Unknown Speaker
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren and this week we're in Bloomington, in person with Mayor John Hamilton. Hello, welcome. Thanks for having us today. It's
Unknown Speaker
good to see you in space. Together. Good to see you again.
Unknown Speaker
We welcome your comments, submit them to news at Indiana public media.org. You can tweet us at Ask the mayor just wanted to start with COVID numbers feel like those have been kind of been bumping up again, hearing a lot of people who somehow avoided COVID The first kind of couple years and now they're getting COVID Are you getting any still debriefings from the health officials hospital? What's Do you have anything that you can tell us?
Unknown Speaker
Well, we are really beginning restarting some regular meetings we actually have not been doing the weekly meetings but and Penny coddle retired. By the way, shout out to Health Department Director Penny Caudill has just retired after extraordinary service for decades, including the past two years. So thanks to her, we are talking. I do we do see more. We're seeing it more in our city, we continue to of course, mostly worry about hospitals and deaths. And we will continue to monitor that. But you're right, Joe, people are getting sick, it's happening, the new, the new strain is more infectious. And it's also a little more evasive of the of the vaccinations and such. So we just have to keep being careful, we're going to be living with this. And as the season kicks in, we'll we'll continue to watch it.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, some of the numbers on the COVID panel 1700 new cases in the state last week have been going up but only 8500 tested. And that's what's interesting, you can almost go by a lot of these data points anymore, because you're not getting a really good with only 8500 people tested. You know,
Unknown Speaker
everybody's doing home tests. Right. And, and or they're just not in the system. So those data points are different. We we really want to watch hospitalizations and deaths from my perspective. But we'll be we'll be talking the hospital system, the Health Department and others are continuing to monitor and we will be continuing to talk. I don't know if we'll have any changes in protocols or approaches, but it's here and people are catching it. So just try to be careful and don't don't mingle germs if you don't have to. We're six feet apart right now.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The booster? Can anyone could do you know, the booster? Or is that still 50 and over or
Unknown Speaker
the original booster I think is available for everybody. Right? A lot of people have not taken it though. That's true. Even in our workforce, we found a much lower take rate for the booster than we did for the original vaccine. So I've had the booster. I think the question now is that next, the next booster I've had to, and I think we expect this fall to have a new round of shots, vaccination slash booster. So we encourage everybody to monitor that if you're if you're over 50 and you haven't had a recent booster you the recommendations I hear are you should get it right away.
Unknown Speaker
Now, the news is Monkey pox. And last I saw that there are only 16 in the state. Vaccines are told to be limited. Federal officials have ordered millions to ship into the us of how concerned Were you hearing about monkey pox.
Unknown Speaker
You know, I we continue to monitor in here. I'm not worried about it. At this point, we see a lot more impact from the COVID. But of course that disease or others that can arise can appear we always want to be on watch for and thank goodness for the CDC and the federal government and the way they continue to watch this for us.
Unknown Speaker
And as you always say to you and all the mayors say talk to your family doctor or talk to your personal physician for stuff like this. I'm not a doctor. No, I'm not either. Doctor, Doctor. We talked a lot of them and we work with them. And that's why I asked this because sometimes you might hear things that you know we don't so so some big news last week the city's looking to bring the fire and police administration to showers plaza at city hall where we are right now. CFC properties have a portion of this building. I think a lot of people don't maybe understand what's all over here. They come to the taste of Bloomington of the farmers market and don't know Monroe County Government has offices here. Of course the city has offices here. Explain how this came about.
Unknown Speaker
Right. So yes, a lot of people don't know it's really three separate buildings, almost condos in this one building that was set that way when it began 25 plus years ago. So you know, the floods last month really last year sorry, the floods Last month really damaged our police headquarters and our fire downtown station, have us looking for options. We've been long interested in the in showers building as a place for continued City Hall presence over the decades to come, our city grows, our government grows. But in particular, the police headquarters, which is their full, you know, 100 plus complement of folks, it needs, it needs a better place to be. It's an old building they're in, it's been damaged by flood. They are growing we so we started looking at a place for police headquarters, when we when we discussed with CFC, that was a great option to think about bringing them right into City Hall. So we have some due diligence to do we have an accepted offer to buy the building at about $9 million. And that's a good price for the square footage that we can get. But we have to make sure it can work as a police station. In addition, we can bring the Fire Administration now it's not a fire station, it's not the the engines and all running out of here. But it's all the administrators for fire could join as well. And that would really be helpful to have all that public safety in one space.
Unknown Speaker
So when you say that, does that mean that the current downtown fire headquarters would just be turned into a regular station,
Unknown Speaker
we will have a downtown station, whether it's right there on Fourth Street or somewhere else, we're also looking at that because that station was heavily damaged, it's in a low area, it would be difficult they had trouble getting the trucks in and out with with that kind of flooding, that we hope the flooding will get better. We're working on that. But we will have a downtown station with the engine and the ladder in the truck. But that's separate from the fire headquarters administration services,
Unknown Speaker
and working with the police department to think about all those vehicles that they have parked there behind. And when you look at the Google Maps, you can take a look at the back of I guess City Hall, that would be West kind of north west of the farmers market. For those who are trying to picture where this is, there's not really much parking there.
Unknown Speaker
Well, there's parking for the commercial space. But of course, we have a we have a garage to next trades district that's there. So that will be one of the things we'll look at, though in the due diligence process just to make sure this can work with police stations are not just your everyday office buildings, either. They have to have substantial security and, you know, spaces that are protected for some of their services and materials. So we will be spending the next couple months with some professionals looking at whether this can work. But I hope it can. I think it would be a really good step forward for the city to have all of us together this way.
Unknown Speaker
And then of course, the police department would be up for determined to be determined.
Unknown Speaker
Yes, yeah. property, we would then work with city council to think about what should be done with that dispose of it to others use it for housing, other kinds of ideas.
Unknown Speaker
Last question on this is that it kind of creates this neat opportunity with City Hall already here to do some. I mean, they're divided now, but could something down the road be looked at into kind of forming City Hall and to the fire department? So it's more of one big building?
Unknown Speaker
Absolutely, we would look at connecting the two halves, if you will, or the two thirds of the building. We've actually talked about that with county too, because sometimes having a doorway in between would be helpful, but almost certainly, it would involve opening up the two, the two parts of the building to connect them could be connected by city chambers, council chambers could be connected on both floors, different ways. We'll look at that.
Unknown Speaker
I know some people were a little bit of well, of course, they just moved into CFC. And now they realize they may have to move is this will the city help them relocate?
Unknown Speaker
Absolutely. Well, a couple things, one, any lease leases or leases and they're there, they have the right to be there. But second, we won't need all that space. Even if we do move everything from the police and the fire in there, there will be a commercial space still available. So we'll be working with all the tenants over the months and years if this goes forward to figure out how to take care of their interests as well.
Unknown Speaker
Just thinking about retail spaces and leases for Street garage, I believe it's the retail space, there's still empty Any word on interest in there. What's going on
Unknown Speaker
there? You know, we're still marketing it, Joe, you're right. A really since the pandemic, a lot of office and retail space is different. I was talking to somebody in Chicago who said they had I think they said 17 million square feet of empty office space in downtown Chicago. So we're a small city, we don't have that same numbers, but we have impact and we're part of that. You know, we're going to continue to work to try to find ways that people can use that space well, but the pandemic shifted that quite a bit for a lot of us.
Unknown Speaker
What about for st crotch? It's been open now for a while is it being used our public using it at night and weekends like it used to be you know, back in the good old days.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, you know, I haven't seen the exact numbers on it. Joe is of course it's open. Yes, it's used we have I think I seen about half of the spaces are leased in the long term by by workers, particularly in the Fountain Square Mall as such, it's of course used for different kinds of events. But I haven't seen the numbers, I will say, I do think you know, the pandemic and the working patterns, there's still lots of people who are working from home part time, some of the time maybe all the time that's changing that we're continuing to look at the parking needs downtown. I will say from the long call, having parking structures available that can replace surface parking is a good thing. It lets us reuse surface space for for better uses for housing or or businesses, restaurants, etc. So I'm really glad that we have that basic infrastructure. And it lets us continue to have to evaluate how much surface space we need both us publicly in the private sector.
Unknown Speaker
One, of course, there are plans to expand the convention center, which was is literally across the street. And I assume part of that too, is looking to what happens in that area would absolutely
Unknown Speaker
be very important to a hotel or Convention Center itself in the future years. So again, it's a really good piece of infrastructure to have that will serve in different ways, probably year by year, but we're glad to have it. It's safe. It's available in my wants to use it.
Unknown Speaker
Just talk to Eric spoon more last week. For those He's the president of the Bloomington chamber. And he says 2022 is the year of the convention center expansion, he is ready to go. I know you are too. Again, I know I asked you last month. But any update on what's happening there?
Unknown Speaker
Well, I am encouraged, as is Eric spoon more, I think there is a path forward that we hope I think in the next week or two, we're probably going to see some public engagement on that. There's just there are discussions going on now behind the scenes. As you as you indicated, you know, we and I in the city have long wanted to see the convention center expanded. We think it's a real opportunity and important for the future downtown vitality. I am hopeful that this year indeed we will be able to see major strides made. We're just still still discussions going on in the background. But I think that will come to the public a little more directly in the next couple of weeks.
Unknown Speaker
just interesting to see how all this unfolds in different cities. And we've talked about Terre Haute convention center and just talked to Mayor Jim Lin up last week. And in Columbus and they hired a consultant to see if they should have a conference and they don't have anything. And the consultant came back and said yes, you should build one and it should be bigger than what you projected. So I thought that was interesting to hear that in a neighboring city. Of course, tourism is big there with the architecture and knowing what Bloomington is going through to
Unknown Speaker
Well, I hadn't heard that Joe, but it is interesting. I I do think while the pandemic taught us a lot of things, we can work differently, we can accomplish a lot. It also did teach us how much we appreciate being together in together in person. And I do think meetings and maybe particularly meetings where you are able to drive to or it's not you don't have to fly. So we may find a lot of regional interest. And we think that's what we've seen so far. In meetings plus, one of the other things that's very popular are athletic events, sports events, including volleyball tournaments, or wrestling or or, you know, indoor use of space for for athletic events too. So all of that is potential for us. All that means kind of that Monday to Friday to for us as a city, it can help support our downtown. It's also important for the arts, frankly, having performing spaces and having more people here to support our arts. I
Unknown Speaker
don't know if you know anything more about the city council meeting that's going to happen. Wednesday night, I believe about the creamery apartments, I know we're getting kind of down to the wire on that and may may be pulling out.
Unknown Speaker
So we've made clear to those who want to do that development. And they're a Chicago based group that because of the impact they're having on the city and with the purchase of the smokestack and the need to take that down that we want to see a contribution kind of similar to what the smokestack was are something to support the community. They're not ready to commit to that yet. I don't know how that's gonna shake out their their private investor, from my perspective, if they won't do either affordable housing or some substantial art investment, reflecting the fact that they've taken on this iconic thing and going to bring it down it looks like then we may have to do a different plan. There'll be another plan down the road. If this doesn't work out. It'll be up to the council to vote on that because they are asking for a public alley vacation. And in my view, if you're asking for the public to give you some land and right of way, then you should give back something to the public. And we'll see if that can get worked out or not.
Unknown Speaker
You have a couple of minutes left, but I did want to talk to you about legislators are going to convene shortly about crafting an abortion legislation, taxpayer refunds for the state surplus. I know wide open here, but what's your message to state legislators as they convene?
Unknown Speaker
Well, first on the fiscal side, let's just get out of the way that $6 billion surplus, that's way too much they should be investing more in public education and returning money to those of us who need it, which is really important. But fundamentally, Joe, this is a very scary time. You know, this is the first time in American history 200 plus years that we've had a Supreme Court take away a fundamental right, like they did when they overturned Roe v. Wade. I think that was extraordinarily wrong and damaging to our country. And what it did do it took away that federal right but it meant went back to the states to say well, what are states going to do? The the outlook is grim, that our state seems poised to take away what most Indiana residents want. Most Hoosiers want to keep government out of our bedrooms and out of our private lives, out of our personal decisions. But it looks very much like the legislature may double down and make a bunch of really dangerous decisions from my perspective that Bloomington is a home to Indiana University and 10s of 1000s of young women, some of whom will have unintended pregnancies and the idea that they would be forced by the state legislature by the government to bear a child that they do not want is abysmal. From my perspective. I'm going to be going up there to make our voices heard a bunch of us from Bloomington if people want to join there's a bus and others going up on Monday the 25th I hope our legislators listen to reason and listen to the Who's your common sense. It says, Let these personal decisions be personal. I'm not I'm not very hopeful about that. But more of us need to let our voice be heard.
Unknown Speaker
We have one minute left. I always like to leave the last minute to you. Do you have any announcements or anything else you'd like to say?
Unknown Speaker
Joe? I think we've covered it. You know, we're excited about the Hopewell site, we now own some of that. The main hospital is you'll see as being decommissioned and deconstructed and you're going to start to see some demolition to on the areas east of the hospital as we work to redevelop that but it's always an exciting time in Bloomington the summer, a lot of construction. Be careful, be safe out there. And we'll look forward to chatting again in August when it starts to kick back up into the regular rhythm. Here
Unknown Speaker
we go. Thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren and this week we're in Bloomington, in person with Mayor John Hamilton. Hello, welcome. Thanks for having us today. It's
Unknown Speaker
good to see you in space. Together. Good to see you again.
Unknown Speaker
We welcome your comments, submit them to news at Indiana public media.org. You can tweet us at Ask the mayor just wanted to start with COVID numbers feel like those have been kind of been bumping up again, hearing a lot of people who somehow avoided COVID The first kind of couple years and now they're getting COVID Are you getting any still debriefings from the health officials hospital? What's Do you have anything that you can tell us?
Unknown Speaker
Well, we are really beginning restarting some regular meetings we actually have not been doing the weekly meetings but and Penny coddle retired. By the way, shout out to Health Department Director Penny Caudill has just retired after extraordinary service for decades, including the past two years. So thanks to her, we are talking. I do we do see more. We're seeing it more in our city, we continue to of course, mostly worry about hospitals and deaths. And we will continue to monitor that. But you're right, Joe, people are getting sick, it's happening, the new, the new strain is more infectious. And it's also a little more evasive of the of the vaccinations and such. So we just have to keep being careful, we're going to be living with this. And as the season kicks in, we'll we'll continue to watch it.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, some of the numbers on the COVID panel 1700 new cases in the state last week have been going up but only 8500 tested. And that's what's interesting, you can almost go by a lot of these data points anymore, because you're not getting a really good with only 8500 people tested. You know,
Unknown Speaker
everybody's doing home tests. Right. And, and or they're just not in the system. So those data points are different. We we really want to watch hospitalizations and deaths from my perspective. But we'll be we'll be talking the hospital system, the Health Department and others are continuing to monitor and we will be continuing to talk. I don't know if we'll have any changes in protocols or approaches, but it's here and people are catching it. So just try to be careful and don't don't mingle germs if you don't have to. We're six feet apart right now.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The booster? Can anyone could do you know, the booster? Or is that still 50 and over or
Unknown Speaker
the original booster I think is available for everybody. Right? A lot of people have not taken it though. That's true. Even in our workforce, we found a much lower take rate for the booster than we did for the original vaccine. So I've had the booster. I think the question now is that next, the next booster I've had to, and I think we expect this fall to have a new round of shots, vaccination slash booster. So we encourage everybody to monitor that if you're if you're over 50 and you haven't had a recent booster you the recommendations I hear are you should get it right away.
Unknown Speaker
Now, the news is Monkey pox. And last I saw that there are only 16 in the state. Vaccines are told to be limited. Federal officials have ordered millions to ship into the us of how concerned Were you hearing about monkey pox.
Unknown Speaker
You know, I we continue to monitor in here. I'm not worried about it. At this point, we see a lot more impact from the COVID. But of course that disease or others that can arise can appear we always want to be on watch for and thank goodness for the CDC and the federal government and the way they continue to watch this for us.
Unknown Speaker
And as you always say to you and all the mayors say talk to your family doctor or talk to your personal physician for stuff like this. I'm not a doctor. No, I'm not either. Doctor, Doctor. We talked a lot of them and we work with them. And that's why I asked this because sometimes you might hear things that you know we don't so so some big news last week the city's looking to bring the fire and police administration to showers plaza at city hall where we are right now. CFC properties have a portion of this building. I think a lot of people don't maybe understand what's all over here. They come to the taste of Bloomington of the farmers market and don't know Monroe County Government has offices here. Of course the city has offices here. Explain how this came about.
Unknown Speaker
Right. So yes, a lot of people don't know it's really three separate buildings, almost condos in this one building that was set that way when it began 25 plus years ago. So you know, the floods last month really last year sorry, the floods Last month really damaged our police headquarters and our fire downtown station, have us looking for options. We've been long interested in the in showers building as a place for continued City Hall presence over the decades to come, our city grows, our government grows. But in particular, the police headquarters, which is their full, you know, 100 plus complement of folks, it needs, it needs a better place to be. It's an old building they're in, it's been damaged by flood. They are growing we so we started looking at a place for police headquarters, when we when we discussed with CFC, that was a great option to think about bringing them right into City Hall. So we have some due diligence to do we have an accepted offer to buy the building at about $9 million. And that's a good price for the square footage that we can get. But we have to make sure it can work as a police station. In addition, we can bring the Fire Administration now it's not a fire station, it's not the the engines and all running out of here. But it's all the administrators for fire could join as well. And that would really be helpful to have all that public safety in one space.
Unknown Speaker
So when you say that, does that mean that the current downtown fire headquarters would just be turned into a regular station,
Unknown Speaker
we will have a downtown station, whether it's right there on Fourth Street or somewhere else, we're also looking at that because that station was heavily damaged, it's in a low area, it would be difficult they had trouble getting the trucks in and out with with that kind of flooding, that we hope the flooding will get better. We're working on that. But we will have a downtown station with the engine and the ladder in the truck. But that's separate from the fire headquarters administration services,
Unknown Speaker
and working with the police department to think about all those vehicles that they have parked there behind. And when you look at the Google Maps, you can take a look at the back of I guess City Hall, that would be West kind of north west of the farmers market. For those who are trying to picture where this is, there's not really much parking there.
Unknown Speaker
Well, there's parking for the commercial space. But of course, we have a we have a garage to next trades district that's there. So that will be one of the things we'll look at, though in the due diligence process just to make sure this can work with police stations are not just your everyday office buildings, either. They have to have substantial security and, you know, spaces that are protected for some of their services and materials. So we will be spending the next couple months with some professionals looking at whether this can work. But I hope it can. I think it would be a really good step forward for the city to have all of us together this way.
Unknown Speaker
And then of course, the police department would be up for determined to be determined.
Unknown Speaker
Yes, yeah. property, we would then work with city council to think about what should be done with that dispose of it to others use it for housing, other kinds of ideas.
Unknown Speaker
Last question on this is that it kind of creates this neat opportunity with City Hall already here to do some. I mean, they're divided now, but could something down the road be looked at into kind of forming City Hall and to the fire department? So it's more of one big building?
Unknown Speaker
Absolutely, we would look at connecting the two halves, if you will, or the two thirds of the building. We've actually talked about that with county too, because sometimes having a doorway in between would be helpful, but almost certainly, it would involve opening up the two, the two parts of the building to connect them could be connected by city chambers, council chambers could be connected on both floors, different ways. We'll look at that.
Unknown Speaker
I know some people were a little bit of well, of course, they just moved into CFC. And now they realize they may have to move is this will the city help them relocate?
Unknown Speaker
Absolutely. Well, a couple things, one, any lease leases or leases and they're there, they have the right to be there. But second, we won't need all that space. Even if we do move everything from the police and the fire in there, there will be a commercial space still available. So we'll be working with all the tenants over the months and years if this goes forward to figure out how to take care of their interests as well.
Unknown Speaker
Just thinking about retail spaces and leases for Street garage, I believe it's the retail space, there's still empty Any word on interest in there. What's going on
Unknown Speaker
there? You know, we're still marketing it, Joe, you're right. A really since the pandemic, a lot of office and retail space is different. I was talking to somebody in Chicago who said they had I think they said 17 million square feet of empty office space in downtown Chicago. So we're a small city, we don't have that same numbers, but we have impact and we're part of that. You know, we're going to continue to work to try to find ways that people can use that space well, but the pandemic shifted that quite a bit for a lot of us.
Unknown Speaker
What about for st crotch? It's been open now for a while is it being used our public using it at night and weekends like it used to be you know, back in the good old days.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, you know, I haven't seen the exact numbers on it. Joe is of course it's open. Yes, it's used we have I think I seen about half of the spaces are leased in the long term by by workers, particularly in the Fountain Square Mall as such, it's of course used for different kinds of events. But I haven't seen the numbers, I will say, I do think you know, the pandemic and the working patterns, there's still lots of people who are working from home part time, some of the time maybe all the time that's changing that we're continuing to look at the parking needs downtown. I will say from the long call, having parking structures available that can replace surface parking is a good thing. It lets us reuse surface space for for better uses for housing or or businesses, restaurants, etc. So I'm really glad that we have that basic infrastructure. And it lets us continue to have to evaluate how much surface space we need both us publicly in the private sector.
Unknown Speaker
One, of course, there are plans to expand the convention center, which was is literally across the street. And I assume part of that too, is looking to what happens in that area would absolutely
Unknown Speaker
be very important to a hotel or Convention Center itself in the future years. So again, it's a really good piece of infrastructure to have that will serve in different ways, probably year by year, but we're glad to have it. It's safe. It's available in my wants to use it.
Unknown Speaker
Just talk to Eric spoon more last week. For those He's the president of the Bloomington chamber. And he says 2022 is the year of the convention center expansion, he is ready to go. I know you are too. Again, I know I asked you last month. But any update on what's happening there?
Unknown Speaker
Well, I am encouraged, as is Eric spoon more, I think there is a path forward that we hope I think in the next week or two, we're probably going to see some public engagement on that. There's just there are discussions going on now behind the scenes. As you as you indicated, you know, we and I in the city have long wanted to see the convention center expanded. We think it's a real opportunity and important for the future downtown vitality. I am hopeful that this year indeed we will be able to see major strides made. We're just still still discussions going on in the background. But I think that will come to the public a little more directly in the next couple of weeks.
Unknown Speaker
just interesting to see how all this unfolds in different cities. And we've talked about Terre Haute convention center and just talked to Mayor Jim Lin up last week. And in Columbus and they hired a consultant to see if they should have a conference and they don't have anything. And the consultant came back and said yes, you should build one and it should be bigger than what you projected. So I thought that was interesting to hear that in a neighboring city. Of course, tourism is big there with the architecture and knowing what Bloomington is going through to
Unknown Speaker
Well, I hadn't heard that Joe, but it is interesting. I I do think while the pandemic taught us a lot of things, we can work differently, we can accomplish a lot. It also did teach us how much we appreciate being together in together in person. And I do think meetings and maybe particularly meetings where you are able to drive to or it's not you don't have to fly. So we may find a lot of regional interest. And we think that's what we've seen so far. In meetings plus, one of the other things that's very popular are athletic events, sports events, including volleyball tournaments, or wrestling or or, you know, indoor use of space for for athletic events too. So all of that is potential for us. All that means kind of that Monday to Friday to for us as a city, it can help support our downtown. It's also important for the arts, frankly, having performing spaces and having more people here to support our arts. I
Unknown Speaker
don't know if you know anything more about the city council meeting that's going to happen. Wednesday night, I believe about the creamery apartments, I know we're getting kind of down to the wire on that and may may be pulling out.
Unknown Speaker
So we've made clear to those who want to do that development. And they're a Chicago based group that because of the impact they're having on the city and with the purchase of the smokestack and the need to take that down that we want to see a contribution kind of similar to what the smokestack was are something to support the community. They're not ready to commit to that yet. I don't know how that's gonna shake out their their private investor, from my perspective, if they won't do either affordable housing or some substantial art investment, reflecting the fact that they've taken on this iconic thing and going to bring it down it looks like then we may have to do a different plan. There'll be another plan down the road. If this doesn't work out. It'll be up to the council to vote on that because they are asking for a public alley vacation. And in my view, if you're asking for the public to give you some land and right of way, then you should give back something to the public. And we'll see if that can get worked out or not.
Unknown Speaker
You have a couple of minutes left, but I did want to talk to you about legislators are going to convene shortly about crafting an abortion legislation, taxpayer refunds for the state surplus. I know wide open here, but what's your message to state legislators as they convene?
Unknown Speaker
Well, first on the fiscal side, let's just get out of the way that $6 billion surplus, that's way too much they should be investing more in public education and returning money to those of us who need it, which is really important. But fundamentally, Joe, this is a very scary time. You know, this is the first time in American history 200 plus years that we've had a Supreme Court take away a fundamental right, like they did when they overturned Roe v. Wade. I think that was extraordinarily wrong and damaging to our country. And what it did do it took away that federal right but it meant went back to the states to say well, what are states going to do? The the outlook is grim, that our state seems poised to take away what most Indiana residents want. Most Hoosiers want to keep government out of our bedrooms and out of our private lives, out of our personal decisions. But it looks very much like the legislature may double down and make a bunch of really dangerous decisions from my perspective that Bloomington is a home to Indiana University and 10s of 1000s of young women, some of whom will have unintended pregnancies and the idea that they would be forced by the state legislature by the government to bear a child that they do not want is abysmal. From my perspective. I'm going to be going up there to make our voices heard a bunch of us from Bloomington if people want to join there's a bus and others going up on Monday the 25th I hope our legislators listen to reason and listen to the Who's your common sense. It says, Let these personal decisions be personal. I'm not I'm not very hopeful about that. But more of us need to let our voice be heard.
Unknown Speaker
We have one minute left. I always like to leave the last minute to you. Do you have any announcements or anything else you'd like to say?
Unknown Speaker
Joe? I think we've covered it. You know, we're excited about the Hopewell site, we now own some of that. The main hospital is you'll see as being decommissioned and deconstructed and you're going to start to see some demolition to on the areas east of the hospital as we work to redevelop that but it's always an exciting time in Bloomington the summer, a lot of construction. Be careful, be safe out there. And we'll look forward to chatting again in August when it starts to kick back up into the regular rhythm. Here
Unknown Speaker
we go. Thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you
