and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annalise Poorman. The Monroe County Commissioners held a work session
on July 9th. County officials say the jail has reached a crisis point, from overcrowding to extreme
heat and deteriorating conditions. Sheriff Ruben Marte says transporting inmates is becoming unavoidable.
We have to be able to provide a constitutional jail. That is my responsibility. I want to tell you that we have
We had a point now that is very challenging for us to do that. Chief Deputy Phil Parker said the jail's
official bed count can look misleading and does not tell the full story. If you look at the combination
of those beds that are available in there, that takes that 294 down to 233. That available general housing
beds. So the
functional capacity. Let me explain what that is. That's an accepted correctional planning principle
that says you are functionally full when you reach 80% of availability for those beds. So if we follow
that logic to get to functional capacity here, I'll just step in if I say anything that's incorrect
because he's forgot more about this than I know.
Our true functional capacity in that facility is 186. Jail commander Kyle Gibbons maintained that they're
struggling to keep inmates cool, fearing the overheating issue may lead to a crisis. One of the things
that we did almost immediately was open up the block as much as possible. When I say the block, I mean
the cells inside of it. So there was a time where inmates, we locked down the facility midnight and
we allow inmates to have proper sleep.
We can't even lock inmates inside their cell because it's 85, 90 degrees inside those cells. It's 75
to 84 degrees inside the block depending on the day. Parker says inmate grievances are building toward
litigation, making the situation even more dire. They're being inundated with grievances from the facility,
about the facility, and rightfully so.
But there's a thing that we call in our line of work, it's called a clue. And what the clue here is,
is those grievances are, protest the condition of that facility, but they serve another purpose. And
that purpose is to satisfy the administrative remedies
going through the grievance process to get to litigation. Mr. Madera knows exactly what I'm talking
about here. So the clue here is for us is we're not just living on borrowed time. This litigation is
coming our way and hence that also weighs into what we're here to talk to you about. We are in an imminent
situation.
I believe that. I know the sheriff believes that. I know Kyle believes that we wouldn't be here. Gibbons
brought up the politics of the new jail. However, in his view, the conditions of the current jail are
being left out of the conversation. There's a lot of talk about what's going to happen, what property
we're going to have, what services we're going to provide, what the facility is going to look like,
whether we're going to bring the courts with it. At the end of the day, and this is what the sheriff
was just saying, since the very beginning,
People have talked about what's going to happen. And a lot of people are talking about what's happening.
And we refuse to look past the needs of the people inside of that facility. We refuse. And we've done
everything we can. And we're here now starting this project saying, we've done everything we can. Now
we need help.
The commissioners unanimously approved a resolution declaring an emergency at the county jail. The resolution
allows county officials to begin the process of transferring inmates to neighboring jails.
The Collaborative Justice Project Working Subcommittee narrowed its list of potential locations for
a new jail during their meeting on July 6, reducing the primary focus to five sites. The committee will
focus on renovating the current Justice Building along with the Curry property, Tap Road North, Tap
Road South, Thompson and Fullerton sites.
considering is the Curry building with renovations to the current site. The second one is Tap Road North.
The third one is Tap Road South. The fourth is the Thompson property. And then the fifth is the Fullerton
property. And then as property alternates for consideration, if none of those work out or we need more
information, those include potentially Hopewell West,
Popewell East, the HT building, and then potentially private lot one, depending on what happens in executive
session. Several other sites were removed from consideration because of the floodways, limited space,
planned development, or unavailability. The Bloomington Transit garage, it looks like the owner's not
willing to sell the property, so that would pretty much take it off the table. And it's in a floodway.
The committee members also agreed to evaluate the sites using the square footage of the county's August
2025 jail design instead of a specific bed count, saying the design provides enough space to
meet constitutional standards of care. If you use the square footage from the August 29, 2025 meeting, that
blueprint was based on a design that remedies these constitutional conditions. And so in essence, if
you're using that square footage, then it would meet constitutional care. The committee met again on
July 9th to further discuss the evaluation of the sites. The discussion centered on factors, including
floodways, single versus multi-story construction, and each site's proximity to transportation and community services.
Mayor Carrie Thompson suggested the committee focus on treating all five locations as viable options.
We had discussed last time, at the end of last meeting, how we would approach this discussion. And we
talked about eliminating any properties that really were not viable. I just wanted to share that after
going through this documentation, as long as we do not take
some of the assumptions as foregone conclusions such as it must be co-located and it has to be single
story. I don't see anything that eliminates any of the five choices that we have remaining. I think
they're all still viable. And I would suggest that we have a conversation about at least
how we're going to prioritize them and lenses with which we're looking. I'm eager to hear public comment
in 28 minutes. That will definitively influence how I think about this. But I already have some thoughts
on ease of development and other things. So I don't know if
somebody on the team has thought about how to prioritize or if we want to make individual comments about
that. Before opening the floor to public comment, the committee agreed on a voting process that will
require rankings and written explanations for all five proposed sites. During public comment, Seth Mutchler
with Care Not Cages urged the committee to support the group's preferred location.
By saying that I would ask you all to vote in favor of renovation of the existing Zilao building with
the possible addition of the Curry and Fiscus building. I personally feel that is the best choice of
the options available.
Right. This is a very complicated issue. There are a lot of things. So that's where I will say, I will
ask you to look at the things that have already been sent. But especially as you are going to be working
over the weekend, as you said, we at Careknot Cages humbly are very proud of the many years of research
and scholarship that collectively we have done on this topic. And we would love to be a resource for
you all. We would also love to be a resource for the public. So if anybody
has questions and would like to say, hey, Care.cages has read way too many white papers about this.
Our email is care.cages.monroecounty at gmail.com. We'll be checking the email over the weekend. So
if any of you are like, hey, what about this? Any of the members of the public? If you're like,
single story, multi story, what's up with that? We have answers to that that take longer to answer than
three minutes, but are relatively short. So thank you all for your time. Appreciate you.
Monroe County Commissioner Jody Madeira then spoke emphasizing the significance of the decision.
This isn't about creating comfort for comfort's sake. It's about reducing harm. Research shows that
environmental stressors, constant noise, heat, poor ventilation, lack of privacy, lack of movement,
and lack of control over one's immediate environment can increase anxiety, irritability, conflict, illness,
and even suicide risk. The same is true for green space and perimeter design. Even passive exposure
to vegetation within secure perimeters has been associated with reductions in self-harm, violence, and
staff sick leave. That should matter to anyone concerned about human dignity, workplace safety,
and public responsibility. Jail design is a decades-long decision. If we build a facility around outdated
assumptions, poor visibility, excessive hardening, stacked housing, and inefficient circulation, well,
we're going to live with those consequences for generations. But if we build around evidence-based
principles, direct supervision, modular housing, safer sightlines, acoustic normalization, accessibility,
and humane environmental conditions, we can create a facility that's safer for staff, safer for incarcerated
people, and more responsible for the public.
And we're in luck. What's best is also what is cheapest and quickest to build. Multi-level facilities
are expensive to build, to staff, and to maintain. So the question isn't simply where to build or how
cheaply it can be built or how quickly square footage can be stacked. It's what kind of gel we're willing
to build. Monroe County can't afford to reproduce the failures of the past. Thank you. The committee's
next meeting where members are expected to vote on their site recommendations is scheduled for Monday,
July 13th.
The Bloomington Historic Preservation Commission met on July 9th. City of Bloomington attorney Dana
Kerr gave updates on a legal brief regarding the Historic Preservation Commission's ability to rescind
previous decisions. Again, the state legislature has said that the final decision by this body is reviewed
judicially.
as would be of the BZA. So when this Supreme Court is talking about the BZA and what its abilities to
do, it treats this body just like the BZA does in the statute. So I am 100% confident that the Indian
Supreme Court would treat this body reconsidering a decision it has made
the same as for this body as it would the BZA. So reconsidering a decision that has already been made
would be inappropriate in the city of Bloomington's legal department opinion. And that is what our advice
is to this body. As you can see, there's strong public policy on that. If these decisions could be changed,
at any point in time, there would be so much uncertainty. Developers in this case would not know what
they could do or what they couldn't do. This announcement comes in response to the push to rescind the
Commission's previous decision regarding Seminary Point. According to Kerr, the Indiana Supreme Court
has set precedence that the Board of Zoning Appeals and other similar bodies should not be able to change
previously made decisions.
Commissioner Reynard Cross challenged this president's and its application to the seminary point ruling.
Were the circumstances of this case that you cite one where the body broke its own rules. It was on
the strong objections of its members, certainly three of them. It was under strong objection by members
of the public and
something that had been established by the body's own rules, both ones that were codified and ones set
in precedence, were all breached. I'm asking because a lot of times different circumstances surrounding
a decision might sway some people. And again, I was in the courtroom when it was argued. I got this memo.
minutes before. I haven't done my research. Again, it is your brief and a legal brief is representative
of the lawyers that produce that brief that their opinion is their opinion. Drawing on this gentleman
here, I have enough experience to learn that two people looking on the same thing might come to a completely
different conclusion.
The Commission also amended the previous meeting's minutes to reflect details about the discussion of
demolition delays. The staff of the Commission announced that they approved certificates of appropriateness
to replace a limestone retaining wall, the construction of a hoop house in a side yard, and the installation
of a chain link fence.
During final Commissioner comments, Commissioner John Butler also stated that the case of Seminary Point
may indicate a need to reconsider the Commission's standards for a historic place. They didn't get a
fair shake the first meeting and despite my best efforts they didn't get another fair shake tonight.
We made a mistake last time. I wish there was a way that we could rectify that.
Apparently there's not. I would encourage them to try to rectify that in any way that they can. And
I'm sure that there is somebody that will oversee us. I also think there are some mistakes made by fellow
commissioners in judging the buildings too harshly. And so I would like to read the criteria for historical
designation so that we can think about that. So building must be 50 years old, which it was. It says
nothing about notable, outstanding, contributing, or non-contributing.
A, it must embody those distinguishing characteristics of an architectural or engineering type,
which it did. B and C are very specific, so I won't bother you with those, and it did not apply. D,
it contains elements of design, detail, materials, or craftsmanship which represent a significant innovation.
The corner windows and the angled front buttresses could be argued that, but maybe not. But they definitely
qualify for E, contains
any architectural style detail or other element in danger of being lost or visual feature of a neighborhood
or the city and f owing to its unique location or physical characteristics represents established and
or familiar visual feature of a neighborhood or of the city you can literally vote to say something
because it has established characteristics that's how broad our mandate is don't surrender these buildings
just because you've got a bad feeling about
The Bloomington Historic Preservation Commission will meet again on July 23. The Monroe County Board
of Commissioners met on July 9. Health Administrator Lori Kelly reported on a cyclospora outbreak from
raw fruits and vegetables, saying that there are cases in Indiana. There is currently a gastrointestinal
illness that's going around that's caused by a parasite.
Several states, including Indiana, have reported cases. This is called cyclospora and it's thought to
be linked to raw vegetables and fruits. But the CDC is still working to identify the source at this
time. Next, the commissioners heard a contract continuation between Indiana Youth Services Association
and the Youth Services Bureau of Monroe County for an annual amount of $9,880.
A representative of the program walked through the agreement. I'm here on behalf of our safe place contract
continuation. This is just approving our safe place contract between Indiana Youth Services Association
and the Youth Services Bureau of Monroe County. It will be in effect from July 1, 2026 through June
30, 2028. The commissioners approved the agreement by a 2-0 vote.
Then the board heard a presentation regarding the redirection of more than $315,000 in unused Federal
American Rescue Plan Act funding. The commissioners will review recommendations from the County Council
to move the money into ambulance purchases, improvements at Cars Farm Park, and airport drainage upgrades.
County Auditor Carly Woodroof explained the situation.
So at the meeting on the 30th, the council made appropriations contingent on Commissioner action as
a recommendation for how the ARPA dollars that are in excess for some of the projects should be reallocated.
advisement is that we reallocate those dollars within the open projects. Right now there are three open
projects that are requesting additional funding and all three of those projects were tentatively appropriated
The appropriation amounts, if you'd like me to go over those, would be $200,000 to the Monroe Fire Ambulance
Project, $100,000 to the Kars Park Field Project, and $15,225.41 to the Airport Stormwater Drainage
Project. The Board voted 2-0 to affirm the Council's Deappropriation Motion and Appropriation Motion.
The Ellisville Parks and Recreation Board met on July 6th. Members of the board, led by President Jimmy
Durnall, first discussed ideas on how to improve the Ellisville 5K race on September 19th. This was
brought up by Ellisville Parks and Recreation Sports Director, Rick Plunkett, who went on to describe
the event in its totality and how all areas of the event can be improved, preferably the parking. And
parking is still going to be parallel
The board discussed creating a Facebook event for details on parking and overall better engagement with
the Ellitsville 5k race itself.
The final item discussed on the agenda were plans going into the next year, with current President Jimmy
Dernal planning to turn over the presidency of the Ellisville Parks and Recreation Board to someone
else. So be thinking about that between now and then. I'd say Ronnie would be a good candidate for that.
We'll see.
The Journal was referring to Vice President Ronnie Van Deventer. The next meeting of the Ellitsville
Parks and Recreation Board will be on August 12th. And that is all for Cats Week. Thank you for joining
us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annalise Poorman.