Sign in Subscribe

Old B Square

Column | Supporting Bloomington’s Comedy Attic staff during the COVID-19 shutdown: A matter of civic pride

Column | Supporting Bloomington’s Comedy Attic staff during the COVID-19 shutdown: A matter of civic pride

Last summer, right when I started putting a full effort into reporting for The Square Beacon, Bloomington’s city council took its summer break. For six weeks, from the second half of June, through the end of July, the city council didn’t meet. That’s normal. What isn’t

Bloomington city council looks to maintain normal legislative pace for assigning emergency powers to mayor

Bloomington city council looks to maintain normal legislative pace for assigning emergency powers to mayor

Now added to the agenda of next Tuesday’s meeting of Bloomington’s city council is an ordinance that’s designed to provide some additional administrative powers to the city’s mayor, John Hamilton. The additional powers are meant to provide some flexibility for the city’s executive to act

Column | Buskirk-Chumley, Function Brewing: Two signs of life in downtown Bloomington

Column | Buskirk-Chumley, Function Brewing: Two signs of life in downtown Bloomington

For the last week or so, the marquee of the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Kirkwood Avenue in downtown Bloomington has featured a quote from Mr. Rogers—some advice to young children about looking for the helpers. Helpers are now in demand, of course, because of the impact everywhere of the COVID-19

Monroe County’s election board chair on June 2 primary: “We’ll continue to encourage voting by mail as much as we can.”

Monroe County’s election board chair on June 2 primary: “We’ll continue to encourage voting by mail as much as we can.”

It’s possible that Indiana’s state election commission will make a decision at its April 22 meeting to eliminate in-person voting from this year’s primary election, now scheduled for June 2. As they wait out the roughly three weeks until a possible state-level decision, Monroe County election officials

Bloomington parks and recreation staffer second city employee to test positive for COVID-19

Bloomington parks and recreation staffer second city employee to test positive for COVID-19

In a press release issued Friday morning, the city of Bloomington has announced that a second city employee has tested positive for COVID-19. The confirmed positive case announced on Friday was for a parks and recreation department employee. According to the press release, the parks and recreation worker was placed

Census 2020: University, city working against COVID-19 to get Bloomington college students counted, local census numbers currently lagging behind rest of state

Census 2020: University, city working against COVID-19 to get Bloomington college students counted, local census numbers currently lagging behind rest of state

[Note: The census can be completed online by visiting this link to the US Census. https://my2020census.gov/] About six weeks ago, on Feb. 20, Bloomington’s mayor, John Hamilton, gave his annual “state of the city” address. The mayor’s basic theme was “everyone counts”—a riff on the

Bloomington farmers market to use pre-order, drive-through pickup to start season due to COVID-19 protocols

Bloomington farmers market to use pre-order, drive-through pickup to start season due to COVID-19 protocols

Bloomington’s farmers market will start off the year on a pre-order, drive-through-only basis, due to the required protocols of the COVID-19 pandemic. Details of the drive-through-only approach were revealed in a press release issued late Wednesday this week. Orders for this coming Saturday, April 4, the scheduled opening day