Miller-Showers Park: Bloomington utilities and parks formalizing arrangements on who pays for what

The cost of maintaining the lagoon retention walls at Miller-Showers Park will be split between city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) and the city’s parks and recreation department.

The utilities service board (USB) approved its side of the arrangement at its regular meeting on Monday night. The same memorandum of understanding is supposed to be presented to the board of park commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday next week (Feb. 22).

The park is wedged between College Avenue and Walnut Street just south of the SR-46 bypass.

The inventory of wildlife at the park observed by The B Square in the last week at the park includes: mallards; redhead ducks; muskrats; and a possibly a Cooper’s hawk. (The bird has also been identified on social media as a red-tailed hawk.)

The park includes a series of stepped lagoons that are a part of the northside stormwater management infrastructure. Stormwater from more than 170 acres of the city drains into the Miller-Showers facility, and eventually farther downstream.

The detention ponds in the park slow the flow so that sediment can settle out of the water, improving water quality downstream. CBU is responsible for the city’s stormwater management. That’s why CBU is partly responsible for the cost of maintaining the infrastructure of Miller-Showers Park. Continue reading “Miller-Showers Park: Bloomington utilities and parks formalizing arrangements on who pays for what”

Miller-Showers Park ponds to get mapped as prep for possible dredging

Miller-Showers Park looking east. The image is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s online property lookup system.

The mallard ducks and great blue heron that sometimes hang out at Miller-Showers Park, on the north side of Bloomington, could see some mechanical company sometime in the next week or so.

A company called Heartland Dredging will be pinging the depths of the waters, to chart out an underwater map of the sedimentation in the detention ponds.

The detention ponds at Miller-Showers Park are part of the city’s northside stormwater management infrastructure. Stormwater from more than 170 acres of the city drains into the Miller-Showers facility, and eventually farther downstream. Continue reading “Miller-Showers Park ponds to get mapped as prep for possible dredging”