firefighters – The B Square

At its Wednesday meeting, Bloomington’s city council unanimously approved $626,000 in spending from the city’s general fund, along with an appropriation of $1.3 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money.

This is a table: Department Total
Fire $164,600
ITS $94,000
Legal $71,200
Police $50,700
Mayor $48,900
Human Resources $46,500
Planning $35,200
CFRD $28,500
ESD $18,900
Public Works Administration $18,500
Public Works – Facilities Maintenance $16,800
HAND $16,000
Animal Care & Control $10,000
Clerk $4,100
Council $2,200 — Details on each department’s appropriation are included in a table below.

After adding another $233,600 in spending for the parks department, and a transfer of $1,875,851 between two kinds of motor vehicle fund, the total for the appropriation ordinance approved by the city council on Wednesday was just a smidgen over $4 million.

The general fund spending will draw on money that was budgeted for 2022, but not spent in that year. If it were not appropriated now, it would revert back to the general fund, and count as a part of the fund balance, from which future appropriations could also be made.

Of the $1.3 million in ARPA funds—that’s money from a federal stimulus bill to help economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic—$1 million was appropriated to pay for a housing down payment incentive for firefighters and police officers. Continue reading “$626K in general fund spending, $1.3M in ARPA money for police-fire OK’d by Bloomington council” →

cropped2 2020-03-28 fire station IMG_9444 — A Bloomington fire station on March 28, 2020. The city’s press release did not release information identifying the station where the COVID-19 firefighter worked. This photo shows the station on 4th Street in downtown, and is included only to identify the topic of the story, not to suggest that it was the 4th Street station where the firefighter was assigned. (Dave Askins/Square Beacon.)

In a statement released Saturday evening (March 28), the city of Bloomington has confirmed it learned earlier the same day that a Bloomington firefighter has tested positive for COVID-19.

According to the press release, the firefighter was one of three firefighters recently quarantined after potential or confirmed exposure to the COVID-10. It was five days earlier, on March 23, when BFD was notified of the firefighter’s confirmed exposure.

And at that point, the firefighter was immediately isolated from on-duty crews and placed on self-quarantine at home, according to the press release. Continue reading “Bloomington firefighter tests positive for COVID-19” →