Oct. 12, 2026: Bloomington AI ban; murder charge; Showers West costs; Stinesville ICE agreement; 2027 city budget

Thank you!

Thank you to all the readers who added themselves to the distribution list for this newsletter at a paid tier in response to this recent column: Editor’s Notebook: Getting The B Square unstuck from the ‘dangerous middle’. If you’re one of those new readers, this edition follows the same basic format as they all do, starting with the weather.

Weather Talk

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

Monday: Slow down. Dense fog could make sight lines very short. After the fog lifts, the high will be around 85F°.

Tuesday: Wear shorts, sandals or whatever is left out of your summer clothes. It will be sunny and clear with a high of 88F°.

Sign up for weather alerts: Monroe County emergency alert system

Recent articles

• Analysis: Bloomington’s proposed superintelligence ban raises questions about authority, enforcement.  Bloomington councilmember Dave Rollo’s current effort to address AI risks would ban superintelligent systems within city limits, even when hosted elsewhere. Unlike a resolution, the proposed ordinance would carry penalties, but raises legal questions about city authority, enforcement and repeal.
• Sunday Funnies: Hawk v. Fish.  Hawk is thinking very hard about the colors of autumn leaves. Maybe a little too hard.
• Monroe County property transfers through Oct. 7, 2026.  This report includes new property transfers in Monroe County that haven’t previously been reported by The B Square, with dates ranging from Sept. 9 to Oct. 7, 2026. The data in this report comes from Beacon, the county’s online geographic information system for property and parcel data.
• Monroe County jail notebook: Week finishes on 4-day stretch under functional capacity.  Monroe County’s jail population fell to 220 Saturday, down 11 compared to a week ago. It also marked the fourth straight day under the ACLU’s 229-person functional capacity. Over the last 82 days, the jail averaged 237 inmates, with at least 803 departures and a median stay of two days.
• Bloomington man, 23, charged with murder in fatal shooting on northwest side.  A 23-year-old Bloomington man faces a murder charge after a 24-year-old man was shot in the head Thursday evening near Crestmont Park. Police city witnesses saying the suspect approached the victim on a porch and fired. Witnesses cited a suspected relationship involving Gilreath's ex-girlfriend.
• Showers West Notebook: RDC members question continued ownership as city offices move in.  Bloomington’s redevelopment commission has paid nearly $77,000 in electricity bills for Showers West this year, while city departments occupy much of the building without leases. Commissioners are considering transferring ownership or establishing leases to clarify who should pay the bills.
• Rokita backs Stinesville ICE agreement, but town board puts off up-or-down decision.  Indiana AG Todd Rokita says Stinesville’s ICE agreement is valid without town board approval. Immigration attorney Christie Popp disputes his legal reasoning. On Tuesday, the board delayed a decision a month, and created a fund to receive the federal money. County commissioners drew criticism.
• 2027 Budget: Bloomington council rejects $2.5M general fund cut, still withholds millions for housing, parking projects.  Bloomington’s city council rejected a $2.5 million general fund cut, but withheld $5.5 million in housing and parking appropriations and cut vehicle-monitoring funds. The debate exposed tensions over spending oversight and staff morale. A final budget vote is expected Oct. 14.

Other notes

Early voting numbers. Through the first four days of voting at the North Showers location on Morton Street, 2,101 people have cast a ballot. That’s way more than the first four days in 2022 (1,351) but not nearly as many as in 2018 (3,170).

This is a stat that’s easy to check for yourself on the early voting dashboard that Monroe County government has set up. In years gone by, I would check in at early voting and collect those numbers daily so that I could report them. Now I don’t have to do that, because the county government is reporting the numbers for everybody.

It’s always a risk to highlight individuals, because you never know exhaustively who should be on the list. But for the early voting numbers here’s a minimal list of civic heroes: Kylie Farris (election supervisor); county clerk Nicole Browne (Farris’s boss); John Baeten (county GIS coordinator); county surveyor Trohn Enright-Randolph (Baeten’s boss)

On the calendar

Special meeting of county board of health. Set for a special meeting at 4:30 p.m. on Monday (Oct. 12) is the Monroe County board of health. I don’t see an agenda posted yet, but when one is available, it will likely show up on the board’s agenda page.

Monday’s special board of health meeting is potentially related to last Friday’s executive session held by the county commissioners. The session was followed by the resumption of Thursday’s meeting of the county commissioners, which they had recessed until after their Friday executive session.

When Julie Thomas and Jody Madeira came out of recess on Friday, they immediately recessed the meeting again until next Friday (Oct. 16). The topic of the executive session was pending litigation, which is one of the topics that Indiana’s Open Door Law allows public officials to discuss behind closed doors. The apparent pending litigation was the planned lawsuit by the former county health director, Lori Kelley, who alleges her termination was unlawful.

Voluntary annexation, ADU revisions. On the 5:30 p.m. Monday (Oct. 12) meeting agenda for Bloomington’s plan commission are the rezones required for two voluntary annexations. Also on the agenda are revisions to the unified development ordinance (UDO) sections on accessory dwelling units (ADUs), cottage development, and duplexes.

$6.5 million in GO bonds. On the 5 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 13) meeting agenda for the Monroe County council is the first reading for the issuance of general obligation (GO) bonds for the county, which are not to exceed $6.5 million. On the list of projects are the following: (1) fees associated with the issuance of bonds; (2) in-car and body cameras; (3) tasers; (4) Jail shower and floor repair; (5) Jail cameras; (6) Karst Farm blacktop; (7) Splash pad/Playscape parking and ADA; (8) Shelter; (9) parking and top lot ADA; (9) Fields 9-12 dog park lot G parking and ADA; (10) Prosecutor Office renovation; (11) Courthouse dome repair; (12) elevator repair; (13) drones and cameras; (14) vehicles; (15) Highway equipment (including salt spreader boxes); and 16) Emergency Management siren replacement as well as all related improvements and the incidental expenses in connection with these projects.

Special meeting election board. Set for 9 a.m. on Wednesday (Oct. 14) is a special meeting of the county election board. I don’t see an agenda posted yet, but when one is available, it should be posted on the election board’s agenda page.

City council money: Final budget vote, $6.8 million in GO bonds. Set for a final vote for the 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 14) meeting of Bloomington’s city council is the 2027 budget. Also on the agenda is the introduction of an ordinance that would authorize the issuance of around $6.8 million in general obligation bonds.

City council bans: Automatic license plate readers, superintelligence. On the 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 14) meeting agenda for Bloomington’s city council for possible enactment is an ordinance that would ban the use of automatic license plate readers. Also on the agenda to be introduced is an ordinance that would ban deployment of superintelligence within the city limits. For B Square coverage of the superintelligence ban, see: Analysis: Bloomington’s proposed superintelligence ban raises questions about authority, enforcement.

City council: Accessibility transition plan. On the 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 14) meeting agenda for Bloomington’s city council is a resolution adopting revisions to the city’s ADA transition plan. It’s not clear why a previous section from the 2024 plan on best practices for Zoom meetings has been dropped completely. I think there’s also inadequate attention in the plan to the city’s strategy for ensuring that documents provided to the city as deliverables by vendors are ADA-accessible. Between now and Wednesday’s meeting, I hope to have written something on the topic for publication on the B Square’s website.

City council: Removing an HPC member. Possibly to be considered at the 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 14) meeting of Bloomington’s city council is the removal of Reynard Cross as a non-voting member of Bloomington’s historic preservation commission (HPC). Voting members of the HPC are appointed by the mayor subject to approval by the city council. But the city council can appoint non-voting members.

It’s far from clear what might happen Wednesday. The council had Cross’s removal listed explicitly on its agendas for on its Sept. 2 and Sept 16 agendas. On Sept. 2, the council postponed the matter until Sept. 16. On Sept. 16, the council referred the matter to Interview Committee C with direction to report back on Oct. 14. At the committee’s Sept. 24 meeting, it recommended that Cross be removed on a 3–0 vote. That outcome is contained in a city clerk memo buried in the information packet for Oct. 14. There’s no removal listed explicitly on the agenda.

In an email message to city council officers sent on Oct. 11, I chronicled some of the challenges presented to any local journalist who is trying to cover this story. Here’s how I put it: “I am at a loss as to what I can report to B Square readers about what they might reasonably expect to see unfold procedurally on Wednesday, when it comes to Reynard Cross’s removal.”

Pizza Trail: Oct. 1–31. October is pizza month. And in Bloomington this is commemorated with a Pizza Trail that Visit Bloomington is promoting. The idea is you sign up for a mobile pass, which sounds like a kind of digital punchcard. Every time you check in with one of 20 different local pizza joints, you get a credit. And at the end you can redeem the points for gift cards to ... pizza joints. There

Book crawl Oct. 23–24. You probably know what a bar crawl is. It’s that, but with bookstores. From the organizers:

As we continue to sell tickets, we wanted to let you know along with the keynote speakers on Oct. 25, Wright Thompson and Michael Koryta, we are also launching our first Bloomington Book Festival Book Crawl. It will be happening Oct. 23–24.

Here is what the book crawl will look like: 9 participating bookstores — Book Corner, Caveat Emptor, Knitting Romance, MCPL Friends of the Library, Morgenstern Books, Naughty Dog Books, Redbud Books, Steve’s Book-O-Rama, and Vintage Phoenix.

• Begin at any of the above participating bookstores to pick up your passport.
• A single purchase (ANY purchase, no minimums) from EACH store gets you a stamp in your passport. (A purchase is necessary to receive a stamp.)
• Each stamp is an entry into a raffle to receive 2 free tickets to The Bloomington Book Festival on Oct. 25, 2026.
• Each fully completed passport is an entry into a raffle for the grand prize: over $500 in gift cards, autographed copies of Wright Thompson’s “The Barn” and Michael Koryta’s new release “Die Famous,” and 2 free tickets to this year’s Bloomington Book Festival.
• Once your passport is completed or you are finished with the book crawl, leave your passport with the last bookstore you visited.
• The drawing for the prizes will take place the morning of Oct. 25.
• The winners will be contacted that morning via email and text and announced on our social media!

Meet: Indy!

This very, very, good girl is a shepherd mix. Here’s what the shelter staff have written about Indy.

Indy is an active and friendly young dog who would love a family that is ready to play and explore! Indy is a part of our Sit, Stay, Adopt! program for animals with additional behavioral needs. Please contact Emily Herr at herre@bloomington.in.gov for more information.

Photo Finish: Switchyard Park

The Photo Finish items are drawn from the B There section of the B Square website.

Read this: Today’s photo was taken by a reader I don’t know, with an “app” that I do know. It’s because I built the app to make it easier for readers to submit B There items. The URL for the app is: https://btherephoto.bsquarebulletin.com/ You can add that to your phone’s home screen for easy access. It will let you take a new photo, or upload a photo you have already taken. Give it a try. I’ve tested it out on an Android and an iPhone.

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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