By: Diane Benjamin
The Convention and Visitor’s Bureau has decided to hold off paying the consultant to update the report on the $43 million multi-sports complex. You might be interested to see who is on the CVB Board: https://www.visitbn.org/contact-us/staff-board/
Lots of familiar name there!
Let’s go back to when this nonsense started. The FAA told the airport the soccer facility on their property had to go. The airport authorities told us it was because playing soccer there was too dangerous. That was never the reason, the FAA just wanted air related businesses, not kids. That was pretty clear by the number of times the lease was extended. Danger and kids don’t mix, yet the airport stuck with that explanation – until I got the scoop directly from the FAA: https://blnnews.com/2018/04/05/faa-cira-and-soccer/
Prairie City Soccer League knew since 1994 the airport wasn’t a long-term solution. Now jump to 2013, what they did between 1994 and 2013 isn’t known.
In August of 2013 a press conference was held at the Doubletree by a group called CAAY. (Citizens Advocating for Area Youth) Cute kids in soccer uniforms were the decorations.
They weren’t advocating for area youth, they were advocating for a Sales Tax increase to fund a $16,575,000 Community Center, a $14,925,000 Soccer Complex, and $500,000 for the Boys and Girls Club. The YMCA would relocate to the Community Center.
Meanwhile, the YMCA has raised money themselves and so has the Boys and Girls Club. The Soccer people sat on their hands until about 2018.
This is to remind you who wanted to raise your taxes, many of these people are still around:
Use this list to make sure no one on it ever gets elected to any office. Some of them already have. One of them voted for the Coliseum! https://blnnews.com/2017/01/28/coliseum-who-to-blame/
It is nice to see that the CVB staff is well represented by relatives of long standing BN Elitist Clique members. It is also good to see that CAAY members are long standing members of the Clique. The sports complex will never die until this group says it will die. It may be put on hold until the local political smoke clears but will rise like a phoenix someday when you least expect it. It never ends until your rulers say it ends.
Nope. Not a chance. It’s a trick. Remember the State Farm building? I don’t trust little man Renner, and his comrades, any farther than I can throw him/them.
There is NO WAY they will let this die – just like previous tax increases haven’t died. B/N has NEVER started a committee or program, or voted a tax increase – and then allowed it to die. They just keep taxing and move the money to some other handout or free program. Or they pay for more “experts” and “consultants” for Unit 5, Uptown 2.0, the State Farm downtown building, etc.
Renner and Koos have to GO!
Slight correction – Last time the Normal Public Library needed an expansion, they asked for a temporary tax increase, a three year property-tax surcharge iirc. That bump was ended as originally promised. My dad was on the board at the time, and it’s a point of pride that they lowered the tax once it was no longer needed.
Just as we need more Stans, we need more Silas.
I agree! we need more Stans and Silas – Thanks for the information, it is so refreshing to hear about people like your father who actually care about their communities and want to improve it without adding too much of a financial burden on the taxpayers. You should be proud!
Frank McSwain is dead, so his name should have an asterisk by it.
If you want to know who really controls the Bloomington-Normal economy and local civics simply click the link to the CVB Board and review the CAAY document imaged by Diane. In my opinion, many, if not all, of these individuals and/or their respective organizations or entities are committed to (ab)using the power of local government to centrally plan the community in their image, maintain the caste system pecking order in Bloomington-Normal, and otherwise boost their egos, all while stomping out innovative, entrepreneurial, and outside-the-box thinking that this community so desperately needs to offset its increasing economic decline.
Perhaps the most accurate and insightful post ever on this blog.
Seriously??
Without a doubt Dianne. BN Deserves Better post is extremely accurate. BN is run by a well-organized band of oligarchs, many are on the CAAY listing you provided.
Thanks, MPeabody! I’m flattered, though I wish I were wrong.
YEP! LOTS of OLD familiar names and faces there! All want run a piece of YOUR life and wallet/purse!
If all the well to do’s want the sport complex then they can pony up the bucks for it!
The taxes in this town, county, and state have led to stagnant if not falling properly values. The taxes have sucked up a significant portion of our disposable income. Fix the pensions at all levels and stop looking for new things to spend on. Way to many government employees drawing way too generous pensions.
The CAAY originally proposed building a new YMCA in Bloomington and the soccer facility in Normal and raising the sales tax in both towns to do it. That proposal got nowhere. Meanwhile the YMCA engaged in their own capital campaign and is about to break ground for their new facility using their own money. The soccer community needs to do the same and Bloomington and Normal need to stop spending tax payer money on their stupid studies that just keep bilking the government for more money to expand the scope of their last study.
That’s the gist of what Tari Renner said in yesterday’s Pantycrap about this and it scares me to think that I might actually for once agree with him.
The ones who seem to benefit from this are Soccer mom Kathy Lorenz and Path Performance owner, Kevin McCarthy. Both are the representatives from Normal and both have a lot to gain with a new soccer facility. Kathy can appease her friends who are clearly using her and McCarthy can recruit new clients.
Yes indeed BN Deserves Better is spot on in his assessment, but their hold on this community is breaking up by the minute. As people get informed the support for this crowd is dwindling.
Thanks, Uptown Dreams. I do agree that their stranglehold over the community is lessening with the rise of local Facebook groups, Diane, and other non-traditional media that have been sharing alternative viewpoints, ideas, and solutions that challenge the status quo. Koos, Renner, and their cronies resort to attacking these forms of media and their authors, participants, and supporters because the facts are not on their side. They are losing because information is decentralized. Information no longer runs solely through centralized actors like the Pantagraph, WGLT, WJBC where it can be sanitized, censored, co-opted, and even corrupted to fit the narrative of the local elitist clique. This frightens them. Look no further than Tari’s attacks on Diane, Koos’ attempt to bait people on Facebook groups, and the Town of Normal’s deception to taxpayers in order to fund a communications person who will undoubtedly be retained with the goal of controlling what citizens can hear and learn from their government.
It’s why Normal raised our taxes to hire a full time propaganda manager.
Never trust the word(s) of a politician because they are paid “liars”.