By: Diane Benjamin See this story: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/waste-watch-illinois-gives-500000-to-health-advocacy-non-profit/ Type Bloomington in the SEARCH to see what Illinois budgeted. Wesleyan isn’t the only non-government entity getting money. Is Wesleyan discounting tuition to local residents too much to fund their own projects or did the local reps decide to gift them your money? . Next type Normal in […]
By: Diane Benjamin I took the weekend off to spend time with with family and friends. I’m back! Agenda for Bloomington tonight: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/3fbd5444-814f-4e17-a65f-83fbc20272bb-d854eb82-3702-4140-9de6-ac3a8e3f379d-1746819050.pdf Two items on the Consent Agenda caught my eye: Item H – The Ecology Action Center is requesting that the City pay a total of $166,342.97 for the three-year Energy Efficiency Program. […]
By: Diane Benjamin One day residents are told they have to opt out of electric aggregation 40% rate increases by May 7th. Now WGLT is reporting via the Ecology Action Center (EAC) residents should wait and maybe opt out later: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-04-29/ecology-action-centers-advice-wait-and-see-about-electric-rates Meanwhile Corn Belt Electric customers won’t have the huge increases – unless the State […]
By: Diane Benjamin Pulled from the Consent Agenda was approving a Community Change Grant from the EPA who is handing out $20 billion. (Inflation will continue as the Feds spend money they have to print) The money isn’t free, it’s still taxpayers who will be responsible for the debt. Bloomington wants $20 million, most of […]
By: Diane Benjamin A whopping 30 people attended the EV Townhall! If that isn’t funny enough, read WGLT’s article about the event: https://tinyurl.com/EV-Townhall 10 people were on the panel for the 30 attendees. Of course claims were made about EV’s and Climate Change. Facts are immaterial. Get some: https://climateataglance.com/climate-at-a-glance-natural-vs-human-contributions-to-greenhouse-gases-and-global-average-temperatures/ The article got really funny with […]
By: Diane Benjamin See 1:12:00 Tim Gleason tells the Council they can’t discuss the 2nd dispensary location because the city might get sued. You will never know the details of who is behind this location or hear if any ways have been found to detect drivers under the influence. Discussion was shut down by a […]
By: Diane Benjamin FYI: While your retirement savings are being hit hard, so are the Defined Benefit Plans for Public Sector employees. You will get the bill since no one is willing to amend the Illinois Constitution. Redesigning the City website means Bills and Payroll have to be searched for now, somebody forgot to add […]
By: Diane Benjamin At Monday’s Bloomington Council meeting approving money for the Ecology Action Center was on the Consent Agent. Everything on it was passed with one unanimously vote including this to the Ecology Action Center: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/5a1a631e-a62d-11ec-8a90-0050569183fa-36dc0a47-f3e1-4a7f-ab53-55227cac04fe-1654897109.pdf One problem – h/t a reader: Julie Emig is listed on the Ecology Action Center website as a […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington managed a 44 minute meeting last night. Only 7 of the 9 Alderman were present: If you listened to the roll call you wouldn’t know who was missing because the Clerk only called the names of those present! (That’s not a roll call) If you can’t tell, Sheila Montney and Mollie […]
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 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’ Update to your electric bills skyrocketing: https://blnnews.com/2022/04/27/expect-painful-bills/ The Ecology Action Center put out more than Bloomington did about the increase: https://ecologyactioncenter.org/aggregation2022/ The shortened version is government shut down coal fired power plants with no way to replace the electricity they generated and what is replaced is more expensive. Government declared war on […]
By: Diane Benjamin Chris Koos announced last night the next meeting could be back to in person. Zoom was way more fun except for public comments that couldn’t connect and the “Can you hear me?” chorus. Stan Nord pulled several items from the Omnibus agenda. One was the bills. Koos didn’t want to hear about […]
If course they didn’t say NO. Details tomorrow. By: Diane Benjamin http://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3633 The big item on the agenda tonight is this: Did you have flooding this weekend? There were videos on line showing nearly impassable streets in Normal, evidently that’s not unusual. Instead of essential services at a time when revenues are way down and […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1049&Inline=True Details on PDF page 11: Great job by City employees, what took so long to recognize them? PDF page 63 – the City needs to budget for extensive restoration of the outside – BCPA. This is just repairs. PDF page 93 – Another cost taxpayers could have avoided if they had voted […]
By: Diane Benjamin I was going to let this story ride to see if it ever showed up on a Normal Town Council Agenda. Since my FOIA request was denied, I’m going to show you what I know: Emails received by FOIA: Since my FOIA was denied, the Town still has buying this property on […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City wants you to believe they can control only 5% of the budget. State mandates were heavily blamed. The budget discussion starts around 1:28. Not blamed was the cost of employees, the cost of their lavish benefits, and pension spiking. This Council made it worse when they hired two more employees […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this story from yesterday: https://blnnews.com/2018/01/16/these-are-republicans/ The McLean County Board has an unwritten policy. All work is done in committee and the Board members rubber stamp whatever comes out of committee. I was told issues will not be re-heard before the entire Board, that’s why they have committees. (My beef was with […]
By: Diane Benjamin I love my readers because frequently we collaborate to find information. See this story from yesterday which included documents for the IEPA showing the City of Bloomington illegally dumped materials at Lake Bloomington: https://blnnews.com/2018/01/16/bloomington-failed-to-recycle/ The reader found the bids from April of 2017 for cleanup. I found the Council Action this morning. http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12738 […]
The County Board voted to kill the Scritchlow amendment. I taped the meeting and will be posting the discussion. 5 Republicans voted with the Democrats. By: Diane Benjamin For once the Chamber of Commerce is on the right side of an issue. Usually they love Big government tax and spend liberals. The Ecology Action Center claims […]
By: Diane Benjamin The local environmental activists thought they had their plan to force EVERYONE to recycle in the bag. They spent two years meeting with people they call “stakeholders”. Even if you did hear about one of their public meetings or hearings, I bet you didn’t go. Details here: https://blnnews.com/2018/01/06/robustelli-wrong-scritchlow-right/ Their plans to use force […]
By: Diane Benjamin The March edition of David Hales’ City Manager report is out: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8528 The usual Strategic Plan is on page 5, note how many items the City of Bloomington is failing to achieve – Financially sound City providing Quality Basic Services See parts a-e. Upgrade City Infrastructure – Quality roads Check the rest […]
by: Diane Benjamin The CONTROL agenda was further displayed at last night’s City Council meeting with a presentation by the Ecology Action Center. I have no problem with recycling and solid waste management. Throwing usable items in a landfill is ridiculous, but the EAC went far beyond that. Part of their funding comes from Bloomington […]
