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This is the WFHB Local News for Monday, November 21st, 2022.
Later in the program, WFHB Correspondent Kayan Tara reports on ongoing complications with rezoning the potential new jail. More in today’s feature report.
Also coming up in the next half hour, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton announced he will not seek re-election in 2023. Two Democratic candidates confirmed they are running for mayor in the next election cycle. More in your daily headlines:
Bloomington City Council
On November 16th at the Bloomington City Council meeting, the council discussed the petition from Peerless Development to vacate the alley next to the Johnson Creamery building. Council Attorney Stephen Lucas explained the petitioner’s proposal to give the city a separate alley in exchange for the alley vacation.
Council Member Susan Sanberg asked if there would be any benefit to the public to have the new alley Peerless has proposed, or if there would be any consequences. City Engineer Andrew Cibor responded that he does not think there are many benefits to the public, and said it would add additional work for the city to take care of the new alleyway.
Council Member Steve Volan said that they already have the responsibility of maintaining the current alleyway and that he didn’t see a problem with maintaining the new alleyway since they would be swapping the alleys.
Council Member Matt Flaherty said he would vote to vacate the alley and that his decision was not contingent upon the inclusion of the new alley.
The council voted to approve the petition in the case that the Bloomington Plan Commission approves of the alley swap. The vote was 6 to 1, with Council Member Dave Rollo voting no on the alley vacation.
The next Bloomington City Council meeting will be held on November 30th.
Monroe County Council
On November 15th at the Monroe County Council meeting Commissioners’ Administrator Angie Purdie asked the council to allocate an additional twenty-five thousand dollars to the service budget line from the Food and Beverage line to help with the deficit which Purdie explained was due to the cleanup of two encampments where people experiencing homelessness had been living, and the appraisal of the Convention Center.
Council Member Geoff McKim asked if they were asking to be reimbursed for cleaning up the camps along with the Convention Center Appraisal.
Purdie clarified that they would only be asking the Food and Beverage Tax Advisory Committee to reimburse them for the appraisal of the convention center. The cost of the encampment cleanup was only included to explain how the line got depleted beyond the original budget.
McKim also asked how much the cleanups have cost. Purdie said she didn’t know how much it amounted to, but said that they were expensive.
Council Member Trent Deckard asked if there were any plans to prevent the encampments on government property in the future.
Purdie responded.
The council unanimously approved the request to appropriate the funds from the Food and Beverage Tax account if the Food and Beverage Tax Commission approves of it.
Council Member Marty Hawke was present on zoom but unable to participate in the vote since she was sick.
The next Monroe County Council meeting will be held on December 6th.
Mayor John Hamilton Not Seeking Re-Election in 2023
On Friday, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton announced he will not seek re-election in 2023. Hamilton reflected on his mayoral term and looked positively on Bloomington’s future during his departure speech.
“I have decided not to run for re-election next year. It was a hard decision. I’m really excited about what’s going on in Bloomington and our future. And there’s so much more to come,” said Hamilton.
Two Democrats have put their names in the running for Bloomington’s mayoral seat. Last week, Executive Director for IU’s Center for Rural Engagement and former CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County Kerry Thomson launched her campaign.
According to her campaign website, Thomson is running on attainable housing and community safety. In her speech, Thomson said, “Why are we spending millions on bike lanes and annexation lawsuits when we have people living in tents?”
Over one week ago, City Councilperson Susan Sandberg formally declared she’s running for mayor on the Democratic ticket.
When Mayor Hamilton announced he would not run in the next election cycle, Sandberg released a statement saying, “I have obviously had fundamental disagreements with John Hamilton on how we address some difficult issues facing Bloomington and Monroe County. These disagreements led to my decision to run for Mayor.”
She went on to share how she was able to work together with the mayor on various projects such as the response to the pandemic despite their disagreements.
As of this reporting, Thomson and Sandberg are the only mayoral candidates for the 2023 election.
Feature Report:
In today’s feature report, WFHB Correspondent Kayan Tara reports on ongoing complications with rezoning the potential new Monroe County Jail. We turn to Kayan Tara for more.
Up next, we have some recent prison-related news and announcements from the producers of Kite Line – our public affairs program devoted to prison issues in the Midwest and beyond. Kite Line airs each Friday at 5:30 p.m. on WFHB. The program is available online at wfhb dot org or wherever you get your podcasts.
Credits:
You’ve been listening to the WFHB Local News,
Today’s headlines were written by Kade Young and Noelle Herhusky-Schneider, in partnership with Cats – Community Access Television Services.
Our feature was produced by Kayan Tara.
Kite Line is produced by Mia Beach.
Our theme music is provided by Mark Bingham and the Social Climbers.
Engineer and Executive producer is Kade Young.
