Dave Askins

On a unanimous vote by Bloomington’s city council on Wednesday, the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal church was designated as a historic district. The 1922 church, which sits on the northeast corner of 7th and Rogers streets on the western edge of downtown, was designed in the classical revival Tudor

In a rare split vote, Monroe County commissioners have denied a request for the rezoning of some property east of the city of Bloomington. The owner had requested a rezone, in order to use a farmhouse located on 19-acres as an Airbnb—that is, a short-term rental. The

An adaptive reuse project for the old Showers Company furniture factory kiln, which sits in the Trades District north of city hall, got a formal re-start on Monday. The re-firing of the project came at the regular meeting of Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC), which shifted some dates

The city of Bloomington’s hoped-for purchase of the western portion of the Showers building, where city hall is located, took an incremental step forward on Monday. In connection with due diligence work in advance of the $9.25-million purchase from CFC Properties,  Bloomington’s RDC has approved

On Friday evening, the Bloomington Jazz Orchestra delivered an hour’s worth of music from the edge of the Monroe County Public Library’s parking lot in downtown Bloomington. I counted more than 50 people in the crowd. Many had brought lawn chairs because they’d seen the advertising for

This past Wednesday, Bloomington’s city council failed to achieve a quorum for its committee-of-the-whole meeting. For the nine-member council, a quorum is five. But only four councilmembers showed up: Susan Sandberg, Jim Sims, Dave Rollo, and Ron Smith. In practical terms, the lack of a