- Good afternoon. Let me call this meeting of the Monroe County Capital Improvement Board, October 15th,
- 2025 to order. And I will ask Mr. Whitlatch to take the role, please. John Wykart. Present. Doug Bruce.
- Here. Jeff McKim. Here. Joyce Polling. Jim Silverstein. Here. Adam Teese. Here. And Jay Baer remotely.
- Here. That's remotely Jay Baer right there on the screen.
- Let me mention, and I want to thank the staff of the Convention Center. For those of you who keep track
- of such historical things, this is the two-year anniversary of our first meeting of the Capital Improvement
- Board. And they have very kindly provided a cake. Go ahead, I'll do that again. This is the second year
- anniversary. Now you may applaud again. Very good. And they have provided a cake in the back of the
- room to commemorate this. And so they will now, at least I think,
- Cut the cake and you're welcome to get up and grab yourself a piece of cake and help us celebrate our
- second anniversary of meetings. Let me also recognize that there are a number of dignitaries who are
- with us today as well. Piedmont Smith just joined us. You folks who are very important people know who
- you are, so just give each other a nod and a wave and then we'll move on to recognition other than that.
- So thank you for being with us.
- Item number two is approval of the consent agenda, which included the minutes of the board meeting of
- September 17th, claims and financial report. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved.
- Okay, so moved by Mr. McKim and seconded by Mr. Silverstein. Any questions, discussions about that?
- Seeing and hearing none, would you take the role, please? John Weichart? Yes. Doug Bruce? Yes.
- Jeff McKim? Yes. Joyce Poling? Yes. Jim Silverstein? Yes. Adam Teese? Yes.
- Yes. Thank you. Item number three, Treasurer's Report. Mr. McKim, anything to report? Nothing to report.
- Thank you. Item number four, President's Report. Since our last meeting, I want to report to you that
- I have made two approvals on the construction project that are within the limits you set for me for
- approvals between meetings. One was for
- below grade abandoned well remediation at $2,270. The second one was for adding additional aggregate
- piers to accommodate the foundation change required by the increased size of the sanitary sewer at $11,350.
- So be happy to answer any questions you may have about those. I will
- Let you know that we're working on with with Weddle Brothers and JS held a report form, kind of a running
- report form on these change orders that affect the contingency budget. And I will begin to provide that
- next week or next for next month's meeting as part of the consent agenda so that you'll be able to keep
- your own running track of what's been approved and what we're what we've worked on together.
- So thank you. Item number five, construction update. Andrew.
- Yes, sir. Andrew Sherry, project manager with Weddle Brothers. Share my screen here. So just a couple
- things to talk about, just the overall construction progress to date, foundation work, which is obviously
- ongoing heavily right now, and then the upcoming activities that we're kind of preparing for. Construction progress.
- We've completed all ground improvements on the expansion side. We do have some that will take place
- with the connectors. We set up some fence and do our logistics plan on this side of college. Foundations
- are in progress. So footers, foundation walls, anchor bolts, all the moving parts and pieces there.
- Underground utilities are going to be starting, specifically the underground detention system, which
- is five foot in diameter pipe near the loading dock area. We start getting deliveries on that tomorrow.
- We are preparing for structural steel, and then we're also preparing for underground mechanical, electrical,
- and plumbing rough-ins, so to prep for our slive on grade. That'll take place as we start our structural
- steel, set up our crane, and kind of mobilize from the east towards the west. Foundation work, so concrete
- footers have been poured around the perimeter, the east and the north side. Hopefully everybody's seen
- that. If not, take a look. It's pretty neat.
- We do have interior spread pads that are progressing on the interior portion of the building. Over 500
- lineal feet of foundation walls have been formed and poured as of this morning. Obviously more going
- on today. And we're pouring concrete at least once a day, if not twice or three times. So a lot of things.
- Nearly 40 sets of anchor bolts have been completed and set in concrete. We're setting those every day.
- And that's just preparing us for our structural steel delivery, which we're anticipating at the end
- of this month as far as sequence one. So then it'll start staggering in. I think we have 20 something
- sequences in total that is broke out in bigger portions of the project. But then we have the long span
- trusses, which each of those individual members are around 26,000 pounds. So we have those as their
- own individual sequence because we'll build those on the ground, pick those and set them and then work
- our way out of the building.
- Upcoming activities, again, structural steel. So material will start arriving near the end of October.
- In November, we will start seeing structural steel being set. On this picture, on the left side of the
- picture, that'd be the east side of the project. That's where we're going to start a sequence one, kind
- of wrap the registered lot area, and then work our way out to the west. Underground detention system.
- So again, the stormwater, we're going to start getting semi-loads of five-foot pipe tomorrow.
- That work we're hoping to start on Monday, Tuesday, so a lot of excavations taking place down there.
- And then again, our underground rough in with mechanical, electrical and plumbing. We've had a lot of
- coordination to see what we can set, what our cranes will reach, what protection we need for that, and
- then how we can start to come into these winter months and start pouring siphon grade and really start
- to button things up. So all great things. Thank you.
- OK, thank you, Andrew. Any questions for Andrew about construction progress? Any comments? OK,
- thank you. Item number six, alternate bid recommendations. And I'm going to ask Mr. Teese if he will
- give us a report from the evaluation committee that reviewed the ultimate bids that we still have left
- on the project. Certainly happy to do that.
- folks from the CIB met. We talked about the alternates with our honors reps and with our construction
- firm. What it really comes down to is the four alternates that were remaining that we had discussed
- at our previous meetings are really relevant to the existing building. They're largely relevant to long-term
- issues that are related to building maintenance as opposed to our new capital improvement project that
- we're doing across the street.
- We looked at our finance and our budget aspects of the project and the committee at this time recommends
- to this full group that we not accept any of the alternates, that we progress further through
- the construction project which will let us really understand our contingencies better and then be able
- to make a more informed financial decision later on in the project. So at this time the
- group that gathered would make a recommendation to the full CIB to not accept any of the remaining four
- alternates, and happy to answer any questions that all of you might have about the deliberations. Why
- don't we do this? Since it's a recommendation, let's have a motion to accept the recommendation in a
- second, and then we can open the floor up for questions or discussion. So is there a motion to accept
- the recommendation? Second. Okay, so it's been moved and seconded, and now we can open the floor up
- for questions.
- Discussion, yes. Well, can you just remind everybody what the four alternates that we are rejecting
- are? Sure. Window replacement on this building, tuck pointing or masonry work, kind of a little of both.
- And then two, they're related to our air handling system in this building. And then what's called up
- a makeup air unit or a fresh air unit related to this building. So they're both kind of HVAC related
- for the last two.
- Any other questions? Just for clarification, as I understand it, those four items probably would have
- been necessary for the old building, regardless of the new project. Yes, over time. Maybe not immediately
- today. We're enjoying comfortable air in the building, but over time, yes.
- I think as I thought about these alternates, a couple of them certainly would fall to me under the definition
- of deferred maintenance, be that the masonry or the windows. And I think it gives us an opportunity
- not only to reevaluate where we are in our budget when we get further into the project, but also to
- have conversation with other potential funding sources
- on how we might be able to fund these projects moving forward. Remember that these projects were all
- part of what would have occurred in 2027 after we finished the new construction project. So I'm happy
- to be involved in conversations with other funding partners about what we are not able to fund out of
- our $52 million budget, whether resources may be available to help us
- fund all four of these because all four of them. Certainly our projects we'd like to be able to fund
- like to be able to move forward. So I'm committed to having those conversations and I know others have
- been volunteered to be involved in them as well. So that would be my. Those are my comments about it.
- Oh yeah, Mr. Bear. Just a point of clarification. Setting these aside today does not preclude us from
- picking these alternates back up at a later date, we just might need to re-bid them. Correct. Yeah,
- Mr. T said that was correct. Thanks, Ed. So we're not rejecting them. We're simply kicking the can down
- the road a bit until we have a better understanding of where we are. Can we give a clarification to
- that, please? It wouldn't be a re-bid process. It would be a change order process that we would go through
- at a later date. Yeah. Thank you.
- Any other questions or concerns? All right, we have a motion and a second to accept the recommendations.
- So Mr. Whittlehatch, if you would take the role. Microphone works, but John Whitehart? Yes. Doug Bruce?
- Yes. Jeff McKim? Yes. Joyce Polling? Yes. Jim Silverstein? Yes. Adam Tease? Yes. And Jay Baer? Yes.
- Okay, thank you.
- Item number seven, wayfinding and signage design and implementation. I think Mary, Mary, you're going
- to handle this recommendation? Yes, as we are assigned by the CIB, we solicited RFPs for the wayfinding
- services for the project. We sent those out to eight different firms and we received five responses
- back on October 6th. We had clarified through addendum questions that they may have had.
- Uh, so those, there were five proposals. They ranged in, um, a fee structure from 78,000 up to $153,000
- for those services. Two were from out of state. Three were from the Indianapolis area. Um,
- The recommendation of the committee, the committee was served by John and Joyce and Jim to some extent,
- although he was out toodling around some island somewhere. And again, ourselves were involved in that
- process. And so through that process, we evaluated each and looked at their schedules, et cetera.
- The recommendation of the committee is to award that to Schmidt Associates. They had a fee of $78,041
- plus reimbursables of $5,000. So that was a very reasonable response and we are happy to make
- the recommendation. Okay, so do we have a motion to accept the recommendation? Second.
- Moved by Mr. T, seconded by Joyce Poling. Now we can open the floor up for questions, discussion, comments.
- Anything from board members? All right, seeing and hearing none, Mr. Whitlatch, would you take the role,
- please? John Weichart? Yes. Doug Bruce? Yes. Jeff McCann? Yes. Joyce Poling? Yes. Jim Silverstein? Yes.
- Adam Tease? Yes. Jay Baer? Yes.
- Okay, thank you. Item number eight, Arts Project Update. Our Beat Advisory Group, I see Gail and Cassidy
- and Holly Warren are both back with us today. You hear me?
- Thanks for your time today. So again, Holly and I are part of the Beat Advisory Committee. Last time
- we were with you last month, we were in the middle of a feedback session that has concluded. So we're
- here today to talk to you about those takeaways and the next steps for the B group in terms of the art
- selection process. So I'm going to hand it over to Holly to talk about those takeaways here.
- Thanks, Galen. Hi, everyone. Thanks for the next slide. Perfect. So we had a great feedback session.
- Thanks for all of you who participated. We had over 30 people in our in-person feedback session. That's
- the most we've ever had at one of these, so that was great. We got almost 200 responses to our online
- survey, also great. And we also talked to many members of the community on the street to learn more
- about what they wanted to see. It was very heartening, because everybody had great things to say. We
- usually get a couple of grumpy folks,
- everybody was really happy and excited about this. And so what we did is,
- I'm so sorry. Let me move over here. I was worried about that. OK, sorry about that. Thanks, Isabel.
- So I just wanted to share what our overall takeaways were and what we will be including in our call
- for artist qualifications, which will go out very soon. So what we saw was people were very interested
- in seeing something that would reflect Bloomington's past and present, as well as our values of inclusivity,
- creativity, diversity, and open-mindedness. Folks also want to see something that
- contributes to the identity of the convention center as a place that is engaging, inclusive, safe, and
- accessible for all ages and backgrounds. People are very interested in seeing something that sparks
- curiosity, joy, and reflection. They want to see a work of art that people are going to admire, photograph,
- share, and return to. There is also a request that when possible, we think about sustainable options
- and doing functional artwork, thinking about lighting, seating, things like that.
- that will be potentially gathering in or around the convention center will actually be able to use.
- They also, of course, want it to be an excellent work of art. I think we all want that. And finally,
- like all pieces of public art, we want it to be low maintenance, durable, and I love this. We want it
- to withstand time
- weather and trends. We are really looking for something that's timeless here. So we're really happy
- about that. And then if you can advance to the next slide. So now that we've concluded our feedback
- session, the next step is to release a call for artists qualifications across the globe to our public
- art expert networks to make sure that the most qualified artists and artists teams are seeing this call.
- And as a reminder, this call
- qualifications is not a call for actual proposals for the art. This is just for artists and artist groups,
- architects and designers to show us what they've got to do something amazing. We were originally intending
- on putting this call out on October 6th. We're a little behind, but with your blessing, we would like
- to go ahead and release this call for qualifications tomorrow. Will extend the deadline by about a week
- just to make sure ample. There's ample time for folks to submit their applications, and even with that
- extended deadline, we will still be on track to finish our first review period of applications by I
- think mid December. So the invitations to the finalists will be out before the end of the year. So we
- will still be on track with that little change. And then as a reminder, that will take us through the
- end of 26. And then the finalists, we're going to recommend about five of them. We'll have until mid-March
- to show us their proposals. At that point, our recommendation committee will
- review those proposals. We'll also do another round of public feedback to learn what people think about
- the designs. And then we'll make a final recommendation to this committee. We're hoping in April to
- be able to make an audit, an offer to the artists that we all agree is the best fit for the project.
- And then I want to talk a little bit more about the finalists and the budget. So if you could advance
- to the next slide. So after some conversations in the past couple of weeks with some industry experts, we agreed
- raise the amount of money given to the finalists for this project to receive as an honoraria for doing
- the work. Now, the reason why we're doing this, this is pretty much an industry standard. To be able to compel
- artists to take the time and use their skills to give us a proposal, we want to give them a little money
- for that labor. And again, this is industry standard and we vetted these amounts that we would be giving
- each of these five finalists. It's $5,000 with many experts in public art, both locally and around the
- nation. So again, we are recommending that those five finalists that will come out of this first round
- of application review, which each receive an honorarium of $5,000 to submit their final
- proposal. In addition to that, we'd like to offer out-of-town artists, so these are the finalists who
- don't live in Bloomington, reimbursable travel expenses up to $1,500 to be able to come to Bloomington,
- see the town, meet with some of our stakeholders so they really get a sense of what the community is,
- so they can ensure that as they're composing their proposals that they're really capturing our spirit.
- So with that, and I also want to point out, so that amount of money, which is just over $30,000, is going to
- be separate from the amount that we're going to make the arts project actually worth. So we're going
- to make the call itself $400,000. And that will include the fee for the artist that we ultimately choose,
- fabrication fees that will also include install fees, insurance, shipping, and also a contingency fee.
- We'll also expect that the artist is going to hold a chunk of that $400,000 back for any unexpected
- expenses. So with that $400,000 for the call and that just over
- and travel, that will take us to $432,500. And then we've still got that nice check of $87,500 left
- to expand the permanent art collection in the Convention Center expansion. And again, that that's something
- that we're going to start working on after the expansion opens, and that is going to be art by local
- artists only. We see this as a great opportunity to be able to value our local artists. And then if
- you could move to the next slide,
- Next slide. So again, next steps are, we're hoping to release the call tomorrow. It's pretty much set
- to go and be released to all our networks. Pretty soon after that, we're going to assemble the members
- of our recommendation committee, just to review this process with them and talk through the rubric that
- we're gonna be using to review the first round of proposals. And we just wanted to share the members
- of the recommendation committee with all of you today. So it will be Galen, myself, and then it will
- be Jennifer Mouye,
- from the BEAD subcommittee. It will also be Adam Teeth and Joyce Poland from the CIB committee. Thanks
- for you two both for agreeing to be on it. It will also include Christina Elam, who is the current chair
- of the Bloomington Arts Commission's Public Arts Subcommittee. It will also include Rob Shakespeare,
- who many of you I sure know. He's an awesome public art and light installation artist, also a member
- of the Bloomington Arts Commission. We are truly honored to have Maya Michelson, who actually created
- my position
- here at the city. She's now the executive director of the Indiana Arts Commission. She'll also be joining
- us on the committee, as will Natalie Almanza. She is a member of the public who works at Indiana University
- and also a former chair of the Bloomington Arts Commission's Public Arts Subcommittee. We are in great
- hands with this recommendation committee. And that's all I have to share, but I'm happy to answer any
- questions you have. Thanks. Yes. Thanks. Yeah, so in the first cut where you're just looking at artists,
- Are you basing the decision entirely on past performance, or do they present some sort of vision for
- the project? It will all be past performance. It will all be a qualification. So they'll be asked to
- present their CVs. They'll also be asked to present formal projects that they have worked on. And they'll
- be asked to answer questions about, did you stay within your budget? What was the process?
- What challenges did you have to overcome? What is your experience working with stakeholders in the community?
- And what is your experience reflecting communities that you might be parachuting into to make sure that
- they see themselves in the art? And again, this is pretty industry standard when we do two step calls
- like this one. Thank you.
- that happens to me every time. I had a conversation with Maya Michelson recently about another matter,
- and she mentioned to me that the costs that are proposed here for proposal submissions for travel are
- in fact industry standard, that artists would expect this, that they're used to that. And so that was
- certainly not surprising to Maya that that's part of the recommendation.
- My only second observation is the reason I've always said Janice from Clash Gallery is because I've
- never known how to pronounce her last name. I told her that one time and she gave me a poem that she
- had written that helped me learn how to do that. So I can be happy to share that with all of you at
- another time as well. So thank you, Holly. Any other questions for Holly about the proposal? So I think
- we're all in agreement to charge forward.
- So thank you very much for your presentation. All right. Thanks again, everyone. Item number nine, hotel
- update. Jane Coopersmith is here from the city of Bloomington from the economic and sustainable development
- department. So Jane, welcome. Is it on?
- Is this thing on? Not yet. I think it's on now. Yeah, Jane Cooper Smith, Director of Economic and Sustainable
- Development for the City of Bloomington. As you all know, the CIB selected a hotel developer about this
- time last year, and the city is engaged via the Bloomington Redevelopment Commission in those negotiations.
- The adults are still talking is how I would summarize it. The lawyers are negotiating terms. I'll be
- meeting with Mr. Dora on Friday to discuss some potential details of the project, but we remain committed
- to moving through negotiations as does the Dora and Lauderbeck team. So nothing major to report at this
- time. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Jane. Item number 10.
- old business. And if I may, and I first want to thank Jane for attending these meetings monthly and
- for giving us these updates. I will tell you I've shared with you some email correspondence. I've had
- conversations with both Mr. Dora and Jane and I have had some conversations back and forth recently.
- It has been one year
- since we selected Dora as the hotel developer. And one year ago this month that we referred Dora to
- the city, and we use the terms interchangeably, the city, the Redevelopment Commission, to begin discussions
- about their interest in the Bunger Robertson property. And at the time we made the referral, we mentioned
- then that the developers who had responded to our RFP told us that this process was probably a three-year process.
- the time we got through design and then through construction before we would have the doors open to
- a new hotel. So a year has passed and we are still three years away from the same thing we were away
- that was the distance in time that we had a year ago. Vince Dora told me that by the time we talked
- through some timelines that design activity
- is probably at least six months worth of work and we're still in the two and a half years of construction.
- So I indicated to both Vince and to Jane and to others that although we appreciate their efforts and
- we appreciate their intentions and we appreciate the fact that everyone has been well-meaning in trying
- to move this project forward,
- that it's clear from what everybody tells us that certainly there are some issues that have to do with,
- as understandably so and not unsurprisingly, funding for the project. There are questions about, potentially
- questions about design and what exactly ought to be in a full service hotel and what could be scaled
- back to meet some of the financial goals that the parties would need to meet.
- And I've shared with them, we understand that. We've gone through that same process with our own construction
- project. We had the design and expansion based on how much money we had. And we had $52 million for
- construction. So our design fit the $52 million budget. So we understand that as they move into design,
- that budget and design have to come together, have to marry together. And we're certainly willing, as
- I've told both parties,
- to consider what they come up with in terms of does the design that's being proposed meet our definition
- of what we were looking for in a full service hotel. But a year having passed, what I am asking now
- and I'm going to ask the board to endorse is that we notified the city of Bloomington and the RDC and
- Dora the hotel developer of our requirement that the CIB receive a formal joint agreement
- upon report from the city and Dora with a path forward including timelines for design and construction
- phases and a time schedule for development of the hotel and that we received that report from them by
- no later than our December 17th regular meeting. So basically a 60-day timeline for us to receive much
- more specific information and to signal to us
- that we are actually moving forward and that we can expect forward movement and we can expect design
- and construction to actually take place. If the two parties are not prepared to make this report by
- the December CIB regular meeting, the CIB will consider the options available to it to fulfill
- its responsibility to select a host hotel, including reissuing the RFP for a hotel developer. And I
- will simply add to that that
- both the county ordinance that created this body and the interlocal agreement between the four governmental
- parties working together with us to move this project forward. The CIB has the responsibility to select
- a hotelier for this project and to move forward successfully to having a host hotel. And we need this
- information in order to fulfill that responsibility.
- So again, I'm asking for a report back from the two parties by not later than our December 17th regular
- meeting with timelines for design and construction phases and a schedule for development of the hotel
- by that meeting. So I'm asking for your endorsement that would permit us to move forward with
- that notification to the two parties. And I would ask that endorsement in the form of a motion if you're
- inclined to make such.
- So moved. Second. Okay, so we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion or further comment
- from any board members? Mr. McKinnon. And so I think I heard you say this, but did both the city and
- Dora were aware that this, that you would be making this kind of statement? Yes. Okay. Yes, I made both
- aware. Yes, I made both aware.
- Any other questions, comments, concerns? Okay, we have a motion and a second. John Weichart? Yes.
- Doug Bruce? Yes. Jeff McKim? Yes. Joyce Poling? Yes. Jim Silverstein? Yes. Adam Tease? Yes. Jay Baer?
- Yes. Okay, thank you. Next item, new business. Is there any new business to be brought before the board?
- Comments from board members? Any comments from board members? Comments from the public? The public is
- welcome to make any comments. We asked that you hold those comments to a two-minute time limit. I see
- Jane Coopersmith is making her way back up to the microphone. Welcome back, Jane. Hello, everyone.
- Long time. No problem.
- I just wanted to talk to you briefly about Bloomington's identity and kind of how we are looking at
- this broadly in the city from an economic development perspective. We really see the beeline trail as
- the spine of our great community from the Switchyard Park on the south to Hopewell. And then obviously
- being adjacent to this new convention center is really incredible. And then going north, we have the
- trades district and
- and then even further north than that, we're working on a new project that, if approved, would be called
- the Stadium District. This is the area surrounding Miller Showers Park, and it is a gateway to our Ferris
- City. And we feel that the branding of this district would be really helpful in promoting yet another
- neighborhood node in Bloomington and will help those businesses advance themselves. And also it will help
- visitors kind of identify, you know, this part of Bloomington as being really near the stadium
- and appropriate for sports destinations and stuff like that. Why is this important to the CIB? Well,
- we also think the stadium district and the entire area, if approved, name the stadium district and the
- entire area on the north side would be really critical during this window before the host hotel is open
- in that we'll have an identifiable neighborhood and potentially be able to work with
- private shuttles or Bloomington Transit in order to transport visitors from that district down here.
- So feels like there's a lot of opportunity there. And then rewinding back to the trades district,
- which is, you know, north of here and south of the Miller Showers area. I also wanted to extend an invitation
- to a block party there on November 7th from five to eight. We hope you can all come join us and see
- what's happening with the CCC grant. Thank you. Thank you, Jane.
- Any other comments from the public? Yes. Mike McAfee from Visit Bloomington is making his way.
- Any other comments from the public?
- All right. Seeing none, our next board meeting is Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 at 3 p.m. back here
- in the Convention Center. With that, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. And we are
- adjourned. Thank you.