By: Diane Benjamin Want to know why taxpayers have to pay $51,290 to make Uptown Circle ADA compliant? Somebody filed a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General who investigated and told Normal it doesn’t comply. Evidently that person did not approach the Town first. The biggest item is adding a handrail, but the ramp is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below are pics from the documentation provided to the Council pertaining to the National Fitness Campaign: Stan Nord asked Parks and Rec director Doug Damery if this equipment is ADA compliant. Comic relief, hear this 20 second clip: . . . . . .
By: Diane Benjamin At last Monday’s Bloomington Council meeting Ryan Whitehouse, Connect Transit Board Chair, declared transportation to the Veterans Clinic isn’t a problem. https://blnnews.com/2020/07/21/bloomington-met-too-last-night/ Veterans do not agree. No one coordinated construction of the facility with Connect Transit, Bloomington should have made sure transportation would be adequate. Economic Development must only matter downtown. As […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll for tonight: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=24570 Coliseum expenses: The first entry is for bills Bloomington paid that VenuWorks needs to reimburse – all the rest are coming out of taxpayers pockets: I don’t remember ever seeing a check written for loan payments, usually they do wire transfers: $795,000 was paid in principal […]
By: Diane Benjamin There are two types of people in government: Those who think their position demands they “make progress” Those who think their job is to create an environment so people can create their own “progress”. One uses your money for their vision, the other allows you to create your own vision. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember this story from a year ago? https://blnnews.com/2018/07/11/not-the-right-fit-tari/ The City of Bloomington was accused of ignoring attempts to locate an outpatient clinic in Bloomington to serve Veterans. Yesterday there was a VERY high level meeting in Bloomington. Here is a list of who attended. The DC reps would have been here themselves […]
By: Diane Benjamin Two members of the media were at Tari’s open house last Friday, Maria Nagle from the Pantagraph and Howard Packowitz from WJBC. If the media fails to report news, everyone can pretend nothing happened. Are they protecting Tari? I know every alderman is aware of Tari’s comments. If the public doesn’t demand […]
By: Diane Benjamin Maybe the City can compensate Grossinger for all the bad publicity by giving them naming rights to the Ice Center. Pepsi quit paying for it YEARS ago, but even in meeting documentation Parks and Rec still calls it Pepsi Ice Center. I bet Pepsi loves it – free advertising! Monday night this […]
By: Diane Benjamin From Monday’s Bills and Payroll: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12446 Employees are still allowed to SPIKE their pensions by getting paid for accumulated sick and vacation days. TWO courts have recently ruled that employers do not have to allow this, of course the rules haven’t been changed. It just cost you another $32,106.66. The City is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Coliseum Quarterly reports are now on-line: http://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-526 Last years reports for the year ended 4/30/2016 are still a secret. VenuWorks has been managing the Coliseum for all three of the quarters listed at the link above. 1st quarter revenue: $770,839.87 2nd quarter revenue: $275,590.46 3rd quarter revenue: $677,924.52 Don’t get excited – […]
By: Diane Benjamin At Monday’s Council meeting questions were raised as to why a 10 year old building wasn’t ADA compliant. City staff said they were investigating. All the City has to do is talk to people who were involved before it was built. I did. Karen Schmidt was on the Council – did they […]
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