Old B Square

Monday of Christmas week was the last meeting of 2020 for Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC). It was a landmark event for a city of Bloomington government meeting. It was not special because the meeting was held using Zoom’s video-conferencing platform. Video-conferenced public meetings have been standard since the

Monroe County officials who won election in November took their oaths of office at noon on Friday, New Year’s Day. The 50-minute-long ceremony was hosted by the Monroe County Democratic Party. Election winners were all Democrats. The continuing COVID-19 pandemic, which added another death to Monroe County’s count

Even for a publication like The B Square Beacon, which specializes in local government coverage, the dominant story of 2020 was the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic changed the way local government meetings are run, in some ways for the better. But COVID-19 was not the only important story of 2020.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Monroe County commissioner Julie Thomas called COVID-19 vaccine distribution a “hurry-up-and-wait” situation. She said in her household the question comes up every other day: “Is it here yet? Is it our turn yet?” For most people, the answer is no. But Brian Shockney, who’

On a vote taken by Bloomington plan commissioners in mid-December, a rezone request for an 87-acre parcel now zoned as a PUD (planned unit development) got continued to January’s commission meeting. The request was first heard by Bloomington’s nine-member plan commission in November. The planning staff’s position

A mixed-use development with 123 residential units, 184 parking spaces and 7,000 square feet of commercial space might be replacing the southern two-thirds of the warehouse just north of Hillside Drive next to Switchyard Park. The development would also stretch south of Hillside Drive by one parcel. To make