County commissioner candidates Peter Iversen, Julie Thomas field questions on new jail, housing

On Saturday afternoon, a total of five candidates in two different Democratic Party primary races for county commissioner fielded questions at a forum hosted by League of Women Voters of Bloomington-Monroe County.

The forum took place in the auditorium of the downtown Bloomington location of the Monroe County Public Library.

In one race, incumbent Julie Thomas is competing with Peter Iversen for the party’s nomination. Iversen currently serves on the county council.

In the other race, incumbent Penny Githens is competing for the nomination with Jody Madeira, an Indiana University law professor, and Steve Volan, a former Bloomington city councilmember.

As a group of five, over the course of 90 minutes, they answered a dozen questions that asked for their thoughts on a new jail, housing, and more.

This report focuses on just the race between Thomas and Iversen. The B Square will report on the other race separately.

At a mid-February event hosted by the Building Association of South Central Indiana (BASCI), Iversen and Thomas answered questions from moderator John Fernandez, who is now vice president for innovation and strategic partnerships at The Mill.

The full forum from Saturday (March 23) is available to watch on CATS. Below is a summary of just a few highlights, which are not necessarily organized in the chronological order of the forum.

The event was cosponsored by the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, Monroe County NAACP, Monroe County NOW, IU PACE, IU BIG Voting Challenge, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Kappa Tau Omega Chapter.

Moderating the forum was Maria Douglas who is development director for Middle Way House. Continue reading “County commissioner candidates Peter Iversen, Julie Thomas field questions on new jail, housing” →

Elections 2024: Thomas, Iversen square off for builders in Dems primary for county commissioner

Appearing on Thursday in front of around 130 people at the monthly meeting of the Building Association of South Central Indiana (BASCI) at the Bloomington Country Club were Julie Thomas and Peter Iversen.

The two are candidates in the Democratic Party’s primary race for Monroe County commissioner District 2. Thomas is the incumbent, who has served in the role since 2013. Iversen is currently in the middle of a four-year term serving on the county council.

To run for the seat, Thomas and Iversen are required to live in District 2, which coincides with Bloomington Township. That is the northern half of the city of Bloomington.

But the vote for county commissioner seats is countywide. That means any eligible voter who participates in the Democratic Party’s primary will have a choice between Thomas and Iversen.

Asking the questions on Thursday was John Fernandez, who is a former mayor of Bloomington. They covered topics like economic development, housing, and land use. Continue reading “Elections 2024: Thomas, Iversen square off for builders in Dems primary for county commissioner” →

Column: Staring into the civic sun in 2024, the year of a solar eclipse

In 2024, the local civic cosmos could see some big changes, in the same year when a rare literal cosmic event will unfold.

On April 8, a solar eclipse will briefly cast a shadow directly over the Bloomington area, turning daylight into gloam. (Yes, that is an awfully fancy word for “twilight,” but it’s the kind of highfalutin fare that is customary for a newspaper year-in-preview column.)

During an eclipse, in the battle between dark and light across the visible disk of the sun, the dark begins with a steady assimilation of the light’s territory, but the light always reverses the trend and prevails in the end.

That’s either a great or a lousy metaphor for municipal annexation, depending on a person’s political perspective.

In fall of 2021, Bloomington’s city council approved the annexation of seven different territories, all of which are still the subject of litigation.

Metaphors aside, 2024 holds the potential for some court decisions on those pending annexations, which might settle the question of how much Bloomington’s boundaries will change.

Of course, annexation is just one of myriad civic issues that are in the queue for Bloomington and Monroe County in 2024.

Here’s a non-exhaustive rundown of topics The B Square will try to track in the coming year. Continue reading “Column: Staring into the civic sun in 2024, the year of a solar eclipse” →