By: Diane Benjamin Update to this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/03/31/benjamin-school-and-the-grove/ A parent told me that once the trail was done bus service was stopped. At the west end of this trail is a 4 lane road with no traffic control officer. These kids are elementary, it is unsafe for them to cross that road without an adult […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Since Jamie Mathy hated sprawl and considered The Grove sprawl, (Ireland Grove Rd. east of Towanda Barnes) he didn’t want this subdivision expanded further. Houses there sell fast, so obviously people like living there. Maybe Jamie didn’t look at what 2 City Managers ago negotiated with the developer. The […]
By: Diane Benjamin Click on this link for details and a link to the application: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/Components/News/News/8907/ If your excuse for not applying is you are too busy, I’m sure people that aren’t too busy to serve will apply. Of course being represented by another progressive with an agenda won’t get your roads fixed.
By: Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal budget has $266,000 listed for employee retirement gifts. A reader FOIA’d the Town: Requested Record: “Please furnish receipts for gifts to employees retired or present from 1/1/21 to present.” This is what was received: The Town gave every employee who retired last year $500.00. Those employees of course […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tri-Valley already did this survey, District 87 is today: A student at Tri-Valley told her mom she left questions blank she didn’t want to answer. Good! The survey is called Illinois Youth Survey, it is for grades 8-12. Some other local schools have already taken the survey. Schools had to chose to […]
By: Diane Benjamin A Facebook friend asked why I didn’t include this in previous stories. Since I still don’t understand the ramifications of what attorney Jeff Jurgens stated Monday night, this just gives me another reason to say the Bloomington Election Commission needs abolished. The City is changing Ward maps to equalize population in the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Alderman Sheila Montney asked about the condition of Holiday Pool during discussions last night. That pool has the reached the end of it’s life too, Parks & Rec keeps holding it together. That won’t work forever. Both pools could have easily been replaced for what Bloomington is spending on a water park. […]
By: Diane Benjamin One Public Comment was exceptional last night. Gary Lambert speaks pretty often, always showing lots of common sense. Gary responded to something Mayor Mboka wrote in the Pantagraph wanting the State to quite keeping more of the local tax money than they used to. Gary threw that letter back in his face […]
By: Diane Benjamin I posted how much Normal earned last year from their TIF districts in this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/03/26/hey-unit-5-jackpot-ahead/ A quick primer on TIF districts – Tax Increment Financing: TIFs are supposed to be used to revitalize blighted areas. An area is designated as a TIF district, money is invested in the TIF which hopefully […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight’s packet: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1162&Inline=True Take a trip down memory lane to 2017: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/9854/636130888246430000 That link is to the proposed 2017 budget. PDF page 19 shows the General Fund including the percent held in reserves. The City planned to collect and spend $104,794,506. The RESERVES percent of the General Fund was 12.87%. Jump to […]
By: Diane Benjamin School Board meetings operate under 2 different statutes in the Illinois code. First they must comply with the Open Meetings Act which requires agendas be posted 48 hours in advance of meetings. OMA also requires time allotted at every meeting for Public Comment. Most units of government do not respond to people […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal has been hauling in money from the Uptown TIF. It isn’t nearly enough to pay off the debt they racked up with their vision, but their pot of gold ends in 2026 and Unit 5 will be a huge beneficiary. Unit 5 needs to know how much they […]
Update
By: Diane Benjamin 1) Two meetings ago Kathleen Lorenz suddenly started voting against the “professional staff” and even started asking questions about bills. She was part of the gang when meetings were less than 1/2 hour long because nothing was questioned. She didn’t like my headline however: https://blnnews.com/2022/03/22/kathleen-lorenz-is-running-for-re-election/ In case it’s too hard to read, […]
By: Diane Benjamin In case you didn’t know, the Town of Normal took $81,018 out of the Water Enterprise Fund to buy snow plow equipment. The plows could have easily been paid for out of general reserves, but the Town chose to use the money you pay for the delivery of water instead. https://blnnews.com/2022/03/11/3-things-normal-doesnt-understand-but-citizens-must/ The […]
The hard part is over – getting on the ballot! Jim now has a website: https://jamesfisher91st.com/ He also has a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100079458038412 (James Fisher – Freedom for Illinois) Invite Jim to speak to your group. Look over his website and ask him questions! JamesFisher91st@Gmail.com Now it is up to Primary voters in the 91st […]
By: Diane Benjamin Only one guy filed petitions to run for Sheriff in November. The Democrats have no one running, but that doesn’t mean they can’t appoint someone to be on the November ballot. Libertarians could too. Meanwhile, the local leftists are challenging the petitions of some Republicans who filed for County Board. They aren’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin School Boards exists because they are elected by THE PEOPLE to watch and control what happens in government run schools. In Illinois many elected school board members are told “Let the professionals handle running the schools”. Sound familiar, as in “professional staff”? New Board members are indoctrinated with a trip to Chicago […]
Try to be nice and constructive, you are funding them: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/sv/EL3t0NL/communitybrandingEDC . . . . . . . .
By: Diane Benjamin Connect Transit Board meeting yesterday: https://www.connect-transit.com/file/556/03%2022%202022_Board%20of%20Trustees%20Meeting%20Packet.pdf Payment: $2,490,777 Add that to the $1,589,156 from this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/02/21/connect-transit-pays-proterra-for-electric-buses/ The total cost of 4 buses is $4,390,913. They still have $310,980 to go (unless that was sent as a deposit and I missed it) Next add $1,715,000 for solar panels. https://blnnews.com/2021/03/04/pulling-the-plug-on-electric-buses/ All this so […]
I’m not a lawyer and reading court records gives me a headache. If you can’t talk to me in person and trust that I can keep your identity a secret (like at least 100 other sources), I can’t help you. Email if interested: blnnews@yahoo.com
By: Diane Benjamin Even though items on the Omnibus Agenda are rarely questioned by anyone other than Stan Nord, Kathleen Lorenz pulled 3 items last night. The reasons she gave didn’t make a lot of sense, it appears she now wants the public to know she isn’t a rubber-stamper. The meeting lasted slightly over an […]
March Meltdown was at the Coliseum, so the BCPA is still looking for their first show this year to make money. The Performance Fee below is from a show called the Adventures of the Tortoise and the Hare. I still don’t have that report. I was missing one report from the BCPA – March Meltdown. […]
Excerpt: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is endorsing Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) for reelection in Illinois’ 15th district, highlighting her devotion to securing the border and protecting both life and the Second Amendment, Breitbart News has learned. Rep. Miller is facing off against fellow Republican Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) due to redistricting in the state, with portions […]
By: Diane Benjamin See the packet here: https://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4254 The weirdest thing on the agenda is Normal buying a house at 316 N. Glenn for $12,500. Besides being in Chris Koos’ neighborhood, the house is appraised for tax purposes at $22,119. That is 1/3 of the actual value. Property taxes haven’t been paid, over $9,600 of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Two “Republicans” will be on the June primary ballot for 11th Judicial Circuit Judge. “Republicans” is in quotes because one has never been seen at a Republican event before deciding getting elected as a Democrat isn’t possible in McLean County. (more on that in a minute) One candidate filled out the statement […]
By: Diane Benjamin Democrats have put a Constitutional Amendment on the November ballot in Illinois. Reforming pensions (that are closing in on eating half of the State budget) isn’t on the ballot. Banning Right To Work that hands power to unions collecting those unaffordable pensions is on the ballot. Here is how you know your […]
By: Diane Benjamin After watching the Town of Normal for years, Doug Damery is probably still employed since ethics are immaterial in Normal. A reader received a FOIA from Normal with some interesting things: Skokie was smarter than Normal – they rejected the National Fitness Campaign equipment Normal fell for: This email proves Doug Damery […]
By: Diane Benjamin Update to this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/03/18/denied-foia-normal/ The Town of Normal used 5 ILCS 140/7 (1)(f) to deny the FOIA. A lot of Illinois law is ridiculous to read and contradicts itself, but the FOIA law isn’t one of those places. See the FOIA law here: https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/documents/000501400K7.htm What does (1)(f) actually say? The Town […]
By: Diane Benjamin See update to this story here: https://blnnews.com/2022/03/18/more-on-the-foia-normal-denied/ This statement is in Normal’s just passed budget under “City Manager accomplishments FY 2021-2022”, PDF page 118: https://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/19729/2022-23-Final-Budget A couple things to note from the above: Completion – normally means the report is complete Results will be used – infers there are results I FOIA’d […]
By: Diane Benjamin WalletHub is out with a new report as of 3/7/2022. It shows Illinois is #1 with an effective State and Local tax rate of 15.01%. The lowest overall tax state is Alaska – 5.84%. Click below and page down. https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-states-to-be-a-taxpayer/2416 Keep clicking down and you will see this: This proves why people […]
By: Diane Benjamin Every number in this story comes from the same place – the Illinois Department of Public Health website (IDPH) The chart below shows COIVD deaths per day as reported to IDPH. These are daily deaths from 2/17/2022 through 3/16/2022. If you go to the link, hovering over each bar will show you […]
By: Diane Benjamin The video below is from the March 7th Normal Town Council meeting where the budget was approved. Chris Koos talked about the old days (2008) when they were forced to make cuts, now they have money to do things they couldn’t do then. Soon history will repeat, he has to spend before […]
By: Diane Benjamin All filing are available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CKSJBbVo0bgIPLEZqgWjZg9F2y1rPXV2 It is interesting to see who filed the optional loyalty oath and who didn’t. It is also fun to see who circulated petitions for who, that reveals who is connected to people you may or may not want to see in office. It also shows if […]
By: Diane Benjamin Please read to the BOTTOM! County Board candidates who filed for office are listed below by District. Since redistricting you get to vote for two this year, a drawing will be held after the election to see who gets a 2 year term and who gets 4 years. District 2 will have […]
By: Diane Benjamin It was nice to see everyone back in the same room last night and not mumbling through masks! While inflation is raging and gas prices are wiping out disposable income, Jeff Crabill sees increased revenues to the City as a pot of gold. He claims there were things they couldn’t do in […]
By: Diane Benjamin Instead of listening to the City Manager list all of the accomplishments last year, Kathrine Murphy narrated a video. It is an engaging way to present the information. Entertaining and worth your time – just hit play.
By: Diane Benjamin Making budget cuts isn’t a matter of cutting BIG things. It a myriad of small things that add up to big bucks. Here’s one example: This pic is from Normal’s budget: Normal will be handing over $109,250 to the CVB and $100,000 to the EDC. Why is Bloomington also giving the EDC […]
