Oct. 5, 2026: Early voting starts; Bloomington budget cuts; Kirkwood shooting warrant; ICE bond; jail report; B Square’s future

Weather Talk

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

Monday: Wear a smile because weather in southern Indiana at this time of year does not get any better than this: Sunny with a high of 73F°.

Tuesday: Keep smiling, because it will be another perfect day: Sunny with a high of 74F°.

Sign up for weather alerts: Monroe County emergency alert system

Recent articles

• Editor’s Notebook: Getting The B Square unstuck from the ‘dangerous middle’.  A Syracuse University study finds independent local publishers can get stuck in a “dangerous middle”: established enough that readers depend on them, but without the revenue to spread the work. The B Square fits that pattern, and is asking readers to help build a sustainable future.
• Monroe County jail notebook: Population down to 231 with recent trend slightly downward.  Monroe County’s jail population fell to 231 on Oct. 3, down six from a week earlier. The 10-day rolling average dropped to about 233. Over 75 days, the jail has averaged 238 people. Of the 247 jailed on July 21, 108 were still there Oct. 3.
• Sunday Funnies: Hawk v. Fish.  A pumpkin’s circumference divided by its diameter and the best kind of chart for visualizing it. Hawk and Fish have all the answers.
• Monroe County property transfers through Sept. 30, 2026.  This report includes new property transfers in Monroe County that haven’t previously been reported by The B Square, with dates ranging from Aug. 21 to Sept. 30, 2026. The data in this report comes from Beacon, the county’s online geographic information system for property and parcel data.
• Bloomington police identify suspect in Sept. 6 Kirkwood shooting, warrant issued.  An arrest warrant has been issued for Dajhon Lee Branson-Orellana, 21, in the Sept. 6 shooting outside Bloomington’s downtown library. Police identified him through surveillance video and witness accounts. Prosecutors filed four felony charges, but not attempted murder.
• Immigration judge sets $10K bond for Bloomington man after federal habeas win.  On Friday, an immigration judge granted a $10,000 bond to Cesar Augusto Cepeda Gomez, one of two Bloomington men detained by ICE on Sept. 1. He remains held in Michigan pending release. Manuel Alejandro Nadal-Ortiz is pursuing a parallel habeas corpus case seeking a bond hearing.
• Monroe County early in-person voting starts Tuesday, absentee ballot pace ahead of 2022.  Early voting starts Oct. 6 in Monroe County, with absentee voting ahead of the 2022 pace. Election officials report 1,348 ballots issued and 265 returned. A judge also upheld the state’s “sore loser” law, blocking Joe Davis as a write-in for the county clerk race.
• 2027 budget talks for Bloomington city council turn to potential staffing cuts.  Bloomington council president Isak Asare floated new personnel and organizational cuts during Wednesday’s 2027 budget work session. They including changes to the mayor’s communications operation and the economic and sustainable development department. Votes on changes are expected Oct. 7.

Other notes

Patience required for Monroe County government website. Here’s the word from IT at the county (emphasis added in bold):

We are writing to inform you of an upcoming data migration that will have an impact on the County website. Our website host, the State of Indiana, has partnered with a new content management company. This requires that all data on our site be migrated from the previous company to the new partner. The migration is planned to begin on September 30th and run through October 15th. During this time, our site may experience issues to include but not limited to temporary outages, broken links, or missing data. Please note that our website address and navigation of the site will remain the same as it is currently. The Technical Services Department is working closely with the State and their partners to limit disruption to services. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience.

On the calendar

Police station RFP. On the 5 p.m. Monday (Oct. 5) agenda for Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) is a resolution to issue a request for proposals for architectural and engineering services for the reuse of the 714 South Rogers Street property and building as the new Bloomington police department headquarters. For B Square background, see: Bloomington RDC backs 714 South Rogers for police HQ, eyes up to $30M in financing

Habitat appeal on stormwater swale. On the 5 p.m. Monday (Oct. 5) meeting agenda for the utilities service board (USB) is an appeal from Habitat for Humanity over a water hookup denial by CBU. Habitat for Humanity was denied a water hookup by CBU for two of its houses that are a part of the Osage Place development. The basis for the denial is an allegedly inadequate swale that is supposed to be a part of the stormwater management for the property.

Two weeks ago, Habitat presented its appeal to the USB. The two sides (CBU and Habitat) were supposed to submit proposed findings to the USB within a week, so that USB board members could have a week to review and consider. That consideration is supposed to come at the Oct. 5 USB meeting.

Early Voting. Early in-person voting starts Tuesday (Oct. 6) at 8 a.m. Early in-person voting takes place in the North Showers Building on Morton Street. The deadline to register or update a registration for the Nov. 3 general election is Monday, Oct. 5. That’s a day ahead of the start of in-person early voting on Oct. 6.

Voters who want an absentee ballot mailed to them have until 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, to get their application to election officials. Absentee ballots can be requested through Indiana’s online voter portal.

2027 budget hearing. Set for 5 p.m. on Tuesday (Oct. 6) is the hearing on the 2027 budget for the county government. Adoption is scheduled for Oct. 20.

Hopewell South. On the 5:30 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 6) meeting agenda for the Bloomington board of public works is an increase to the engineering contract with CrossRoad Engineers, by $58,609 to $521,809. The increase is supposed to cover development of individual plot plans necessary for individual site plan approvals and building permits in Hopewell South.

2027 Bloomington budget amendments. Set for a possible adoption vote by the Bloomington city council on Wednesday (Oct. 7) at 6:30 p.m. is the budget for 2027. There are several proposed amendments in the meeting information packet. The numbering on the amendments has changed since the work session last week. At the work session some significant personnel reductions were floated by council president Asare, but there are no corresponding amendments in the meeting information packet. Responding to a B Square question, Asare said that it’s possible those amendments will be included in some form in an addendum to the packet to be posted before Wednesday.

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: Thor!

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

I am new to the shelter and we are all getting to know each other. If you are interested in adopting, stop by the shelter for a visit.

Photo Finish: Miller-Showers Park

The Photo Finish items are drawn from the B There section of the B Square website. Today’s photo was taken with an “app” that I have built to make it easier to 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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