By: Diane Benjamin Update to this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/03/31/benjamin-school-and-the-grove/ A parent told me that once the trail was done bus service was stopped. At the west end of this trail is a 4 lane road with no traffic control officer. These kids are elementary, it is unsafe for them to cross that road without an adult […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Since Jamie Mathy hated sprawl and considered The Grove sprawl, (Ireland Grove Rd. east of Towanda Barnes) he didn’t want this subdivision expanded further. Houses there sell fast, so obviously people like living there. Maybe Jamie didn’t look at what 2 City Managers ago negotiated with the developer. The […]
By: Diane Benjamim From the capital spending plans: Jamie Mathy signaled he is opposed to new subdivisions east of Towanda Barnes Rd and will oppose the spending that allows The Grove to expand when it officially comes to Council. There is a housing shortage but Mathy wants to tell people where they can’t live. Maybe […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) Water is now being shut off in Bloomington for not paying the bills. Government created the problem by allowing tenants to not pay rent and bills with no consequences. Landlords and taxpayers bore the brunt of this socialist policy: Everything is free! It gets worse! Landlords were not notified their tenants […]
By: Diane Benjamin One item on Monday’ agenda is going to have Scott Black’s panties in a wad: PDF page 239 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15814 The last time this joint project was mentioned Scott threw a hissy fit. Diana Hauman and Mboka Mwilambe had to remind him people actually live on the east side of town and pay taxes. […]
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 I could have predicted what would happen last night with sharing expenses to redesign the Towanda-Barnes/Ireland Grove intersection. $900,000 is a lot of money, but I bet this Council won’t even approve spending far less. The proposal was for the County to pay half and the City half. That intersection is: Not […]
By: Diane Benjamin New Alderman Jamison Mathy didn’t show up last night for the Bloomington City Council meeting. As usual, nothing was said. Everybody acted like it’s perfectly normal for an elected representative to be a no-show. Unfortunately, his absence might have cost one family their property rights. (stay tuned) Alderman Diana Hauman didn’t show […]
By: Diane Benjamin The old type Bloomington City Manager reports with real usable information ceased to exist when Alderman Diana Hauman called their “printing” a waste of money. The last REAL report was April 2016. City manager David Hales still does a City Manager report on-line, but it has little useful data. The old reports […]
Today I got this response: Obviously there is no reason why this lame response couldn’t have been given within the 5 days allowed by law. The Grove information came from this document dated February 2015: http://www.cityblm.org/home/showdocument?id=12052 Since many more houses have been built at the Grove since 2015 – Tari is relying on old information. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington has Master Plans for everything – instead of fixing the roads, they spent MILLIONS of dollars on plans that are now out of date. Gee, maybe they should just do the essential services citizens want and quit trying to create demand where none exists! (Limited Government – figure […]
By: Diane Benjamin A few notes that never made the news: Those 4 parking lots the City purchased from Frontier so the BCPA has more parking: What was the cost? To find out you have to dig deep in the packet – the cost isn’t on the agenda: Page 530 of the packet: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12738 The […]
By: Diane Benjamin I will be on Cities 92.9 today at 3:30 with Ben Yount to discuss the future of BlnNews. Now for last night’s Bloomington City Council meeting: Bring in the CLOWNS! Oops, they were already there! Starting at 1:05, and ending 45 minutes later, the Council droned on about spending $300,000 at The […]
By: Diane Benjamin Mayor Renner, David Hales, and members of the City Council blame The Grove housing development on East Ireland Grove Rd for taking too much tax money. Some members did it again last Monday night. Tari frequently says the development contracts are bad. So who is at fault? Former City Manager Tom Hamilton? […]
by: Diane Benjamin Mayor Renner used to be really unhappy with The Grove subdivision east of Towanda-Barnes on Ireland Grove Road. He told me the City got stuck paying a lot of the bills for roads and sewers the developer should have contributed to – thanks to Tom Hamilton. Evidently he got over it because […]
by: Diane Benjamin On the agenda for Monday’s Bloomington City Council meeting: Mayor Renner told me a few months ago that Bloomington taxpayers got stuck with the sewer and streets bill from this subdivision under an agreement negotiated by former City Manager Tom Hamilton. Evidently it amounted to millions and millions of dollars. The developer is […]
