Dave Askins

On Sunday, Indiana’s department of health dashboard noon update recorded one additional death in Monroe County due to the COVID-19 pandemic virus. It came on the first day of the year. That brings Monroe County’s total COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic to 98.

Monday of Christmas week was the last meeting of 2020 for Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC). It was a landmark event for a city of Bloomington government meeting. It was not special because the meeting was held using Zoom’s video-conferencing platform. Video-conferenced public meetings have been standard

Monroe County officials who won election in November took their oaths of office at noon on Friday, New Year’s Day. The 50-minute-long ceremony was hosted by the Monroe County Democratic Party. Election winners were all Democrats. The continuing COVID-19 pandemic, which added another death to Monroe

Even for a publication like The B Square Beacon, which specializes in local government coverage, the dominant story of 2020 was the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic changed the way local government meetings are run, in some ways for the better. But COVID-19 was not the only important story

At a press conference on Wednesday, Monroe County commissioner Julie Thomas called COVID-19 vaccine distribution a “hurry-up-and-wait” situation. She said in her household the question comes up every other day: “Is it here yet? Is it our turn yet?” For most people, the answer is no.

On a vote taken by Bloomington plan commissioners in mid-December, a rezone request for an 87-acre parcel now zoned as a PUD (planned unit development) got continued to January’s commission meeting. The request was first heard by Bloomington’s nine-member plan commission in November. The planning