- Well, it's three o'clock, so let me call this meeting of the Monroe County Capital Improvement
- Board of September 17th, 2025 to order.
- So with that, I'll ask Mr. Whitlatch to take the attendance.
- John Whitehart.
- Present.
- Doug.
- Bruce.
- Here.
- Jeff McKim.
- Here.
- Joyce Poehling.
- Here.
- Jim Silverstein.
- Here.
- Adam Teese.
- Here.
- Jay Baer.
- Jay indicated he was running just a few minutes late, so we will see him shortly.
- We have such a small crowd today that I'll ask each one of you to get up and tell us a
- little bit about yourselves.
- Next item of business, approval of the consent agenda.
- The minutes were produced and sent out.
- You've had claims in the financial report.
- Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?
- No.
- Second.
- Okay.
- So it's been moved and seconded.
- Is there any discussion or comments or questions about the consent agenda?
- All right.
- Thank you.
- If not, again, if we can take the roll.
- John Weichart?
- Yes.
- Doug Bruce?
- Yes.
- Jeff McKim?
- Yes.
- Joyce Mulling?
- Yes.
- Jim Silverstein?
- Yes.
- Adam Teese?
- Yes.
- Jay Baer?
- Not here still.
- Okay.
- Item number three, Treasurer's Report.
- Mr. McKim, anything to report this month?
- Not much, only that we will be, our request to have the City Council forward our budget
- onto FAB, the Food and Beverage Tax Advisory Commission for their recommendation will be
- heard at City Council tonight.
- Thank you.
- Item number four, President's Report.
- I have nothing to report this month.
- There were no actions that I took between the last meeting and this meeting.
- Item number five, Construction Update.
- Andrew?
- Thank you.
- Thank you, John.
- Andrew Sherry, Project Manager with Weddle Brothers.
- Let me share my screen here.
- Bad news is, John said I can't talk for 45 minutes, so I'll try to leave this at 44.
- I said you can, but not here.
- Oh, okay.
- So after this.
- Okay, so a few things to go over.
- Just a construction progress update.
- Work descriptions.
- So as we work through some of the things that I'm talking about is in these meetings with
- these updates, I just kind of want to give a little bit of a background.
- And then also in the details, so hopefully everybody's seeing the work that's taking
- place across the street.
- We have a lot of moving parts and pieces, but kind of want to get into what that is
- and what that means for the overall project.
- So again, construction progress, ground improvements, which are the piers are nearing completion.
- Those are the big excavators out there at the auger bits or the compressed air vibrators.
- Foundation excavations are in progress.
- We actually have our first concrete pour this Friday.
- Huge milestone for for footers and foundations.
- Our plan is to hopefully be pouring every three to four days.
- And then also the reinforcement and structural steel accessories such as anchored bolts.
- So work descriptions, again, it's hard to see up here on these photos, but I tried to
- add pictures of the ground improvements, the piers underneath this, every foundation out
- here are about a little over 500 aggregate piers.
- So we drill down anywhere from 11 to 17 feet and then pour our footers over top of that.
- So on your right hand side, this is a photo from yesterday.
- You can see where those gravel piles is what they look like.
- Those are those piers at the bottom of the footers.
- And then today we're in there tying rebar and getting ready for our concrete pours.
- Again, in the details, just from a craftsmanship standpoint, kind of want to talk about where
- we are in the details and the tolerances that we're we're up against here.
- So we're going through right now and digging excavations.
- This is actually on the register parking lot around remax here.
- That is our starting point and we're working towards the east and then working north.
- The form work here.
- This is what we will see on site as we start these footers and these piers that eventually
- will have anchor bolts in them and we'll build the structure on top of rebar.
- So this is a picture on the left, the top left of some of the rebar on site.
- So in this project, we have 210 tons of rebar, which is 420,000 pounds of rebar that gets
- shipped to the site on the semi and we place that together, build all the mats and all
- the layout.
- And then again, it's hard to see, but on the right this morning, they're going ahead with
- the first footer rebar.
- So they're progressing with that to prep for Friday.
- A huge milestone also in this sequence is the anchor bolts.
- So there's 434 anchor bolts on this project site.
- We have some that may be three quarters in diameter with base plates that are already
- cut, with a one inch hole.
- And so we have to hit that with this layout.
- So it's very critical.
- We've got again, 434 spots that have to perfectly align with prefab steel that we get delivered
- to the site.
- So we're going through here, digging, forming, tying this rebar and then setting 434 anchor
- bolts to make sure that everything aligns for the project.
- So again, we'll be pouring every three to four days, there will be a lot of activity
- over there.
- We're very happy to come over and see us in a safe manner from the fence.
- But again, we're progressing to have structural steel on site in October.
- Thank you.
- Any questions for Mr. Sherry?
- Thank you for the presentation.
- Next item is award alternate bids.
- This is JS Held parenthetically, but I've had some help from JS Held with what you're
- seeing on the screen and I'll address what we're looking at here.
- As we've discussed and as I've communicated in the past, as I look at these alternates
- and we look at the ones we have today, we have two categories we're looking at today.
- The first category are the alternates with bids expiring September 24th, so a week from
- today.
- The second category are the four other bids that will expire, have expiration dates in
- October, which those dates follow our October meeting.
- So it'll still allow us in October to consider those particular four alternates.
- One of those four alternates was moved from the September deadline to October and that
- was the window, existing building replacements, the window replacements in the existing building.
- So it originally had a September expiration date and the contractor moved the expiration
- date out another 30 days to October to allow us a little more time.
- The cost of those, our September alternates, you can see $202,402 for the existing building
- kitchen equipment and the existing AV technology infrastructure upgrades, $304,414.
- So those two alternates obviously commended over $500,000 of the $1,170,000 that we still
- have left that we reviewed last month as our estimates of what we have left that we can
- dedicate to alternates.
- As I've attempted to look in particular at these alternates, I've tended to put them
- into two different categories, which are necessitated by our new construction, which has always
- been our priority.
- And so therefore, which are viewed as integration of the new construction into the current building,
- which are impacted by that.
- And then secondly, which if any of these alternates would more likely be categorized as capital
- improvements or maintenance or repairs that would take place in this building or be necessitated
- for this building even absent our project.
- So those are things that we can talk about moving into October.
- As we look at cost and timing, we have expiration dates on these two bids in September.
- We have total bids of all of these, all six of these projects at $2,565,217, and we know
- we don't have that.
- We know we've got $1,071,000 to play with here.
- And the two bids that expire next week total $506,816, which leaves us another $500-plus-$1,000
- to consider for alternates in October.
- So as I look at these bids, my recommendation to you is the two bids that have expiration
- dates of this month, I believe fit the criteria of projects that need to be integrated from
- the new construction into the current building that are necessitated by the new construction.
- So the kitchen equipment changes are necessitated by the fact we're putting a main kitchen in
- the new construction area and the expansion and the existing AV technology infrastructure.
- We obviously want these two buildings to be able to talk to each other.
- And we obviously want to have those who are coming here for conventions to have the same
- experience in the expansion part of our building as they will have in the current part of our
- building.
- So I believe that the two alternates that have expiration dates next week are in fact critical
- to the new construction, complement the new construction, allow us to integrate the new
- construction into the current building.
- And so it is my recommendation that we approve those two alternate bids today.
- And to open it up for discussion first, let me see if there would be a motion that we
- approve the two September alternates and move forward with those today.
- I'll make that motion.
- You've done a great job, by the way, of summarizing this is very common for construction projects.
- Thank you.
- Motion to approve this approach presented by our president.
- Second.
- It's seconded by Mr. Bruce.
- So we've got Mr. Thies has moved it, it's been seconded by Mr. Bruce.
- So now let's open it up for discussion, comment, questions about the motion to approve these
- two alternates today.
- Yeah, Mr. McCann.
- So I just want to make sure I heard this correctly.
- What says existing building replacement is really existing building window.
- Yes.
- Yeah.
- The word.
- Yeah.
- The word window needs to be there.
- So we're not going to replace the existing building.
- That might be.
- That is a very good deal.
- We could get that for 730.
- In fact, we will open that up for bids right now.
- Anybody want to bid $733,000 for the current building?
- So yeah, it's for window replacements.
- You are correct.
- Okay.
- And so do you have a description of the changes that would be made to the kitchen?
- I mean, I assume it's to convert it more to a warming kitchen.
- It is to convert it to a warming kitchen, but it's also to address some of the needs
- to get it up to conditions that the other kitchen can work with.
- So there's a lot more prep that will happen in the new kitchen and a lot more warming
- that will happen over here.
- Let me ask Eddie Layton from Schmidt if he has comments as well.
- Yeah.
- So that's a good summary, Mary.
- But what's in the project-based scope is kind of the bare minimum we needed to do to make
- the kitchens work.
- This additional scope really will make it more functional, meet current health code,
- to correct some things that were grandfathered in, and just improve the conditions in general.
- Thank you.
- Any other questions?
- Yeah.
- Mr. Silberstein.
- Does anything from Weddle or Schmidt remind us what the air handling DOAS unit is all
- about?
- Yeah.
- I can do that as well.
- So there's two HVAC alternates there.
- The existing HVAC units would be replacing the remainder of the heat pump units that
- are not affected by the bridge, basically, is what it entails.
- And then the DOAS unit, which is dedicated outside air, if we were to build this building
- today, we would have to have that unit.
- It's just a current code requirement.
- Again, this building is grandfathered in and doesn't have to have that as part of our project.
- It's nice to have.
- It supplements the HVAC system by bringing more outside air in.
- It's one of those selections that would be nice to do if we could do it.
- But it's an alternate because we don't have to do it.
- Other questions?
- Mr. Baer.
- In terms of the window replacement, is that like for like?
- The same windows that are in here now, we just get new ones, or is it sort of an aesthetic
- issue to make the windows look more visually contiguous between the two buildings?
- It's more of the latter, but not a historic replica.
- So they will be in line with the new building as far as the coloring and that sort of thing,
- but existing opening sizes and not going back to a historic and true industrial style.
- And I think, and I can be, somebody can correct me if I misstate this, I think these windows
- have been here since 1991 when this building transitioned to the current convention center.
- So there are issues with some of the windows, but this would be a replacement of all the
- windows.
- But again, this is for consideration for the October meeting when we have to decide what
- we do to select among those four alternates.
- Mr. Silberside.
- Yes, so for us to think about it between now and then, if we accept these first two items,
- we basically have to eliminate three out of the other four alternates sometime in October.
- Current math would tell us that would be the case, but I'd like to propose something after
- we finish this discussion about how we might move forward with that.
- Any other questions?
- Okay, seeing none, we have a motion and a second, so Mr. Whitlatch, if you would take
- the roll.
- John Weickart.
- Yes.
- Doug Bruce.
- Yes.
- Jeff McKim.
- Yes.
- Joyce Bowling.
- Jim Silberstein.
- Yes.
- Adam Teese.
- Yes.
- And Jay Baer, who's joined us for this whole conversation.
- Yes.
- Okay, thank you.
- So we have those two alternates approved to move forward.
- Let me add that as we've done in the past, I'm going to ask JS Held to form an evaluation
- group between now and our October meeting to examine a couple of things.
- Both examine the four remaining alternates in terms of how they may be prioritized.
- And secondly, to move forward and examine our budget to see if our budget as we're moving
- forward and as we're coming more out of doing the site preparation work and moving more
- into the construction side of things, if we are seeing a trend in any tendency to be more
- optimistic about our overall budget in October, to see that we may have made some gains in
- terms of our estimates, so that that's helpful in terms of coming back with a recommendation
- about how much money we actually have to spend on alternates as we examine these four in October.
- So I'm going to ask J.S. Held to form that evaluation group to certainly include members
- of our board, as well as to invite at their discretion members of our design and construction
- team and our controller to look at both our budget, at their budget estimates, and how
- we might prioritize these alternates, and to report that back to us at our October meeting,
- so we can then move forward with a decision in October about what we want to do about
- these four remaining alternates.
- So with that, unless there are questions, all right, let's move to external, item number
- seven, external communications update from the evaluation group.
- So, we have been working with the external communications group, and that's primarily
- been working with Jay and Jeff and John, as well as Andrew and Talisha, so that we can
- strategize on how best to make sure our community's informed about the project without over-undating
- people with everything.
- So we've had a couple different meetings.
- One major effort that's been accomplished this past month is putting on the website
- frequently asked questions and their responses.
- So John and Jay and Jeff reviewed all those questions and answers, and Jay got that posted.
- So that, we're hoping that that is a place that people can be directed if they have deeper
- questions about how the project's funded, timeframes, what's the design team, et cetera.
- Also, we anticipate doing roughly a monthly electronic flyer, very much like we did at
- early phases of the project when we were trying to identify traffic mitigation.
- Something else that Visit Bloomington has done is they have hired Joe Throckmorton to
- do a series of videos, and those are also posted on the CIB website.
- Those are very entertaining.
- Everyone looks great in their safety gear as they share information about the project.
- And I understand those will be continuing.
- And then we'll be looking for media opportunities, fireside chats, so to say, most likely with
- John and our local media stations.
- The site signage will be going up soon.
- We have worked through that in process with the external communications meeting.
- On that website, on that signage that you'll see, this will be posted at the corner of
- college and third.
- And we have a QR code that takes you straight to the CIB website, so all your questions
- can be answered there.
- Of course, it identifies all the design team and construction team members.
- The thing also to point out here on the signage is that we have integrated the new logo as
- developed by Visit Bloomington for the Convention Center.
- So basic information, we get one sign for the whole project, and this is it.
- So Weddell is working to get that printed as well as installed.
- That is four by eight meeting for complying with city code at the city signage ordinance.
- So we will, from time to time, invite other parties as we need, such as Visit Bloomington,
- city leaders, city communications, et cetera, as we start to push our material out forward
- just to gain their expertise and keep that communication all circle.
- Any questions for Mary or for Jay or Jeff?
- Yeah, that's the work of Schmidt.
- So credit where credit's due.
- They've put that together based on the rendering work that they've done and they've instituted
- the QR code.
- If you look closely, one of the figures walking across the street is Mr. Bear.
- We had him photoshopped.
- No, no, that's not true because if you've seen his suits, he would really show up.
- Well, we didn't want to distract traffic.
- I do think it's smart, but I know we're going to stay on plan here.
- We're going to open the sucker in time, but I think it's wise to 2027 is going to open.
- You see these restaurants.
- It's opening January 3rd and everybody's all disappointed, so very smart.
- I like the fact that it kind of had an Abbey Road reference.
- I know, it's cool.
- I will tell you that as I attend the construction meetings, I know that the target date for
- the new construction is January 8th of 2027, and I remind them periodically that January
- 8th is Elvis's birthday, so it's certainly a target we're shooting for.
- All right, any questions, observations, comments other than what we ... Yes, Mr. Bayer.
- Just want to touch on the frequently asked questions section of the website.
- John and Jeff did a masterful job of answering those.
- It's quite comprehensive.
- We've got 40 or something questions there.
- That being said, if anybody in the CIB or associate with the project, Schmidt Wettel,
- get other questions from members of the public that we probably should have an answer to,
- please do let us know and we'll add them.
- All good FAQs should be organic living documents, not static, so if somebody ... Oh, you know
- what we didn't have on there is this thing because we just didn't think about it.
- Please do let us know and we'll make that adjustment.
- Thank you.
- Item number eight, arts project update from our Friends on the Beat advisory group.
- I know Holly Warren is here and Galen Cassidy.
- Oh, there we go, there we go.
- All right.
- We are here, so yeah, just a quick update when we were here last month, but if we go
- to the next slide here, this is again a review of the timeline we presented last month and
- we're in the very first stage here, which is our very first public feedback sessions.
- We will have one later on as you see, but this, our next step after this will be a call
- for artists, which has already been drafted a little bit, but we're really hoping to achieve
- with these feedback sessions as some overall themes that the community is looking for at
- this point.
- So we can move on to the next slide and I'll let Holly go a little bit more in depth about
- some of these feedback opportunities.
- Thanks, Galen.
- Hi again, everyone.
- So as Galen mentioned, we are really hitting the ground running, getting feedback from
- as many folks as we can in the community and we're doing that in several different ways.
- First of all, we launched a virtual survey this Monday.
- It will be online and open for anybody to take anonymously through next Friday, September
- 26th.
- So this is one great way to share feedback about what about Bloomington you would like
- to see reflected in the public artwork we select for this.
- We're also doing a public feedback workshop here tonight at 6 p.m.
- If anybody would like to join us for that, it should be a pretty great time.
- We're just going to give folks who attend an overview of what we're hoping the art will
- be where it will be and then again asking folks, okay, if you want this artwork to tell
- a story about Bloomington, what is that story?
- So we'll have a great conversation about that in person tonight.
- In addition to the virtual survey and the feedback workshop we're having tonight, we've
- also been engaging in a series of pop-up events.
- So we've been meeting people where they are to ask them what they would like to see reflected
- in the art.
- We were at the Farmer's Market on Saturday, we were at Uptown Cafe on Monday, Galen graciously
- hosted us outside.
- We will be at the People's Park Concert Series tomorrow night from about 4.30 to 5.30, again
- asking people what they'd like to see in the art and we also have a few other pop-ups lined
- up at the Popcorn Kernels with the Twist Storefront Gather and we're hoping to get to a table
- at the Lotus Music Festival.
- We're just again trying to get as much feedback as possible.
- I can say so far I've been incredibly pleased with the feedback.
- So much of the time when we ask people questions about what they like to see, they immediately
- go into well-filled potholes.
- What are you doing with art?
- But people are really giving us thoughtful, constructive feedback and I'm really excited
- about what we're going to be able to do with that ultimately.
- And then if you go to the next slide, I just want to share with you all a QR code.
- So anybody is welcome to snap this code.
- This is going to take them to a webpage that will outline the project and also include
- a link to the survey.
- It will also include a link to RSVP for tonight's workshop if you're still interested in doing
- that.
- The RSVP is not required.
- It's just a good way to help us prepare to know how many people we're going to be engaging
- with.
- And we're also, as more pop-up events come up, we'll also be listing those out too so
- people will know when to attend them.
- And again, we're really excited about this, once the public feedback portion of this ends,
- we'll be synthesizing all of the feedback we get.
- It's going to take a lot of work because we're getting a lot of really cool stuff.
- And we're going to try to hone that into a few specific themes that we'll be able to
- include in the Call for Artists, like Galen mentioned.
- The Call for Artists will go live on October 6th, and I'll actually be heading to DC right
- before then for a conference for an international public art group just to network with
- international
- and national artists and fabricators to advertise the Call to them.
- So we're really excited about that and happy to answer any questions.
- Holly, could you go back, or can you go back to the previous slide if someone can go back
- to that?
- The online survey, it's pretty difficult to read.
- Can you just give us that website information in case, sorry.
- I think it's, oh, thank you so much, Galen.
- Okay, it is bloomington.in.gov/arts/public.art.
- As simple as we could get it.
- I think it's public-art.
- Yes, correct.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
- Okay.
- And thank you for the presentation.
- Thanks so much.
- And I hope you have a good turnout tonight and a good crowd.
- Yeah.
- Thank you.
- All right.
- Thank you very much.
- Any other questions for the B group about the arts project?
- All right.
- Item number nine is a hotel update.
- I had a message from Shane Coopersmith that says, "Our update is that the lawyers for
- the city and the developer are actively engaged in negotiation."
- I can't report anything further than that today.
- So it's in the hand of lawyers and what could possibly go wrong?
- So that's the update on the hotel project.
- Item number 10, old business.
- Is there any old business to be brought before the board?
- Item number 11, new business.
- Any new business to be brought before the board?
- Item number 12, comments from board members.
- Seeing none.
- Item 13, comments from the public.
- Let me remind you, you have two minutes and that counts the time you walk up to the podium.
- So not seeing any.
- All right.
- Next meeting of the board is October 15th, 2025 at 3 p.m. here in the Convention Center.
- Did you want us to keep talking, Mr. Bruce?
- Okay, excellent.
- So as I always say, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here and we are adjourned.
- Thank you very much.
- ("Pomp and Circumstance")