By: Diane Benjamin
Last night during Trustee comments at the end of the meeting Chris Koos claimed Council agreed to limit each to 5 minutes. Evidently that was done in secret. I doubt Stan Nord got 5 minutes because he was constantly interrupted. Nord showed a map of where Normal plans to run water lines on West College. The lines run right on top of Bloomington’s. Bloomington is currently providing water to Rivian. The original Metrozone agreement must have reflected that for a reason. Either Normal didn’t have the capacity to provide water or they chose not to. This was decades ago.
Keep in mind, when Bloomington ended Metrozone Normal claimed it cost them $1 million, less than 1% of their budget.
See this 2017 story which proves the anger in Normal: https://blnnews.com/2019/08/16/fun-stuff-normal-suing-bloomington/
Last night Pam Reece tried to claim the water study was done for future economic development. That is how Bloomington got a never used fire station. Reece has publicly stated there is no development right now.
Does Normal know Rivian is looking to build another plant in Europe? Does Koos know Biden wants corporate tax rates raised because democrats don’t know that chases businesses to low tax countries? https://www.formacar.com/en/news/view/33169.html
Kathleen Lorenz blew the economic development narrative by volunteering to “educate” Stan about Metrozone.
It gets better! As of 10:30 am the video of the Council meeting is not on-line. Luckily I have it anyway. Below is the applicable clip. Kevin McCarthy was appalled that Stan dared to show pictures. Evidently trustee comments can only be used to praise the staff. This clip proves why the April 6th election is vital. The current Council is using your money to wage war with Bloomington.
Stan Nord did his usual Council recap on Facebook after the meeting. He urged Bloomington to elect Mboka Mwilambwe mayor and Marc Tiritilli mayor of Normal to end this feud. There is no reason the two towns can’t work together to solve common problems. The current incumbents prove they have no intention of working together. Normal is hell-bent on stealing everything possible from Bloomington as retribution for ending Metrozone. Remember the picture of Koos standing in front of his business taunting unemployed people? Yes he is that vindictive.
Below is one of the pictures Stan used to prove Normal is wasting your money. The red water line which Normal wants to build runs right on top of Bloomington’s water line. The total cost of both red lines is over $5 million. If economic development was really the goal Normal could have connected to the north end without running pipes on top of Bloomington’s.
Since the Council video is not on line, I was forced to tape the applicable section. I could have posted the live stream link but that could be removed by staff. The citizens of Normal need to hear how Koos, Lorenz, McCarthy, and Reece attempt to dismiss Stan for caring about your tax dollars. They obviously don’t. Sorry about the quality! If the real video is ever posted I will replace the below.
FYI – the Live Stream is posted on the Normal website – just hit play. I am leaving my version in case the Live stream version disappears.
First, thank you Diane for posting the videos. I can’t believe Kathleen’s comments about educating Stan. Because we can’t vote her out yet, I urge everyone to do what they can to help get Marc Tiritilli elected Mayor.
I have found that most of my neighbors and friends think everything is fine in Normal. (Apparently they don’t read Diane’s posts!) Share with people what you know about Koos and why he isn’t thinking first of the residents of Normal. Have concrete examples ready to inform others so they can make an informed voting decision and not base their decision on what they read in the Pantagraph or at WGLT. We can get Marc elected to see positive changes for our community but we need to work hard together for that to happen.
Again, pre-Stan Nord, this type of thing flew through the council unquestioned by anyone. Thanks Stan.
Nord got 3:46 of time to make comment before interruptions.
The interruption should not have been allowed as the time was for comments only, not open for discussion. It was out of order.
Koos probably again violated an Open Meetings law in how he set up 5 minute time limit
Koos is incapable of conducting the meeting professionally by allowing people to speak their piece in public comment/council member comment—by doing t this he is conducting a communist type meeting.
Reece, Koos, Lorenz saying it has been previously discussed was out of order, this time was council member comment and should the interruptions should be addressed. Plus such a comment is a joke when 5 minutes earlier Cummins was discussing Welcoming city crap. How many times has that been discussed?
People get out and vote these jerks out like you did with McBribe, give them Monday nights off!!
The construction for the extension has not yet been voted upon. $250k was approved months ago for a study. $4.75M is in the proposed budget for the construction next year. So it is appropriate to bring this up BEFORE including it in the budget. Koos and Pam just want this project done without question. I can see in their face how pissed they are that Stan is on the council and that he has not fallen in line like the other rubberstampers.
Pipes to nowhere. Unreal. Koos’ kiss to big labor on the way out the door. Another project that defies business sense, common sense, and doesn’t pass the reasonability test. The Town does not care about the outcomes of these projects and there is no accountability. Started with Uptown and won’t end until the current cast of characters is voted off the Council and certain government contractors and friends of government are thrown out in the snow. There are a lot of people that benefit from the “generosity” of Koos and Co. throwing around taxpayer dollars. So sad.
Kathleen, heed a warning, IF I were you, I don’t think I’d TRY and “educate” Stan on anything! If I were you, I think I’d go by the uptown council CREED. Shut up, sit down and LEARN!
A quick call to the Normal Engineering Dept. should answer the question about the why of the proposed tap-on line. It has nothing to do with future development as claimed by Reese and everything to do with Rivian. That’s pretty obvious. Rivian has already admitted in other EV publications they have limited capacity at the Normal plant even if they reach full production at it. The likely reason for the proposed European plant has more to do with foreign markets and electrical engineering know-how. All of Rivian’s domestic market depends on mostly high-rollers in California and on the East Coast. When that dries up, they will have to depend on their contracts with Ford and Amazon (who will eventually own the company at some point) to survive. Ford wants the battery tech like Amazon. In exchange, Ford is teaching Clark Kent how to manufacture vehicles. Wait until Rivian stock starts training on the exchange and sees who buys up most the shares. Will you then see what the plan was all along and it doesn’t involve sticking around Normal any longer than needed.
M is not far off. The European plant is for manufacturing in that market. Plain and simple, it’s not about taking anything “offshore” or away from U.S. manufacturing. I’m starting to wonder if Clark Kent has been sharing veiled threats of leaving, or making promises to add more jobs, based on a request for more pipes. Koos has been able to market his success (whether we believe it or not) on Rivian investing in the community and building out the plant. If they want more from the Town (via taxpayer money), people will start asking questions of both Koos and Rivian. So, he’s hoping to ram this spending through without discussion and move on to something else. If Koos had any guts, he’d come out and make the case to the taxpayers.
I saw a story about Rivian making Amazon’s 100,000 vehicles overseas. Don’t know who speaks truth.
Truth & Transparency = a foreign concept by Reece and Koos. Really, if Rivian needs the additional service just tell the truth…deception just makes them look like asses.
Meeting not online a violation of open meetings act?
No, it was live
People in both Bloomington and Normal should be pissed. Koos is doing the opposite of UNIFYING. He wants his puppet, and past campaign manager, Straza installed in Bloomington as mayor to further inflict pain on Bloomington. The fact that Koos and Straza dreamed up their Responsible Cities PAC together is alarming. Read the names of the others on their PAC. They are all big government knows best elitists too. Keeping the division between B and N ensures two completely separate and duplicate governments and more pensioned employees.
Perfectly stated! Two fire stations will be built on the east side because the cities can not work together, or better: don’t want to.