By: Diane Benjamin Below are 3 charts from financial statements. The first one is BNWRD, then Bloomington, then Normal. All 3 show Per Capita Income obtained from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. If you’ve never heard of that office, it was founded by a Republican: Richard Nixon. Home page: https://www.bea.gov/ Look close at the reports. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday I found these two charts that are problematic: I cut the sources off the next one so I can make it bigger: (See them here: https://blnnews.com/2023/11/24/notice-anything-wrong-with-this-chart/) Both of these are from the documentation for the November 13, 2023 BNWARD meeting. You won’t find it on-line, they email it to me every […]
By: Diane Benjamin According to this website, EAC has a fiscal year that ends on 6/30. The return as of 6/30/2021 is available: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/371157100/download990pdf_03_2022_prefixes_36-43%2F371157100_202106_990_2022030919708158 Revenue was way down last year. The only reason I thought to look at this is because the Bloomington Normal Water Reclamation District paid them labeled Customer relations: That payment is […]
By: Diane Benjamin BNWRD (Bloomington Normal Water Reclamation District) is holding a meeting on Monday. They send their packet to me every month since documents aren’t on line. I have NEVER seen mention in the minutes of a citizen making Public Comment. That isn’t stopping them from making their policy legal however. Maybe McLean County […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington Normal Water Reclamation District has a Board meeting today. BNWRD sends me their Board packet every month. Citizens of Bloomington and Normal are billed with your water bill and as a line item on your property tax bill. The June 26th flooding did create a sewage overflow event that required […]
By: Diane Benjamin Too often blanket salary increases are given for government employees, even for non-union. The best employees aren’t rewarded while the worst employees are. Union members have no incentive to work harder or do a better job when salary increases are negotiated for all equally. One local government agency incentivizes their employees: Every […]
By: Diane Benjamin The second installment of your property taxes are due on 9/17. The check you will be writing is higher because of many things, but a BIG one is Tax Increment Financing. TIF’s The Uptown TIF is Normal’s huge one. The 2020 comprehensive report isn’t available yet, so I have to use the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington Normal Water Reclamation District (BNWRD) Board is holding a meeting on April 13. The agenda does not reflect any changes to how the meeting will take place because of social distancing. On the agenda: BNWRD Brd Packet 4-13-20 BNWRD charges appear monthly on the water bills of any residence […]
By: Diane Benjamin BNWRD is the Bloomington Normal Water Reclamation District. Just once I’d like to see something different in their minutes than: If somebody has been dying to attend (and probably scare them!) details and Agenda for the 4:00 March 9, 2020 meeting can be seen here: BNWRD March meeting The reason I started […]
By: Diane Benjamin When I talked to Randy Stein and Tim Irvin they provided more information I haven’t written yet. See this story: https://blnnews.com/2020/01/30/sewage-talk/ Randy told me at some point, nobody knows when, the IEPA is going to require updates to the plant on West Oakland. He has no idea what the exact cost will […]
By: Diane Benjamin Everybody likes to talk sewage! Sure, let’s call it BNWRD instead: Bloomington Normal Water Reclamation District. The first plant opened in 1920, prior to that sewage was dumped in Sugar Creek. That came from a discussion I had yesterday with Randy Stein the Executive Director and Tim Ervin the Asst Executive Director/Admin […]
By: Diane Benjamin This won’t be the last story, stay tuned. BNWRD is the Bloomington Normal Water Reclamation District. Whatever you flush they process. Homes connected to the sanitary sewer system should be charged on the water bill AND on the property tax bill. This is the same principle as Bloomington billing you for water […]
By: Diane Benjamin See the previous story: https://blnnews.com/2020/01/16/what-stan-warned-about-happened/ Stan Nord warned about local property rights because he got a bill that should have been paid by owners of his property years before. The Town of Normal didn’t care that failure to collect was THEIR fault. He paid the bill in protest. In the previous story […]
By: Diane Benjamin Think you own your property? Keep reading! Think back almost a year ago. The Town of Normal tried to collect sewer tap-on fees from Stan for his property on West College. The property was connected when Stan bought it, and when the previous owner bought it, and the one before that one! […]
