Monroe County OKs surface upgrades: Downtown parking lot, rural border bridge
Monroe County commissioners approved two surface-repair projects Thursday: a $296,000 overhaul of the North Showers parking lot ahead of 2026 early voting, and a joint $46,500 agreement with Owen County to fix roadway approaches to Bridge 209, with Monroe County managing the work.
Both images are from the Eagleview module of Beacon, the geographic and information system used by Monroe County for parcel lookup. Left: The location bridge to be repaired is the modern one, not the historic one in the right of the frame. Right: The orientation of the image is looking south at the parking lot for the North Showers building.
At its meeting on Thursday, the Monroe County board of commissioners addressed infrastructure projects at two locations. One was just a couple blocks away from the historic courthouse where the commissioners meet—at the parking lot of the North Showers government building.
The other is about as far away from the courthouse as you can get, but still stay inside the county borders—at Bridge 209, which connects Owen and Monroe counties.
Both projects are being handled by E & B Paving.
Showers Building north lot project
The Board approved a $296,000 contract with E & B Paving, to reconstruct parking and pedestrian surfaces, and to address drainage issues at the parking lot of the North Showers building in downtown Bloomington. E & B submitted the lowest of three bids.
The work is related to the relocation of early voting activity for the 2026 election—from the now demolished old NAPA Auto Parts building to the North Showers building. The move will also involve remodeling some space inside the building.
Monroe County’s fleet and facilities director Richard Crider told commissioners on Thursday that there are two kinds of work that need to be done at the location—concrete and asphalt. The concrete work is supposed to address the issues with the accessible parking spaces and two-hour parking spaces, Crider said. He described the current situation as “kind of a mess.”
When early voting starts on April 7 for the May 5 primary election next year, Crider said, “It’s going to be busy.” By then, Crider said, the surfaces have to be clean and safe.
Concrete work can take place even in cold weather, Crider pointed out, so that work will go ahead with the expectation it will be complete before early voting starts. But the asphalt plants will be shutting down soon because of the cold weather. That means the asphalt work won’t start until after the primary elections.
Owen County Bridge 209 Repair
At its Thursday meeting, Monroe County commissioners also approved an interlocal agreement with Owen County for repairs to Bridge 209, located in the northwest tip of Monroe County leading across the White River into Owen County.
County highway director Lisa Ridge told commissioners that Owen County is working with an interim highway superintendent, so Monroe County took over the management of the project. Ridge said quotes were received from three companies and E & B Paving gave the lowest one—for $46,500. The two counties are splitting the cost of the work.
The work is not on the structural part of the bridge, but rather to the roadway surfaces on the approaches to each side of the bridge.The work is supposed to be done before the end of 2025, Ridge said. Ridge summarized the project like this: “We’ll manage it, we’ll pay it, we’ll schedule it, and then we’ll get the reimbursement from Owen County.”
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