July 28, 2025: Jail talk, nerds, summer camp, biopharma land deal, nature preserve, heat

Weather

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

NOTE: Cooling center hours of operation in Monroe County have been extended through Tuesday, July 29, along with the National Weather Service heat advisory.

Monday: Slow down. Move only as fast as you need to. Some of you have jobs that don’t allow you to slow your pace, just to stay cool. But you know your own limits. Take care of yourself so you can take care of others. The high temperature is supposed to hit 92°F with a heat index of 106°F. There’s a chance of scattered thunderstorms (30%-50%), mainly after 11 a.m.

Tuesday: Whatever you did to stay cool on Monday, do it again on Tuesday. The high temperature is predicted to be around 94°F. There’s less of a chance of thunderstorms than on Monday.

It does not look like we will see any relief from the hot temperatures until Thursday.

Sign up for weather alerts: Monroe County emergency alert system.

Roundup of recent articles

• Summer Camps Part 3: Self-expression.  Summer in Monroe County isn’t just a break from school—it’s a time for young residents to learn and grow in different ways. The B Square visited half a dozen summer camps around Bloomington and met campers, counselors, and staff, to learn how children and teens spent their summers.
• Nerd Nite back in Bloomington: Crowd packs The Bishop to learn about old time radio, bug sex, monster flicks.  This past Thursday (July 23), around 100 people packed into the back room of The Bishop Bar in downtown Bloomington to hear three 15-minute talks—about old-time radio, queer bugs, and a couple of South Korean filmmakers who were kidnapped to North Korea and forced to direct movies there.
• Sunday Funnies: Hawk v. Fish.  Hawk: “It’s so hot I saw some lawyers putting ...” How does Hawk continue? Click through to test your wit.
• Simtra buys old GE property from Cook, plans injectable drug facility.  The former General Electric Company site, north of 3rd Street on Curry Pike, which was purchased in 2017 by Cook Group, has now been sold to Simtra BioPharma Solutions.
• Summer Camps Part 2: Leading through games.  Summer in Monroe County isn’t just a break from school—it’s a time for young residents to learn and grow in different ways. The B Square visited half a dozen summer camps around Bloomington and met campers, counselors, and staff, to find out how children and teens spent their summers.
• Tax limits give new energy to jail opponents as Monroe County lawmakers debate letter to legislature.  On Tuesday, the county council sat down with two county commissioners to revise a joint letter asking the legislature to modify state tax law to allow more funding for a new jail. But some residents want the county to rethink the jail project, continuing debate that started in 2008.
• Eight arrested for drugs at Seminary Park; Bloomington mayor says move aims to protect vulnerable residents.  Bloomington’s police department (BPD) announced the arrest of eight people in the area of Seminary Park, on a range of drug-related charges. A press conference with the mayor on housing and homelessness is set for Tuesday next week (July 29).
• Huntington land gift named ‘Monroe County Nature Preserve’ but commissioners leave door open to history-based change.  When the announcement came a month ago that 409 acres southeast of Bloomington had been donated to Monroe County by Nancy Huntington, the piece of land did not have a name. It does now, after county commissioners approved a resolution establishing the Monroe County Nature Preserve.

Quick notes

The high cost of not knowing where free parking is. Former Bloomington mayor Tomi Allison has passed along a reminder that there’s a lot of free parking in downtown Bloomington, on the eastern end of Kirkwood Avenue. It currently amounts to around 200 spaces! That’s because the surface parking lots that belong to Indiana University at 6th & Dunn and 4th & Dunn are also available to the general public—just not during the day during the working week. During the working day, a parking permit is required—but that ends after 5 p.m. and does not apply on weekends! This is not just a wink-wink nudge-nudge informal arrangement. The university spells out the rules on its campus parking webpage. Here’s a map of free parking near Kirkwood and Indiana avenues.

On the calendar

3rd Street handrail: Increase from $17,500 to $86,500. On the 5:30 p.m. Tuesday (July 29) board of public works agenda is an item that increases by about $70,000 the contract with Specialties Company for repair of the hand railing along the north side of 3rd Street between Walnut Street and The B-Line Trail. The information in the meeting information packet indicates an emergency, but it isn’t crystal clear what changes to physical conditions have been recognized, to require the cost increase. There will likely be some questions from the board along those lines. For B Square background, see: Infrastructure notebook: 3rd Street sidewalk fencing slated for repair, material backordered

Convention center: Another round of construction bids. The Monroe County capital improvement board is holding a special meeting at 3 p.m. on Wednesday (July 30), to take a look at construction bids for packages that generated only one bid in the first try. The construction manager for the project put out a second call for bids for some of those packages and that’s what this meeting is about. For B Square background see: CIB president cautious about under-budget bids for Bloomington Convention Center expansion: ‘We’re not finished yet.’

Compliance with tax abatement requirements. On the Bloomington city council’s 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (July 30) agenda is a hearing to determine whether the Union at Crescent affordable housing project has complied with the requirements for its tax abatement. City staff are asking for a finding of noncompliance, based on the fact that there are supposed to be 102 units rented to people with less than 60% of the Area Median Income, but only 43 of the units are occupied. There’s a new a property management group since March of this year. One of the concepts that could get a lot of air time is whether the noncompliance was due to factors beyond the owner’s control.

Bloomington mayor’s traveling office hours. You can set up a 15-minute appointment with Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson at Hopewell Commons (332 W. University St., Bloomington, IN 47401) on Tuesday, Aug. 19 from 4:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. Pre-registration is required using an online calendar.

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.

Hello, you must be going! The play “An Evening with Groucho” is coming to Bloomington Aug. 16–17, with four performances at Constellation Playhouse, presented by Jewish Theatre of Bloomington and The Hundredth Hill. If you're a young person who often tells older folks, “That was before I was even born,” you might not even know who Groucho Marx was. And you might wonder who said stuff like “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member,” or “Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.” This show is for you.

The show is performed by award-winning actor Frank Ferrante who delivers a family-friendly one-man show, full of favorite rapid-fire one-liners, stories, and songs. Families and kids are encouraged to dress like Groucho at the matinee shows. Photos of whole families dressed like Groucho would be perfect for the "Be There" section of The B Square. Tickets can be purchased online or at Bloom Magazine;s office: 414 West 6th Street.

Meet Blane!

This very, very good boy is a boxer mix. Here’s what the shelter staff have written for Blane.

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.

That means you have a chance to make Blane’s stay at the shelter super short!

Photo Finish: Kirkwood Avenue & Grant Street

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