April 7, 2025: Rain, high-speed fiber, courthouse protest, school board candidate names, hawk and fish funnies

Weather

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

Monday: Drive extra slow in the morning, because there could be some patchy fog before 9 a.m. Wear a jacket that adds some warmth, but you probably won't need an umbrella, at least not until mid-afternoon when there's a 20% chance of rain around 3 p.m. The overnight low from Sunday will be just above freezing, it will be blustery will gusts up to 22 mph, and the temperature will climb to high of around 56°F.

Tuesday freeze warning: Bundle up with a winter coat to start the day. Overnight between Monday and Tuesday, the temperature will dip to 25°F. The temperature will reach a high of just 47°F.

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

Roundup of recent articles

• April 7 public hearing kicks off formal feedback period on vote centers for Monroe County No decision will be made by the county election board on Monday about the adoption of vote centers, instead of precinct-based voting locaitons. A decision will likely come on May 19 after a second public hearing.
• Sunday Funnies: Hawk v. Fish More hilarity from the hawk who sits on top of the courthouse weathervane fish. This time the hawk and the fish exchange limericks about parking.
• Photos: 'Hands Off' rally in downtown Bloomington This coverage includes captions with quotes from the speaker in the photo.
• Names released: Candidates to fill vacant MCCSC board seat to be interviewed April 10 The names of the candidates for the vacant District 7 seat on the MCCSC board are: Aja Jester; Blake Garland-Tirado; Gabriel Holbrow; and Cori Thornton Hammock.
• Mayor: New installations paused for Bloomington's high-speed fiber network A question emailed on March 10 by The B Square to the city of Bloomington about the status of the city's fiber network buildout got an answer late Friday afternoon (April 4): "The subcontractor failed—plain and simple." Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson's statement indicates that Hoosier Networks, the company the city is working with to get the network built, has "brought in a short-term partner to assess existing construction." The statement continues, "We anticipate new installation will be paused for the next couple of months while this work is underway."
• State of the City: Mayor says Bloomington 'ready to soar' after first year of team building Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson wrapped up the State of the City event by saying, “Reflecting on this past year, I'm reminded of the ground we've covered, progress made, challenges faced, and the discoveries made along the way.” She added, “We can truly say it's been a team building year, and we really are ready to soar.” Thomson’s talk also served to introduce presentations from two key members of her administration—Sharr Pechac, who heads human resources, and Jane Kupersmith, who is director of economic and sustainable development.

On the calendar

No hotel, but Hopewell and police HQ. On the 5 p.m. Monday agenda for Bloomington's redevelopment commission, there is not an item about a deal with a hotelier for the former Bunger and Robertson property, to develop a hotel in connection with the expansion of the Bloomington Convention Center. But there's reportedly supposed to be an executive session before the regular meeting, and it's conceivable that an item could be added to the agenda. Already on the agenda are bid openings for Hopewell East. For B Square background on that, see: Hopewell East land offering made by Bloomington, follows Hopewell South, West to come. On its Monday agenda, the RDC also has some due diligence items related to the plan to convert the former Bloomington Convalescent Center at 714 South Rogers St. to a new police headquarters.

Vote centers: A public hearing about vote centers is set for Monday (April 7) at 5 p.m. Vote centers are different from the kind of precinct-based polling locations that are currently used by Monroe County. At a precinct-based polling site, only voters from specified precincts can cast a ballot there. Vote centers are polling places where a voter who is registered in any precinct can cast a ballot. For recent B Square coverage, see: Vote center plan for Monroe County to get public hearing, no longer appears dead

Partisan school boards: On the calendar for the Indiana State Senate on Monday 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 Monday, even though it's on the calendar.

Mayor's Traveling Town Hall: Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson is hosting a Traveling Town Hall on Monday, April 7, at Banneker Community Center, 930 W. 7th Street, from 6 to 7 p.m. Joining the mayor will be parks and recreation director, Tim Street.

New disease intervention specialist position: On the 5 p.m. Tuesday meeting agenda for the Monroe County council is the creation of a an additional position for disease intervention work.

City budget priorities: Bloomington's city council has a meeting set for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, to discuss budget priorities for 2026.

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.

Reporting in the works

Crime down? At the State of the City event last Thursday, Bloomington police chief Mike Diekhoff announced that violent crime had dropped by 24.3% in the past year. Over the weekend, I sent a question to the chief asking for the numbers behind that percentage.

Meet Harrison!

This very, very good boy is a flat-coated retriever mix. Here's what the shelter staff say about Harrison:

Harrison is a happy-go-lucky dog who like many retrievers loves carrying his favorite stuffy of the day around with him. Harry is affectionate and loves spending time with other dogs!

Photo Finish (from B There)
Morton Street & 6th Street

Even though "out of service again" is the way the item was worded by the author, I thought that this fairly robust sign heralds the actual start of the elevator replacement which was supposed to start after spring graduation in 2024. I sent a question in to public works director Adam Wason around 5:51 a.m. Monday morning and received a reply 7 minutes later confirming the work: "Demo started on the old unit, with reconstruction to follow."

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.

Today's featured item proves that you don't have to know the full explanation to file a B There item. The B Square will try to fill in the gaps.

Thanks for reading. I hope your week is off to a great start!

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