By: Diane Benjamin
Tomorrow – the Bloomington City Council will hold a budget work session from 8-5 in the Osborn room. IT WILL NOT BE LIVE-STREAMED. I need video of the discussion, citizens should attend for as long as they can take it. Public Comment will start the meeting.
Monday night is the regular City Council meeting. Buying the Sugar Creek Packing property is back on the agenda. If you aren’t familiar with it, the property is located south of the library and north of Oakland Avenue. It is an eyesore, has been for sale for a long time, and evidently the City is the only potential buyer. The price has been reduced from $250,000 to $245,000 because the City spent money testing the property for hazardous materials.
Below are some highlights from the Council packet” http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8269
The Sugar Creek Packing Co. contracted a Phase I & Phase II Environmental Assessment in 2003. These studies concluded that no levels of deleterious constituents were found which rose to the level of needing remediation based upon Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) regulations. The studies also determined that a 1,000 gallon underground storage tank (UST) which used to store waste oil was likely removed from the site but found no conclusive documentation indicating such. An asbestos study dated March 24, 2014 was clean.
Acquisition of the subject property provides a number of options: It could be combined with other City owned parcels in the area to encourage potentially larger or more intense land uses. It could also be used to provide necessary additional parking in the area allowing for upwards of nearly 115 additional parking spaces. According to City Code, the Library and City Hall campuses need a total of 1,090 parking spaces. Currently there are only 457. The site could also be used as a storm water dentition basin servicing Downtown as part of the CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) elimination project. The site could be combined with construction of a smaller facility and adjacent green space to provide a more aesthetically pleasing area with other nearby public uses.
Staff recommends that the City proceed with the acquisition of the Sugar Creek Packing Plant as originally presented at the August 11, 2014 Council Meeting having found additional environmental issues of significance.
Council approved the purchase at the August 11, 2014 meeting contingent on the acquisition of a No Further Remediation (NFR) letter from the IEPA for the subject property. However, an NFR letter was not obtained and accordingly the purchase was not finalized.
When the potted plants approve buying the property the spending is only getting started. The City of Bloomington has deferred maintenance on properties they already own, estimates are up to $100,000,000!
If your home budget was bleeding red and your income will probably decrease next year, would you be spending money buying a property that you will need to invest even more money in?
Tax Revenue to the City is down. Funding from the State must drop to get the State on sound footing. Bloomington is: Spend Spend Spend.
Watch the vote, you will know who needs to be replaced on the Council for their inability to live in the real world.
The money will be borrowed:
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The approval of the Budget Amendment will allow a transfer from the General Fund balance for General Fund Transfers to Capital Improvement (10019180 – 89410) and to the Capital Improvement from General Fund (40100100 – 85100). The expenditure will be paid from the Capital Improvement Land account (40100100 – 72510). A lease will be executed after completing the bid process to pay for this purchase. A rough estimate of the debt service is 5 years at 2.35% with biannual payments of $26,100.
The City paid $6000 to investigate the property for hazardous waste. They want to buy it for $245,000, then pay for it over 5 years. $6000 + $26,100 * 10 payments = $267,000 if the total price before demolition and rebuilding.
Expect another 7-2 vote, the pots will hope you don’t notice.
More taxpayer fleecing?
Why do they need more parking spaces? I thought the optimal plan was to get the people out of their cars to walk and bike. Geesh, can this people make up their mind? They don’t seem to know which way the wind blows on any given day.
we need to downsize our library. most everything is available online on a kindle.
If you live in Bloomington and plan to vote for alderman, the choices are clear. Tari supporters want it expanded – the others have brains.