Jan. 26, 2026: Snow, cold, jail, basketball, buses, gun threat

Rundown of snow impacts

So that you don’t have to click through to the article below about impacts of snow, here’s a quick rundown of several impacts.

No regular trash pickup for city of Bloomington Monday (Jan. 26) and possibly the rest of the week. Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) will have no school and no eLearning on Monday. The planned Monday closure of College Avenue to allow for the installation of the skywalk connecting the existing convention center facility to the expansion will be delayed by a day. Monroe County Public Libraries are closed on Monday. Monroe County government will be closed Monday, which includes courts and the prosecutor’s office. Bloomington Transit service will resume at 1:30 p.m on Monday.

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Weather Talk

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

Monday: Stay home if you can. If you have to leave home, put on every scrap of warm clothes you own, because it’s not going to get any warmer than the 8F° start to the day. The wind will make it feel like it’s –20F°. The full sun will not warm things up, but wear sunglasses if you go out, because the light bouncing off the foot of snow on the ground will give off a lot of glare.

Tuesday: If you can, stay put another day, and keep bundling up if you have to go out, because even though it will get a little less frigid, the high will be just 24F° with wind chill numbers as low as –10F°.

Sign up for weather alerts: Monroe County emergency alert system

Recent articles

• Snow impact: Bloomington trash pickup delayed indefinitely, no MCCSC school on Monday.  Heavy snowfall has prompted many closures and delays across Bloomington. The city has suspended regular trash pickup starting Monday, while MCCSC canceled school and eLearning. The College Avenue skywalk closure is delayed a day, and travel remains restricted under a county “Warning.”
• Sunday Funnies: Hawk v. Fish.  This week Hawk reveals the actual origin story for the name of the state where we live, and it involves a guy named Edward VerDahntid.
• Monroe County property transfers through Jan. 22, 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. 6, 2026 to Jan. 22, 2026. The data in this report comes from Beacon, the county’s online geographic information system for property and parcel data.
• Bloomington South Panthers hit every basket in 4th quarter for 68–56 win over Martinsville.  Bloomington South held a 31–30 halftime lead, then pulled away late to beat Martinsville 68–56 on Saturday. The Panthers shot 60% and went 12-for-12 at the line in the fourth. Jack Clark scored 21, while Duncan Combs and Max Surdam added 16 each.
• Bloomington’s Freezefest braves bitter cold with ice art, chili, and Hoosier pride.  With temps near 8°F and wind chills around -2°F, Bloomington’s Freezefest drew bundled-up crowds to Switchyard Park for live ice carving and the Chilly Cook-Off. Sculptors created playful designs, repaired a broken piece with “water glue,” and fans stayed warm with chili and hot drinks.
• Jail update: Monroe County elected officials working on ‘clear movement’ plan as April 15 ACLU deadline nears.  Monroe County councilors and commissioners agreed the downtown jail fails constitutional care, conflicts with community values, and can’t be renovated. With an April 15 ACLU “clear movement” deadline looming, officials debated cost, sites (including North Park), and next steps.
• Anonymous caller claims gun in school bathroom stall; MCCSC orders districtwide ‘soft lockdown’.  MCCSC placed all schools on a “soft lockdown” Jan. 22 after an anonymous caller told BPD he was in a school bathroom stall with a gun and would “shoot up the school.” No school was named. SROs swept all 23 buildings; no credible threat was found.
• Ridership decline in 2025 for Bloomington Transit, board weighs ridership targets.  Bloomington Transit’s board reviewed key performance indicators Tuesday as total ridership fell from about 2.5 million trips in 2024 to 2.3 million in 2025. Members questioned whether changes in counting and fare enforcement affected results and asked staff to return with 2026 targets.

Quick notes

Host hotel for convention center: Whikehart weighs in. In a comment left on a B Square article about the possible host hotel deal with Dora Hospitality on the property owned by the city south of existing convention center, Monroe County CIB president John Whikehart, writing as an individual, not representing the CIB’s position, has floated the idea of reopening the question of using the former Bunger & Robertson property as a host hotel site.

Here’s an excerpt from Whikehart’s full comment:

There is a path forward, but it will take political will. The RDC at its February 5 meeting could revisit the original proposed draft of a resolution to make the former B-R site available “free or at nominal cost”. Knowing there may be continued significant council opposition, but that the decision is the RDC’s alone to make, a vote of the mayor’s three appointees could bring Dora back to the table with the same offer they are now making the CIB: a host hotel built on available land, without additional public subsidies.

The CIB would want Dora back at that table, because the B-R site is the best fit for the host hotel and the community. ...

Google Android geolocate for the win. On Sunday, I was out trudging around in the snow taking photographs, because that’s just what you do as a local news reporter if there is a big snow. Somewhere I dropped my phone, which I noticed when I tried to pull it out of my coat pocket and it was not there. I retraced some steps, but decided to trudge back home to 6th Street from the Miller-Showers Park area, and fire up the Google Android locator to see if it could find the device. It could! There was a pulsating dot near the intersection of 17th Street and College Avenue.

So I added my Google Android account to Mary Morgan’s phone (that is my wife) and she drove me up to 17th Street and helped me listen for the sound of a phone buried in the snow. (You can force the phone to ring using the locator app.) It was very faint and it was hard to figure out exactly where it was coming from, but eventually we figured out we were standing right on top of it. It was hidden under a few inches of packed snow in the middle of the roadway. The phone still works, after sitting in those conditions for about an hour.

A couple of reflections. Mary Morgan is a hero. But everybody already knew that. Another thing: The locator device sure beats the method we had to use in the olden days, when I was a kid, which was to smear our smartphones with bacon grease before heading out into a snowstorm, to make it easier for the search dogs to locate them if we dropped them in a snow drift.

On the calendar

RDC executive session Jan. 27: former Bunger & Robertson lot? It’s not open to the public, but Bloomington’s RDC has an executive session on its Tuesday (Jan. 27) agenda. I am guessing that is about the disposition of the former Bunger & Robertson property, along the lines that Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson described in a news release last week. Real estate transactions are one of the reasons that a public agency can hold a session closed to the public.

$424,000 preliminary engineering contract for Hopewell South. On the 5:30 p.m. Tuesday (Jan. 27) meeting agenda for the Bloomington board of public works is a $424,200 contract with CrossRoad Engineers, P.C. to do preliminary engineering services for the Hopewell South project.

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.

Meet Mylie!

This very, very good girl is a mix of mountain cur and hound. Here’s what the shelter staff have written about Mylie:

Mylie is a very sweet middle-aged lady who loves spending time with people, has enjoyed meeting other dogs, and would love a home to frolic and rest in. She is especially fond of booty scratches and has perfected her request for more: a gentle nose to the hand and a spin to show her booty!

Photo Finish:

The Photo Finish items are normally drawn from the B There section of the B Square website. Today’s is an exception, because I was so delighted to hear from Rob Stumpf. And that is probably the best photograph from that whole set, so why not.

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 10-question news quiz: 10-Question News Quiz.