By: Diane Benjamin
Monday: Bloomington Council meeting: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1089&Inline=True
Bloomington will get their own cannabis dispensary. It will be centrally located at GE Road and Veterans Parkway. It is owned by the same company that operates the one in north Normal. Likely it will draw customers from Bloomington and Normal. Sorry Normal. (Let the city wars continue. This isn’t the only battle of the current war.) See PDF page 63 and following.
Downtown Task Force recommendations are back on the agenda. The Council will hear again about options for improving downtown. Instead of moving against the guy owning many of the empty buildings, taxpayers will be told to fund other folly. Sick of hearing about downtown yet? See PDF page 161 and following.
Some on the Council will likely flip out over the rising number of COVID cases. See PDF page 190. As of today only 5 people are hospitalized even though 1385 are on home isolation. Obviously the threat is minimal and the reason for shutdowns was over a long time ago. https://health.mcleancountyil.gov/708/CORONAVIRUS-COVID-19
People will get sick and recover. Maybe a few in high risk groups who didn’t isolate will die. Every death is sad but the extreme response to a disease with a low death rate is ridiculous. That won’t stop the people who want to run your life, if your businesses closes permanently it’s no big deal. If you are a landlord who hasn’t collected rent for 6 months, it’s no big deal.
The City will torture you if you don’t comply with Pritzker edicts, even though they have been ruled illegal. The local tyrants won’t be able to dig themselves out of the hole they are burying themselves in. I bet you can’t wait to eat outside in the middle of winter.
This part of the meeting will prove who thinks you aren’t smart enough to run your own life and who doesn’t.
More on Tim Gleason’s raise: https://blnnews.com/2020/09/11/bloomington-city-manager-gleason-gets-a-huge-raise/
PDF page 60. Gleason’s unpaid sick time is getting paid into his RHS account. (Retirement Health Savings)
See Gleason’s original contract here – PDF page 205 https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=18156
Lot’s of perks like $550 a month auto allowance. Did you know Gleason’s employer from years ago still has him on their health insurance plan? Pekin:
Bloomington either didn’t pay the P-Card statement last month or failed to tell you what was paid. It should have been on the 8/24 Bills and Payroll – it wasn’t. It isn’t on Monday night’s either: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=25182
They did pay a performance fee at the closed BCPA:
An employee is allowed to TRAVEL – as in meeting in person? Also Tari is back to a free lunch occasionally. Remember when his P-Card provided lots of them?
Duplication of services that could have ended if voters had bothered to get the facts. There is no reason to have TWO election authorities for McLean County.
Connect Transit:
Is Gleason married? Sounds like a scam to get extra money while being covered on a wife’s plan. How would Pekin even be able to cover him? Government knows no bounds!
Yes
For the life of me, I can’t understand why our elected officials spend such an inordinate amount of time and attention on Downtown Bloomington. You would think it’s the center of the Bloomington economy when in reality it might account for 1% of Bloomington’s GDP if that. For the average citizen, the Downtown doesn’t even register as a top 5 issue. Can’t wait to hear the newest “investment” these clowns will propose. How does one top hundreds of thousands of dollars for wayfinding signs you ask? Well, we’re about to find out. These pie-in-the-sky speculators that own Downtown buildings are counting on the City to provide what is essentially a taxpayer-funded bailout disguised as “economic development” around them. I’m sure Tari and his fanboys are thrilled about the transfer station. Now all those high tech companies, large employers, and high-end retailers will be fighting over each other to relocate Downtown.
Ha ha
So this explains the new stop light on GE Rd at Walgreens & Honda. Because of the future cannabis store.
The stoplight at GE & Veterans had been in the works since before cannabis was legal in Illinois. That intersection had a high accident rate.