By: Diane Benjamin Sen Dave Koehler should be an embarrassment to the Democrat Party. He has no co-sponsors in the Senate to HB 3337 that removes the rights of citizens in Normal to elect required offices. I wonder how he justifies a bill that ONLY affects Normal? Democracy! Next he sponsored a bill to tax […]
By: Diane Benjamin Every small town in McLean County should pass the same resolution now. See what Leroy passed in 2018 when CIRA wanted to tax the entire County: Not everyone who uses CIRA lives in McLean County but they aren’t being taxed. Every small town and city in the County can’t afford to have […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Peoria Journal Star reported on a study that claims Illinois is the WORST state for taxes: https://www.pjstar.com/story/news/state/2023/02/23/illinois-is-the-worst-for-taxes-study-says/69931709007/ The exodus from Illinois will continue when it is MUCH cheaper to move than stay in Illinois. Since every other level of government wants more money, CIRA is joining the party. See this story […]
By: Diane Benjamin I filed a FOIA request with the FAA pertaining to the soccer fields on January 31, 2018. I received it today by mail. It’s not that big, no word on why it had to be mailed. So, why does soccer need to leave the airport property? See this 1994 letter written by […]
By: Diane Benjamin Illinois is in a death spiral and now it’s local. Every level of government refuses to live within their means and adjust to changing conditions. They think they can pick your pocket whenever they want. Central Illinois Regional Airport is the latest. CIRA has found a state legislator in Bellville to sponsor […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Central Illinois Regional Airport has their new website: CIRA.com Meeting dates, agenda’s, minutes etc can be found under “About the Airport” and then “Airport Authority”. Since I haven’t had time to follow them lately, I clicked on the November minutes and found this under Public Comments: The address is Bloomington. It’s […]
By: Diane Benjamin Central Illinois Regional Airport wanted a new website, mostly to comply with laws concerning required postings. As I stated in this article: https://blnnews.com/2016/04/19/cira-complies/ $50,000 was a ridiculous amount for a website. The bids received showed that. At the August meeting a company was selected: The minutes state CIRA wants to “own the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The next meeting of the CIRA (Central Illinois Regional Airport) Board of Commissioners is May 10th. Since the April meeting, Minutes for January-March have been posted on their website: http://www.cira.com/ See the bottom of “About CIRA” If you missed previous stories, CIRA was violating the Open Meetings Act by not posting meeting […]
By: Diane Benjamin I wonder why nobody ever noticed CIRA was violating the Open Meetings Act? Illinois has a HUGE problem with too many units of government, the Central Illinois Regional Airport being just one. Since I didn’t want to FOIA them every month for information or just be on their email list, I filed […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Central Illinois Regional Airport is owned by taxpayers. It isn’t a private company doing whatever it wants – it just acts like it. The meeting minutes aren’t posted on their website. No agendas and no meeting dates either. That means they are violation of the Open Meetings Act! I thought CIRA […]
By: Diane Benjamin TAXPAYERS own the Central Illinois Regional Airport, but you know very little about the management or financial position. See the CIRA website here: http://www.cira.com/ (Under “City Information” – Mitsubishi is still listed) It has ZERO transparency! There are no links to financial information, agendas, minutes of meetings, or who is on the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Chicago owns both O’Hare and Midway airports. From OpenTheBooks.com the salary of the person who manages BOTH airports in 2014 was: From Rosemarie’s LinkedIn page: How much does the CIRA Manager earn? http://blnnews.com/2016/01/28/cira-part-2/ $186,576 for managing O’Hare and Midway. $172,365 for managing CIRA. Anybody see a problem? […]
By: Diane Benjamin The first time I sent a FOIA request to the airport for payroll, I received Medicare Wages: http://blnnews.com/2016/01/21/cira-explain-please/. I did another request for the full salary and benefits paid to the airport manager, Carl Olson. The original request shows Medicare Wages of $175,710.68 I received this the second time: (click to enlarge) […]
By: Diane Benjamin The information below was obtained through by the Freedom of Information Act. The Central Illinois Regional Airport auditors released this information in their report for the year ended 4/30/15. Source: BNAA – FINAL – Audit Report – 8.20.2015 The airport doesn’t rely on taxes and subsidies nearly as much as Connect Transit […]
By: Diane Benjamin According to this Pantagraph article: http://www.pantagraph.com/business/local/olson-gets-contract-extension/article_c3a51735-c4ad-5cda-853b-7704ebcffb8a.html – the Executive Director of the airport (Carl Olson) just got a 2.5% raise. It also states he was earning $172,365 per year. The article is a glowing endorsement of the great job he is doing. Funny, because in January the Pantagraph also reported traffic was down […]
The soccer kids are getting kicked off airport land. The airport is spending money to study what businesses would be a good fit on their land. Wasn’t the reason given for kicking the soccer kids out was that it was too dangerous? After all, they use the facility on weekends for 12 weeks a year! […]
By: Diane Benjamin The entire County is going to be taxed to fund the airport. This was passed in Springfield without a vote from the County residents and by representatives that don’t represent them (Chung and Koehler). Remember: Taxation Without Representation? Details here: https://www.wandtv.com/news/national/cira-authority-expansion-means-new-tax-for-rural-mclean-county-property-owners/article_e7aeccb8-3339-11ee-966e-fb07c1b7d8e3.html The County is also forced to pay for the Bloomington Election […]
By: Diane Benjamin I can think of 3 recent times democrats changed the law in Springfield to benefit government, this isn’t “democracy”. I’m not a republican but I will never be a democrat because of oppression like this. The first one was the Town of Normal conspiring to pass a law to exempt ONLY Normal […]
By: Diane Benjamin I was notified by a reader who lives in the Ewing Park area that very frequently multiple helicopters are flying over his house after dark, sometimes using search lights. The reader had asked the Bloomington police, they didn’t know who was flying. The National Guard out of Peoria does training from CIRA, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Sen Dave Koehler has proven twice in recent weeks that he represents government, not the people. Even though Koehler doesn’t represent much of McLean County he wants to tax them anyway. Of course he’s doing it because CIRA wants him to, the rest of the people who will be taxed are immaterial. […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) We now have proof Unit 5 teaches kids what to think, not how to think. Follow-up to this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/05/04/normal-your-taxes-funded-this/ Doug Fansler sent a video of a Ted Talk to Chemberly Cummings after her Youth on a Mission promoted EV’s without considering all sides. The students obviously didn’t look for facts […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington Planning Commission packet from April 6th: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/27751/637846706526470000 This meeting was not on video because it was held in the Osbourne room of the Police Station. If all new vehicles will soon be required to be electric, why would anyone build this: This was on the agenda, it will be around Market […]
By: Diane Benjamin How about a fun story! I thought about naming it “De Plane De Plane”, but I refrained. Bloomington has some airport/flight enthusiasts, apps are available that show information on flights out of CIRA. One plane that makes frequent flights from CIRA didn’t show any information on the apps. Of course that made […]
By: Diane Benjamin See previous story: https://blnnews.com/2021/06/30/what-did-the-sign-cost/ In that story is an email stating estimates, not including the sign, were $55,000. I think I have finally finished reading everything I received by FOIA, thankfully I didn’t ask for attachments to emails. I would have had many more thousands of pages to read! Start by reviewing […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin From a Press Release issued by CIRA: Of course there is more to the story. This is an epic case proving when government is involved everything is much more difficult and more expensive. It proves yet again why government must be limited. Received by FOIA Start with this email – note the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday WGLT did this story: Youth-Soccer-B-N-Preps-Multisport-Complex-Or-Not One thing is clear, YOU have to stop this complex if you don’t want yet another multi-million dollar money pit! The story contains this statement: Anybody see a problem? We are expected to believe it is so dangerous for the kids to play soccer at the airport […]
By: Diane Benjamin The report provided to both Bloomington and Normal in July of 2018 should have ended the conversation on a sports complex: https://blnnews.com/2018/07/17/sports-complex-must-be-dead-on-arrival/ Why discussions have resurfaced now for an even more expensive facility – $50,000,000 -is slightly a mystery. I know a few people to blame, why anybody thinks this is a […]
By: Diane Benjamin The book handed out to the Councils Monday night (and me) needed some corrections. Maybe that’s the reason for the delay in posting the information. Normal has posted links to the presentation including video of the Monday meeting: https://www.normal.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1796 The local paper today called for a binding referendum. They called the complex […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night I actually asked the people around me if they heard the same things I did. It was close to the end when Evan Eleff of Sports Facilities Advisory stated the complex will never pay for itself. I asked him about it after the meeting ended. He told me this is Parks […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.wjbc.com/2018/04/14/consultant-community-has-room-for-new-sports-venues/ According to the WJBC story. the decision has already been made by the consultants who were just hired: we need a sports complex. The Pony League fields began in 1988 with no tax dollars. Hundreds if not thousands of kids and adults play there every summer. Have you noticed all the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The McLean County Chamber of Commerce is the poster child for insider payoffs. They have their own Political Action Committee to aggressively get the candidates elected they want. The candidates they want elected are the big spenders, therefore the Chamber is the ENEMY of taxpayers. The 2018 Bloomington Budget shows why they […]
By: Diane Benjamin BN Advantage was formed in 2015. Their mission is to get all the players together for collaboration on economic development strategy. The Bloomington Council approved the formation in October 2015, see this doc: BN Advantage I’m sure other area governments passed the same type resolution. Temporarily forget the fact that government doesn’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin At every recent Council meeting Mayor Renner has appointed people to various boards and commissions. He is obviously transferring his agenda to every part of Bloomington and anywhere he can in the County. How many people didn’t want to stop serving, but were forced to? Monday night Renner has two appointments and […]
By: Diane Benjamin I recently had some time to read through the minutes of CIRA Board meetings and other information on their website. Discussion about extending the soccer lease took place in March: http://cira.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/March-14-2017-minutes.pdf Normal has every intention of forcing its citizens to pay for the proposed complex: I found another item that is even […]
By: Diane Benjamin Update to this story from yesterday: https://blnnews.com/2016/04/14/airport-report/ I received this explanation from Carl Olson (airport manager) about the $9.3 Million reflects as Investments: I received a copy of the proposed budget – a note was included that it will be voted on at the May meeting. See it here: FY2017 Draft budget-1 […]
Update: Right after I posted this story I was contacted by Carl Olson at the airport. Hopefully he can answer my question. By: Diane Benjamin Last Tuesday I attended a CIRA Board meeting for the first time. I’ve previously reported on CIRA, see stories here: https://blnnews.com/?s=CIRA I’m sure I was the last person they expected, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Add CIRA to the list of projects government created firmly believing it would create economic activity, benefit citizens, and not be a tax burden. CIRA now joins the ranks of other local boondoggles like the Coliseum and the BPCA. If we build it, they will come. For awhile they did come. CIRA […]
According to an anonymous Editorial: It’s your fault Central Illinois Regional Airport (CIRA) keeps losing airlines. Quit driving to Springfield, Peoria, or Chicago to fly – you are hurting the local airport. Here’s the plan: 1) You need to fly somewhere that currently isn’t a destination from Bloomington. 2) Book a flight out of Bloomington […]
I hear the IT guys at State Farm can apply for a transfer if they want out of Bloomington-Normal. Still believe in 10 years they will be employing 15,000 people here? Did you know the Indians are being sent back to India and will work from there instead? Maybe government funding of a bypass, Community […]
