$6K fireworks item sparks Monroe County council talk about convention center expansion

Harrodsburg Heritage Festival organizer Paul Strain and Monroe County commissioners administrator Angie Purdie. (April 23, 2024)

Monroe County councilors Cheryl Munson and Geoff McKim (April 23, 2024)

Monroe County council from near to far: Peter Iverson, Kate Wiltz, Jennifer Crossley, Trent Deckard, Geoff McKim, Cheryl Munson, and Marty Hawk. (April 23, 2024)

CIB budget OK'd on split city council vote, answers on land for convention center hoped for by May 8

Panorama of convention center looking to the southwest as seen in August of 2022.

A $6,000 appropriation from food and beverage tax receipts, to pay for a Harrodsburg Heritage Festival fireworks display, was approved on Tuesday night by Monroe County’s council.

The vote was not unanimous.

Dissenting was Geoff McKim, who said he knew it would amount to a symbolic gesture. Still, McKim wanted to establish that he would not support uses of the food and beverage tax for purposes other than the convention center expansion—until it is clear that revenues from the tax will be adequate to pay for the convention center project.

McKim and Cheryl Munson are the only two members still serving on the seven-member county council who in late 2017 voted in favor of imposing the 1-percent tax on all prepared food and beverages sold in the county.

On Wednesday morning in related convention center news, Monroe County commissioners approved the content of a letter to Monroe County’s capital improvement board (CIB) about county-owned real estate near the existing convention center at 3rd Street and College Avenue.

The letter says: “It has always been the Board of Commissioners’ intent to provide all necessary property that it owns or controls to the Capital Improvement Board for no compensation.”

The CIB was established to oversee the convention center expansion project.
Continue reading “$6K fireworks item sparks Monroe County council talk about convention center expansion” →

Bloomington keeps tabs on building at 1st and Rogers for possible Hopewell demolition

Looking northwest from the intersection of Morton and 1st streets. (Feb. 19, 2024)

Bloomington RDC members from left: Deb Hutton, Deborah Myerson, Sue Sgambelluri, and Randy Cassady. (Feb. 19, 2024)

615 W. 1st Street with a sign outside giving notice of a historic preservation commission (HPC) hearing. (Feb. 19, 2024)

607 W. 1st Street has been mostly demolished. (Feb. 19, 2024)

714 S. Rogers St. looking south from the intersection of Rogers and 1st. (Feb. 19, 2024)

714 S. Rogers St. with Marshall Security car parked in the lot. The view is to the south from 1st Street. (Feb. 19, 2024)

Buildings shaded in green are authorized for demolition. The building shaded orange is 615 1st Street and would need to be reviewed by the historic preservation commission before demolition. The building shaded red is 714 S. Rogers St.

In the second week of February, the demolition of several buildings along the south side of Bloomington’s West 1st Street got started.

By Monday (Feb. 19) the building at 607 W. 1st Street had been mostly reduced to a pile of rubble.

The point of the demolition is to create a clean slate for developers who want to respond to a public offering of the property as part of the planned new Hopewell neighborhood. It’s part of the area where IU Health’s hospital previously stood.

In about 16 weeks, which works out to roughly the end of May, the work to raze the buildings is expected to be complete.

But the timing for the project completion could depend in part on whether two of the buildings on the south side of 1st Street are actually demolished.

Already known was the possibility that the California-style bungalow at 615 W. 1st Street could escape demolition—either through historic protection, or through a move to a different location. Bloomington’s historic preservation commission (HPC) is supposed to get an update on the status of the building at its Thursday (Feb. 22) meeting.

At its Jan. 25 meeting, the HPC voted to recommend that Anna Killion-Hanson, who is interim director of the HAND (housing and neighborhood development) department, extend by 30 days the demolition delay under which the property had been put. Killion-Hanson did extend the demolition delay by 30 days, which bought the house a little more time.

A different building—which was initially considered for demolition, but did not make the final list—might eventually be demolished.

Based on conversation between city of Bloomington staff and redevelopment commission (RDC) members at Monday’s RDC meeting, the building at 714 Rogers—the southwest corner of Rogers and 1st streets—could wind up getting razed. But that’s not certain.

Continue reading “Bloomington keeps tabs on building at 1st and Rogers for possible Hopewell demolition” →

Board maintains momentum for Monroe Convention Center expansion, but interlocal accord still unsigned

From left: CIB members Eric Spoonmore and Doug Bruce (Jan. 17, 2024)

From left: Bunger & Robertson attorney Jim Whitlatch and Jeff Underwood, the former city of Bloomington controller, who is being brought on as controller for the CIB. (Jan. 17, 2024)

Monroe County’s capital improvement board of managers meeting. (Jan. 17, 2024)

CIB member Adam Thies. (Jan. 17, 2024)

At its Wednesday afternoon meeting, Monroe County’s capital improvement board of managers (CIB) took the actions recommended by a three-member committee for moving ahead with the Monroe Convention Center expansion project.

One step was to authorize the issuance of an RFQ (request for qualifications) for a “construction manager as contractor” for the project. Interested firms will have three weeks to respond to the RFQ. The idea is for the three-member committee to winnow the respondents to a short-list by the next meeting of the CIB, which is now set for Feb. 14 at 3 p.m.

The full board won’t be picking from the short list at that meeting, but could ratify the committee’s shortlisters.

Also approved by the CIB at Wednesday’s meeting was the issuance of an RFQ for an owner’s representative. The idea is that none of the CIB members will have sufficient time to staff the project, and that role should be assigned to an owner’s rep.

In other action, the CIB headed towards retaining Schmidt Associates as the architect for the project, to build on the planning work that Schmidt did in 2019. The CIB voted to direct its legal counsel, Jim Whitltach, to contact Schmidt to confirm that the CIB wants Schmidt to be the main architect for the project.

Whitlatch is also supposed to ask Schmidt for a planning proposal that would allow the firm’s previous Phase 1 work to be updated to current 2024 standards.

Continue reading “Board maintains momentum for Monroe Convention Center expansion, but interlocal accord still unsigned” →

Analysis | A list checked twice: Unwrapping Bloomington city council’s 1,093 votes over 4 years

Two weeks ago, Bloomington’s elected city clerk, Nicole Bolden, called the roll of the nine city councilmembers for their final vote of the four-year term.

The vote was unanimous: Every councilmember voted in favor of the encomiums that were read aloud for each of the five councilmembers who will not be returning to the council in 2024.

Even the final substantive vote, which was taken on a proposal to sell the 3rd Street police station, turned out to be unanimous. All nine councilmembers voted against it.

Even though the 2020-2023 edition of the Bloomington city council will likely be remembered as one of the most divided in Bloomington’s history, unanimous votes were still easily the most common result.

The B Square kept track of the votes in a public Google Sheet in real time as they were taken, meeting by meeting.

Out of 1,093 roll call votes taken by the council for the four year term, 929, or about 85 percent of them, were unanimous. That includes 8–0, and 7–0 votes where someone was absent or abstained, and other similar patterns where there was a zero in either the “yes” or the “no” column.

Of course, the votes where the council was not unified were more memorable than the split votes, which were often preceded by acrimonious debate. Continue reading “Analysis | A list checked twice: Unwrapping Bloomington city council’s 1,093 votes over 4 years” →

Showers West construction contracts on hold until after Kerry Thomson becomes Bloomington mayor

StudioAXIS rendering of Showers West fire administration entrance.

StudioAXIS rendering of Showers West police station entrance.

Bloomington fire chief Jason Moore addresses the RDC (Dec. 18, 2023)

RDC members from left: Cindy Kinnarney, Randy Cassady, Deborah Myerson, and Deb Hutton (Dec. 18, 2023)

Bloomington councilmember Matt Flaherty, mayor John Hamilton at RDC meeting (Dec. 18, 2023)

At its regular meeting on Monday, Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) let four resolutions die that would have approved separate construction contract awards for the Showers West renovation and remodeling project.

That does not mean the contracts themselves are dead.

It just means that the contracts, which totaled around $12.7 million, could be up for a vote sometime in January 2024—but maybe not as soon as the very next meeting of Bloomington’s RDC, which is scheduled for Jan. 2.

The winning bids, which included a base plus some additional money for an IT room were: SCS Construction Services, Inc. (general trades) for $4,623,400; Multicraft Fire Protection (fire protection) for $310,500; Harrell-Fish Inc (mechanical and plumbing) for $4,128,000; and Cassady Electric (electric) for $3,655,900.

The Showers West project is supposed to remodel the portion of the city hall building that was purchased early this year, to make the 110-year-old brick former factory building into a suitable home for the fire department administration and police department operations.

Part of outgoing mayor John Hamilton’s plan was to sell the city’s 3rd Street police station, and move police operations to Showers West. Last Wednesday, the city council voted unanimously to reject the sale of the police station, at least for now.

Hamilton appeared in person in front of the RDC on Monday to advocate for going ahead and approving the construction contracts. Councilmember Matt Flaherty also appeared in person to urge approval of the construction contracts.

As she did on Wednesday, mayor-elect Kerry Thomson weighed in from the public mic on the Zoom video conferencing platform to advocate for putting off a decision.

Thomson said on Monday, “I wanted to ask you all to wait for the new administration to have an opportunity to review these bids in detail and ensure that there’s proper contingency and funding for all of the equipment and other needs before we move forward.” Continue reading “Showers West construction contracts on hold until after Kerry Thomson becomes Bloomington mayor” →

Raw low bids total $12.6M for Bloomington’s Showers West police, fire project: Awards next week

Excerpt from construction drawings for the Showers West renovation.

On the far end of the table from left: deputy mayor Larry Allen, assistant city attorney Heather Lacy, and Christopher Ciolli with Weddle Bros. ((Dec. 11, 2023))(Dec. 11, 2023)

Christopher Ciolli, a senior project manager with Weddle Bros. Construction reads aloud the bids for Showers West (Dec. 11, 2023)

On Monday at Bloomington’s city hall, bids were opened for construction work in connection with the renovation to the Showers West portion of the building.

The total of the lowest of the bids for each of the four packages came to about $12.6 million. The four packages were: general trades; fire protection; mechanicals and plumbing; and electrical.

Outgoing mayor John Hamilton’s plan is to sell the city’s police station, and move police operations to Showers West.

Reading aloud the bids in the McCloskey Room of city hall starting at 12:15 p.m. on Monday was Christopher Ciolli, a senior project manager with Weddle Bros. Construction, the city’s construction manager for the project.

Attending the bid opening on the city’s side were deputy mayor Larry Allen and assistant city attorney Heather Lacy. Also packed into the McCloskey Room to watch were several of the contractors who submitted bids.

The bids still have to be reviewed to ensure that they are responsive to the city’s requirements. That means the contractor offering the lowest bid might not necessarily be the one who receives the award.

The votes on the construction contract awards are expected at the next meeting of Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC), scheduled for next Monday, Dec. 18. Continue reading “Raw low bids total $12.6M for Bloomington’s Showers West police, fire project: Awards next week” →