One dead in Bloomington shootings outside party, police arrest murder suspect

One man is dead and at least one more wounded after a dispute about admission to a party south of the Indiana University Bloomington campus, according to an early Sunday evening news release.

According to the news release from Bloomington police department (BPD), officers have arrested Isaiah Joseph Deleson Ramos, 21-year-old Linton, Indiana, man on a charge of murder.

The shooting took place around 2 a.m. on Sunday morning in the vicinity of Park and Hunter avenues.  According to the BPD news release, when the officers who responded to the reports of gunshots, they found the victim, a 23-year-old Bloomington man, with a gunshot wound to his chest. The efforts of officers to save him were not successful.

Another victim, a 19-year-old Bloomington man, was taken to a local hospital with injuries that are not thought to be life-threatening. Continue reading “One dead in Bloomington shootings outside party, police arrest murder suspect” →

Sale of Bloomington police station: City officials look to smooth over objections based on century-old deed

Some wheels that were set in motion by Bloomington’s city council just about a year ago foresaw the sale of the current police station at 3rd and Lincoln streets.

But there are some major political and legal wrinkles that will need to be ironed out to make that sale possible.

On the political side, it’s not clear if there will be a five-vote majority on the city council, which would still be needed to support the sale of the police station.

On the legal side of things, there’s a century-old clause in a deed that is connected to a land conveyance to the adjacent park that is now called The Waldron, Hill and Buskirk Park. Continue reading “Sale of Bloomington police station: City officials look to smooth over objections based on century-old deed” →

Bloomington mayor-elect Kerry Thomson names most top staff picks, cascade of caucuses could result

Kerry Thomson
Gretchen Knapp
Jessica McClellan
Kurt Zorn
Jason Moore
Andrew Cibor
Jane Kupersmith
Margie Rice
Beverly Calender-Anderson
Sharmaine Pechac
Rick Dietz
Tim Street
Mike Diekhoff
Adam Wason
John Langley

In a Friday morning news release on the first day of December, Bloomington mayor-elect Kerry Thomson announced most, but not all, of the department heads who will be a part of her administration starting on Jan. 1, 2024.

Replacing Larry Allen as deputy mayor will be Gretchen Knapp, who is head of operations and marketing for The Mill.

Returning will be some familiar faces: Mike Diekhoff (chief of police); Jason Moore (fire chief); Adam Wason (director of public works); Andrew Cibor (city engineer); Tim Street (now interim director of parks and recreation); and Rick Dietz (director of IT).

Returning on an interim basis will be Beverly Calender-Anderson who is head of CFRD (community and family resources department).

Coming on board only as interim to serve as head of city of Bloomington utilities will be John Langley. According to Thomson’s news release, Langley, retired as the CBU’s deputy director in 2019, is a former deputy mayor, personnel director, and housing code enforcement officer.

That means Vic Kelson will not be returning as CBU director.

Also not returning are HAND (housing and neighborhood development) director John Zody and planning and transportation director Scott Robinson. But Friday’s news release does not name interim or permanent replacements for those two departments. Continue reading “Bloomington mayor-elect Kerry Thomson names most top staff picks, cascade of caucuses could result” →

3 years at $110,000 a year for jail transition director OK’d by Monroe County, with some grumbles

Monroe County’s jail is located on the top floors of the Charlotte Zietlow justice center.
Monroe County jail commander Kyle Gibbons (Nov. 28, 2023)
Monre County chief deputy sheriff Phil Parker (Nov. 28, 2023)
County commissioners Penny Githens and Julie Thomas with county attorney Jeff Cockerill (Nov. 29, 2023)
Chief deputy sheriff Phil Parker in front of the Monroe County council (Nov. 28, 2023)
Foreground: county councilor Peter Iversen and commissioner Penny Githens. Background from left: Chief deputy Phil Parker, sheriff Ruben Marté, and jail commander Kyle Gibbons (Nov. 27, 2023)

Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, a rough patch was hit on the road to a new jail for Monroe County.

A disagreement emerged between the sheriff and county commissioners over the funding of someone to direct the transition—from the current jail at 7th Street and College Avenue to a new facility. No location has been decided for a new jail.

Even if the rough patch did not get smoothed out, it’s now in the rear-view mirror.

On Wednesday, Monroe County commissioners approved a change to their ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) plan to include $110,000 a year for three years to fund a contract for someone to serve as director of the jail transition. Of the amount, $10,000 is to cover liability insurance.

The day before, the Monroe County council voted unanimously to appropriate the $330,000. For the county council, the decision was not controversial to use APRA money to fund a contract position for someone who is not now working in the sheriff’s office. Continue reading “3 years at $110,000 a year for jail transition director OK’d by Monroe County, with some grumbles” →

Rural Transit riders might see no change, if parallel service is run to get around urban-to-urban trip ban

Bloomington Transit fixed route ridership numbers.
County councilor Trent Deckard and county commissioner Julie Thomas address the Ellettsville town council. (Nov. 27, 2023)
Ellettsville town council president William Ellis (Nov. 27, 2023)
Bloomington Transit general manager John Connell with BT board president James McLary in the background. (Nov. 28, 2023)
Monroe County council meeting (Nov. 28, 2023)
The blue shading indicates “urban area” as defined by the US Census and Federal Transit Administration. The current, pre-annexation city boundary for Bloomington is shown in black. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1irTiPkrnMPTnxXQcejdpvF0EMyR1jvo&usp=sharing

The actual solution to a transit problem outside Bloomington boundaries might not turn out to be the one that was anticipated by the city council in the first half of August.

That’s when Bloomington’s city council revised local law to allow Bloomington Transit (BT) to operate anywhere in Monroe County, not just inside city limits.

There were independent reasons for expanding BT’s service area.

But it was believed that the legal authority for BT to run service outside the city boundaries would solve a dilemma caused by a recent change in an INDOT (Indiana Department of Transportation) enforcement policy. The change to enforcement affects a long-time regulation on federal funds (Section 5311) for rural transit agencies like Area 10’s Rural Transit.

The basic idea was that BT would start filling in for about 8,000 trips a year that Rural Transit will be prohibited from making, beginning on Jan. 1, 2024.

In federal transit terms, the extra trips that BT was expected to start covering would start and end inside the “urban area” of Monroe County—but would not be entirely contained within the city. (For a trip with origin and destination both inside the city, Bloomington Transit already provides service.)

One example of such a trip would be from Ellettsville to Walmart on Bloomington’s west side. Another such trip is from Ellettsville to anywhere inside the city limits—like the former location of the IU Health hospital at 2nd and Rogers streets. Trips starting and ending inside Ellettsville are also examples.

It seemed like the only question that needed to be answered by the end of this year was: How much would Monroe County government and the town of Ellettsville pay Bloomington Transit for the service?

But now, it looks like Rural Transit might have found a way around the Section 5311 ban against urban-to-urban trips. And the cost for Rural Transit’s proposal is about 70 percent of BT’s proposal.

So a likely scenario is that Rural Transit will, at least for the next year, continue to provide the same urban-to-urban service that it has in the past. Continue reading “Rural Transit riders might see no change, if parallel service is run to get around urban-to-urban trip ban” →

Hiccup for convention center interlocal agreement: ‘Let’s take a breath’ says Monroe County council

It might be next year before all parties have signed an interlocal agreement between Bloomington and Monroe County—in connection with an expansion of the Monroe Convention Center.

The effort to get final consensus on a collaboration between city and county leaders about a convention expansion dates back several years, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

But two weeks ago, both branches of Bloomington’s government approved the interlocal agreement, for the operation of the capital improvement board (CIB) and the convention and visitors commission (CVC)—in connection with the convention center expansion.

Bloomington mayor John Hamilton inked the interlocal on the afternoon of Nov. 15. The city council followed suit that evening, with an uncontroversial vote to approve the interlocal agreement.

The county council and the county board of commissioners were expected to consider and approve the agreement this week.

But the item appeared on Tuesday night’s county council meeting agenda only as a discussion item. And that’s where it remained for Tuesday. No vote was taken, even though councilors expressed a fair amount of solid support for the agreement.

Part of the delay on the county council’s side relates to a request from Bloomington mayor-elect Kerry Thomson, who wrote a letter to Hamilton two weeks ago, asking him not to make strategic decisions that could have an impact lasting into 2024. Continue reading “Hiccup for convention center interlocal agreement: ‘Let’s take a breath’ says Monroe County council” →

October 2023 food inspection reports for Monroe County released by health department

Caption: The image links to a dynamic map. (The color coding scheme goes like this: Green=Zero violations; Yellow=At least 1 non-critical violation but no critical violations; Red=At least 1 critical violation.)

Monroe County’s health department has released the reports for inspections of food service operations that were conducted in October 2023

A bit under half (49 of 104) of the places that were inspected in October had no violations.

Recording at least one non-critical violation, but no critical violations were 19 establishments. Recording at least one critical violation were 36 establishments.

Summaries of the inspections completed in March are now available on a list which is published on the health department’s website.

Continue reading “October 2023 food inspection reports for Monroe County released by health department” →

Column: A better blueprint for Bloomington city council meetings

In the last four years, one of the more controversial decisions by Bloomington’s city council was the enactment of an ordinance to reinstall stop signs on 7th Street.

This image was generated by AI.

A measure of that controversy was Bloomington mayor John Hamilton’s veto of the decision.  Of the three pieces of the legislation that have been vetoed by the mayor in the last eight years, the stop sign veto is the only one that was not overridden by the council.

The stop sign ordinance was a nice illustration of how the balance of power works, between the legislative and executive branches in local government.

But the ordinance was also a case study in the dysfunction that has plagued the internal workings of Bloomington’s city council for nearly the last four years—almost its entire term.

Just like better road design can lead to fewer collisions between vehicles, better city council meeting design might lead to fewer, and less damaging political collisions. Continue reading “Column: A better blueprint for Bloomington city council meetings” →

2024 Election Notebook: Deckard announces re-election bid, other county seats open

Appearing for part of the program at Friday’s Canopy of Lights in downtown Bloomington were three local elected officials—Bloomington mayor John Hamilton, and Monroe County commissioners Penny Githens and Julie Thomas.

Trent Deckard, with his family (Kyla Cox Deckard, Lucy, and Madeline) streams live on Facebook the announcement that he is seeking re-election to an at-large seat on the Monroe County council. (Nov. 24, 2023)

So the executives in city and county government were represented on stage.

Off stage, holding up the county’s fiscal end of things, were county councilors Jennifer Crossley, Kate Wiltz, and Trent Deckard.

And at the state level, District 61 house representative Dave Hall held the banner for the General Assembly.

That’s probably not an exhaustive list.

All of the elected officials spotted at the event by the B Square were Democrats, except for Hall, who is a Republican.

The partisan presence at Friday’s event was a good reminder that the local 2024 election season is underway, and has been since the summer. Continue reading “2024 Election Notebook: Deckard announces re-election bid, other county seats open” →

Revolting Children, Santa, other usual suspects: 2023 Canopy of Lights in downtown Bloomington

Canopy of Lights 2023, Bloomington, Indiana
Canopy of Lights 2023, Bloomington, Indiana
Canopy of Lights 2023, Bloomington, Indiana
Canopy of Lights 2023, Bloomington, Indiana
Canopy of Lights 2023, Bloomington, Indiana

On Friday night, downtown Bloomington was lit up brighter than Rudolph’s nose on Christmas Eve, and the square was packed with people, spilling onto Kirkwood Avenue, which was shut down for the occasion.

It was the traditional day-after-Thanksgiving extravaganza to flip the switch on the strands of lights that connect the courthouse building to buildings around the square—The Canopy of Lights.

Taking the edge of the 36 F degree temperatures were costumed characters, and live radio broadcasts courtesy of B97 & Hoosier Country 105, served up with hot chocolate, cookies, and kettle corn. Continue reading “Revolting Children, Santa, other usual suspects: 2023 Canopy of Lights in downtown Bloomington” →