Old B Square

The Monroe County council was not expected to discuss the convention center expansion at its Tuesday night work session. A draft resolution on the topic, floated at the council’s meeting two weeks ago, had been pulled from Tuesday’s agenda. But an appearance at the council’s Tuesday’s

[Note: Beacon Benchmark columns are an occasional way for the B Square Beacon’s writer to give readers some regular behind-the-scenes insight into this website, which aims to serve some of the news and information needs of Bloomington, Indiana.] What if news reporters had to write their copy in rhymed

Bloomington’s mayor, John Hamilton, sent a memo late Monday afternoon to the 19 other city and council elected officials that have been meeting since September to try to re-start the convention center expansion project. The project has been stalled at the preliminary design phase after a nine-member steering committee

The first two days of the Bloomington city council’s work on amendments to the unified development ordinance update were dominated by two contentious questions. Should duplexes and triplexes should be allowed in core neighborhoods? Should accessory dwelling units should be subject to the conditional use public process? Both questions

In the early 2000s, Bloomington’s local newspaper, the Herald-Times, was sprinkled with mentions of the Monroe County Green Party—about 50 references from 2000 to 2006. Only a couple mentions are recorded after that—and those are historical references. In that era, local Green Party candidates included 8th District

Bloomington’s city council handled a half dozen more amendments to the update of its unified development ordinance on Wednesday night, approving four out of six. Three of the approved amendments relax restrictions on large, generally flattish objects: solar panels, fences, and signs. The other amendment approved by the council