Normal recap 11/18/2019 Part 1

By:  Diane Benjamin Normal held two meetings last night.  The first one was a Work Session pertaining to the underpass. Public Comment was first: 7:30  Sonja Reece explained why the underpass is essential.  One item she noted was buses from Chicago bringing field trip kids from Chicago need a way to get the kids across […]

More from Normal’s meeting nobody attended

By:  Diane Benjamin The Bloomington Council holds Committee of the Whole meetings to discuss items in public.  In Normal they meet during the day for many hours at a time so the public doesn’t attend.  The meeting with Lyle Sumek wasn’t even held in the Council Chambers. All of the pics below are from the […]

Failure to serve

By:  Diane Benjamin The local politicians have forgotten: Likely most didn’t run to serve, they ran to rule.   The people are sick of: excessive taxation handouts to government “friends” rotten roads sole focus on downtowns interference in free markets government pensions and lavish benefits laws being ignored citizens being ignored redistribution of the people’s wealth […]

Lorenz, Koos, and Nord PART 2

By:  Diane Benjamin See Part 1 here:  https://blnnews.com/2019/08/26/lorenz-koos-and-nord/ Questions for Kathleen: Why do the opinions of only a few matter? Why were the opinions of those wanting to save the building in Uptown with the mural immaterial? Why were the opinions of the people not served by Connect Transit immaterial?  The Working Group isn’t even […]

Lorenz, Koos, and Nord – PART 1

See Part 2:  https://blnnews.com/2019/08/27/lorenz-koos-and-nord-part-2/ By:  Diane Benjamin https://www.wglt.org/post/koos-says-nord-went-lone-wolf-fire-department-merger-uptown-recruitment#stream/0 In the above article Chris Koos said this to WGLT when he tried to denigrate Stan Nord: Has WGLT or the Pantagraph reported Stan Nord has proof Koos lied to them?    https://blnnews.com/2019/08/23/the-normal-council-knew-the-truth/ Nope! According to Koos, Trustees aren’t allowed to gather information – the staff does […]

How bad are Normal’s finances?

By: Diane Benjamin What we do know: The freshman class this year at ISU was down 9.3%     https://blnnews.com/2017/09/07/numbers-lie/ State Farm has cut employees and is cutting more Normal has a budget deficit (local media reports) The Normal Library has decided not to build new – the library WAS the centerpiece of Uptown 2.0  (local […]

Normal’s Fleecing continues

By:  Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal spend $1.4 million to STUDY the proposed Uptown Crossing: Source What did they get for $1.4 million?  Evident what they want to pass Monday night: The plan doesn’t know if ADA compliance can be achieved?  Bike Blono has to dismount?  The at-grade crossing is adjacent?  Why is the underpass […]

Normal: Meet Marc Tiritilli

By:  Diane Benjamin The video from last night’s Normal Council meeting is now available. People speaking during public comment are not required by law to give their address! Chris Koos told them they did, 3 speakers complied.  Don’t comply in the future – it’s intimidation. No representatives from the Police and Fire unions showed up […]