Tag: storm drain

Believed armed suspect extracted from Bloomington stormwater system after day-long saga

The image is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s online property lookup system.
Looking south down Walnut Street from the top of the 4th Street parking garage. (Sept. 20, 2022)
Bloomington police K-9 unit at the Walnut Street scene. (Sept. 20, 2022)
A Bloomington police officer sprints north on Walnut Street. (Sept. 20, 2022)
Looking south down Indiana Avenue from Kirkwood Avenue. (Sept. 20, 2022)

By around 5:30 p.m. a man believed to have been armed with a rifle was removed from the stormwater culvert near 6th Street and Indiana Avenue on the edge of Indiana University’s Bloomington campus.

It’s the place where the Campus River starts its journey under downtown Bloomington, flowing southwest.

A statement from Bloomington police said, “The suspect has been safely removed from the storm drain and will be transported to an area hospital to be evaluated. ”

That ended a day-long saga that started around 9:30 a.m., about a half mile southwest of 6th and Indiana—south of Seminary Park, along 1st Street between College Avenue and Walnut Street.

[This article has been updated below with additional information from a BPD news release issued shortly after midnight.]

Continue reading “Believed armed suspect extracted from Bloomington stormwater system after day-long saga” →

Bloomington board of public works notebook: Boxed-in bamboo wins appeal

The image of the property at 2739 E Brigs Bend is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s property lookup system.
Photo displayed on screen during Bloomington board of public works meeting (2022-09-13)

A stand of bamboo can continue to screen the hawks and herons that eat the excess fish in a backyard Bloomington water feature.

That was ruling from Bloomington’s three-member board of public works at its Tuesday meeting.

In the first week of September, Bloomington resident Carolyn Geduld had been cited by the city’s housing and neighborhood development (HAND) department for allowing the bamboo to grow on her property in the southeast part of town. It was a warning that the HAND department issued, not a fine

Under Bloomington’s city code, bamboo is defined as an invasive species and cannot be planted or maintained on a property.

Geduld appealed her notice of violation. And the city’s legal department was persuaded by her argument.

Assistant city attorney Chris Wheeler addressed the board in support of the appeal. Geduld attended Tuesday’s board of public works meeting, but did not address the board.

The key to winning over the legal department was not the hawks and herons that Geduld described in her appeal, but the fact that the bamboo was confined to a structure where it could not spread. Continue reading “Bloomington board of public works notebook: Boxed-in bamboo wins appeal” →

Dropped cell phone snagged from storm drain by Bloomington utilities workers

City of Bloomington utilities worker Robert Jackson (Sept. 9, 2022).
From left: CBU workers Robert Jackson and Matthew Dunn; and Avenue on College resident Daniel Fritz (Sept. 9, 2022).
From left: CBU workers Robert Jackson and Matthew Dunn; Avenue on College resident Daniel Fritz (Sept. 9, 2022).
RE-ENACTMENT. Lying prone is Daniel Fritz. Standing is CBU worker Matthew Dunn (Sept. 9, 2022).
The red circle indicates the location of the storm drain. The image is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s online property lookup system.
The red circle indicates the location of the storm drain. The image is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s online property lookup system.

When The B Square approached Bloomington city hall late Friday afternoon, Bloomington resident Daniel Fritz was lying prone in the gutter of Morton Street.

Standing on either side of him were two yellow-vested city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) workers—Robert Jackson and Matthew Dunn. Fritz’s face was pressed right up against the grate of a storm drain.

After a couple of quick questions, the scene was sussed out.

Fritz was looking down into the void to see where his iPhone had been a minute before. Jackson and Dunn had just extracted it from the bottom of the drain. Continue reading “Dropped cell phone snagged from storm drain by Bloomington utilities workers” →

Photos: Kirkwood Flood of 2021

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Around 3 inches of rain fell on the Bloomington area starting around 10:45 through half past midnight on June 19.

The thunderstorm knocked out power for around 6,000 Duke Energy customers, including a swatch of 1,500 customers east of the downtown square. The initial estimated time for restoration of power indicated on Duke’s outage map was 5 a.m.

The heavy rains that came with the wind and lightning caused street flooding in several areas, including East Kirkwood from Dunn to Grant. A car could be seen stuck on Grant Street in the block south of Kirkwood, swamped by the water flowing south.

The water was thigh deep in some places.

In the photos that accompany this story, yellow bollards are visible blocking off Kirkwood to vehicle traffic. [Monroe County floodplains from FEMA data] Continue reading “Photos: Kirkwood Flood of 2021” →