Tag: Bloomington City Council

Convention center: CIB takes steps to contract with architect, to include input from arts, entertainment

Galen Cassady addresses the Monroe County capital improvement board at its June 12, 2024 meeting.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1Knjq06SP4m-HSGSP9No7Be6nQLNNzxo&usp=sharing
Kirkwood and Walnut streets looking south. (June 14, 2024)

Two big pieces of news came out of Wednesday’s meeting of Monroe County’s capital improvement board (CIB).

First, the CIB chose Weddle Bros. as the construction manager for the convention center expansion project. Second, it will be the real estate to the east of the current convention center that will become the location of the expansion of the current center, which stands at the southwest corner of 3rd Street and College Avenue.

But the CIB took another newsworthy step on Wednesday—giving a green light to its legal counsel, Jim Whitlatch of Bunger & Robertson to start working on a contract with its selected architectural firm, Schmidt Associates, for design work.

That contract will draw on around $6 million in food and beverage tax money that the city council already appropriated in 2019 for architectural fees. The purchase orders with Schmidt Associates are still open for those appropriations, according to CIB treasurer Eric Spoonmore and CIB controller Jeff Underwood.

The expansion design work will get input from an advisory group that the CIB has formed—on arts and entertainment matters for the downtown geographic area known as the BEAD (Bloomington Entertainment and Arts District).

The CIB plans to incorporate the city’s one-percent for art ordinance into the convention center expansion design work. Continue reading “Convention center: CIB takes steps to contract with architect, to include input from arts, entertainment” →

New jail location: Monroe County OKs Phase 2 enviro study, hears opposition from Ellettsville

On the map, the green area is the land purchased by the county for a future limestone heritage destination park. The purple pushpin shows the location of the current jail. The other purple areas are currently or have at one time been considered by county commissioners as a jail location. Link to dynamic map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1ZfbkZoG4GR7KAjii4CVQLtv4hIlUQuM&usp=sharing
Seated at the table from left:Scott Carnegie with DLZ, the county’s design/build consultant, and the three commissioners, Julie Thomas, Lee Jones and Penny Githens. (June 2, 2024)

This past Wednesday, Monroe County commissioners approved a second environmental study for North Park on West Hunter Valley Road, just north of the Bloomington city boundary.

North Park is the location that commissioners are currently considering as a possible location for a new jail.

The Phase 2 study comes after two public meetings held at the Ellettsville fire station—last Sunday (June 2) and Wednesday June 5)—which were hosted by county commissioners.

The fire station meetings confirmed some strong opposition from residents near the proposed jail location. Highlights from the meetings included opposition from Ellettsville leaders, who are concerned that locating a county jail at North Park will have a negative impact on the future economic development of the town.

The meetings also revealed that county elected officials might not have been on the same page on a key question: Who will decide the size of the new jail? Continue reading “New jail location: Monroe County OKs Phase 2 enviro study, hears opposition from Ellettsville” →

Bloomington city council OKs uniform 3-minute time at public mic, adopts policy to remove rule breakers

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People who attend Bloomington city council meetings and want to address the local legislature will now have a uniform three minutes at the public mic—instead of a default of five minutes, but sometimes less.

That’s the result of a unanimous vote on Wednesday night to enact an ordinance that changes the council’s regular order of business to prescribe a 3-minute time limit at the public mic, for items not on the meeting agenda. There are two slots for public comment on non-agenda items, near the start and near the end of a regular meeting.

The customary time limit for commentary on items that do appear on the agenda has for years been three minutes.

The wording changed by the council was: “Speakers are allowed five minutes; this time allotment may be reduced by the presiding officer if numerous people wish to speak.”

The new wording is: “Speakers are allowed up to three minutes each.” Continue reading “Bloomington city council OKs uniform 3-minute time at public mic, adopts policy to remove rule breakers” →

Bloomington city council letter looms, CIB wraps up convention center construction manager interviews

Logo for F.A. Wilhelm Construction.
Logo for Weddle Bros. Building Group
Logo for Shiel Sexton.
JS Held’s Deb Kunce briefs the CIB on the scoring rubric before the construction manager interviews. (June 4, 2024))

On Tuesday morning, members of the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB) interviewed three firms who want the job of construction manager for the Monroe Convention Center renovation and expansion project.

A decision on the choice between F.A. Wilhelm Construction; Shiel Sexton; and Weddle Bros. Building Group could come at the next meeting of the CIB, on Wednesday, June 12.

It was just the first of two days in the spotlight for the convention center expansion project.

On Wednesday, June 5, Bloomington’s city council is expected to consider the draft of a letter, which it might adopt, expressing the city council’s view on 21 different aspects of the convention center expansion.

The points in the letter range from use of on-site fossil fuels, to inclusion of space dedicated to monthly or biweekly youth and/or senior activities.

Also on Tuesday, the CIB agreed on a proposed revision to its 2024 budget, which the city council approved only recently, at its April 10 meeting.

The biggest difference between the proposed new budget and the one that was approved by the council two months ago is another $255,000 to pay for the CIB’s owner’s representative on the project, which is JS Held. Continue reading “Bloomington city council letter looms, CIB wraps up convention center construction manager interviews” →

New legislative coordinator position in Bloomington mayor’s office among others OK’d by city council

Bloomington city council (May 8, 2024)
Sharr Pechac, city of Bloomington director of human resources (May 8, 2024)

At its Wednesday meeting, Bloomington’s city council created three new positions in the office of the mayor and eliminated three existing jobs.

Created through an amendment of this year’s salary ordinance were positions with the following titles: special assistant to the mayor, executive office manager, and legislative coordinator.

Eliminated were three existing positions: director of innovation, chief of staff, and administrative coordinator.

The count of positions in the mayor’s office stayed the same, but still worked out to an overall savings of about $26,000 per year, because two of the three positions have a lower salary grade classification than the existing jobs.

The council also approved a change in the salary grade for the existing sidewalk coordinator in the public works department, which means around $3,900 more for the position.

The reason for the change in the sidewalk position was, according to human resources director Sharr Pechac, “to better reflect the importance of this position to the city and to better align with other similar positions within public works.”

The council also approved the creation of a new position in public works called the facility asset and operations coordinator, to administer the asset management software system and the proper assignment of work orders. The total fiscal impact (benefits and salary) is expected to be about $81,144. Continue reading “New legislative coordinator position in Bloomington mayor’s office among others OK’d by city council” →

Critical decisions soon for Monroe Convention Center expansion: site, budget, uses

This week, a possible path forward for the Monroe County convention center expansion project in downtown Bloomington got charted out in a bit more detail.

At its regular meeting on Wednesday, the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB) got an update on two separate processes. One is to bring on board a construction manager as constructor (CMc) for the convention center project. The other is to strike a deal with a hotelier.

The CIB also got updated preliminary schematics for expansion options from Schmidt Associates, the architectural firm the CIB has retained to continue its preliminary conceptual design work from five years ago.

Schmidt presented four schematics for expansion—in each compass direction from the current convention center facility, which is located on the southwest corner of 3rd Street and College Avenue.

The East option now appears to have some initial support, but that decision is probably at least a couple weeks away.

On Thursday, Bloomington’s city council held a work session to focus on the topic of the convention center expansion. That came in the wake of the April 10 split vote of the council on the CIB’s budget.  Before its April 10 meeting, the council also held a work session on the convention center expansion.

The outcome of the work session was a consensus that the city council should spell out its expectations for the project in a letter to the CIB.

The idea is to use the council’s specific role—as the fiscal body that has to approve the bonding for the construction—as a way to influence the size, design, and use of the new facility.

Continue reading “Critical decisions soon for Monroe Convention Center expansion: site, budget, uses” →

Friday: Final day of Bloomington annexation trial

Eric Reedy’s binder with the annexation fiscal plan. (May 1, 2024)
Map of annexation areas. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1_7o1q_H6CpeK-1gdEzDTxnPk84RZQ_E&usp=sharing

The trial on the merits of Bloomington’s plan to annex two territories on the west and southwest sides of the city has completed its fourth day. Friday is the final day left on the trial calendar.

It now looks like the trial will be over by the end of the day on Friday.

The proceeding is a judicial review, which was forced by remonstrators, when they achieved the threshold of at least 51 percent of landowner signatures in Area 1A and Area 1B, but fell short of the 65 percent that would have stopped Bloomington’s annexation outright.

By the end of the day on Tuesday, when the pace of testimony from the city’s witnesses appeared to be slower than expected, judge Nathan Nikirk raised the specter of a Saturday session. Continue reading “Friday: Final day of Bloomington annexation trial” →

Bloomington’s city council set for potential override vote on mayoral veto of LEAP pipeline resolution

Bloomington city councilmembers from near to far: Matt Flaherty, Sydney Zulich, Dave Rollo, Andy Ruff, Isabel Piedmont-Smith, Hopi Stosberg, Isak Asare, and Courtney Daily. Kate Rosenbarger attended via Zoom. (March 27, 2024)
Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson. (March 27, 2024)

Appearing on the Bloomington city council’s meeting agenda for next Wednesday (April 17) is a resolution opposing the construction of a pipeline in north central Indiana for the diversion of water from the Wabash River.

The pipeline is part of the LEAP (Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace) District, which is a project of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC).

The resolution was already approved by the city council at its March 27 meeting, with support from five councilmembers.

But in order to be considered an adopted resolution of the city council, it will need to pick up a sixth vote of support on Wednesday. That would give it the required two-thirds majority needed to override a mayoral veto.

Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson did not sign the resolution within a 10-day window after it was presented to her by city clerk Nicole Bolden, on April 1, which effectively vetoed it. That’s even though Thomson did not return the resolution to the council, with a message announcing her veto with a reason for it.

Indiana state law does not give an option to mayors other than to sign legislation, or affirmatively veto it. But state law does make clear what the status of the legislation is, if the mayor fails to perform their duty, either to sign the resolution or veto it: The legislation is considered vetoed. Continue reading “Bloomington’s city council set for potential override vote on mayoral veto of LEAP pipeline resolution” →

CIB budget OK’d on split city council vote, answers on land for convention center hoped for by May 8

CIB meeting from near to far: Joyce Poling, Adam Thies, Jim Silberstein, and Jay Baer. (April 10, 2024)
CIB controller Jeff Underwood shows CIB members a map of properties. (April 10, 2024)
Bloomington councilmember Isak Asare. (April 10, 2024)
From left: CIB president John Whikehart and CIB controller Jeff Underwood. (April 10, 2024)

Wednesday night, the Monroe Convention Center expansion project took another step forward, on what turned out to be a less-than-routine vote by the Bloomington city council.

The vote to approve the Monroe County capital improvement board’s (CIB’s) 2024 budget  was split 6–2. Dissent came from Kate Rosenbarger and Matt Flaherty. Not attending was Andy Ruff.

The CIB is the public body that was created by the Monroe County commissioners to provide the governance of the expansion project, which is supposed to be funded by the food and beverage tax. The extra 1-percent of tax on prepared foods and beverages has been collected since 2018.

Earlier on Wednesday, at the CIB’s regular meeting, the city council’s upcoming vote on the CIB’s $250,000 budget for 2024 was one of the highlights of the briefing from CIB treasurer, Eric Spoonmore.

Spoonmore reviewed for his CIB colleagues that the city council had voted unanimously at its March 27 meeting to ask the food and beverage tax advisory commission (FABTAC) for a recommendation on the use of the $250,000 in food and beverage tax revenue. Spoonmore called that city council vote an “easy process” that took just 10 minutes.

With the FABTAC’s recommendation on the books, the city council was set to vote on the budget later that night, Spoonmore said. He summed up the situation in a way that included a verbal hiccup, which might have foreshadowed what turned out to be nearly two hours of city council deliberations on the topic, with a split vote: “So everything is all good there, assuming that we have a similar unan– or approval from the city council.” Continue reading “CIB budget OK’d on split city council vote, answers on land for convention center hoped for by May 8” →

CIB budget cued up for Bloomington council, no big course change in sight on convention center project

From left: Monroe County councilor Trent Deckard and Bloomington city councilmember Andy Ruff. (April 5, 2024)
Bloomington city council work session. (April 5, 2024)
At the table from left: Bloomington city councilmember Kate Rosenbarger, Monroe County councilor Geoff McKim, and Bloomington city councilmember Isabel Piedmont-Smith. (April 5, 2024)

The topic of the Monroe Convention Center renovation and expansion project has recently been prominent on the work plan for Bloomington’s city council.

This coming Wednesday’s (April 10) council meeting will make two out of the last three regular meetings that the council has had an item on its agenda involving the convention center project.

At its March 27 meeting, the council voted to ask the food and beverage tax advisory commission (FABTAC) to review a $250,000 expenditure from the revenue generated by the tax, to support the 2024 budget for Monroe County’s capital improvement board (CIB). That’s the group of seven people who are providing the governance for the convention center expansion project.

This coming Wednesday, the council will be asked to approve the CIB’s budget, based on the $250,000 appropriation, which was already a part of the 2024 adopted budget for the city of Bloomington.

This past Friday, the council held a work session on the topic, at the urging of councilmember Kate Rosenbarger, who is looking to spend food and beverage tax money on projects other than the convention center.

Based on Friday’s work session discussion, besides Rosenbarger and Matt Flaherty, there’s little appetite among city councilmembers, or other elected or appointed officials, for altering course from the current plan in any significant way.

That plan is for the city to use the vast majority of its food and beverage tax revenue to pay for the convention center expansion project. Continue reading “CIB budget cued up for Bloomington council, no big course change in sight on convention center project” →