By: Diane Benjamin
Either the media fell asleep during last Monday’s Council meeting or they didn’t report this on purpose. A presentation was made by the Fire Chief – this was included:
Public Safety has been very high on citizen’s priority lists for City spending. This one graphic is MILLIONS of dollars with millions more for staffing and equipment.
Crickets from the media.
Crickets from Renner. Hales was absent, so crickets from him too.
Crickets from the City about NEVER-USED fire station #5 too. Unfortunately it’s on the wrong side of town. It’s now an extremely expensive occasionally used meeting hall.
The Chief reported response times of 15 minutes or more to the area around Normal Community and Eastview Christian. Housing continues to increase in the area. Will it keep increasing?
I wonder if Five Bugles recommended building the last one. I wonder if Five Bugles had any suggestions on what to do with #5.
Where will the money come from when Bike Paths, a downtown hotel, and throwing money at economic development people takes priority.
Maybe you missed this City spending priority from yesterday:
It’s either a complete waste of money or a way to convince citizens an entire new City Hall is badly needed. A consultant told them so.
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A number of years ago I believe both B/N were contemplating making fire sprinklers a code requirement for new construction and remodeling. The local builders threw a fit about the additional cost and that was the end of it. If both B/N had went through with implementing the code there would have been less reliance on the fire department. Now you see what you get, more expense for the fire departments.
Traffic signals, those have been a mess for years when it comes to timing. I’m not sure who needs to go out the door first, Karch or the staff and get who is needed in here to straighten this mess out. What is it also with not allowing left turns on a yellow signal around here. I cannot think of anyplace I have been that doesn’t allow it at many intersections. Many intersections that have signals should have been made into turnabouts. No joke B/N are two cities with the most stop signs and signals that I have ever experienced. Also those humpme speed bumps like on Country Club Place should be ripped out. Let the home owners complain and just ignore them. Idiots! They slow down emergency vehicles.
Don’t agree on sprinklers in houses! It would add a ton to the cost not to mention maintenance and line breaks. There aren’t enough house fires to justify saddling everybody with the additional cost and making housing more un-affordable.
NO! I didn’t miss that. It IS the most USELESS study I have EVER seen on these pages, and spending $120 K for a consultant for a “STUDY” is just plain pissing money down the drain. WHO approved this imbecile project, they should be put in the stock and publicly displayed. Yes, the N.E. DOES need a fire station, it’s just too bad the council had the “foresight” to build it in the opposite direction!
Think the Budget Task Force saw it? Sage? Black?
MARC: I agree with you that the cities DID raise a stink about sprinklers in private residences, but I don’t think they have a place there-think of winter-no power and frozen pipes! I CAN see them in MULTIPLE residence places, i.e.: Frat houses, residence halls and the like, where they are,
Also on turnabouts, yes B/N IS behind the times, but the locals: would hit ya head on, as they just don’t get it! And YES the speed bumps are a pain in the “shocks” and serve NO purpose other then putting them in and 3 years later tearing them out-like UPTOWN did with their “fancy” parking spots a few years back-remember them? And WHEN was the last time you saw a car plugged in in UPTOWN?? Another waste? And the budget “task force” was ANOTHER excuse to feed their faces on OUR $$$. PERIOD.
It’s raining out, MAYBE we should do a “flood study ” of sugar creek and it’s navigation & recreation possibilities!
You don’t live here.
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Wow! Very intelligent.
What the Pantagraph did report was a comment from Mr. Karch saying it is “best management practice” to update traffic signals every 5 years. They have not been updated in 10 years. If the City Manager does not allocate funds for infrastructure or capital improvements–or whatever fund this would fall under, the updates are deferred like a lot of other necessary projects until it becomes an emergency. Instead, Hales budgets a raise for himself and all the other fluff.
I wonder what the response time is for South Bloomington. Station #5 was built for the forecast growth of 50,000 new residents to live on the South side. Mitsubishi Motorway was to be extended to Six Points Road for better access across town–never happened. The entrance to Bloomington from the South is a mess. All the growth still continues to the North and East side. The needs of the South and West sides are ignored. Sage? Black?