May 12, 2025: Mother's Day hawks, dirt racing, tax revenue, traffic box art

Weather

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

Monday: Your main worry today will be how to stay dry, not how to stay warm or cool. Chances of rain are 30%–50% to start things off, increasing to 60–70% by 2 p.m. Soon after that, starting at 4 p.m. and lasting until 10 p.m. is a 30–50% chance of thunderstorms. The high temperature is expected to be around 72°F .

Tuesday:  This will be a repeat of Monday, with one difference—chances of rain early in the day are very small. But starting around 2 p.m. until 7 p.m. there's a 60–70% chance of rain. Late afternoon and early evening will also see a chance of thunderstorms. It will be a little warmer than Tuesday with a high around 76°F.

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

Roundup of recent articles

• From the downtown Bloomington hawks: Happy Mother's Day! At the southeast corner of College Avenue and 6th Street in downtown Bloomington, in the shadow of the historic Monroe County courthouse dome, stands an eastern white pine tree (Pinus strobus). In the upper boughs of the tree is a nest where a pair of red-tailed hawks are now raising two hatchlings. The B Square's Mother's Day greeting is a gallery of photos featuring the mother hawk and her hatchlings.
• Sunday Funnies: Hawk v. Fish The joke in this week's regular Sunday feature depends on some background knowledge about the rhythm of life in Bloomington. Townie Summer has now started—whether you are part of the reformed sect of locals that observes its start at sunrise on the Saturday of Indiana University graduation, or you're a member of the orthodox group that says it begins at sundown on the Friday before.
• Photos: Bloomington Speedway revs back to life Freelance photog Juliette Kniola shot a great set of images on Friday night (May 9), which celebrated the reopening of Bloomington Speedway after a major renovation.
• Bloomington to see $2.5M more in LIT revenue, Monroe County govt $2.1M more The amount of supplemental local income tax revenue that each governmental unit will get this year is now set—$2.5 million for the city of Bloomington and $2.1 million for Monroe County government. Neither of those figures include money from the public safety local income tax. This is an annual extra distribution.
• Downtown Bloomington traffic signal boxes get new murals—all nature themed If you monitor the board of public works agendas, you knew this was coming. Some of the downtown Bloomington traffic signal cabinets are getting fresh murals painted on them. The B Square stumbled across one of the works in progress.

On the calendar

Phasing in self-storage. On the 5:30 p.m. Monday (May 12) meeting agenda for the Bloomington plan commission is the approval of a request to incorporate a phasing plan for the apartment building project on the 3rd Street at the east edge of town. The idea is to put the planned self-storage facility into a separate phase from the construction of the apartment buildings, so that the apartment units can receive their final approval for occupancy.

Pausing the KSA process? On the 5 p.m. Tuesday meeting agenda for the Monroe County council is a discussion of the possibility of pausing the process the council uses to allow new hires to be classified at a higher point on the salary scale, based on their Knowledge, Skills, and Ability (KSA). The idea would be to pause that process due to the financial uncertainty faced by the county government, in the context of SB 1, which reduced the amount of revenues that all local government units will receive from property taxes, starting in 2026. For B Square background, see: Monroe County councilors put brakes on raises for sheriff's deputies, all new personnel requests, want new jail project cost scaled down

Bloomington budget planning for 2026. Set for Wednesday (May 14) at 6:30 p.m. is a meeting for the city council and the mayor to discuss planning for the 2026 budget.

Fourth of July, deer cull. Looking ahead to Thursday (May 15) at 5 p.m., on the agenda for Bloomington's board of park commissioners are several items related to the city's Fourth of July parade. Also on the agenda is approval of a contract for the annual deer cull at Griffy Lake.

Meet Stella!

This very, very good girl is a boxer mix. Here's what the shelter staff have to say about Stella:

Stella is a sweet and gentle gal who wants to do all the right things. She is housetrained, knows basic commands, gives amazing hugs and kisses, and is an actual joy to be around. Stella will need work on leash training (she likes to yell hello at everyone along the way) and has been responding well to treats over barking. She currently resides in the Shelter Manager's office where she greets her every morning with the biggest stretch, tail wag and kiss.

Photo Finish
Courthouse Square on 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 Square's 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