Jan. 15, 2026: New festival policy, Northgrove subdivision, North-South hoops, IU football, 2026 county budget order, 2025 year-end Bloomington budget

Civic Solver

This week the link to the Civic Solver is in its usual place at the bottom of the Almost Daily Bulletin. (It’s a word search! And it is so fun!)

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Corporate sponsorships are monthly commitments, publicly acknowledged as civic support—not ads. All sponsorships support accountability reporting in Bloomington and Monroe County.

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Thank you for considering! 

Weather Talk

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

Thursday: Bundle up, because the overnight low from Wednesday will be around 17F° and the daytime high will stay under freezing at 28F°. Wear a hat that will stick to your head, because the wind will be gusting up to 21F°. The day will start off partly sunny, then get sunny. No worries about snow—at least not until the wee hours of Friday.

Friday: Slow down and stay bundled up. After 3 a.m. expect snow with increasing clouds, with a low around 22F°. Accumulation from early morning snow is forecasted at less than a half inch. A 30% chance of snow will continue through 7 a.m. The wind will stay gusty, up to 23 mph.

Sign up for weather alerts: Monroe County emergency alert system

Recent articles

• Bloomington approves new special events policy amid disputed attendance figures, denied records requests.  Bloomington’s board of public works adopted a new policy limiting large festivals in the public right of way to three downtown areas, citing public safety concerns. Fourth Street Festival organizers objected but received a one-year exception for the event’s 50th anniversary.
• Bloomington plan commission sends Northgrove subdivision to second hearing amid concerns.  The Bloomington plan commission advanced the proposed 18-lot Northgrove subdivision to a second hearing, but members voiced concerns about requested waivers and variances from city subdivision standards, including alleys and sidewalks. Other concerns include stormwater impacts and tree loss.
• High school hoops: South rallies past North in second half to claim 50–43 rivalry win.  After trailing by seven at halftime, Bloomington High School South Panthers surged past Bloomington North Cougars with defense and clutch free throws. Jack Clark scored 19 of his 25 points after the break as South won 50–43 at the Cougar Den.
• After Peach Bowl win, IU football team lands safely, then has minor taxiway incident.  Indiana University’s football team flew home Saturday after its 56–22 Peach Bowl win, but the arrival included a brief ground incident. A Monroe County airport official said the team’s jet left the pavement while taxiing to park and got stuck in turf. No injuries or damage were reported.

Quick notes

Monroe County budget order. If you’re thinking about running for city council in 2027, or you just want to hold actual candidates accountable for knowing something about municipal budgeting, here’s a useful fact. This year’s budget order for all units in Monroe County has been released.

In Indiana, the “budget order” issued by the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) for a county is the official certified document that sets property tax levies, rates, and budgets for every local taxing unit in that county. It includes the state’s certification of the approved budget, the certified net assessed value, the tax rate, the levy for each fund of each taxing unit, and the total tax rate for each taxing district—and these numbers are what are ultimately used to calculate property tax bills.

Year-end numbers for Bloomington 2025. If you’re thinking about running for city council in 2027 or you just want to hold actual candidates accountable for knowing something about municipal budgeting, here’s a good way to start the year: Have a look at Bloomington’s public facing financial dataset for expenditures and revenues for the previous year. I pulled those numbers into a shared Google Sheet.

Here’s the basic picture for the general fund in 2025, which is pretty good news: The city received $1,053,119 more revenue in the General Fund than it had budgeted, and spent $588,246 less out of the General Fund than it had budgeted. Another way of putting it: The city expected to draw down General Fund reserves by $12,126,477 but instead only drew down General Fund reserves by $10,485,112.

Monroe County CIB: Galen Cassady At its meeting on Tuesday (Jan. 13) the Monroe County council appointed Galen Cassady, co-owner of the Uptown Café, as Geoff McKim’s replacement on the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB), which is the governing body overseeing the construction of the convention center expansion.

Monroe County elections shaping up: Tanner Dale Branham. Incumbent county clerk Nicole Browne is term limited so the seat is wide open this year. The first person to file a declaration—as candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination—was Tanner Dale Branham.

Monroe County council officers: Crossley, Iversen again. At the county council’s Tuesday (Jan. 13) meeting, the council elected Jennifer Crossley president and Peter Iversen president pro tem again this year. That seems to have been the custom the last few years—for the officers to serve two years. But councilors seemed in a special mood on Tuesday night to keep as much the same as possible, given that they are facing what will be a difficult year, with respect to revenue and planning for the new jail.

On the calendar

Jail planning discussion. I was wrong when I predicted in Monday’s Almost Daily Bulletin that the county council at their regular Tuesday meeting would entertain some discussion about new jail planning, given that they had an executive session on the calendar about jail litigation just before their Tuesday meeting.

When will the next public discussion of the planned new jail take place? The county commissioners have a discussion with the county council about the planned new jail on their work session agenda for Thursday (Jan. 14). The work session generally starts a few minutes after the regular meeting of the commissioners ends. The regular meeting is set to start at 10 a.m.

But on Wednesday, council president Jennifer Crossley told The B Square that she does not think that the scheduled time would allow any councilors to attend Thursday’s work session with the commissioners.

Seven Oaks, BEDC donations. On the 10 a.m. Thursday (Jan. 15) regular meeting agenda for Monroe County commissioners are two claims for donations that the county council wanted to make last year—to Seven Oaks Classical School and to the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation. For B Square background see: 2026: Monroe County may revisit now-voided but council-OK'd donations—$30K to BEDC, $1.8K to Seven Oaks

Time change for MLK celebration: 5:30 p.m. The new start time for the city of Bloomington’s MLK Day celebration next Monday (Jan. 19) is 5:30 p.m. That’s a half hour earlier than originally planned. The reason given by the city of Bloomington communications team in its news release was the overlap with the national championship football game, which starts at 7:30 p.m. Indiana University’s team is competing in the game.

Vacancy caucus for Perry Township trustee: Jan. 31 According to Monroe County Democratic Party chair Chrissie Geels, the vacancy caucus to replace Dan Combs for the remainder of his term as Perry Township trustee will be held at 2 p.m. on Jan. 31 in city council chambers. Two potential names have surfaced for consideration so far, through their filings as candidates for trustee in the Democratic Party’s primary in 2026: Eric Petry and Leon Gordon.

Chilly Cookoff! Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard will host its annual “Chilly” Cook-Off on Friday, Jan. 23, from 5–7 p.m. at the Switchyard Pavilion (1601 S. Rogers St.) to kick off Freezefest. The event will feature chili samples from 24 community chefs and a People’s Choice vote.

Tickets are $25 for ages 11 and up (children 10 and under free) and include all chili samples, a voting ticket, the option to enter the “Some Like It Hot” spicy chili challenge, and palate-cooling treats. Tickets are available online and at the door, with a bar hosted by Upland. Proceeds support Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard. Tickets and chef registration are available at mhcfoodpantry.org/chilly-cookoff.

Puzzlefest! Mark your calendar for Jan. 25 from noon to 4 p.m., because the Monroe County History Center is sponsoring a jigsaw puzzle competition, which will take place from 1-3 p.m. at the Switchyard Park Pavillion.

For the competition, teams of four race to complete the same 500-ish piece puzzle. The competition signup is currently open online. The registration fee for a team of four is $60 and proceeds go to support educational programming at the Monroe County History Center. But guess what: Completing puzzles can be a spectator sport. It’s free to watch the competition and participate in the puzzle sale/swap.

Starting in 2026, from Tuesday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. you can donate puzzles to the puzzle swap at the History Center.

Anyone who drops puzzles off at the History Center through Jan. 24 will avoid a wait on Jan. 25 and will get extra tickets to use in the swap.

Meet Cornbread!

This very, very good boy is a mix of Labrador retriever and hound. Here’s what the shelter staff have written about Cornbread:

I am new to the shelter and we are all getting to know each other. If you are interested in adopting, stop by the shelter for a visit.

Let’s make Cornbread’s stay at the shelter as short as possible!

Photo Finish: Courthouse square

The Photo Finish items are drawn from the B There section of the B Square website. We’ve reworked the layout of the section so that you can scroll through the posts and view the images at a large size (not thumbnails) and read the whole synopsis without clicking through to each one. We hope that improves the experience for you.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a great weekend!

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. A weekly reason to stay curious: Complete this week’s puzzle.