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2023 Bloomington budget notebook: Built-in padding of 50 percent or more?

Why is the city of Bloomington allowing $1,400,000 for a single item in the 2023 budget that has for the last three full calendar years averaged about $990,000 in actual cost? That’s basically what city councilmember Matt Flaherty wanted to know last Wednesday night. Table: Prior

2023 Bloomington budget notebook: Trash talk, cart fees, general fund

2023 Bloomington budget notebook: Trash talk, cart fees, general fund

Some Bloomington residents could soon see significant increases in their trash collection fees. But trash cart fees are laid out in city code, separate from the city budget. So the city council’s upcoming decisions on the city’s 2023 budget will not affect trash collection fees. Any decision to

Initial talk: Bloomington city council balks on 2023 budget, likely looking for better employee pay before late October vote

Initial talk: Bloomington city council balks on 2023 budget, likely looking for better employee pay before late October vote

“Rather than have a transformative budget, I would like a budget that is fair and equitable to our city employees.” On Wednesday night, that’s how Bloomington city councilmember Dave Rollo summed up his thoughts on mayor John Hamilton’s proposed 2023 budget. Rollo’s choice of words was not

Cataloging scooter parking violations: Bloomington to use temp agency for initial staffing of 2 positions

Cataloging scooter parking violations: Bloomington to use temp agency for initial staffing of 2 positions

Shared electric scooters that are parked so they block ADA ramps and sidewalks in Bloomington will soon be systematically documented and moved out of the way by two temporary workers. In action taken on Tuesday, the city’s three-member board of public works approved a contract with Express Employment Services

Fiber network with 1-Gigabit internet service likely to start construction work in Bloomington next week

Fiber network with 1-Gigabit internet service likely to start construction work in Bloomington next week

As soon as next week (Oct. 4, 2022), residents of the area south of Indiana University’s campus could start seeing new crews working in Bloomington’s public right-of-way to install fiber optic connections. At its regular meeting on Tuesday this week, the city’s board of public works is

Column | Lake Monroe: A neighborhood where Bloomington gets its drinking water

Column | Lake Monroe: A neighborhood where Bloomington gets its drinking water

From his yellow kayak floating along the shore of Lake Monroe, local birder David Rupp alerted me and five other paddlers: A great blue heron was sitting high in a tree on a dead branch. Great blue herons are big, blue-gray, long-beaked wading birds—they’re commonly seen standing in

Denied by Bloomington: Request to vacate two strips of right-of-way where parts of buildings stand

Denied by Bloomington: Request to vacate two strips of right-of-way where parts of buildings stand

If a property owner asks the city of Bloomington to give up some public-right-of-way, the city’s default answer is no. On Wednesday, Bloomington’s city council hewed to that basic standard, when eight of nine councilmembers voted against Solomon Lowenstein’s request for vacation of two strips of land.