April 10, 2025: Leaning wall, bids for Hopewell, talk on tariffs, bicycle races
B Square Relaunch
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Weather
Based on the National Weather Service forecast in text and charts here's some advice:
Thursday: To start the day, you'll need some kind of jacket to break the chill—as the temperature will be climbing from the mid-40s to a high of around 64°F. As you head off in the morning, drive even slower than you normally do, because you'll see some patchy fog before 10 a.m. You won't need umbrellas and galoshes to start the day, but by 3 p.m. there will be a 20% chance of thundershowers, growing to 30–50% through the evening and into the early morning.
Friday: Make sure you start the day with a jacket that adds some warmth, and does not just layer some extra pizzaz on top of your already impeccable style. The overnight temperature will dip below 40°F and will not climb past about 51°F for the daily high.
Sign up for weather alerts: Monroe County emergency alert system.
Roundup of recent articles
- Leaning century-old wall at The Mill in Bloomington's Trades District deemed unsafe, event space temporarily shut down The south wall of the former Showers Brother Furniture building that houses The Mill in Bloomington's Trades District is unstable—because it's as much as 4 inches out of plumb. That means the event space next to the wall is temporarily shut down, and no one is allowed to get within 20 feet of the wall.
- Hopewell East bids received from 5 firms, redevelopment group OKs due diligence on former convalescent center as police HQ At Monday night's meeting of Bloomington's redevelopment commission, five bids were opened for the public offering that was made in November 2024 for land in the future Hopewell neighborhood. That's the former site of the IU Health Hospital, and the area around it. The land was acquired by the RDC from the health care provider in a $6.5 million real estate deal.
- Ground floor office space in Bloomington public parking garages close to full occupancy The ground-floor office spaces in both of the city of Bloomington's two relatively new parking garages—at 4th Street and in the Trades District at 10th Street—could soon finally be occupied.
- First hearing on vote centers in Monroe County in the books, second one set for May 19 On Monday evening (April 7) starting at 5 p.m. in the Nat U. Hill Room of the Monroe County courthouse, the county election board listened to at least a dozen and a half people weigh in on the question of establishing vote centers in the county.
- Former state police general counsel named jail transition director by Monroe County sheriff At their regular Tuesday meeting, county councilors were introduced to Todd Smith as the new jail transition director. Making the introduction was Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté. Smith is replacing Cory Grass who was appointed by Marté in late 2023 to head up the transition to a new jail facility.
On the calendar
Public bus passes for Monroe County employees: Monroe County commissioners are scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. on Thursday, April 10. As of 6 a.m. on Thursday, there's no agenda posted in the usual spot, which is the calendar entry for the meeting. But here's a link: draft agenda. There's a $5,000 item on the draft agenda that approves an agreement between Monroe County and Bloomington Transit, to make sure that county employees continue to have access to discounted bus services.
Partisan school boards: On the calendar for the Indiana State Senate on Thursday, April 10, at 1:30 p.m. is a vote to concur with the House on the amendments to SB 287, which would make school boards partisan. The approach the House took is not to require a primary election process, but rather to allow candidates to indicate party affiliation or no affiliation on their petition for candidacy, which would then appear on the ballot. If the vote to concur succeeds, that means the Senate would agree with the House's amendments, sending the bill to the governor for approval. If the concurrence vote fails, a conference committee would need to be formed to reconcile differences between the two versions. It's possible that SB 287 won't get a vote on Thursday, even though it's on the calendar.
Filling school board vacancy. On Thursday, April 10, starting at 5:30 p.m. the MCCSC (Monroe County Community School Corporation) board is set to interview candidates to fill the vacancy left on the board, when Brandon Shurr resigned. The four candidates are: Aja Jester; Cori Thornton-Hammock; Blake Garland-Tiado; and Gabriel Holbrow.
Tariffs: A Blessing or a Curse for Hoosier Jobs: Michael J. Hicks, Ball State economist, will give this talk on Saturday, April 12, from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Monroe County Public Library Downtown branch auditorium.
Team Pursuit Little 500 Spring Series: Sunday, April 13, starting at 10 a.m. all day at the Bill Armstrong Stadium this is one of the events that will lead up to the Little 500 races on April 25 and 26. Each heat is a race between two teams of four riders. The bikes will be placed at opposite corners of the track. The race begins with both teams standing 20 feet from their bikes. At the sound of the horn, the teams scramble onto their bikes and pedal their guts out for 15 laps.
Trashion Refashion: The 2025 Trashion Refashion Runway Show will be held on April 13, 2025 at 7 p.m. at the Buskirk Chumley Theater. Designs for this show are made from refashioned garments or unwanted materials including paper and plastic bags, pop tabs, bicycle tires, tablecloths, old clothes, and pet food containers! Here's a link: Buy tickets.
Meet Bodie!
This very, very good boy is a shep/hound mix. The shelter staff say that Bodie is new to the shelter. Let's make his stay at the shelter as short as possible!
Photo Finish
6th Street & College Avenue
For more items like these, see the B There section of the B Square website.
There's more to Bloomington than the narrow slice of Bloomington that I traverse in my daily travels. To improve the geographic coverage of B There, please consider occasionally contributing to The B Square brief factual observations about the world outside your own head, as you go about your normal business. (Photos are optional for B There.) The mechanics of making a contribution are pretty straightforward—just let me know if you'd like to learn the ins and outs. If you're looking at this bulletin in your email inbox, you should be able to reach me by hitting Reply.
Thanks for reading. I hope you have a great weekend!
Dave Askins
734-645-2633
dave@bsquarebulletin.com