Who thought this was a good idea?
Fire Department? The only cash they have comes from you. Even grants are still your money. Google gun buyback programs for more information. When the majority of the Council is socialist . . . .
Category: BLOOMINGTON CITY COUNCIL
Bloomington’s Short Meeting
By: Diane Benjamin Everyone but Tim Gleason managed to show at last night. Gleason might have been attending another meeting. Jenna Kearns: Just stay seated during the Pledge of Allegiance. You would look like less of a hypocrite: The upcoming presentation for downtown wasn’t mentioned, supposedly the room in the Government Center will be done. […]
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I wonder if Bloomington will mention this tonight?
h/t a reader Of course if the Council is still at the BCPA in October the public won’t be able to see the speaker(s) or presentation. Rejoice! Did the Water Park ever get finished?
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Bloomington needs this:
By: Diane Benjamin Below is what Bloomington’s downtown needs: This is a man-made canal through the heart of downtown Indianapolis. It is complete with gondolas and singing gondoliers. Paddle boats are available for rent. There is very little retail on the wide walking paths but there is a lot of expensive condos. I think water […]
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Truths we used to know, hook up the Uhaul
By: Diane Benjamin In case you missed this story in the media: https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_bc96b2e2-5338-11ee-a876-73caeb277433.html Clever Real Estate teamed up with moving company Allied Van Lines andĀ foundĀ thatĀ Illinois has had more outbound moves than any other state in the past six months. Why would people continue to flee Illinois? The Bloomington City Council is encouraging out-migration. 5 of […]
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New Alderman Jenna Kearns is Jenn Carrillo 2.0
By: Diane Benjamin Thanks to no one else running in Ward 1 last April a socialists walked on to the Bloomington City Council without a fight. Nice folks. You should know Jenna Kearns does not say the Pledge of Allegiance which means her oath of office to the Constitution of both the US and State […]
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Announcement:
It is impossible for me to cover all local units of government myself, therefore I am going to quit covering Normal. If anyone actually cares about schools, I need help there too. Your part-time mayor driving a vehicle taxpayers paid almost $74,000 for and putting regular plates on it instead of government plates didn’t make […]
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Affordable housing myths
By: Diane Benjamin Read this WGLT story: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2023-09-12/group-looks-to-rally-support-for-a-community-land-trust-in-bloomington-normal-aimed-at-housing-affordability Local housing is a problem that the free market will self-correct. Interference in the process is why housing is unaffordable. One thing is certain: Additional housing can’t be created next month. It takes time and creating a Community Land Trust isn’t going to fix anything quickly. They […]
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Chicken Time again in Bloomington
By: Diane Benjamin The Special Use Permit for chicken keeping on Durham Dr was back on the Consent Agenda: https://d2kbkoa27fdvtw.cloudfront.net/cityblm/a66201e455c5f8574bd36e9daacfb3d60.pdf Only one item was pulled from the Consent Agenda and this wasn’t it. When the vote was taken to approve the rest of the Consent Agenda, including the chickens, Donna Boelen and Sheila Montney voted […]
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Why wasn’t this on the agenda Bloomington?
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington will take 2 stories to cover, this is Part 1. Check the Agenda, the below isn’t there: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/259d37a5-7d4f-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-791fe512-602c-4d20-98c8-ecdbbed39134-1694194607.pdf In lieu of declaring Bloomington a Sanctuary City a few years ago the Council opted to join “Welcoming America”. Bloomington has a website dedicated to Welcoming Week activities coming up : https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/28356/637982477484661849 Last […]
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Tonight Gleason gets a raise
By: Diane Benjamin Unlike Normal that tried to hide Pam Reece’s raise on the Omnibus Agenda, Bloomington has Tim Gleason’s as the only item on the Regular Agenda: See the entire agenda here – should be a short meeting: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/259d37a5-7d4f-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-791fe512-602c-4d20-98c8-ecdbbed39134-1694194607.pdf Still no report on the $750,000 downtown study last August that was projected to take […]
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Bloomington hires a booker for Arena and BCPA
By: Diane Benjamin Nick Leroy had a short-lived venue called The Stable in downtown Bloomington. Hopefully he knows shows that make money instead of subsidized entertaining for the elites. When is the City going to admit the Coliseum isn’t The Grossinger Motors Arena anymore? Too hard to take the sign down? In case you missed […]
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Your tax money abused!
By: Diane Benjamin Connect transit is tired of people noticing the empty or close to empty buses roaming Bloomington-Normal so they fixed the problem. Check out of the new electric buses. h/t a reader They’ve gone from darkened windows to covering them completely. We still know the bus is mostly empty. CT didn’t have a […]
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Water and Chickens in Bloomington
By: Diane Benjamin Refer back to this story where Tim Gleason stated Council is going to be asked to invest $350,000,000-$400,000,000 in the Water Master improvement Plan: https://blnnews.com/2023/08/29/bloomington-1st-of-2/ I wonder if the “Equity” rate study will appear soon? https://blnnews.com/2023/06/21/water-equity-bloomington/ What about the never used Water Tower along I-55 in Normal? No one ever mentions that […]
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Sent by a Reader:
By: Diane Benjamin I’m told City employees: Illinois Law: Grass in the road makes slippery conditions for bikers and motorcycles! It also clogs the sewers.
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Bloomington Part 2
By: Diane Benjamin Public comment about 1 property – 1 Whites Place where a developer did plan to convert the house into 4 apartments but now is planning 9 apartments. Many residents attended the meeting since the City Code is not being followed and they are worried about parking and safety. The area residents are […]
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Bloomington – 1st of 2
By: Diane Benjamin It is going to take more than 1 story to cover the Bloomington Council/Township meeting last night. In case you missed the update, the room in the Government Center will not be done as scheduled. It won’t be ready until October. Can the camera be any farther away from the stage? None […]
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Update: Bloomington fun tonight
No surprise, the government center meeting room won’t be done until October. The city posted a video on Facebook stating that. h/t Kelby Compston who evidently reads their page. If you need a job the City has a ton of them posted there! By: Diane Benjamin Tonight should be the last meeting at the BCPA. […]
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Did Connect Transit throw away $9 million?
By: Diane Benjamin I was shocked when Connect Transit picked Proterra as their electric bus supplier. It appears the Board members appointed by the mayors of Bloomington and Normal didn’t bother to do a simple Google search. Plenty of stories were easily available detailing the problems with these buses and cities that quit using them […]
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FOIA lawsuits are an easy win Bloomington
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington police are still hiding information. Evidently they want sued. h/t a reader who lives by Constitution Trail This isn’t a one time occurence. Frequently a lot of grass is missed when Bloomington mows along the trail because the mower is too big. If the grass isn’t missed it gets scalped […]
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Update to the Hershey Road island
By: Diane Benjamin First Story: https://blnnews.com/2023/08/12/more-lets-create-work-for-government-employees/ I really thought this was grass: I drove by again today. It isn’t grass. Very attractive! š If they don’t quit stalling my FOIA, I will find more incompetence to reveal.
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Bloomington: LONG Executive Session
By: Diane Benjamin The actual Committee of the Whole meeting was only around 25 minutes. The video is 1 hour and 45 minutes. Most of the video is an empty stage waiting for the council to return and adjourn. None of the accolades handed out were on video, the camera angle never changed. The slides […]
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Why is Bloomington Meeting?
By: Diane Benjamin See the agenda on PDF page 4: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/30d2fbb4-75a9-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-791fe512-602c-4d20-98c8-ecdbbed39134-1692292991.pdf Evidently this Committee of the Whole is Recognitions and an Executive Session. The last Live Stream from the temporary BCPA location only filmed the Council. Other speakers weren’t on camera because the angle never changed. Tonight’s accolades should be fun if none of the […]
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Bloomington’s new Echo Chamber
By: Diane Benjamin The City managed to Live Stream last night’s meeting. How are shows produced in the auditorium of the BCPA without echos? The video is difficult to listen to, some speakers are worse than others. John Danenberger was AWOL. 2 people spoke at Public Comment. Former Alderman Dee Urban voiced her support for […]
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Another Flock Group payment
By: Diane Benjamin I have to admit – I’m a huge fan of crime shows. My latest semi-obsession is a show called See No Evil. Every crime, mostly murders, are found by using security video. All of the footage is from private sources, if you are going to have security cameras please make sure they […]
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Is the Safe-T Act causing police to militarize?
By: Diane Benjamin Maybe Bloomington can acquire a tank next. Tonight buying one of these is on the Consent Agenda: This is a link to the documentation for this purchase: https://d2kbkoa27fdvtw.cloudfront.net/cityblm/ce402438fb1c517ffdd971eb63e404010.pdf The cost is $249,229. Watch the first video at that link. It shows a military operation, the exact opposite of de-escalation. I know the […]
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More “Let’s create work for government employees”
By: Diane Benjamin Add the following to this story: https://blnnews.com/2023/06/15/maintenance-that-could-have-been-avoided/ Hershey road south of Ireland Grove road was down to 2 lanes for quite awhile. The City of Bloomington had to install this: Now some City employee gets to mow what looks like a crossing for a future trail extension. The concrete pad on the […]
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Downtown Transformation
By: Diane Benjamin Remember this eyesore in downtown Bloomington? . That was what the former CII East building looked like for many years. The City of Bloomington gave away FUTURE money to a new developer, see this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/04/24/69-million-for-water-projects-so-you-wont-notice-the-cii-east-giveaways/ What did the future money buy? This is the same building yesterday: That is a complete […]
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BCPA – another loss and more questions than answers
By: Diane Benjamin Loss: $4,084.85 I give up trying to figure this one out! From the below it appears a group rented the BCPA: Why did the City of Bloomington write them a check for the same amount in May? Maybe they paid it twice, maybe they didn’t. My FOIA didn’t help clarify. I’m waiting […]
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No Live Stream or recording
By: Diane Benjamin Despite the City of Bloomington Information Technology budget being over $6,000,000 this year, last night’s relocated meeting to the BCPA wasn’t live streamed or recorded. Since I opted to picked green beans instead of attend in person, you will have to take WGLT’s word for what happened: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2023-07-24/bloomington-council-oks-major-housing-development-near-rivian One thing I’m sure […]
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Bloomington Festivities tonight
By: Diane Benjamin Why meetings are long: Public Hearing on a new west side development: The annexation will be voted on later in the meeting. Going solar by spending money on design: See the entire packet here: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/25972410-7d4f-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-d854eb82-3702-4140-9de6-ac3a8e3f379d-1689879654.pdf
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6 things
By: Diane Benjamin 1) The smoke from Canada is back: 2) The company Bloomington hired to do the $750,000 downtown study is all in on DEI. https://www.cmtengr.com/dei/ The report is due in August. The City keeps using recommendations from old outdated reports like Bring It On Bloomington and the Downtown Bloomington Task Force. How many […]
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Bloomington: Your turn to fund a Drag Show
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington is allowing yet another PrideFest downtown. Pride month is over, calendars too difficult to navigate? At least Normal had the sense to hold their drag show indoors and after 10:00 pm: https://blnnews.com/2023/06/19/free-drag-show/ Bloomington’s is outside at 7:30 pm and billed as “family friendly”. Why do the performers need […]
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BCPA Profit!
By: Diane Benjamin Performance Fee: Profit $5,302
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20 Minute Bloomington Meeting
By: Diane Benjamin Mboka Mwilambwe wasn’t there – he’s out of the country. John Danenberger was AWOL. So was Cody Hendricks. Tim Gleason was MIA, of course he has TWO assistants, so Billy Tyus did his job. The only Public comment was Scott Stimeling who once again raged about fireworks. He seems to think whatever […]
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Bloomington Tonight
By: Diane Benjamin City is handing out ARPA money tonight – American Rescue Plan money is a driver of inflation. Handing out money that has to be borrowed/printed increases the money supply and therefore inflation. There is nothing on the agenda for action other than the Consent Agenda. https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/2595281e-7d4f-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-791fe512-602c-4d20-98c8-ecdbbed39134-1688669950.pdf There is a Public Hearing on […]
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What you need to know about Bloomington’s new commission
By: Diane Benjamin PDF page 320: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/2593119f-7d4f-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-791fe512-602c-4d20-98c8-ecdbbed39134-1687541345.pdf The documentation starts off with a stretch of the truth: Additional discussion on the Initiative took place at the Committee of the Whole meeting onJune 19, 2023, at which time there was a consensus to bring a formal proposal forward at afuture meeting. Consensus isn’t a 5-4 vote […]
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Bloomington: You voted for big government, it won’t end well
By: Diane Benjamin The PIN # of the property taxpayers are demolishing on W Jackson was corrected, otherwise the property wasn’t discussed. The contractor is required to pay prevailing wage since public money is being used. You evidently gave a present to the labor unions and the property owners. Congrats. For all the anti-religion people […]
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Also at Bloomington tonight
By: Diane Benjamin Mollie Ward’s initiative is back: Anybody want to guess how many of these “experts” will be FOID card and gun owners? Definition of expert is: People who claim some hidden talent not available to normal people. The Council will approve it and it will develop zero solutions because morality can’t be forced […]
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Fishy Bloomington
By: Diane Benjamin See this item that is on the Consent Agenda. It won’t be discussed unless an alderman pulls it. The City plans to demolish a building damaged by fire – $99,900 of your money. The PIN number listed in the documentation is wrong. It needs to be corrected before the Council votes or […]
