Unknown Speaker
All right. Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren. This week we're in Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton. Hello, welcome to the show. Really appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to join us for a little bit. Always good to be with you, Joe. Don't forget, you can submit your questions to news at Indiana public media.org. You can tweet us at Ask the mayor. Before we go with my list. We just had some breaking news about an hour and a half ago about an armed suspect in a storm sewer drain, I believe. Do you have any information and I know we're doing this at the time that was 148 on a on a Tuesday and a lot will change by the time some people hear this. But what are you hearing right now?
Unknown Speaker
Well, thanks, Joe. There's, there's an active deployment of the response vehicle that we have in the server team, the critical incident team, there is somebody who we believe may be armed, who has apparently gone into the storm sewer system under downtown. So that's a little complicated situation, there's a pursuit going on and containment and no shots have been fired. So far as I know, this individual is known to the police, and they're pursuing them using a few technical means. And I hope it'll get resolved safely and peacefully soon. But at the moment, we're having to kind of keep people away from a certain downtown area.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, and you say I don't know how much you can say about the technical means of what they're doing to try and get the suspect.
Unknown Speaker
Well, it's complicated. It's a it's a 20 foot wide, completely dark storm sewer. And we don't want to send individuals down there if he is armed with a with a rifle, which we believe he may be. So we're going to use some other means whether it's canines or whether it's mechanical means to try to find out exactly where he is. And, you know, use whatever we can to talk them out of it and get out of there and get things resolved peacefully and safely. And I'm hopeful we will but we were still it's a still active situation, as far as I know.
Unknown Speaker
All right. Let's quickly move on with some of the latest news this past week, even gigabit now new service provider that will work with Meridiam throughout Bloomington, for high speed internet. So this is big news, something we've been waiting for that next domino to Fall to Fall. And this is a big one, isn't it? This is
Unknown Speaker
you know, we've talked before about meridiem. And the fact that they're going to bring gigabit fiber to the whole community not leave any neighborhoods behind and also designed in an infrastructure sense, meaning fiber that will be available to other users to other providers. The first provider out of the gate is as you mentioned, gigabit now so that was just announced that's a West Coast based internet service provider, we're very pleased. And Joe part of this that I'm most excited about probably is the digital equity component of this week, I think as far as we know, we have the best digital equity program in the country, that's going to offer essentially zero cost, very good internet speed to a lot of our members of the community who have financial challenges. So we're really excited about that. I do warn people, there may be some construction beginning next month as we move forward with this. And it'll be coming to your neighborhood but be patient and it's kind of like stringing up the first electric wires going all over the city. This is the fiber that's gonna go all across the city. And it's a very exciting time.
Unknown Speaker
So you say no cost, high speed internet? Can you compare that to what that would mean for it for some of these people?
Unknown Speaker
Sure. Well, we're working with meridiem and we're in the cities contributing to this too. And radium is as well a program that will offer essentially any household that has food stamps, free and reduced lunch, Social Security Disability. Other such means tested programs will be able to get $30 A month internet which is the exact amount that the federal government will subsidize under those programs and also free drop to the house that's often the 500 $800 cost that you have to pay to get that dropped we'll make that zero and that could be 1000s of households in the in the Bloomington area over the next year or two to get that connection and they will receive under the current program 250 megabit speed up and down now that's faster than most of us get right now in our home under current services. So it's really excellent service at a at a zero effectives costs. So that's why I call it really exciting best digital equity program we know of in the country.
Unknown Speaker
Those numbers sometimes may not mean a lot so does that mean that someone can watch you know HDTV in the in the living room and the kids can be on the internet doing their homework at the same time means
Unknown Speaker
you can have multiple things going on streaming movies, downloading video. interaction it's it's it's very high speed, it's a, it's quarter of a gigabit. But most of us right now are getting 50 meg 50 megabit 25, maybe 100. For many of us, and this is 250, up and down.
Unknown Speaker
So meridiem provides the infrastructure just so people understand. And Columbus to is on board with this, I think Shelbyville BOTH Yeah. And they're getting the, I guess, tax breaks in order to provide the service.
Unknown Speaker
meridiem is building the fiber is think about building the digital roads, all the fiber that's going to be all throughout the community and reach every pass every household. And then the Internet Service Provider gigabit now uses those fiber networks to provide the services directly to you. So different from 18, t and Comcast, which do both the infrastructure and the service. This is basically creating kind of a company that will build the roads, build the fiber roads, and then having other entities that can use those roads to reach us and provide the services.
Unknown Speaker
So then why gigabit now and why not? You mentioned at&t and these other services, don't they see this as an unfair competitive?
Unknown Speaker
Well, it's, it's, it's really up to meridiem, the owner of infrastructure to find the provider who wants to use it certainly open to 18 T and Comcast to, to have sought to be that relationship. In our contract with radium after a number of years, perhaps four or five years, those digital roadways, if you will, will be wide open to anybody who wants them. So Smithville 18, t, Comcast, Verizon, T Mobile, and anybody who wants to can come in and use those and provide services to you, or to a business or to the city as a whole.
Unknown Speaker
Let's move on to the convention center process moving on a lot is happening again. The city wants to take over control of the convention center, there was one really good meeting with a select few of different entities between government and city officials. But I think the only thing that maybe everyone agreed on is that the convention expansion needs to happen. But I'm not sure anything much has happened. More than that. Do you have any more information?
Unknown Speaker
Well, thanks for asking. I know that from the city side, we feel strongly that this is an important investment in the downtown. I'm not sure everybody agrees that the expansion needs to happen. And we're still a little concerned about the timing of the moving forward. But I think we'll work something out. Joe, look, this is there's public funding that's available to build an expansion right downtown, the city is ready to move forward. We're not sure if the county is ready to transfer the existing convention center into a new entity to do that. But we're talking we're waiting for the next meeting. It's been a little delay getting an X meeting set up the county hasn't responded yet. But I'm we're continuing to talk. And I believe that there are enough of us who who see the future and the importance of this downtown Angkor to get better and better and expand that we'll make we'll figure out a way to get it done. Seems
Unknown Speaker
like the commissioners really want to move forward with that the CIB? And that's something that that meeting that the city is not interested in is Is there some way to look at that again or no?
Unknown Speaker
Well, the the issue with the CIB, which is a Capital Improvement Board defined by the state law is that it's really a creature of county government and any CIB can only act if it's got approval from county bodies and those county bodies. I just think I'm not sure ready to move forward with that, to approve the kinds of things that need to be approved. So those discussions are ongoing. I think there is a path forward one way or the other. If the transfer happens, it's really just a transfer from one government to another to manage the process will will charge ahead with that if the county is not ready to do that. We'll try to identify another means to wait to go forward.
Unknown Speaker
City was interested in is it a nonprofit 501 C three to run the convention center. And but the commissioner pointed out some problems with that with some taxpayer grounding if litigation is filed or lose losing public input with an with an organization like that. Is that concerning?
Unknown Speaker
No. Well, no, not really. There are a lot of 501 C threes around the state and around the country that play very productive and transparent and open roles. They're not issues with that are that are described there that can be very effective. In fact, the county in the city both have 501 C threes right now that operate in this way. It's a 501 C three that actually owns the county property for the convention center and the city has a 501 C three also. So it's a it's a typical approach.
Unknown Speaker
So no meeting scheduled from as far as
Unknown Speaker
I know, we're still waiting to have the county set up a meeting agreed to a meeting.
Unknown Speaker
Any changes in the budget since the departmental hearings in August. What's what's next?
Unknown Speaker
Well, I'm very pleased we've got a really transformational budget As I said, it's a new era for Bloomington. We have an expanded budget, we're able to invest in climate change and in housing and inequity and in public transportation and public safety in really important ways. We will be having a formal budget hearing is September 28. The only change that was made and the numbers that were presented to the council are we have added $100,000 into that budget to support reproductive rights response. We know that the state has taken action with Senate Bill one that basically outlaws all abortions. And we want to indicate that's a huge challenge for the people of Bloomington. And we want to put some money in the budget to help support organizations that help those people who are facing that kind of challenge.
Unknown Speaker
So what happens now with the budget
Unknown Speaker
hearing at the City Council on September 28, and then a couple of weeks after that, there'll be we hope a final hearing October 12. I think maybe that Wednesday is the is the final hearing. And we hope to get an affirmative vote from the council discussions ongoing continuing to work with them. And again, I'm very, very pleased with this budget helping us move into literally a new era for Bloomington, with new and never before investments in affordable housing, never before kind of investments in public transportation and in public safety. And, you know, it's a hard time to be an employer, anybody who's an employer knows that so it's also investing in the city as an employer to make sure we are treating our employees right and that we're a real Employer of Choice.
Unknown Speaker
You know, I just had to get your your take, we know that second scooter crash with two deaths now. And I know there is some maybe a scooter ordinance in the new budget for maybe some more enforcement, just your response to this scooters.
Unknown Speaker
Just reminding folks you know, scooters are kind of a new thing that came to our city and many others across the country. In the last three or four years, we've actually had, I believe the latest date, I saw Joe was 1.2 million scooter rides in Bloomington since they've arrived. So they're hundreds being taken every day. And they're away for a lot of people to get around. That's different. We have tragically had two deaths this year, just in the last six weeks from scooter riders, one was a scooter rider alone death, the most recent was really what we know from the in the in the criminal report, it was a hit and run based on somebody ran over a scooter rider and they died. So we're definitely looking at ways to of course, deal with impaired driving. That was what appeared to be the cause of the latest death. And that's a huge issue for us to all continue to focus on. And then there may be some changes. We're doing some increased enforcement about scooters, we may be looking at some what they call corrals, where you park scooters, some of the concerns where they're parked. But for safety, too, I think Indiana University is going to take some some safety training. And we may look at some our controls. The two fatalities both happened very late at night, really early morning. And it may be that that's a more dangerous time that we should look at controlling their use.
Unknown Speaker
I'm just about out of time. But I did want to ask you about this new initiative called zero in Bloomington. It tracks the progress toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But it's community wide. So how does that work? And how can people get involved with that?
Unknown Speaker
So thanks, anybody who wants to please log on to that zero in Bloomington program, I've done it myself, you can register. And it's a way just to kind of track what you do what we're doing as a community and individuals what we're doing what walking to work, instead of driving to work, different kinds of solar, things are happening at home. And I want to encourage that. And I do want to say, look, climate change does not get resolved by individual actions alone, like this. Systemic and infrastructure, overall, changes are important. And we'll be actually having a first regional climate convening in a couple of weeks here in town. So I'll encourage people to look and participate and watch for that too. But as individuals, it's helpful for us to know are you riding your bike more? Are you walking more? Are you composting? Are you you know, are you using solar on your roof? So it helps us if people register for that and we can kind of keep track of that and help you know, you're part of the solution.
Unknown Speaker
That was all I had. Did you have any announcements or anything else you'd like to tell everyone?
Unknown Speaker
I think Joe, we've covered it. There's always things going on out there.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it. You bet.
All right. Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren. This week we're in Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton. Hello, welcome to the show. Really appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to join us for a little bit. Always good to be with you, Joe. Don't forget, you can submit your questions to news at Indiana public media.org. You can tweet us at Ask the mayor. Before we go with my list. We just had some breaking news about an hour and a half ago about an armed suspect in a storm sewer drain, I believe. Do you have any information and I know we're doing this at the time that was 148 on a on a Tuesday and a lot will change by the time some people hear this. But what are you hearing right now?
Unknown Speaker
Well, thanks, Joe. There's, there's an active deployment of the response vehicle that we have in the server team, the critical incident team, there is somebody who we believe may be armed, who has apparently gone into the storm sewer system under downtown. So that's a little complicated situation, there's a pursuit going on and containment and no shots have been fired. So far as I know, this individual is known to the police, and they're pursuing them using a few technical means. And I hope it'll get resolved safely and peacefully soon. But at the moment, we're having to kind of keep people away from a certain downtown area.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, and you say I don't know how much you can say about the technical means of what they're doing to try and get the suspect.
Unknown Speaker
Well, it's complicated. It's a it's a 20 foot wide, completely dark storm sewer. And we don't want to send individuals down there if he is armed with a with a rifle, which we believe he may be. So we're going to use some other means whether it's canines or whether it's mechanical means to try to find out exactly where he is. And, you know, use whatever we can to talk them out of it and get out of there and get things resolved peacefully and safely. And I'm hopeful we will but we were still it's a still active situation, as far as I know.
Unknown Speaker
All right. Let's quickly move on with some of the latest news this past week, even gigabit now new service provider that will work with Meridiam throughout Bloomington, for high speed internet. So this is big news, something we've been waiting for that next domino to Fall to Fall. And this is a big one, isn't it? This is
Unknown Speaker
you know, we've talked before about meridiem. And the fact that they're going to bring gigabit fiber to the whole community not leave any neighborhoods behind and also designed in an infrastructure sense, meaning fiber that will be available to other users to other providers. The first provider out of the gate is as you mentioned, gigabit now so that was just announced that's a West Coast based internet service provider, we're very pleased. And Joe part of this that I'm most excited about probably is the digital equity component of this week, I think as far as we know, we have the best digital equity program in the country, that's going to offer essentially zero cost, very good internet speed to a lot of our members of the community who have financial challenges. So we're really excited about that. I do warn people, there may be some construction beginning next month as we move forward with this. And it'll be coming to your neighborhood but be patient and it's kind of like stringing up the first electric wires going all over the city. This is the fiber that's gonna go all across the city. And it's a very exciting time.
Unknown Speaker
So you say no cost, high speed internet? Can you compare that to what that would mean for it for some of these people?
Unknown Speaker
Sure. Well, we're working with meridiem and we're in the cities contributing to this too. And radium is as well a program that will offer essentially any household that has food stamps, free and reduced lunch, Social Security Disability. Other such means tested programs will be able to get $30 A month internet which is the exact amount that the federal government will subsidize under those programs and also free drop to the house that's often the 500 $800 cost that you have to pay to get that dropped we'll make that zero and that could be 1000s of households in the in the Bloomington area over the next year or two to get that connection and they will receive under the current program 250 megabit speed up and down now that's faster than most of us get right now in our home under current services. So it's really excellent service at a at a zero effectives costs. So that's why I call it really exciting best digital equity program we know of in the country.
Unknown Speaker
Those numbers sometimes may not mean a lot so does that mean that someone can watch you know HDTV in the in the living room and the kids can be on the internet doing their homework at the same time means
Unknown Speaker
you can have multiple things going on streaming movies, downloading video. interaction it's it's it's very high speed, it's a, it's quarter of a gigabit. But most of us right now are getting 50 meg 50 megabit 25, maybe 100. For many of us, and this is 250, up and down.
Unknown Speaker
So meridiem provides the infrastructure just so people understand. And Columbus to is on board with this, I think Shelbyville BOTH Yeah. And they're getting the, I guess, tax breaks in order to provide the service.
Unknown Speaker
meridiem is building the fiber is think about building the digital roads, all the fiber that's going to be all throughout the community and reach every pass every household. And then the Internet Service Provider gigabit now uses those fiber networks to provide the services directly to you. So different from 18, t and Comcast, which do both the infrastructure and the service. This is basically creating kind of a company that will build the roads, build the fiber roads, and then having other entities that can use those roads to reach us and provide the services.
Unknown Speaker
So then why gigabit now and why not? You mentioned at&t and these other services, don't they see this as an unfair competitive?
Unknown Speaker
Well, it's, it's, it's really up to meridiem, the owner of infrastructure to find the provider who wants to use it certainly open to 18 T and Comcast to, to have sought to be that relationship. In our contract with radium after a number of years, perhaps four or five years, those digital roadways, if you will, will be wide open to anybody who wants them. So Smithville 18, t, Comcast, Verizon, T Mobile, and anybody who wants to can come in and use those and provide services to you, or to a business or to the city as a whole.
Unknown Speaker
Let's move on to the convention center process moving on a lot is happening again. The city wants to take over control of the convention center, there was one really good meeting with a select few of different entities between government and city officials. But I think the only thing that maybe everyone agreed on is that the convention expansion needs to happen. But I'm not sure anything much has happened. More than that. Do you have any more information?
Unknown Speaker
Well, thanks for asking. I know that from the city side, we feel strongly that this is an important investment in the downtown. I'm not sure everybody agrees that the expansion needs to happen. And we're still a little concerned about the timing of the moving forward. But I think we'll work something out. Joe, look, this is there's public funding that's available to build an expansion right downtown, the city is ready to move forward. We're not sure if the county is ready to transfer the existing convention center into a new entity to do that. But we're talking we're waiting for the next meeting. It's been a little delay getting an X meeting set up the county hasn't responded yet. But I'm we're continuing to talk. And I believe that there are enough of us who who see the future and the importance of this downtown Angkor to get better and better and expand that we'll make we'll figure out a way to get it done. Seems
Unknown Speaker
like the commissioners really want to move forward with that the CIB? And that's something that that meeting that the city is not interested in is Is there some way to look at that again or no?
Unknown Speaker
Well, the the issue with the CIB, which is a Capital Improvement Board defined by the state law is that it's really a creature of county government and any CIB can only act if it's got approval from county bodies and those county bodies. I just think I'm not sure ready to move forward with that, to approve the kinds of things that need to be approved. So those discussions are ongoing. I think there is a path forward one way or the other. If the transfer happens, it's really just a transfer from one government to another to manage the process will will charge ahead with that if the county is not ready to do that. We'll try to identify another means to wait to go forward.
Unknown Speaker
City was interested in is it a nonprofit 501 C three to run the convention center. And but the commissioner pointed out some problems with that with some taxpayer grounding if litigation is filed or lose losing public input with an with an organization like that. Is that concerning?
Unknown Speaker
No. Well, no, not really. There are a lot of 501 C threes around the state and around the country that play very productive and transparent and open roles. They're not issues with that are that are described there that can be very effective. In fact, the county in the city both have 501 C threes right now that operate in this way. It's a 501 C three that actually owns the county property for the convention center and the city has a 501 C three also. So it's a it's a typical approach.
Unknown Speaker
So no meeting scheduled from as far as
Unknown Speaker
I know, we're still waiting to have the county set up a meeting agreed to a meeting.
Unknown Speaker
Any changes in the budget since the departmental hearings in August. What's what's next?
Unknown Speaker
Well, I'm very pleased we've got a really transformational budget As I said, it's a new era for Bloomington. We have an expanded budget, we're able to invest in climate change and in housing and inequity and in public transportation and public safety in really important ways. We will be having a formal budget hearing is September 28. The only change that was made and the numbers that were presented to the council are we have added $100,000 into that budget to support reproductive rights response. We know that the state has taken action with Senate Bill one that basically outlaws all abortions. And we want to indicate that's a huge challenge for the people of Bloomington. And we want to put some money in the budget to help support organizations that help those people who are facing that kind of challenge.
Unknown Speaker
So what happens now with the budget
Unknown Speaker
hearing at the City Council on September 28, and then a couple of weeks after that, there'll be we hope a final hearing October 12. I think maybe that Wednesday is the is the final hearing. And we hope to get an affirmative vote from the council discussions ongoing continuing to work with them. And again, I'm very, very pleased with this budget helping us move into literally a new era for Bloomington, with new and never before investments in affordable housing, never before kind of investments in public transportation and in public safety. And, you know, it's a hard time to be an employer, anybody who's an employer knows that so it's also investing in the city as an employer to make sure we are treating our employees right and that we're a real Employer of Choice.
Unknown Speaker
You know, I just had to get your your take, we know that second scooter crash with two deaths now. And I know there is some maybe a scooter ordinance in the new budget for maybe some more enforcement, just your response to this scooters.
Unknown Speaker
Just reminding folks you know, scooters are kind of a new thing that came to our city and many others across the country. In the last three or four years, we've actually had, I believe the latest date, I saw Joe was 1.2 million scooter rides in Bloomington since they've arrived. So they're hundreds being taken every day. And they're away for a lot of people to get around. That's different. We have tragically had two deaths this year, just in the last six weeks from scooter riders, one was a scooter rider alone death, the most recent was really what we know from the in the in the criminal report, it was a hit and run based on somebody ran over a scooter rider and they died. So we're definitely looking at ways to of course, deal with impaired driving. That was what appeared to be the cause of the latest death. And that's a huge issue for us to all continue to focus on. And then there may be some changes. We're doing some increased enforcement about scooters, we may be looking at some what they call corrals, where you park scooters, some of the concerns where they're parked. But for safety, too, I think Indiana University is going to take some some safety training. And we may look at some our controls. The two fatalities both happened very late at night, really early morning. And it may be that that's a more dangerous time that we should look at controlling their use.
Unknown Speaker
I'm just about out of time. But I did want to ask you about this new initiative called zero in Bloomington. It tracks the progress toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But it's community wide. So how does that work? And how can people get involved with that?
Unknown Speaker
So thanks, anybody who wants to please log on to that zero in Bloomington program, I've done it myself, you can register. And it's a way just to kind of track what you do what we're doing as a community and individuals what we're doing what walking to work, instead of driving to work, different kinds of solar, things are happening at home. And I want to encourage that. And I do want to say, look, climate change does not get resolved by individual actions alone, like this. Systemic and infrastructure, overall, changes are important. And we'll be actually having a first regional climate convening in a couple of weeks here in town. So I'll encourage people to look and participate and watch for that too. But as individuals, it's helpful for us to know are you riding your bike more? Are you walking more? Are you composting? Are you you know, are you using solar on your roof? So it helps us if people register for that and we can kind of keep track of that and help you know, you're part of the solution.
Unknown Speaker
That was all I had. Did you have any announcements or anything else you'd like to tell everyone?
Unknown Speaker
I think Joe, we've covered it. There's always things going on out there.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it. You bet.
