Lantern Lane, East Appomattox
- Court and North Daisy Drive is $142,515.56. 142-519-56.
- The next bid is from Milestone Contractors. Total bid for all five streets is $139,775.03. Final bid
- is from E&B Paving, LLC.
- Total bid for all five streets is $141,952.25. Councilmembers approved tabling the bids for further
- legal review. Next up was discussion on the town's purchases of a street sweeper, dump truck, and pickup
- truck for town needs. So the purpose of resolution 07-2026 is simply to state that you're purchasing
- the equipment from Sourcewell because doing so offers a substantial savings to the town instead of
- soliciting three quotes for each particular piece of equipment. And then resolution 08-2026 is a resolution
- to amend the master lease agreement with the People's State Bank to approve the financing of the DPW
- equipment. So the town has already entered into the master lease agreement with People's State Bank
- on at least a couple of occasions for different equipment. This would simply be an amendment of the
- master lease agreement to purchase the equipment and the
- Global M4 street sweeper is $382,072. The Kenworth single axle dump truck is $213,272. And the Ford
- F-550 cab and chassis is $87,480. The purchase prices of the vehicles was discussed with council member
- Scott Oldham, clarifying that the city is taking out loans to purchase the equipment, not lease it.
- The council approved both resolutions.
- that the global sweeper will be purchased solely out of stormwater utility. And then the two trucks
- will be within the DPW split up with the utilities as well. And the money is in the budget lines.
- Next, the council discussed repairs to an aerial fire truck, which will cost slightly under $300,000.
- Fire Chief Kevin Patton said that the repairs are relatively inexpensive since replacing the truck would
- cost around $3 million. He said the repair will take the truck out of service for about six months.
- The council approved a loan agreement to pay for the repair. The next Ellitsville Town Council meeting
- will be on May 25th.
- The Bloomington Commission on Sustainability met on May 12th. During public comment, former commission
- member Matthew Austin spoke about composting efforts at the Wonder Lab Museum and upcoming workshops
- focused on food waste reduction. Wonder Lab is already starting Bokashi, and they're gonna start teaching
- Bokashi. In September, we're gonna be doing a training around Bokashi food-based fermentation. Garden
- Quest just had one out at Will Detmer Community Gardens, had I think 11 or 12 households.
- And nine of them adopted, or at least started the TRY IT program around that food waste. And then there's
- a workshop on June 6th, July 12th, August 8th, I don't know when the September one is, and October on
- that. So I'd encourage anybody that wants to be responsible fully for their food waste and to learn
- how to turn it into soil quickly to look on either Garden Quest's website, gardenquest.org, or the Community
- Orchards website. That's typically one of them.
- Austin encouraged residents interested in composting to attend upcoming workshops and learn how they
- can turn food waste into soil. During council reports, Dave Rallo explained that the county's moratorium
- on AI data centers will expire in July and encouraged local officials to make it permanent based on
- environmental concerns. He said no data center projects are currently planned for Bloomington. They
- use tremendous amounts of water.
- for cooling because any sort of computational process produces a lot of heat. It uses tremendous amounts
- of electricity, which drive up rates and so forth. And ironically, most of this is going toward development
- of generative AI, LLMs, and eventually AGI, which is artificial general intelligence, which is meant
- to replace people.
- The commission went on to discuss whether the group should hold more meetings or create additional strategy
- sessions because of the growing number of resolutions and agenda items. Some members said one monthly
- meeting may not be enough to address the commission's workload. I would like to see us move to two meetings
- a month. Maybe we could do like every other month, one's an extra actual business meeting and then the
- next month it's a working meeting or something like that, I don't know.
- I think we've got an ambitious agenda of stuff and that is good. We should be doing that and we just
- don't have time to do it in an hour and a half a month right now. We need more time to work. The commission
- also approved a second reading of resolution 2026-03 concerning the pedestrianization of Kirkwood Avenue
- and sustainable transportation. The resolution recommends closing Kirkwood Avenue to vehicle traffic
- and prioritizing pedestrian access.
- It's not an economic development issue. It's a public space and pedestrian and sustainable transportation
- issue. So the planning and transportation are better equipped to handle it. And that's the next one.
- The resolution passed unanimously. The next meeting of the Bloomington Commission on Sustainability
- will be on June 9th.
- The Bloomington Arts Commission met on May 13th. Director of the city's economic and sustainability
- department, Jane Cooper-Smith, said the city made a new hire for the assistant director of the arts
- position, replacing former assistant arts director Holly Warren. Cooper-Smith says that the city cannot
- officially announce the name of the new hire, but the expected start date is May 26th.
- that we have an accepted offer and potentially a start date of 526, but HR doesn't want us to announce
- until it's official. So we'll wait, but we're really excited and looking forward to onboarding that
- person and introducing them to you all.
- Yeah, I think it'll be good. Vice Chair of the Arts Commission, Christina Elam, provided an update on
- Bloomington Convention Center artwork. Elam said the Capital Improvement Board will review recommendations
- from the Public Arts Subcommittee before selecting a final piece. The Public Arts Subcommittee met yesterday
- and we kind of deliberate and give our recommendation to the CIB and we, it seemed like, not me, but
- It seemed like it was unanimous around the same, the Benjamin Ball wisteria installation. The commission
- welcomed new members Austin White and Becca Keough. Keough expressed interest in taking over as public
- art subcommittee chair and explained why she's interested in the position. I have an art administration
- background so I'm working on getting my art degree.
- I also have a studio art background and photography. So I love art, love being around public art. So
- I would love to just kind of be more around public art and just kind of steering the committee, if you
- would let me. So that would be my first time doing it. And yeah, I would just love the opportunity to
- kind of get my feet wet on that in front of it. So. So what do you currently do? Oh yeah, I work at IU.
- Right now, I'm an assistant director of on-campus recruitment for the O'Neill School, which is SPIA.
- And I'm working on hopefully getting a job either at the museum or I just recently applied to the Eskenazi
- School, which is where I graduated from with my undergrad. So we'll see if I get a call back for an
- interview next week.
- The board unanimously voted for Keough to be the new subcommittee chair. The board also approved White
- as a member of the grants subcommittee. The Bloomington Arts Commission will meet again on May 27th.
- The Bloomington City Council focused on improving pedestrian and public safety during snowstorms during
- its deliberation session on May 13th.
- Councilmember Dave Rallo said that residents frequently complain about plows driving snow onto already
- cleared sidewalks. I get complaints quite often about, especially where people have monolithic sidewalks,
- that is, you know, they meet the street at the curb, so there's no grass plot, that when a plow comes
- by, it pushes the snow back on the sidewalk where they've already, you know, so it's a constant struggle.
- And they feel defeated by the city coming by, especially during large snow events. And I know just from
- experience in some states, some municipalities, they have different types of equipment where it's more
- like a snow blower type of equipment where they actually lift the snow, put it into a truck side.
- Expense and you know, but it might just to have that in mind when we replace equipment It might be a
- good direction to go in just to alleviate this. I think this chronic problem Council president Hopi
- Stasberg said some constituents believe city fines are too low to encourage apartment complexes and
- businesses to adequately clear the snow from the sidewalks
- They questioned whether we should increase fines because only having a fine of $50 so that even if somebody
- gets fined They wouldn't necessarily get get it a second time and so then that's $50 and especially
- a commercial Outfit that's cheaper to pay the fine then it is to hire somebody to actually do the work and
- That's like absolutely facts. It's definitely cheaper to pay the fine than to hire somebody to do the
- work and So I they found that very problematic and similarly problematic The process of giving a warning
- first before the fine and how that resets every year and especially for commercial frequent offenders that
- the suggestion that maybe it shouldn't reset every year because it is frequently the same people over
- and over and over, or the same companies over and over and over, who never deal with their snow. And
- personally, I also see that happening. And it was especially, I think that there are some places that
- have done a lot better this last year. I know the administration and the departments have been working hard
- advertising, making sure people are aware of their responsibility. And so I've definitely seen some
- improvements, but it's still kind of like scattershot. A representative from the Council on Community
- Accessibility said that the city often pushes snow into accessible parking spaces during winter storms.
- Essentially, there's way more regular spots, yet somehow the snow always ends up in the accessible ones.
- And those are already extremely limited. So I feel like we need to come up with a different solution
- for that. And also on the street when because they often push the snow into the parking that the accessible
- parking is prioritized to be clear before the regular parking. Because again there's a lot less of it.
- Parks director Tim Street said that every winter storm brings a different set of challenges for snow
- removal crews.
- It's very hard to know what to prepare for in Indiana. You know, are we going to get a year where we
- have two inches of light slush for the whole winter, or are we going to get what we've had the last
- two years where not only does it snow heavily, but the temp drops. And if removal isn't done quickly,
- that stuff hardens into something very difficult to remove, which I think has been the situation both
- of the last years.
- As this was a deliberation session, the council did not actually vote on any items. The Bloomington
- City Council will meet for its next regular session on May 20th.
- The Monroe County Commissioners met on May 14. Acting Director of the Planning Department, Tammy Bierman,
- presented a series of updates to the County Unified Development Ordinance, or UDO. Among these changes
- are allowing for schools to be placed in any zone, including industrial and mineral extraction zones.
- Another UDO updates aims to add to restrictions on the building of data centers by prohibiting the use
- of small modular nuclear reactors in Monroe County. Commissioner Julie Thomas supported this push against
- data centers, citing recent stories of data centers introduced into Indiana towns. Obviously, small
- nuclear reactors are pretty frightening things.
- especially when you take into account not just waste and accidents, but also decommissioning and what
- happens if the company goes up and who pays for it and how is it done. There's a lot to it. And so those
- are banned or not permitted. And then the data center part that Ms. Bierman raised is really important
- because I've
- Just this week, I've read two more articles about how a small city lost about half of their water pressure
- because they added a data center in their vicinity. And another one, which is tracking the amount of
- PFOAs, or forever chemicals, as they're often called, and how the data centers are leaching the stuff
- into the environment, which no one really thought about before. The commissioners also voted to approve
- a series of contracts for paving projects. Representative of the Monroe County Highway Department,
- Lisa Ridge, said that the moratorium on the gas tax has not yet affected the paving program. We might
- not see that deduction for a couple of months. So we're just moving forward as is. We haven't cut anything
- from our paving program.
- And if we have to go in for an additional from our cash, that's what we anticipate. Right. Or something
- has to get postponed potentially. Correct. And these contracts allow you to do that if it comes down
- to it. Okay. Perfect. The commissioners also voted for an ordinance that would allow the Monroe County
- Sheriff to appoint up to three deputies under the emergency appointment statute.
- Monroe County staff attorney Justin Roady stated that use of the statute would be aimed at training
- correctional staff in the police academy. The statute is admittedly much more designed for what I considered
- like the Wild West and the Old West posse. Special deputy and those kind of things, which is not the
- intent of what we're using this for. We're using this for the ability to get our correctional staff
- trained better.
- Even if these correctional staff never utilize it as a merit deputy, there is a value to the jail to
- have members of the jail trained through the Law Enforcement Academy, either help the conversations
- between EPD, IUPD, merit deputies, and the jail staff to help understand what's going on and what some
- of the concerns are. And so that's a benefit even if
- this emergency situation where they need to be actually used as mayor and deputies does not exist. So
- there is benefit no matter what. The ordinance passed three to zero. The next Monroe County Commissioner's
- meeting will be on May 21st. And that is all for Cats Week. Thank you for joining us. For Cats and WFHB,
- I'm Annalise Poorman.
- for hurting families in Monroe County. A contribution to children who are vulnerable and in need of
- an advocate. A staff that goes above and beyond to support and advocate for children in need of services.
- The web of remarkable people who are dealing with difficult situations. So many young people that are
- in need of help and trying to find a stable family
- stable place to live. Without the CASAs, to make that happen, many of them would be unable to find a
- good home. I love being that voice for the child who can't speak for themselves in court. It takes me
- out of my comfort zone and it also helps others. CASA means supporting our community. Being a CASA is
- making sure that your village is healthy and whole and that the children in your village will someday
- be able to help the village as well.
- A child who doesn't have a voice maybe in their family situation or school situation now has a voice
- that can advocate for them. I really enjoy working with children that are going through difficult times
- and letting them know that I care about their future. We are privileged with our charge of representing
- the best interest of children. And so therefore we can advocate for exactly what they need
- without restriction, focusing on their best interest.
- I want to repair the world one child at a time.