This image was created by DALL-E, an AI image generator developed by OpenAI.
In 2025, Bloomington’s “living wage” will reach $16.22 an hour.
Of that $16.22, up to $2.43 can be in the form of health insurance offered to a covered employee.
The increase in 2025 will boost Bloomington’s living wage by $0.47 an hour (about 3 percent) from the 2024 level of $15.75.
Enacted in 2005 by Bloomington’s city council, the living wage at the start was set at $10, with a provision that it increase by an amount based on the CPI (consumer price index).
Who has to meet the living wage standard in Bloomington?
Pouring concrete near the northern edge of Hopewell Phase 1 East. (July 1, 2024)
The view of the Phase 1 Hopewell East property from Rogers Street, looking east. (July 1, 2024)
This aerial image is from the March 11, 2024 Monroe County flyer for the online property lookup system.
Across the B-Line Trail from the Seminary Square Kroger, construction work on the Phase 1 East portion of the Hopewell neighborhood project has been underway for about a year, after ground was broken in the third week of July 2023.
The work by Milestone Contractors involves the installation of utilities, construction of streets, and creation of landscaping and bicycle-pedestrian facilities for one piece of a new neighborhood called Hopewell, which is supposed to replace the former IU Health hospital and surrounding area.
The installation of the infrastructure that’s now underway is supposed to set up the real estate for an eventual public offering for sale to developers. The idea is that the new neighborhood could support up to 1,000 housing units.
The Phase 1 East infrastructure project is now on course to be complete on Nov. 4, the day before the general election.
On Monday at its regular meeting, Bloomington’s redevelopment commission gave approval for $142,981 in change orders, which brought the total value of the contract with Milestone to $13,695,491.
The original contract was for $13,373,285. The total of $322,206 in change orders is about 2.4 percent of the total contract.
On College Avenue in downtown Bloomington, Indiana, around 11,000 mechanical beasts drive past the northwest corner of the courthouse square every day.
The total for the intersection climbs by a two or three thousand, if the east-west flow on 6th Street is added in.
At that location, a comprehensive traffic count of all God’s creatures would factor in at least a couple dozen extra—to account for the monarch butterflies that have been darting around the intersection in recent days.
Monarch butterfly at the intersection of College Avenue and 6th Street, looking west, in downtown Bloomington, Indiana. August 2019 (Dave Askins/Beacon)
