July 21, 2025: Library hours, SRO housing, courthouse lawn protest, convention center, property transfers
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Weather
Based on the National Weather Service forecast in text and charts here’s some advice:
Monday: Keep your smartphone handy to stay right up to date on the 30–50% chance of scattered showers in the morning and then again in the late afternoon. You might want to make sure you’re wearing something with sleeves, because compared to the past several days, the 82°F high temperature might feel a little chilly.
Tuesday: Dress light, wear sunglasses and leave your rain gear at home. It’s going to be sunny with a high of 86°F but the humidity will make it feel like it’s 91°F. For the next three days, Wednesday through Friday, the actual high temperature will be in the low 90s.
Sign up for weather alerts: Monroe County emergency alert system.
Roundup of recent articles
- Monroe County property transfers: June 20, 2025 to July 16, 2025. This report includes new property transfers in Monroe County that haven't previously been reported by The B Square, with dates ranging between June 20, 2025 and July 16, 2025. The data in this report comes from Beacon, the county's online geographic information system for property and parcel data.
- Sunday Funnies: Hawk v. Fish. What film does Fish tell Hawk that they should show at Buskirk-Chumley Theater for the Aug. 2 Taste of Bloomington event?
- Bloomington area braces for big storms on Saturday (July 19). The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather alert that includes Monroe County and several other central Indiana counties, warning that severe storms are possible for Saturday afternoon (July 19) and the early evening hours.
- CIB president cautious about under-budget bids for Bloomington Convention Center expansion: ‘We’re not finished yet.’. At its Wednesday meeting, Monroe County’s capital improvement board (CIB) got good news about a recent round of bids for the Bloomington Convention Center expansion project. The recommended bids came in at just under $16.5 million for 11 packages that had an estimated budget of $22 million.
- Bloomington protest against Trump-era policies draws ties to local issues, remembers ‘good trouble’. On Thursday (July 17), at least 300 people crowded onto the southeast corner of the Monroe County courthouse grounds to protest actions taken by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. Several community leaders addressed the gathering.
- MCPL trustees consider shortening downtown library hours in response to state tax cuts. The Monroe County Public Library may reduce hours at its downtown location as tax cuts passed by the Republican-led Indiana legislature in April threaten more than $300,000 in MCPL funding next year. The library might close at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. on Monday through Thursday every week.
- SRO housing, commercial urban agriculture proposals to get second look from Bloomington’s plan commission. Deliberations about where in Bloomington single-resident occupancy residences can be built will resume at the city plan commission’s next meeting on Aug. 11. The same goes for a potential ordinance that would create a new zoning district for commercial agriculture inside city limits.
Quick notes
New chair for local Democrats. At a Sunday 3 p.m. caucus, the Monroe County Democratic Party elected a new chair, Chrissie Geels. (It’s pronounced like “gales.”) She replaces Samuel Ujdak , who resigned three and a half months after being elected. Geels was not a surprise selection. She was vice chair and there were no other candidates. Another caucus will now have to be scheduled to pick a replacement for Geels as vice chair.
On the calendar
$121,0567 more for security of Hopewell properties. On the 5 p.m. Monday (July 21) agenda for Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) is a $121,056 agreement with Marshall Security Services for patrols of the property at the former site of the IU Health hospital at 2nd and Rogers streets which the city is redeveloping as the Hopewell neighborhood.
A letter to the state legislators on state tax law. Again the Monroe County council’s 5 p.m. Tuesday (July 22) agenda is a discussion with county commissioners about the wording of a letter potentially to be sent to state legislators, asking them to consider changes to state tax law that would make it easier to finance the cost of the planned new jail and justice center. This is a continuation of an earlier discussion. For B Square background, see: Wording still in flux: Letter from Monroe County to Indiana legislators, prompted by jail funding worries.
Sidewalks. Bloomington’s city council has scheduled a work session for Wednesday (July 21) at 6:30 p.m to discuss the city’s sidewalk program.
Repeat weather warning siren test. A re-test of the Monroe County outdoor warning sirens will take place Friday, July 25, 2025, at noon. According to the Monroe County emergency management office the reason for the repeated test is a “communication error” that occurred during the regular monthly test on Friday, July 11.
AI and natural language processing. The Quantum AI and NLP 2025 Conference is scheduled for Aug. 6–8, 2025, at the Indiana University Memorial Union here in Bloomington. This event will promote AI and natural language processing (NLP) approaches using quantum computing. It aims to bring together experts from academia, industry, and government. The agenda includes keynote speakers from major tech companies like NVIDIA, IBM Quantum, and Microsoft. The conference website includes registration information.
How to apply for Monroe County’s Sophia Travis social services grants. On July 29 at 5 p.m. in the Nat U. Hill Room at the historic county courthouse, the county government is hosting a meeting to explain how to apply for Sophia Travis grants.
Meet The Thing!

Today’s featured adoptable pet is a reminder that the city of Bloomington’s animal shelter is home to more than just dogs. This exotic creature is a cat. Here’s what the shelter staff have written about The Thing.
Origins? Uncertain. Species? Cat...we think. If you're looking to take home a mystery, The Thing is your girl. She's sweet, playful, and ready to become your household cryptid!
Photo Finish: Smith Avenue & College Avenue

The Photo Finish items are drawn from the B There section of the B Square website.
The geographic coverage of the B There section is pretty limited. Please consider occasionally contributing to the B There section some brief factual observations about the world outside your own head, as you go about your normal business. (Photos are optional for B There.) The mechanics of making a contribution are pretty straightforward—just let me know if you'd like to learn the ins and outs. If you're looking at this bulletin in your email inbox, you should be able to reach me by hitting Reply.
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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