Mother’s Day 2024: Canvassing a hawk’s nest on Indiana University’s Bloomington campus

On Valentine’s Day this year, The B Square reported the nesting activity of a pair of red-tailed hawks on Indiana University’s campus—in the big Sycamore tree above Bryan Hall.

A month later, it looked like the birds had switched things up and were setting up their household on the grounds of Monroe County’s historic courthouse.

But by the morning of Mother’s Day this year, it was evident that the hawks had chosen the same spot as last year to raise their hatchlings—on IU’s campus. Continue reading “Mother’s Day 2024: Canvassing a hawk’s nest on Indiana University’s Bloomington campus” →

New legislative coordinator position in Bloomington mayor’s office among others OK’d by city council

Bloomington city council (May 8, 2024)
Sharr Pechac, city of Bloomington director of human resources (May 8, 2024)

At its Wednesday meeting, Bloomington’s city council created three new positions in the office of the mayor and eliminated three existing jobs.

Created through an amendment of this year’s salary ordinance were positions with the following titles: special assistant to the mayor, executive office manager, and legislative coordinator.

Eliminated were three existing positions: director of innovation, chief of staff, and administrative coordinator.

The count of positions in the mayor’s office stayed the same, but still worked out to an overall savings of about $26,000 per year, because two of the three positions have a lower salary grade classification than the existing jobs.

The council also approved a change in the salary grade for the existing sidewalk coordinator in the public works department, which means around $3,900 more for the position.

The reason for the change in the sidewalk position was, according to human resources director Sharr Pechac, “to better reflect the importance of this position to the city and to better align with other similar positions within public works.”

The council also approved the creation of a new position in public works called the facility asset and operations coordinator, to administer the asset management software system and the proper assignment of work orders. The total fiscal impact (benefits and salary) is expected to be about $81,144. Continue reading “New legislative coordinator position in Bloomington mayor’s office among others OK’d by city council” →

Critical decisions soon for Monroe Convention Center expansion: site, budget, uses

This week, a possible path forward for the Monroe County convention center expansion project in downtown Bloomington got charted out in a bit more detail.

At its regular meeting on Wednesday, the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB) got an update on two separate processes. One is to bring on board a construction manager as constructor (CMc) for the convention center project. The other is to strike a deal with a hotelier.

The CIB also got updated preliminary schematics for expansion options from Schmidt Associates, the architectural firm the CIB has retained to continue its preliminary conceptual design work from five years ago.

Schmidt presented four schematics for expansion—in each compass direction from the current convention center facility, which is located on the southwest corner of 3rd Street and College Avenue.

The East option now appears to have some initial support, but that decision is probably at least a couple weeks away.

On Thursday, Bloomington’s city council held a work session to focus on the topic of the convention center expansion. That came in the wake of the April 10 split vote of the council on the CIB’s budget.  Before its April 10 meeting, the council also held a work session on the convention center expansion.

The outcome of the work session was a consensus that the city council should spell out its expectations for the project in a letter to the CIB.

The idea is to use the council’s specific role—as the fiscal body that has to approve the bonding for the construction—as a way to influence the size, design, and use of the new facility.

Continue reading “Critical decisions soon for Monroe Convention Center expansion: site, budget, uses” →

Mapping the Dems: 2024 Monroe County commissioner primary election results

In Tuesday’s Democratic Party’s primary to select one nominee for each of two county commissioner seats, two slates formed across the two positions, which among other things shared financial resources, by sending out joint mailings.

It was hardly a surprise that the two incumbents—Penny Githens (District 2) and Julie Thomas (District 3)—worked together.

On the side of the challengers, it was Peter Iversen (District 2) and Jody Madeira (District 3) who banded together, leaving Steve Volan, who also ran in the District 3 race, as the one solitary campaigner for a county commissioner nomination. Continue reading “Mapping the Dems: 2024 Monroe County commissioner primary election results” →

Monroe County 2024 primary winners: Thomas, Madeira, Van Deventer, Munson, Deckard, Henry

The unofficial tallies for Monroe County voting in the Tuesday, May 7 primary elections made for the following outcomes in contested local races for respective party nominations:

  • Incumbent Democrat Julie Thomas over Peter Iversen for District 2 county commissioner;
  • Democrat Jody Madeira over Steve Volan and incumbent Penny Githens for District 3 county commissioner;
  • Incumbent Democrats Trent Deckard and Cheryl Munson ahead of David Henry and Matt Caldie for the three at-large county council seats, with Henry slightly better than Caldie; and
  • Republican Joe Van Deventer over Paul White, Sr. for District 3 county commissioner.

Continue reading “Monroe County 2024 primary winners: Thomas, Madeira, Van Deventer, Munson, Deckard, Henry” →

Alea iacta est: May 7, 2024 primary election results, served when ready

Primary Election Day polls for May 7, 2024 have now closed in Monroe County.

The cutoff time was 6 p.m., which made for a 12-hour voting day. But anyone in line by 6 p.m. has to be allowed to cast a ballot.

Voters who joined the line just before the closing of the polls are just one reason that results can’t be reported immediately at 6 p.m.

Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne typically cautions against expecting any results before 7 p.m. The earliest votes that will be reported are from in-person early voting and mailed-in absentee ballots.

The B Square will add to this article with time-stamped updates from Election Central until the final unofficial results are in, or otherwise indicated here.

[Updated 8:25 p.m. May 7, 2024. The unofficial winners of the contested local races for respective party nominations: Democrat Jody Madeira for District 3 county commissioner; Democrat Julie Thomas for District 2 county commissioner; Democrats Trent Deckard, Cheryl Munson, and David Henry for at-large county council. And Republican Joe Van Deventer for District 3 county commissioner.]
Continue reading “Alea iacta est: May 7, 2024 primary election results, served when ready” →

Primary Election Day: Polls are open until 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 7 in Monroe County

Election Central processing of early in-person and mailed-in absentee ballots. (May 7, 2024)
Monroe County election board from left: Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne; Judith Benckart; and John Fernandez. (May 7, 2024)
Election operations building at 3rd and Walnut streets. (May 7, 2024)

The polls at Monroe County’s election operations building at 3rd and Walnut streets opened Tuesday morning, when election site inspector Maqubè Reese gave the official announcement: “The polls are open!”

Audio: “The polls are open!”

The announcement is not just for fun. It’s a  requirement of state election law, which says the announcement about the start of voting must be made “in a loud tone of voice” to “the people outside the polls.”

A technical glitch prevented opening of the polls at 6 a.m. sharp. The code that was supposed to open the scanner for processing ballots did not work, and it took several minutes for that issue to get sorted out.

Even though the announcement from Reese came at 6:15 a.m., there were no voters queued up waiting—the first voter did not arrive until a few minutes after Reese gave the announcement.

The only “people outside the polls” when Reese gave the official opening announcement were The B Square and Monroe County Democratic Party chair David Henry, who is running for one of the three at-large county council seats. He’s competing with Matt Caldie, Trent Deckard, and Cheryl Munson for one of the three nominations from the Democratic Party.

The B Square will try to provide some updates through rest of the day. Continue reading “Primary Election Day: Polls are open until 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 7 in Monroe County” →

Monroe County election board finishes final prep for Tuesday, May 7 primaries

These are the lanyards for Monroe County election board members: Nicole Browne, Judith Benckart, and John Fernandez.
Election Central at 7th and Madison streets is set up to process mailed-in and early in-person ballots.
Chart of the early in-person voting totals for the 2024 primary election in Monroe County.
On Monday night, a red-tailed hawk kept watch over Monroe County’s Election Central from the antenna on top of the justice center at 7th Street and College Avenue.
On Monday night, campaign yard signs at Fairview Elementary School were guarded by the Joe LaMantia’s Aristicat.
Campaign yard signs at Monroe County’s election operations building at 3rd and Walnut streets.

By around 7:30 p.m. on Monday night, all but three of the 29 polling locations for Primary Election Day on May 7 had checked in with Monroe County election division staff at Election Central to confirm they were set for the next day’s voting.

Election Central is the old Johnson’s Hardware building at 7th and Madison streets.

Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. Continue reading “Monroe County election board finishes final prep for Tuesday, May 7 primaries” →

140-acre rezone to be taken up by Bloomington’s city council again on May 15

Close up proximity map of Summit District PUD.
Overview map of Summit District PUD.

A rezone request for about 140 acres in the southwest part of Bloomington got a second round of scrutiny from the city council last Wednesday.

The first council deliberations took place on April 17.

A postponement until the council’s May 15 meeting got unanimous support.

It sounds like some councilmembers could be ready to take a vote in mid-May. But there’s still another month before a 90-day window closes, on June 26. After that, the new zoning would be automatically enacted, if the council did not act to deny it.

The 90-day clock started ticking after the 7–0 positive recommendation was certified to the city’s plan commission, on March 28.

The Summit District planned unit development (PUD) could allow construction of an estimated 4,250 units of housing in five new neighborhoods, to be built out over the course of the next 10 years. Continue reading “140-acre rezone to be taken up by Bloomington’s city council again on May 15” →

Weeklong Bloomington annexation trial: It’s a wrap, each side gets 45 days to submit final brief

Attorneys in the annexation trial wanted to be able to leave their exhibits in the courtroom overnight, so a sign was placed instructing the cleaning crew to skip the courtroom used for the annexation trial. (May 2, 2024)
Map of annexation areas. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1_7o1q_H6CpeK-1gdEzDTxnPk84RZQ_E&usp=sharing
The image of Reed Quarries is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s property lookup system.

Now over is the trial on the merits of Bloomington’s plan to annex two territories on the west and southwest sides of the city.

Around 3 p.m. on Friday, both sides rested their cases after five full days of witness testimony in the courtroom, located inside the justice center at College Avenue and 7th Street in downtown Bloomington.

This past week’s trial was just about the merits of annexing Area 1A and Area 1B into the city, and did not address a different, constitutional question for other territories, which relates to annexation waivers of remonstrance, which were signed by some land owners.

Over the course of the week, not every witness on either list—for the the city of Bloomington, or for the remonstrators—was called to the stand. Those who did testify included current and former elected officials, current and former city staff, the city’s paid consultants, as well as a dozen or more landowners in the areas to be annexed.

Nathan Nikirk, the special judge out of Lawrence County who is presiding over the case, gave the two sides 45 days to submit their proposed orders in the case, which will include their final arguments. No closing oral arguments were given on Friday.

Before leaving the courtroom on Friday, Nikirk thanked all of the attorneys for their professionalism. He noted that annexation is a “passionate issue.”

Nikirk said he does not know the “perfect answer” on the case but promised to do his “very best.” He would be giving the matter all the consideration that he could, Nikirk said. Even if some are not happy with his eventual decision, Nikirk said he hopes that they understand that he had given it a lot of time and effort. Continue reading “Weeklong Bloomington annexation trial: It’s a wrap, each side gets 45 days to submit final brief” →