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# New members join CIB, CVC as Bloomington convention center approaches operational handoff
- URL: https://bsquarebulletin.com/new-members-join-cib-cvc-as-bloomington-convention-center-approaches-operational-handoff/
- Published: 2026-09-23T21:03:31.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-23T21:03:31.000Z
- Description: Two Monroe County convention-related boards added members this month as the convention center expansion nears completion. The CIB also approved up to $296,000 in added limestone-support costs, while the CVC reviewed the shift to CIB oversight and new bookings for the expanded center.
- Author: Dave Askins
- Tags: Local Government, #no-inline-feature

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/09/2026-09-23-Goeff-McKim-PXL_20260923_162201205.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/09/2026-09-16-kyle-hannon-PXL_20260916_184231047.PORTRAIT.jpg)

****Left:** Geoff McKim reviews innkeepers tax numbers with his CVC colleagues. (Dave Askins, Sept. 23, 2026) ****Right:** Kyle Hannon is sworn in as a member of the Monroe County CIB at its meeting last Wednesday. (Dave Askins, Sept. 16, 2026)

Two public bodies at the center of Bloomington’s tourism and convention center operations have each added a new member this month. One is because of a resignation and the other because the Indiana legislature created a new seat.

Kyle Hannon joined Monroe County’s capital improvement board (CIB) at its Sept. 16 meeting. One week later, Bloomington city controller Geoff McKim attended his first meeting of the convention and visitors commission (CVC) as a mayoral appointee. McKim was filling a newly created sixth seat, which is appointed by Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson.

The additions come as the convention center expansion moves into its final months of construction and the CIB prepares to take over its role in operating the convention center.

### Two new appointees

McKim’s seat is the result of a change approved during the General Assembly’s session earlier this year. Effective July 1, the [amendment to state law](https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/6#6-9-4-2 ) preserved the CVC’s existing five appointments, which are three by the county council and two by the county commissioners. But one seat was added, appointed by the executive of each city in the county. In Monroe County, that adds one Bloomington mayoral appointee, expanding the commission to six.

For McKim, the appointment is a return to familiar territory. As an elected Monroe County councilor, which predates his service as city controller, McKim served for several years on the CVC as a county council appointee. The [current CVC appointee](https://secure.in.gov/counties/monroe/boards-commissions-and-committees/convention-and-visitors-commission/) from the county council’s membership is David Henry.

At Tuesday’s meeting, McKim and other members got an update on the CVC’s main revenue source, which is the county’s [5% innkeeper’s tax](https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/2026-09-23-CVC-Mtg-Pkt.pdf#page=20). CVC president Mike Campbell reported that collections were running ahead of last year and projected about $4.3 million in receipts for 2026\. The commission’s general-fund balance stood at about [$5.07 million](https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/2026-09-23-CVC-Mtg-Pkt.pdf#page=19) at the end of August. 

McKim also served a stint on the CIB, after he didn’t seek re-election to the county council. When Eric Spoonmore didn’t seek re-appointment to the CIB, the Monroe County council put McKim in the seat where Spoonmore had been serving. After she appointed McKim as city controller, the county council appointed Galen Cassady to the CIB seat. 

Hannon is filling a different CIB seat, which had been vacant since Adam Thies resigned in March. Thies left Indiana University for a job as a principal with RATIO Design and told the CIB that the move created potential conflicts of interest he wanted to avoid. The seat is one of two mayoral appointments to the [seven-member CIB](https://secure.in.gov/counties/monroe/boards-commissions-and-committees/capital-improvement-board/). 

According to his [Linkedin profile](https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/2026-09-23-Kyle-Hannon-Linkedin-Profile.pdf ), Hannon is director of the MYPath trail system and Nonprofit Alliance for the Owen County Community Foundation. His earlier work includes nearly 15 years with the Greater Elkhart Chamber, including almost five years as president and CEO, and a stint as an at-large member of the Elkhart city council. He also spent five years as media director for the Indiana House of Representatives. 

### CIB construction update

Hannon’s first CIB meeting, held last Wednesday, included approval of a sizable addition to the convention center expansion’s construction costs.

The CIB unanimously approved two change authorizations tied to structural support for large limestone feature walls. One added about $21,000 to earlier work on the north wall, bringing that work to roughly $121,000\. The other authorized up to $275,000 for changes to the west feature wall. CIB member Jim Silberstein asked a pointed question based on the familiar building material: “Limestone, that’s pretty common in Indiana, and I'm just wondering why … we’ve got $400,000 worth of missed anchorage here. How does that happen?” 

Jason Larrison, with JS Held, which is the owner’s representative on the project, told the board that the original design had not adequately incorporated the structural support and anchorage needed for the large limestone pieces. He said the stone is not conventional stacked masonry and that some of the pieces ultimately procured were larger than expected.

CIB president John Whikehart said the board was still getting the limestone treatment it had approved in early 2025\. The problem, he said, was that the size and weight of the stone, and the additional support it required, had not been fully accounted for.

Had that been known earlier, Whikehart said, the cost would have been part of the original project budget and the board could have decided then whether it still wanted the design.

The new costs come late enough in the project that board members also asked how much of the construction contingency remains. Project manager Andrew Scere estimated the expansion itself was in the mid-70% range of completion. Whikehart summarized the status of the contingency as about 54% spent, leaving roughly $1.1 million, on the project, which has a $52 million construction budget. 

For the expansion project, which is under construction between College Avenue and Walnut Street on the south side of 3rd Street, the completion target is Jan. 8\. A ribbon cutting is set for Jan. 12\. Right after that, there is a substantial renovation project that will start for the existing convention center, connected with a skywalk to the expansion over College Avenue.

### CVC transition update

At the CVC meeting a week after the CIB met, the focus shifted from how the building is being constructed to how it will be operated.

Talisha Coppock of Downtown Bloomington Inc. said vendor contracts are being moved over to the CIB as part of the transition, with the new arrangement expected to be in place by Oct. 1\. The people operating the convention center will largely remain the same even though the public body overseeing the operation is changing. 

After Tuesday’s CVC meeting, CIB controller Jeff Underwood described the change to The B Square as the CIB taking over the county government’s former role in management of the convention center. It will be the CIB that continues the contract with Convention Center Management Company (CCMC), which employs the convention center staff and which is owned by Downtown Bloomington Inc. 

Coppock said she will continue working with both DBI and CCMC. DBI itself is not disappearing, Coppock said, and its broader downtown mission will continue.

The county government will no longer be the entity directly contracting for convention center operations. But it does not disappear from the structure entirely. Underwood noted that the city and county remain parties to the interlocal agreement that created the current CIB arrangement. Under that agreement, the fiscal bodies of both governments will continue to approve the CIB’s operating budget each year. 

The financing path for operations is also changing without shifting the underlying tax source. At the Sept. 16 CIB meeting, officials stressed that the convention center’s operating budget is funded from innkeeper’s-tax revenue through the CVC, not from Bloomington’s general city revenues. The [interlocal agreement](https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/2024-02-21-Version-of-Capital-Improvement-Board-Interlocal-Agreement-Approved-by-Monroe-County-Commissioners-Feb-21-2024-Convention-Center.pdf ) requires both the Bloomington city council and Monroe County council to approve that operating budget. 

The CVC meeting also offered an early look at the kind of new bookings the expanded center is planning to pursue. In connection with that, Visit Bloomington staff said they are developing more detailed reports that track convention center revenue, hotel-room bookings and prospective business. An Oct. 13-14 event is planned to bring meeting planners into the center for hard-hat tours. As of Monday, 23 planners had RSVP’d for the mid-October event. 

Visit Bloomington staff said on Wednesday that bookings for the expanded convention center are beginning to show the payoff from the bigger space, with 21 conferences already in the system for 2027\. That includes seven that are new to Bloomington. Staff highlighted several state-level groups that have become definite bookings and said the larger facility is putting Bloomington in contention for events it previously could not accommodate. Farther out, the North American Lake Management Society is booked for a six-day gathering in November 2028 expected to draw about 550 people and generate roughly 900 hotel room nights.

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That sales push and the governance changes are arriving at roughly the same time. As construction on the expansion winds down and the renovation of the existing facility starts to ramp up, the CIB’s focus will expand from building the new convention center to running it.