Feb. 16, 2026: Voter registration move, bus service in limbo, failed inspection at Crawford

Civic Solver

Civic Solver returns this week, to its customary spot at the end of the Almost Daily Bulletin.

Weather Talk

Based on the National Weather Service forecast in text and charts here’s some advice.

Monday: Slow down. Then slow down even more. The National Weather Service has issued a dense fog advisory through 10 a.m. Monday morning. You can probably get away with just a jacket, because the high will get to 57F°. No significant chance of rain is forecast.

Tuesday: Rinse, repeat from Monday. It will be a foggy start with a high around 58F°. No significant chance of rain is forecast. But get ready for the wet on Wednesday and Thursday.

Sign up for weather alerts: Monroe County emergency alert system

Recent articles

• Sunday Funnies: Hawk v. Fish.  What search tool does Hawk say sea birds use? And why does Fish say chickens can’t think creatively?
• Monroe County property transfers through Feb. 11, 2026.  This report includes new property transfers in Monroe County that haven’t previously been reported by The B Square, with dates ranging from Jan. 23 to Feb. 11, 2026. The data in this report comes from Beacon, the county’s online geographic information system for property and parcel data.
• Crawford Apartments fail Feb. 9 re-inspection, blocking occupancy permits from Bloomington as lawsuit proceeds.  A Feb. 9 re-inspection of Crawford Apartments did not clear the 61-unit supportive housing complex to reopen vacant units, leaving at least 28 apartments empty. Bloomington’s lawsuit remains pending, with a March 30 court conference set as disputes continue over maintenance and support services.
• Route 13 bus service could end March 8, but Monroe County funding might keep it alive.  Bloomington Transit’s Route 13, linking downtown to Ivy Tech Community College and Cook Medical, could stop March 8 unless Monroe County government comes up with $184,000. But timing of the funding and weak ridership leave the line’s survival uncertain ahead of a Feb. 24 hearing.
• North Showers now hub for election services in Monroe County, voter reg deadline April 5.  Starting Feb. 9, Monroe County voter registration and Election Central moved to the second floor of the North Showers building after flooding forced an early exit from the old Johnson’s Hardware. The temporary site handles registration, absentee ballots and filings ahead of the May 5 primary.

Quick notes

No CATS recording of Feb. 12 talk in city council chambers. Eric Kronberg, an Atlanta-based urban planner and principal at Kronberg Urbanists + Architects gave a public talk in city council chambers last Thursday (Feb. 12) on behalf of Incremental Development, as a subcontractor to Flintlock LAB. Flintlock is consulting for the city on the Hopewell South development.

If you were hoping to watch the CATS recording of Kronberg’s talk in city council chambers, you’re out of luck. The lack of a recording is not an accident or an oversight—it was deliberate and intentional. Responding to a B Square question about the CATS recording, city of Bloomington communications director Desiree DeMolina wrote: “Hiya! No recording on this one—the presenter maintains intellectual property rights to the work and the requested the content not be redistributed.”

Of course, it’s a reasonable expectation here in Bloomington, Indiana that a public event like Kronberg’s talk held in city council chambers, would be recorded on CATS. I don’t see anything in the city’s news release that indicates there would be no CATS recording of the event.

The Bloomington redevelopment commission approved at its most recent meeting, on Feb. 2, an agreement that preserves intellectual property rights for Incremental Development. But exclusive control over “derivative works” does not seem like a plausible legal basis for preventing the creation of a verbatim recording, because such a recording would not recast, transform, or adapt the underlying work.

B Square website improvements: Links to comments. There is now a way to link directly to a comment that a reader has left on a B Square article. Look for the date-time stamp of the comment. If you mouse-over it, you’ll see it has hyperlink styling. That’s a link that will go directly to that comment on that page. Take this link, for example. If you click on it, your browser will take you to an article and then scroll down to the point where the comment appears.

It’s probably fair to say that this just brings The B Square’s website up to the prevailing standard in internet publishing and does not really count as an “improvement.”

Election withdrawals: Petry out of Perry Township trustee race. Among the withdrawals filed by candidates before the noon deadline last Friday, was by Eric Petry, who had declared his candidacy for the Democratic Party’s nomination for Perry Township trustee. Petry’s withdrawal leaves two candidates in the race—Leon Gordon and Levi Combs. Gordon was the pick of the Democratic Party’s caucus to serve out the remainder of Dan Combs’s term. Levi is Dan’s son. The B Square’s primary race rundown has been updated accordingly.

Hiring freeze for city—is that even possible? Anyone who is thinking about running for city office in 2027 should be paying attention at least a little bit to what the Monroe County government is up to. The Monroe County council has implemented a hiring freeze, in light of the anticipated severe fiscal climate in the near future that will come from SEA 1, the property tax and income tax overhaul enacted in 2025.

City governments will be impacted by SEA 1, along with county governments. What has the city of Bloomington’s response? I have not (yet) heard any member of the city council utter the phrase “hiring freeze.” That’s due in part to the fact that the mayor-council city government structure means that the city council does not have the authority to just impose a hiring freeze in the same way the county council does. But the city council does have some tools available.

Under state law, the city council can, through an ordinance, reduce the amount of any appropriation. Now, if an appropriation is needed to meet some obligation, like paying the salary of a human being who is currently employed by the city, then the council can’t just de-appropriate the money needed to pay the salary. But if a position is vacant, there is no salary obligation to meet. So the city council could contemplate enacting an ordinance to de-appropriate the money associated with currently vacant positions. If the administration wanted to fill a vacant position, then the city council would have to be asked to re-appropriate the money.

It would sure be a clunky way to implement a hiring freeze, and it would require ongoing de-appropriations and re-appropriations. Still, it seems like something that current city council members and 2027 candidates should be thinking about—as an alternative to undertaking a reduction in force. Maybe a reduction in force is clearly not necessary. To know that for sure, city councilmembers should be working on developing some revenue estimates for 2027 and 2028, based on SEA 1. Now is the time to start on that, not in March or June or August. Once they have their numbers, they should compare notes with the city controller.

If a candidate for city council or mayor in 2027 knocks on your door, they should be prepared to answer the question: Does the city of Bloomington have enough projected revenue to sustain its current number of employees and what are the specific tools you support for addressing the answer to that question? If the candidate responds by saying something like, “I’m really just hoping to listen to your concerns right now, not tell you all the things that I think,” then consider voting for someone else.

On the calendar

Bloomington RDC meeting cancelled. The Bloomington redevelopment commission meeting for Monday (Feb. 16) has been cancelled and reset for the following week (Feb. 23). Commissioners had anticipated not being able to achieve quorum this week.

New jail: Lawsuit, land? A joint executive session of the county council and the county commissioners is set for Monday (Feb. 16) at 5 p.m. Two reasons are given in the posted meeting notice: to discuss pending litigation and to discuss property. Under Indiana’s Open Door Law, both are allowable topics to hold a meeting closed to the public .

The pending litigation is almost certainly the 2008 ACLU lawsuit about the jail—the settlement agreement for that is currently set to expire on April 15. Which specific property to be discussed is unclear, but it might not necessarily be related to the new jail. The county government is being asked by the Monroe County capital improvement board to consider which county-owned property in the vicinity of the convention center that might be available for constructing a host hotel.

Special election board meeting: Canceled, rescheduled. A special meeting for the Monroe County election board has been rescheduled for Tuesday (Feb. 17) at 1:30 p.m. At the special meeting, the board is supposed to set hours for early voting and locations for polling sites on Election Day. For B Square background, see: Monroe County council to clerk: Run ‘robust’ primaries, request more money to cover general

Ordinance to allow discussion by city council. The Bloomington city council has a quirk in its city code that prohibits any discussion by the council of an ordinance on the first occasion when it appears on an agenda. The council is now considering a proposal to eliminate that prohibition. It will be up for a vote at its 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (Feb. 18) meeting.

I have submitted a proposal to amend the pending ordinance, to do a little bit more than just give the council the freedom to discuss an item that is on its agenda. The file in the link includes a memo, a proposal for the revised text, and the text of the council’s proposed ordinance.

Ordinance to rezone: Hopewell South PUD. You would not know it from the title of the ordinance, but the Hopewell South PUD appears for the first time on a city council agenda for its 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (Feb. 18) meeting. The title of the ordinance is: “Ordinance 2026-06 to Amend the City of Bloomington Zoning Maps by Rezoning a 6.3 Acre Property from Residential Urban Lot (R4) and Residential Multifamily (RM) within the Transform Redevelopment Overlay (TRO) to Planned Unit Development (PUD) and to Approve a District Ordinance and Preliminary Plan.” Not to include “Hopewell South” seems perverse.

Worse yet is the fact that there are no materials related to Ordinance 2026-06 in this week’s meeting information packet. That means there’s no way for a resident who is not pretty well-versed on Hopewell South to confirm by looking through the packet that Ordinance 2026-06 is about Hopewell South. It is customary for such meeting materials to appear in the meeting information packet, even if it is the first time an item has appeared on an agenda.

Candy Stripe Classic Bicycle Race: March 8. The board of public works has approved the necessary street closures for a criterium bicycle race on March 8 that is hosted by the Cycling Club at Indiana University. It’s part of two-day event. The race is several laps around The Mill, up and down Madison and Morton streets between 10th and 11th. There’s a “family ride,” which is a chance for parents and kids to turn one lap of the course so they can get an idea of how tight those corners really are.

Zingtrain: April 1. Brought to you by the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, this is a full day of training at the Bloomington Convention Center from the world’s leading experts in customer service—Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan. That’s not just the chamber telling you that, it’s me—former Ann Arbor resident for two decades—telling you that. And check this out: This event is free to everybody, chamber members and non-members alike. The chamber’s event description has more details. Lunch will also be provided!

Ms. Lake Lemon: May 16. Start your training regimen now. This amazing contest of skill is to be held at Riddle Point Park this year. Monitor the Ms. Lake Lemon Facebook page for details, as they become available. The B Square covered last year’s inaugural event.

Meet Doofenshmirtz!

Yes, The B Square’s featured animals are normally dogs. But today’s featured animal is a cat, because it is a good reminder that the city’s shelter also takes care of kitties. This very, very sweet boy is a domestic shorthair. Here’s what the shelter staff have written about Doofenshmirtz:

Doofenshmirtz is looking for a gentle, quiet place to call home. He’s a shy boy at first, but underneath his cautious exterior is a profoundly loving soul just waiting for the right person to notice him. He thrives in calm environments where he can take his time adjusting. Once he feels safe, he shows his gratitude with soft purrs and a desire to be near you. Doofenshmirtz promises to be the most devoted companion to the person who offers him patience and love.

Photo Finish: Morton Street & 9th Street

The Photo Finish items are drawn from the B There section of the B Square website.

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

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

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Civic Solver

Civic Solver turns Bloomington’s everyday civic life into a puzzle worth cracking—from familiar faces to local landmarks. This week’s puzzle is a word search designed to help you get familiar with the names of candidates for county office in the May 5 primary.