April 14, 2025: Water bills, property taxes, MCCSC board vacancy, abolishment of a court

Weather

Based on the National Weather Service forecast in text and charts here's some advice:

Monday: You can probably get away without an outer wrap to start the day because the overnight low will dip only to 56°F before climbing to 70°F. You probably won't need an umbrella to handle the 20% chance of rain that will pop up in late afternoon. I wouldn't take an umbrella, unless you know that your personal probability of losing it is small. It's going to be mostly cloudy all day.

Tuesday: You'll need a jacket that adds some warmth to start the day, because the overnight low will dip to 42°F and the daytime high will reach just 56°F. If you wear a hat to stay warm, better hang onto it, because we're looking at a 15-mph wind with gusts as high as 31 mph.

Sign up for weather alerts: Monroe County emergency alert system.

Roundup of recent articles

• Sunday Funnies: Hawk v. Fish Are these two creatures falling in love?
• Delayed notice for Bloomington water shutoff leaves one CBU customer dry, questioning reconnection fee This article previews the new electronic notification system for city of Bloomington water customers whose water is about to be shut off for nonpayment, and describes the program CBU funds to help people avoid water shutoffs.
• Aja Jester appointed to vacant seat on MCCSC board Last Thursday, members of the Monroe County Community School Corporation board interviewed three candidates and selected Aja Jester to fill the District 7 vacancy. She is a finance specialist with South Central Community Action Program. Jester described herself during the interview like this: "I am not one of many words in a moment, because I am a thinker. I really like to take my time to reflect …when communicating to others, constantly trying to be thoughtful of everyone's opinion, how everyone else's lived experience would play into something."

On the calendar

Land purchase for Bloomington Transit? On the 5:30 p.m. Tuesday (April 15) agenda for Bloomington Transit is resolution that would authorize the BT general manager to negotiate a first right of refusal for the property that BT wants to purchase as the location of its new operations facility, to replace the one at Grimes Lane. It's not clear that the specific property itself will be revealed at the meeting, but that seems like a possibility. For B Square background, see: New operations center for Bloomington public buses: Location to be revealed soon

Bloomington budget. Bloomington's budget task force, which is a group drawing from the administration and the city council, has an 8 a.m. meeting set for Wednesday. One possible topic of conversation could be the impact of a change to Indiana property taxes that has not yet been enacted into state law, but is likely to be passed during this year's legislative session. Here's a chart, showing the impact on three local units (city, county, and schools), which was built from the fiscal analysis provided by the Legislative Services Agency (LSA).

Federal grant funding. Among the several items on the Bloomington city council agenda for its 6:30 p.m. Wednesday meeting is a resolution approving the distribution of $795,743 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for 2025. The resolution won't be controversial, but it could be the occasion for some reflection on the decreasing funding levels for the federal program, and how the needs addressed by the program could be covered in the future, if the program were to be eliminated.

Jazz at The Vault. From 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday (April 17) Indiana Jacobs School of Music students will perform original compositions and classics from the Great American Songbook at The Vault Pub in the Indiana Memorial Union. No cover charge.

Reporting in the works

Partisan school boards: The State Senate did not 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. This means a conference committee would need to be formed to reconcile differences between the two versions of the bill.

Todd Young visit: On Tuesday, April 15, Indiana U.S. Sen. Todd Young is scheduled to visit Bloomington to address an event hosted by the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce at the Bloomington Convention Center, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Young's visit has prompted the organization of a rally starting at 10 a.m. at the Monroe County courthouse, to protest Young's votes so far during U.S. President Donald Trump's second term. Like Trump, Young is a Republican.

Elimination of one Monroe County circuit court: House Bill 1144 was amended last week to include the elimination of one of Monroe County's nine circuit courts. The county commissioners would have a little bit of latitude to choose which court gets eliminated. The proposal could be based on a study of weighted caseloads of courts statewide, which says that Monroe County needs the equivalent of 7.87 courts.

Meet Ace!

This very, very good boy is a bully breed mix. Here's what the shelter staff say about Ace:

Ace is such a sweet fella, and once he warms up to you he becomes the most fun loving guy! He's spent his time at the shelter recovering from some serious injuries, but he has been a real trooper the entire time. Ace figured since he's feeling a lot better, it's about time to settle down with a family and move on from this tough time in his life. He LOVES toys and can leap to the highest of heights to catch his bouncing ball!

Photo Finish
Kirkwood Avenue & 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 your week is off to a great start!

Dave Askins
734-645-2633
dave@bsquarebulletin.com