Sign in Subscribe
Almost Daily Bulletin

Sept. 8, 2025: Jail, elections, football, property transfers

It's easy to receive this free message in your email inbox, instead of waiting for social media to serve it up to you: Visit the B Square website and click on the red button in the upper right hand corner.

Sept. 8, 2025: Jail, elections, football, property transfers

Stop! Read this!

Of the people who receive this regular morning email message, about 25% make a recurring monthly financial contribution to support the journalistic effort of The B Square. It will soon have to get closer to 50%, if this operation is ever going to be sustainable.

If you’re already contributing, thank you! If you’re not, but would be able, please consider making today the day you decided to help everybody else in the Bloomington area continue to have easy access to news and information. Please click on the big red button in the right hand corner of the website screen. Thank you for considering.

Weather

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

Monday: Wear a light jacket or a sweater to ward off the chill of the early morning temperature of around 45F°. Have a plan for where to stash it later in the day, because the high will get up to around 74F°. It’s not going to rain.

Tuesday: Same advice as for Monday. Wear a light jacket or sweater in the morning, because the day will start off around 50F°. The high will reach 78F°. It’s not going to rain.

If you need help with weather talk, try this: “Can you remember a nicer start to the fall?”

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

A note about high school football coverage

When Sean McAvoy covers a high school football game, he logs all the data for every play (who did what, yards gained, position on the field, down, etc.) And Sean’s articles sound exactly like what a guy would write who has logged every play—because he sees everything that happened during the game from the sidelines with his own eyeballs. Sean is covering high school football for The B Square in a way that I think sets the national standard for local sportswriting. If you haven’t read one of his game reports yet, try one of these links: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3.

Roundup of recent articles

Quick notes

Mold reports. A report with the results from the recent round of mold testing at the justice center that was done two weeks ago, was hoped to be released at the end of last week. The latest word from the office of the county commissioners is that the report would be delivered by VET Environmental Engineering over the weekend—there was one “straggler test”—and the report would be released on Monday.

On the calendar

Water rate increase. Bloomington’s utilities service board (USB) is set to vote on a drinking water rate increase at its 5 p.m. Monday (Sept. 8) meeting. For B Square background, see: Bloomington residential drinking water charges could rise 21% under CBU proposal. The USB vote is not the final decision. It will then head to the city council, then to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.

Micro-mobility: Bird electric scooters. On the 5:30 p.m. Tuesday (Sept. 9) board of public works meeting agenda is the approval of Bird as the sole vendor for shared electric scooter rentals in the city.

For 2025, Bird has been the only scooter game in town. Based on the data that the city is reporting about scooter usage, so far this year (through August), Bird’s ridership numbers in 2025, are not even matching its own ridership figures from 2024, when Lime was also in the market. From January through August in 2024, Bird reported 39,355 rides to the city, with Lime as a competitor. For the same period this year, Bird reported 34,906 rides as the sole vendor. For B Square background, see: Shared scooter data: Fewer rides, maybe due to snowy winter, but Bird ‘doubling down’ on Bloomington.

Housing. On the 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (Sept. 10) agenda for the Bloomington city council is a discussion about housing needs. The council is hoping that Bloomington residents will attend the meeting to participate in small group discussions on the topic. It looks like representatives of the HAND (Housing and Neighborhood Development) Department and the Planning and Transportation Department will also attend.

County budget hearings. On Wednesday (Sept. 10) at 5 p.m. the Monroe County council will host its fifth department budget hearing. On the docket for the county council on Wednesday are: the treasurer’s office, the health department, the auditor’s office, and the county council office.

Lake Monroe Day: Sept. 14. The fundraiser will be held at the Fields Clubhouse (1333 S. Fenbrook Lane) from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. From the Friends of Lake Monroe: “Attendees can mingle with other lake supporters and be treated to appetizers from One World Enterprises, music by King Bee and the Stingers, a wine pull, and brief updates from the organization working to protect Lake Monroe. Tickets are $30 for members, $35 for non-members, and $220 for a table of eight.”

Taste of Tibet: Sept. 20. The buffet starts at 6 p.m. (RSVP is requested). A guided tour of the monastery will be available during the open house from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the same day. The buffet will include traditional Tibetan delicacies like momos, Pingsha, Alu khatsa, and Tibetan butter tea prepared by the monks.

Bloomington Paint Out: Oct. 4. Grab a paintbrush and a canvas and go paint a scene somewhere in Bloomington. From the organizers: “The event is open to professional and emerging artists of all ages and skill levels to create original artwork of any subject in any medium. Stamped/tagged works must be completed that day by 3 pm to be eligible for judging.” The idea is that you check in at Bryan Park in the morning and get an official stamp for your canvas, so that the judges know you created your painting that same day. If you see someone painting with an easel outdoors on Oct. 4, chances are they’re a Paint Out artist.

Pumpkin launch. 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. Mark your calendar for Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 for cyclocross and street sprints.

Meet Kane!

Up for adoption, as of Sept. 7 at the city of Bloomington’s animal shelter is Kane. Here’s another link: all animals up for adoption at the shelter. (The photo is from the city’s website.)

This very, very good boy is a boxer mix. Here’s what the shelter staff have written about Kane:

Kane has won the hearts of everyone he’s met in his time at the shelter! This adorable derpy dude is a toy collector and likes to show off his favorites as he walks to and from the yard. He's always happy to check out a new option and assess its worth for his collection. Kane happily wiggles and offers kisses to all his friends and would love to meet you!

Photo Finish: 6th Street & Morton Street

Batman, or possibly just someone in a Batman costume, is walking east along the south side of 6th Street. (Dave Askins, Sept. 6, 2025)

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

The geographic coverage of the B There section is pretty limited. Please consider occasionally contributing to the B There section some brief factual observations about the world outside your own head, as you go about your normal business. (Photos are optional for B There.) The mechanics of making a contribution are pretty straightforward—just let me know if you’d like to learn the ins and outs. If you’re looking at this bulletin in your email inbox, you should be able to reach me by hitting Reply.

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

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

Read next

Comments ()