Sept. 17, 2026: New management for Bloomington Transit, possible police HQ at Hopewell

Civic Solver

We’re skipping the puzzle for this week and probably a few more weeks. The news operation is stretching me ever thinner. Puzzles seemed like a good place to conserve time and effort.

Weather Talk

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

Thursday: Wear the coolest clothes you own and don’t worry about rain gear. It will be sunny and blazing hot with a high around 93F°.

Friday: You can probably get away without any rain gear, but there will be a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11 a.m., then a slight chance of showers after that. The basic forecast is for mostly sunny, with a high near 87F°.

Sign up for weather alerts: Monroe County emergency alert system

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Recent articles

If you don’t want to wait until Monday or Thursday for the Almost Daily Bulletin, and you’d prefer to check whenever you like on the most recent headlines from The B Square, complete with their synopsis, here’s the link: The B Square’s Most Recent 20

• Bloomington Transit board OKs Keolis management contract 3–2, McDaniel now says he’s out.  Bloomington Transit’s board voted 3–2 to hire Keolis as its new management firm, replacing RATP Dev starting Oct. 1. Nick Standefer, the new general manager, introduced himself to the board and staff.
• Bloomington RDC backs 714 South Rogers for police HQ, eyes up to $30M in financing.  Bloomington’s RDC backed converting 714 S. Rogers St. into a new police headquarters, with up to $30 million in potential TIF-backed bonds. Residents raised concerns about arts uses and public engagement, while police and city officials supported the reuse plan

Other notes

Vote on finalist names for new streets. The city of Bloomington is looking for public input on the names of two new streets in the Hopewell South neighborhood. There’s an online form for voting on the five finalists that have been chosen: W. Fellowship Lane, W. Heartwell Lane, W. Perseverance Lane, W. Possibility Lane, and W. Welcome Lane. (For anyone who wonders if the old Portlandia episode about street naming is preserved on the internet somewhere, the answer is yes: How a street gets named.)

On the calendar

GO bonds. On the 10 a.m. Thursday (Sept. 17) agenda for Monroe County commissioners is an item covering up to $4.2 million of general obligation bonds. The projects come from several different parts of county government: sheriff's office (in-car and body cameras, and tasers); jail (shower and floor repair, and cameras); parks (Karst Farm blacktop, splash pad/playscape parking and ADA, Shelter 9 parking, Fields 9-12 dog park parking and ADA); and county commissioners (prosecutor renovation, courthouse dome repair, elevator repair, drones and cameras, vehicles, highway equipment including salt spreader boxes, siren replacement)

Personnel at county health department. The board of health has canceled its regular meeting for Thursday (Sept. 17), but has scheduled an executive session (not open to the public) for the same time to discuss personnel issues. For B Square background: Health administrator fired, plans wrongful termination suit against Monroe County

Trash rate increase. On the 8:30 a.m. Friday (Sept. 18) meeting agenda for the city council’s fiscal committee is consideration of an increase to the city’s curbside trash and recycling fees.

MUST meeting. Set for 1 p.m. on Friday (Sept. 18) is a meeting of the Municipal Unit Strategic Taskforce. The MUST is composed of representatives of city, county and town government. They will start trying to sort out how local income taxes might be structured starting in 2029, after SEA 1 was enacted.

Voting equipment test. The voting equipment test for the Nov. 3 general election will be held next Monday (Sept. 21) at 9:30 a.m. at the early voting space on Morton Street at Showers North.

Big Book Sale: Sept 18-21. The Friends of the Library will be hosting their Big Fall Book Sale in Meeting Room 1B/C at the Downtown Library with thousands of items at bargain prices. The 2026 Big Fall Book Sale will be open to the public Sept. 18–21 with a special early-bird sale for Friends members on Sept. 17. For hours on specific days, check the book sale webpage.

New Leaf New Life benefit book event: Sept. 23. Authors Chastidy Mader, Ryan Mader, Nordia McNish and Trunnis Goggins II will discuss resilience, recovery, purpose and second chances Wednesday, Sept. 23, from 6–8 p.m. at Redbud Books, 408 W. Kirkwood Ave. Tickets cost $20, with $12 from each ticket benefiting New Leaf New Life, which supports people affected by incarceration and reentry.

Nerd Nite Bloomington: Sept. 25. Bug sex, imperfect maps and the Great Molasses Flood get the 15-minute-talk treatment at Nerd Nite Bloomington #6. Doors open at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25, with presentations starting at 7:30 p.m. at The Bishop Bar in Bloomington. Organizers would like people to RSVP.

From the Ground Up: Sept. 26. The Monroe County Master Gardener Association will host its annual fall gardening program Saturday, Sept. 26, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Ivy Tech Community College’s Shreve Hall, 200 Daniels Way. Doors open at 8:30 a.m. This year’s program focuses on vegetable gardening, with sessions on soil health, community and urban gardening, natural pest control and container gardening, plus a panel discussion. Registration is $25. Act now: Registration ends on Sept. 18.

According to the gardeners: “Monroe County Master Gardeners provide food for this event, and boy can they make a delicious snack! The event is not on a football game day, so if folks are looking for something else to do, come learn about veggie gardening.”

Bloomington Paint Out: Oct. 3. The fifth annual Bloomington Paint Out takes place rain or shine on Saturday, Oct. 3, at Bryan Park, with artist check-in from 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Woodlawn Pavilion. Artists of all ages and skill levels can paint anywhere in Bloomington, with finished work due by 3:15 p.m. for judging in several age and experience categories. Free classes, supplies and artist demonstrations will be offered at the pavilion from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is no registration fee or advance registration.

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: Lady Bug!

This very, very, good girl is a Great Dane. Here’s what the shelter staff have written about Lady Bug:

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: 7th Street & Morton Street

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

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a great weekend!

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

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