Oct. 20, 2025: Solidarity with IDS, anti-Trump demonstration, death in jail sallyport, football

Weather Talk

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

Monday: Definitely throw on a sweater or a jacket, because the overnight low was supposed to hit 40F°. You’ll probably leave the house with temperatures in the mid-40s. By 10 a.m. it will still be under 50F°, but the high for the day will be around 65F°. It’s not going to rain, and it will be sunny.

Tuesday: It will be a repeat of Monday, but the overnight low going into Tuesday will be about 10 degrees warmer at 50F°. The high will be a smidgen higher at about 67F°.

Get ready for cold weather: Today is a good day to recognize that you might not remember where you put your warmest coats and hats at the end of the cold weather season in the spring. So take time today to find them. The days when it’s freezing and you need a warm hat are not far off, and it will be easier to look for that stuff when it’s not urgent.

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

Roundup of recent articles

• Monroe County property transfers through Oct. 15, 2025.  This report includes new property transfers in Monroe County that haven’t previously been reported by The B Square, with dates ranging from Sept. 30 to Oct. 15, 2025. The data in this report comes from Beacon, the county’s online geographic information system for property and parcel data.
• Sunday Funnies: Hawk v. Fish.  Hawk: Do you think anybody is gonna dress up like us for Halloween? What does Fish say in reply?
• Bloomington crowd joins 2,200 national rallies opposing Trump policies.  As many as 2,000 people or more gathered on Saturday afternoon on the grounds of the historic Monroe County courthouse in downtown Bloomington for a “Power to the People” rally. It was one of more than 2,200 coordinated events across the country.
• Demonstrators at IU homecoming parade chant support for student newspaper: ‘Free press! Free press! We support the I-D-S!’.  Indiana University’s homecoming parade followed its usual route Friday evening, heading south along Woodlawn Avenue. As parade entries rounded the corner onto 7th Street, they could see and hear about two dozen demonstrators who were gathered to show support for the Indiana Daily Student (IDS).
• Bloomington North Cougars dominate Southport 57–0.  The Cougars of Bloomington High School North rounded out their regular season at home on Friday against Southport with a 57–0 win. Photographer Amy Mason was on the field to capture some of the Cougar gridiron magic from Friday night.
• Center Grove hands Bloomington South its first loss, 33–12.  Coming into Friday’s showdown with Center Grove, the Bloomington High School South football team was looking to complete an undefeated regular season for the first time since 2015. But Bloomington South’s record saw its first blemish as the team fell to Center Grove 33–12.
• Bloomington police: Woman dies in Monroe County jail sallyport after arrest in Seminary Park.  The Bloomington police department has confirmed the death of a 64-year-old woman suspect who had been arrested on a warrant in Seminary Park late Friday morning, while she was waiting in the sallyport for transfer into the Monroe County jail. 
• Bloomington seeks $35K state grant to update decade-old ash tree management plan.  Monroe County’s board of health passed a resolution in support of the city of Bloomington’s application for a $35,000 grant from the Indiana DNR to update the city’s management plan for ash trees. Bloomington urban forester Haskell Smith hopes to have the application done by the end of this week.
• Editor’s Notebook: Standing with the Indiana Daily Student by sharing the load.  Yesterday, the Indiana Daily Student broke the news that the student media director had been fired. What can The B Square do to help? We have set up guidelines that can allow outlets like the IDS to use B Square reporting like a local wire service.

Quick notes

Survey: Public health services. Yes, I know there’s a certain fatigue for surveys—there’s just so many of them. But when your local government asks for your feedback on your own perspective, I think it’s worth considering. This one is from the Monroe County health department on your view of public health services. For example, how important do you think access to vaccinations is? How about access to free blood pressure screenings? Here’s the link: public health services survey.

On the calendar

Building housing at Hopewell. On Monday (Oct. 20) at 3:30 p.m. in city council chambers, Flintlock LAB will host a kickoff event for the Hopewell South project. The meeting is designed for home builders, designers, financiers, and community partners to learn about the project’s goals and timeline and participate in discussions on housing, permitting, construction, residential design, and related topics. For B Square background, see: Bloomington rejects 2 Hopewell bids, sets new course ‘democratizing neighborhood development’

$5 million earmark for SW quadrant of Bloomington. On the 5 p.m. Monday (Oct. 20) agenda for Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) is an item that would “earmark” $5 million of TIF (tax increment finance) revenue for infrastructure projects in the “southwest quadrant” of Bloomington, which gets defined as “the area bordered by Tapp Road to the south, Interstate 69 (previously known as State Road 37 to the west), Second Street/Bloomfield Road to the north, and Adams Street to the east ...” I don’t see an explicit reference in the RDC resolution to the Summit District PUD, which was approved by the city council in May 2024. But I think that surely is the specific development that the RDC’s resolution has in mind.

Appeal of grass-too-long citation. On the 5:30 p.m.Tuesday (Oct. 21) meeting agenda for the Bloomington board of public works is an appeal of a citation for having grass taller than 8 inches. I don’t think I have ever seen an appeal granted for such a citation. The HAND department typically issues a warning notice, like in the case that is being appealed. I do remember one case of a successful appeal of a citation for failure to clear snow from a sidewalk.

Bloomington Transit meeting. The board of the Bloomington Transit is set to hold its regular monthly meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday (Oct. 21). No agenda is posted yet. But that link goes to the page where it will eventually appear. It’s worth noticing that the page includes Oct. 2 as the date of an executive session. Those kinds of meetings are closed to the public and are confined to a limited set of topics—like collective bargaining and real estate transactions, among others. Those were the topics indicated in the notice of the meeting. The real estate in question is probably the land that BT has its eye on for the location of a new operations center to replace the one at Grimes Lane. That location has not yet been publicly disclosed by BT.

Naming of an area around Miller-Showers Park: To be postponed? Back on the Bloomington city council’s 6:30 p.m Wednesday (Oct. 22) agenda is a resolution that would give an official name to an area around Miller-Showers Park that is supposed to help with marketing of the area—“Stadium District.” The resolution was postponed at the council’s Sept. 30 meeting.

A kind of companion piece of legislation, to create a riverfront development district, has not yet appeared on a council meeting agenda. (Yes, the trickle flowing out of Miller-Showers Park is the “river” that the city plans to call a river for this purpose.) The riverfront district would allow 3-way liquor permits in its geographic footprint (much smaller than the proposed “Stadium District”) that are not subject to the quota of 1 per 1,500 residents. The cost would be $1,000 a year, compared to an average of around $250,000 on the open market.

The B Square has built a dynamic map, showing various existing and proposed boundaries, and the location of current 3-way liquor permits. The left sidebar allows toggling various layers on and off so you can look at exactly what you want.

The meeting information packet for Oct. 22 includes a memo from council president Hopi Stosberg that says she’ll be asking for postponement of the resolution until the council’s Nov. 5 meeting. That doesn’t mean it will necessarily be postponed. There could be enough support on the council to just go ahead and vote it down, and ask the economic and sustainable development department staff to bring it back when they are actually ready to present the proposal. Or they could get it off their plate by approving it.

It’s the council’s custom to allow public comment on motions to adopt a resolution—even though public comment is not required under Indiana’s Open Door Law at any time during a meeting. It doesn’t appear to be written down anywhere how the custom of commenting on agenda items is supposed to work.

But it’s probably an open question whether the council would allow public comment on a motion to postpone a resolution to a certain time. Maintaining consistency under Robert’s Rules would point towards allowing comment on motions to postpone. That’s because a basic motion to adopt, and a motion to postpone to a certain time, are both main motions (not secondary motions). They also have the same status with respect to all the other key features of any motion: whether the motion can interrupt another speaker who has the floor (no); whether a seconding motion is required (yes); whether the motion is debatable (yes); whether the motion can be amended (yes); and whether just a simple majority is required to pass (yes).

Vote centers. Looking a few days ahead, on Thursday (Oct. 23) 1:30 p.m. a special meeting will be held on vote centers. For B Square background see: Push now to reopen Monroe County vote center debate resisted by board chair, clerk

Pumpkin Launch: Oct 25. The city of Bloomington hosts a competition every year involving the construction of a contraption to fling a pumpkin as far as possible. It’s Pumpkin Launch! The deadline for entry is Oct. 15. The competition itself takes place on Oct. 25. For past B Square coverage of Pumpkin Launch: Photos: Cold rain can’t squash Pumpkin Launch 2021

Little 500 fall racing series: Nov. 1, Nov. 2. Mark your calendar for Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 for cyclocross and street sprints.

Meet Cinder!

This very, very good girl is a husky. Here’s what the shelter staff have written about Cinder.

Cinder is a classic rags-to-riches tale: she was found as a stray with her fur dirty and patchy, but now she's well on her way to becoming a princess! While she might be mild-mannered and shy to start, once she settles in she is proud to show off her top-speed zoomies and play bows. Cinder loves to race herself around the yard and is always working towards improving her time.

Photo Finish: 7th Street & Jefferson Street

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

Thanks for reading. I hope your week is off to a great start!

Dave Askins
734-645-2633
dave@bsquarebulletin.com