By: Diane Benjamin
Just info:
Tari Renner got the City to buy this property on North Main so the City could control what was built there. 3 Kirk Holdings was involuntarily dissolved in 2018 according to the Secretary of State website. Search corporations here: https://www.ilsos.gov/departments/business_services/business_searches.html
After years of realtors unsuccessful trying to unload it, the City of Bloomington put this on their website on 8/5/2022: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/28194/637952937141170000
It appears nobody wants this property and tax payers are stuck with a $1.4 million investment.
FYI: Henson Disposal shows two of the same Managers as 3 Kirk Holdings: Tim and Tom Kirk. Search corporations at the link above.
Next see this story from 2019: https://blnnews.com/2019/07/03/know-what-these-bills-are-for/
Henson Disposal was raking in money hauling items from the convenience center. Tom Kirk is listed as the President of Henson Disposal in that story. Henson Disposal is also listed as a contributor to Renner’s campaign.
Now Henson has sold their transfer station to LakeShore Recycling LLC and caused many citizens to worry about increased area truck traffic. https://blnnews.com/2024/02/16/county-must-see-public-comments/
Remember December 2023 when city staff wanted to raise property taxes $1.1 million after tripling water rates? https://blnnews.com/2023/12/12/we-have-work-to-do-%f0%9f%a5%b6/
$1.4 million is sitting in a taxpayer owned property nobody wants, but property taxes have to increase by $1.1 million. Brilliant because you aren’t supposed to remember 2016. Luckily that increase was defeated, the increase for the library wasn’t.
This should be a lesson in limited government. Local governments constantly throw money away on their wish lists and/or incompetence instead of providing essential services. Is the unused water tower going to stand forever?
$1,400,000 is sitting in a property nobody wants. The roads will barely be touched (only $10 million budgeted for streets/sidewalks) because nobody will get their name on a plaque for fixing them.
Throwing away more money downtown is next. Since government is supposed to be “For and By the People”, the people must approve. They sure act like they do.
Can Bloomington at least get a mayor next year who doesn’t giggle at meetings?
I guess it is easy to make horrible real estate investments when it is someone else’s money.
Who can tell me the last real estate purchase made by local government that is a success story for someone other than the seller?
NEWSFLASH to City Government:
Consumer spending is down and continuing to show a downward trend. Ignore the common core arithmetic and put 2 and 2 together the old fashioned way.
With the O’biden adminstration runnin’ thangs, it ain’t gonna all of a sudden take off into a euphoria of mad spending. We’re all about tapped out. First we need to try to catch up. People ain’t spending and they coming downtown because there is nothing there that they can’t get all over town. Stop spending more and more money on your dreams and fix the infrastructure which is your charge in the first place.