> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://bsquarebulletin.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Powerline Camp emptied Tuesday morning after Monroe County moves up deadline - URL: https://bsquarebulletin.com/powerline-camp-emptied-tuesday-morning-after-monroe-county-moves-up-deadline/ - Published: 2026-08-25T18:14:30.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-25T18:14:30.000Z - Description: Monroe County deputies cleared the homeless encampment on the county-owned Thomson property early Tuesday, a week before the original Sept. 1 deadline. Residents objected to the changed date and a new notice that gave no specific time. Many remained unsure where they would go next. - Author: Dave Askins - Tags: Situation Desk, #no-inline-feature ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/08/featured-2026-08-25-encampment-closure-PXL_20260825_135418419-1.jpg) One of the campsites left behind by residents of the Powerline Camp. (Dave Askins, Aug. 25, 2026) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/08/2026-08-25-encampment-closure-PXL_20260825_135041461.PANO.jpg) One of the campsites left behind by residents of the Powerline Camp. (Dave Askins, Aug. 25, 2026) Around 6 a.m. Tuesday (Aug. 25), Monroe County sheriff’s deputies started clearing the homeless encampment on the county-owned Thomson property off South Rogers Street By around 9 a.m., nearly all of the estimated 40-50 people who had been living at the now so-called Powerline Camp had left, some of them the day before. On Tuesday, some left quickly, while others departed only with some verbal prodding. There were no reported arrests. Around 10 a.m., after the residents were gone, sheriff’s deputies allowed The B Square to leave the Rogers Street staging area for service providers, and used a four-wheel utility vehicle to show this reporter some of the camps that had been vacated. By around 10:30 a.m., a cleanup crew from a contractor was on the property already working The clearance came a week before the [Sept. 1 deadline](https://bsquarebulletin.com/monroe-county-says-powerline-camp-must-close-by-sept-1-fight-stokes-safety-concerns/) that Monroe County had originally given people living at the camp. A [replacement notice](https://bsquarebulletin.com/powerline-camp-switchyard-park-rogers-street/) moved the date to Aug. 25. The change in date, and the lack of a specific time on the new notice, was a sore point mentioned by several people leaving the camp Tuesday morning. The new notice said: “On Tuesday, August 25, 2026 any Personal property found at this site (Thomson Property) will be removed.” Even if the precise wording of the notice covered removal of property at any time of the day on Tuesday, many residents took it to mean they had until the end of the day Tuesday. The operation was underway around 6 a.m. One woman described the lack of a clock time on the new posted notice. She put it like this to The B Square: “There’s no time limit on the paperwork at all.” She said she and others were not being allowed back onto the property Tuesday morning to finish collecting their belongings. Some of the belongings she had left behind included cookware. She said she had someplace to store the belongings that she had with her. But she had no way to get to the [county highway garage](https://maps.app.goo.gl/SWEbtsJbg8Yq849W9) to retrieve anything the county removed from the camp. The highway garage is the location specified in the posted notice where encampment residents are supposed to be able to retrieve their belongings. On Tuesday morning, The B Square counted at least eight people who had crossed Rogers Street into Switchyard Park and were gathered in the picnic shelter near the splash-pad. Some had bags, bicycles or other possessions with them. But it was not clear Tuesday morning where many of the people leaving the Thomson property would stay in the longer term. During a visit to the camp on Monday, one woman told The B Square that she was just trying to figure out where she could store her belongings. She did not have a definite place to live after leaving the camp. Responding to a question about his heavily bandaged hand, one man who landed initially in Switchyard Park told The B Square he had recently undergone surgery on his hand. He had stitches, and he was taking antibiotics. ### Tuesday morning operation The sheriff’s operation involved several teams and a large number of vehicles. One man leaving the camp very early Tuesday told The B Square he had seen about 20 sheriff’s vehicles when they initially rolled up. He had decided not to wait around to hear what deputies had to say. A sheriff’s deputy confirmed that there were around 20 patrol cars. At least five off-road utility vehicles were used during the operation. Among the people arriving along Rogers Street Tuesday morning were county commissioner Jody Madeira and sheriff Ruben Marté, who took Madeira back to the encampment in his car. Commissioner Julie Thomas arrived a few minutes later. Also on hand were staff from Centerstone, which provides services to people experiencing homelessness or mental health crises. The corporal with the sheriff’s office who showed The B Square a some of the encampments said deputies had prepared for the operation by mapping the locations of known campsites. Teams divided the property into areas and went to the established camps one by one. Many campsites were already vacant when deputies arrived. The corporal said on Tuesday morning his team had encountered six people who were still in the area assigned to his group. Another three people showed up either to help somebody move or to return to a camp. People who were still there were told they could take handbags, medications, valuables and other things they could carry, the corporal said. Larger amounts of property had to be left for the county to remove. In practice, deputies wound up loading belongings of some campers onto their off-road utility vehicles and driving them out to Rogers Street. Other residents hauled substantial possessions themselves on makeshift battered carts, some with wheels that were shedding their rubber. The county notice says personal property removed from the Thomson site will be held for one week at the Monroe County highway garage, [5900 W. Foster Curry Drive](https://maps.app.goo.gl/SWEbtsJbg8Yq849W9 ). The notice said that anyone who wanted to recover property is supposed to contact Justin Baker at 812-349-2533\. Baker is the county’s deputy director of emergency management. The county will consider property still at the highway garage after a one-week period to be considered abandoned and will dispose of it. One man who had left the camp was especially concerned about a brown gym bag that was still back at the campsite. He said it contained phone numbers and other things he needed. He was assured that he could retrieve it from the county highway garage. But he, like others The B Square spoke with, was not sure how he would be able to reach that location. ### Residents angry about clearance People leaving the encampment on Tuesday morning displayed a range of frustration. Some of the first people The B Square saw leave the camp were were focused mostly on getting themselves and their possessions across Rogers Street. Many people who remained in later stages of the operation were angry. They had no interest talking to outreach workers. The sheriff’s corporal described the people he dealt with in his section of the property as “very displeased to be leaving.” He said they did not agree with the process and did not believe they had been given proper notice. That lined up with comments heard by the B Square about the change in the date from Sept. 1 and the lack of a specific clock time in the posted notice for Aug. 25. ### What was left behind The tour that the sheriff’s office gave The B Square Tuesday morning covered just some of the campsites. Some campsites consisted of tents or structures surrounded by relatively small amounts of debris. Others were blanketed with a thick layer of trash and discarded belongings. In one area, discarded material had been piled into sinkhole, or small ravine, at the edge of a campsite. The site included tents, clothing, containers, furniture and other items mixed with trash. Some of the campsites were littered with syringes. In one area, children’s toys were mixed in with the syringes. Half buried in one of the footpaths connecting the campsites was a rifle cartridge. Some campsites were just 20 yards from the new east-west multi-use trail that is now under construction by the city of Bloomington through the property. That made them closer than 100 yards away from Osage Place, the Habitat for Humanity neighborhood now under construction. ### Cleanup contract On Aug. 13, Monroe County commissioners [approved a contract](https://bsquarebulletin.com/second-shots-fired-report-at-powerline-camp-monroe-county-mulls-moving-up-sept-1-deadline/) for cleanup of the encampment. The agreement with Indianapolis Crime Scene Services LLC, doing business as Bio-One NW Indianapolis, has a maximum value of $70,000\. It sets the price at $3,500 per day for up to 20 days. Under the agreement, Bio-One workers are supposed to make a reasonable effort to separate trash from belongings that might have monetary or sentimental value. Monroe County is responsible for providing dumpsters, storage containers and equipment for moving material. Bio-One is responsible for handling the material in the camp. Needles are to be handled according to sharps-disposal procedures. Firearms or controlled drugs found during the cleanup are to be turned over to the sheriff’s office. What looked like a Bio-One crew was at the property Tuesday morning as the sheriff’s operation was winding down. ### How the deadline changed The county’s decision to clear the camp Tuesday evolved over about a month. On July 23, county commissioners Madeira and Julie Thomas [authorized county attorney Jeff Cockerill](https://bsquarebulletin.com/monroe-county-eyes-thomson-encampment-closure-resident-describes-barriers-to-housing/) to begin taking formal steps toward closing the encampment after the sheriff’s office reported increasing public-safety concerns. At that time, commissioners said their intention was still to provide substantial advance notice. On Aug. 3, the county [posted a Sept. 1 deadline](https://bsquarebulletin.com/monroe-county-says-powerline-camp-must-close-by-sept-1-fight-stokes-safety-concerns/). The push to close the camp sooner increased after incidents involving reports of gunfire. On Aug. 12, sheriff’s deputies and Bloomington police responded to a weapons call in the area. Officers found 21 spent 9mm shell casings and one unspent 9mm round near the power-line area. Nobody with an injury or with a gun was found. That came a week after an Aug. 5 incident involving a fight on Cherokee Drive near the camp. A witness had reported hearing what sounded like gunfire from the direction of the encampment shortly before the fight. Deputies searched the camp but did not find evidence establishing where those apparent shots came from. By the next day, [on Aug. 13](https://bsquarebulletin.com/second-shots-fired-report-at-powerline-camp-monroe-county-mulls-moving-up-sept-1-deadline/), the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce was publicly asking for the camp to be cleared before Sept. 1\. Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson subsequently called for the deadline to be moved up as well. The sheriff’s office was at the same time working on a plan intended to prevent the property from simply being occupied again after the clearance. The deadline was eventually moved to Aug. 25. --- For the people who were still at the camp Tuesday morning, the practical effect was that they had run out of time, when they thought they had more. Shortly before daybreak on Tuesday, sheriff’s deputies were telling the remaining residents it was time to leave. ### Photos: Powerline Camp clearance (Aug. 25, 2026) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/08/2026-08-25-encampment-closure-PXL_20260825_135741813.jpg) Within eyeshot of ene of the campsites on the Powerline Camp is the Habitat for Humanity Osage Place housing development which is halfway to completion. (Dave Askins, Aug. 25, 2026) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/08/2026-08-25-encampment-closure-2026-08-25-encampment-closure--PXL_20260825_140922261.jpg) One of the campsites left behind by residents of the Powerline Camp. (Dave Askins, Aug. 25, 2026) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/08/2026-08-25-encampment-closure-PXL_20260825_140904177.MP.jpg) One of the campsites left behind by residents of the Powerline Camp. (Dave Askins, Aug. 25, 2026) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/08/2026-08-25-encampment-closure--PXL_20260825_135937685.jpg) One of the campsites left behind by residents of the Powerline Camp. (Dave Askins, Aug. 25, 2026) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/08/2026-08-25-encampment-closure-PXL_20260825_135837542.jpg) One of the campsites left behind by residents of the Powerline Camp. (Dave Askins, Aug. 25, 2026) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/08/2026-08-25-encampment-closure-PXL_20260825_135710633.jpg) A syringe on a trail between campsites that were a part of the Powerline Camp. (Dave Askins, Aug. 25, 2026) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/08/2026-08-25-encampment-closure-PXL_20260825_135605410.PORTRAIT.jpg) Summarizing the early-morning clearance was a mug at one of the campsites left behind by residents of the Powerline Camp. (Dave Askins, Aug. 25, 2026) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/08/2026-08-25-encampment-closure-PXL_20260825_135918568.jpg) One of the notices that were posted around the property before Tuesday morning’s action. (Dave Askins, Aug. 25, 2026) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/08/2026-08-25-encampment-closure-PXL_20260825_135537260.jpg) Trash that has been tossed into one of several sinkholes or small ravines around the encampment. (Dave Askins, Aug. 25, 2026) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/08/2026-08-25-encampment-closure-PXL_20260825_115235251.PORTRAIT.jpg) Some of the residents hauled some of their belongings out of the encampment on carts to the Rogers Street side of the property. (Dave Askins, Aug. 25, 2026) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/08/2026-08-25-encampment-PXL_20260825_112431217.MP.jpg) One resident was given a ride in an off-road utility vehicle out to Rogers Street and later taken away by ambulance. (Dave Askins, Aug. 25, 2026)