Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren. This week, we have Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson, we're at City Hall. Thanks for having me.
Unknown Speaker
Back, Joe.
Speaker 1
Thank you. Thank you. All right. Well, let's just get down to it annexation partial ruling was out on the constitutionality litigation, did not go the city's way, was able to get a statement during that reporting. But do you have any more reaction on that partial ruling?
Speaker 2
Well, you know, as as the public knows, we, we did ask for the final ruling. And we did then file our notice of appeal last week. So we will be appealing that ruling, both because of the annexation, which we're of course concerned about what it means for contracts in the state. By and large, because it's it's concerning that those contracts won't stand.
Speaker 1
Yeah. So it is official, the ruling, or I'm sorry, the appeal has been submitted. It has. Okay, and what grounds are you seeking with the Court to hear that appeal?
Speaker 2
So the the appeal is, is, you know, based only on the constitutionality piece of the case? Of course, there is another case that the judge is still considering, and those are, that's considering one A and one B. So there are two separate cases, and the appeal has just been filed for for the constitutional case.
Speaker 1
So what would the court need to hear? Do you think to overturn the judge's ruling?
Speaker 2
I think it needs to, obviously hear evidence that that there are considerations that weren't taken into account. And we believe that there were
Unknown Speaker
Can you elaborate on those a little bit? Yeah,
Speaker 2
I think that they'll, they'll be apparent in the filing. And, and so we're looking forward to having that reconsidered.
Speaker 1
All right. The city is planning to clear a fourth encampment since the start of the year was delayed last week. So where is that encampment? And what criteria do you use to decide whether an encampment needs to move or be evicted from that area?
Speaker 2
Yes. So we are unfortunately, moving another encampment that that encampment is south of town. And it is, as the others have been that we have moved, that encampment has become unsafe. And so the city is working hard, of course, to work on permanent and temporary housing solutions so that people don't need to be sleeping outside. We know people are still sleeping outside. And when those encampments become unsafe in any way, we are committed to disrupting them and and asking them to move. And so we had initially given notice, and that was back in, in June, actually. And then it came to our attention that our legal department didn't have anything other than a formal two week notice which we were posting and then giving verbal notice otherwise. But in collaboration with the Housing Network, we've agreed to do 30 days, which was our intention. We then reposted with a legal notice for 30 days. So these folks actually had about 45 days notice. And, and so we'll be moving that encampment and my my urging both to people who are living in encampments and to the general public is that it's our responsibility as residents to keep everybody safe. And and as the mayor of the city. My leadership is and my team is committed to leaning forward towards safety.
Speaker 1
Is this the one near switchyard? Park? It's south of switch or it's south of switch on Park. Okay, yes. Okay. So, I mean, this kind of be well, this would be the fourth since January when you took office. And I don't know if it's too early to really tell but it's this approach working with finding permanent and temporary housing with those that the encampments are being disassembled, the
Speaker 2
approaches and targeted towards providing housing. That is a body of work that we are also working on. And what we what we desperately need are affordable rentals. We need shelter beds that that people can stay in. We need To understand why the empty shelter beds are empty, and why they're not accessible to, to some of these camp residents. And then, you know, ultimately we need a comprehensive plan where the service providers, the city, the county, everybody's rowing in the same direction towards solutions for homelessness.
Speaker 1
And obviously, a long term plan, that this is just one of the many steps that's being taken by the city to help address this issue.
Speaker 2
We need a long term plan. But I, I have been working with service providers on an emergency plan as well. Because we really are in a situation where we can't wait for just the long term plan. And our city's gonna really need to respond in our county as well. I mean, we're all connected
Speaker 1
during an h2 article on the 4g to the new tech center that's coming up just down the street here. And it was an interesting article, saying that Bloomington isn't as special anymore, or maybe it used to be, and that a tech center may not be what drives more economic activity in the area. And I thought that'd be a good question for Mayor Thompson. Das. Yeah. What does Bloomington need more than just a tech center or land to be special to make it that businesses and companies want to move here?
Speaker 2
I'm so glad you asked this question, because what we really need is a shared vision of who we are and where we're going. And I would say that we haven't had that in maybe the last decade, maybe longer. People describe Bloomington as this really special place and really exceptional place. But when you talk to them about that, they may not be able to pinpoint why. And so really, it's it's my administration's plan over the next year to put together some public input and a really organized way to talk to our residents and our leaders about what it is that makes Bloomington special. And looking forward. What is it that we really have that is so exceptional that we want to grow? So what is our vision moving forward? And so you'll hear about that more in the budgeting process? And I'm really excited about that question because we can't attract economic development, if we're the same as everybody else. And so we need to know why we're exceptional. And then we need the vision for how we're going to grow into that exceptionality.
Speaker 1
So residents of Bloomington Green Acres are seeking historic protections for the neighborhood in response to the threat of five homes being demolished to establish a conservation district. And I believe that would just require anyone wanting to demolish move or build, they're to first gain approval from the historic preservation commission. So there's this also battle in town about what's historic, what's not historic, we've seen graduate hotel wanting historic designation to be able to sell alcohol. So what's your take on Historic Preservations in the town, you know, what, what makes it a good thing, but yet not to hamper economic and develop development?
Speaker 2
I think you hit the nail on the head there, Joe, we want to preserve these really notable properties that really signify points in history, that that blooming where Bloomington has, has had architecture that really makes a contribution to our community, I would say just the age of the building doesn't necessarily make it contributing. And it is important for us to balance how we are going to house our neighbors and preserving the properties. And so I'm really watching the Green Acres conversation. And and I think it's a it's a conversation that we we do need to balance as a community. Because that, you know, any of the neighborhoods that are at all walkable, are places where people want to live. And so making sure that that the notable properties get preserved. And that the properties that are I mean, sometimes in some neighborhoods, there are properties that are really blighted, and I don't know if that's the case in Green Acres, but we certainly want to provide decent housing that is also affordable.
Speaker 1
When I'm speaking of housing I drove by the former hospital site yes in town and it is interesting to see curbs going in dirt being moved in kinda now see, oh, this is where we were, this is going to go. Do you have an update for us?
Speaker 2
Sure. So, you know, we've been doing the long work of a lot of infrastructure I'm so what you see going in right now are things that may not be super exciting to everybody in the public. It's exciting to me because I know the legwork that goes into the point in time where you have a street paved, where you have done the plotting work, you've got the sewers, and the water lines in and you know how those roads are going to form up. So that's what we've been working on. And in addition, of course, we have that Hopewell Greenway going in the new park. And we, many members of the Cabinet, got to have a sneak peek of the park just a few weeks ago, it is shaping up really, really nicely. And so I'm excited about that. And then we will, of course the core building has, which is that original hospital building that'll limestone building that has a housing development plan for it. And we'll start start bidding out the the other housing developments shortly here. So you'll, you'll see neighborhoods start to go up. Hopefully within the next year, you'll see some some something coming out of the ground. Exactly.
Speaker 1
Like you said, all we're seeing is the infrastructure, we don't know all that's going on underneath the ground. So are you referring to I know, it's different phases. So is this just the phase that's next to the Beeline? Or Or does this actually extend out into the
Speaker 2
so we actually are not going to start on the the one that's just adjacent to the Beeline yet. We'll do the one that is on the western end of the Beeline and then we'll build north from there north and east from there.
Speaker 1
Okay. Okay. Any major legislation to put before council or our budget talks now starting to take over your business,
Speaker 2
our businesses all budget right now. So we're working hard to get that in front of council in, you know, in time for their hearings. And so that, of course, is coming at the end of August. And, of course, the council has been on recess. They resume later this week. And so we're looking forward to having them back in City Hall.
Speaker 1
All right, what kind of proposals do you have for the police budget? You know, we were just covering the salary increase for IU police. The everyone's trying to keep up. I feel like it's a LeapFrog. That's right, with trying to get pleased to on a pay scale. It's competitive, isn't it?
Speaker 2
That's right. So we're looking at salaries, you know, across the board, as you know, you mentioned the crow study. That was for all of our non union employees. were of course in this is the season that we're doing our fire contracts now. And we do need to look at police pay. And so we are having those preliminary discussions, and we'll be talking about that with counsel.
Speaker 1
Any updates on the progress of the Big Dig? I'd like to call it refer to it that's on Indiana has Indiana Avenue close down? Yeah. See they moved through the parking lot. We talked about this a couple of months ago there was a tunnel that may have needed historic designation. That's right. That's right. It's tough. You just never think about can you give us an update on that?
Speaker 2
Yes, I didn't plan for a historic designation on a culvert when I ran for mayor. So that's been part of my joyful learning curve. But we do anticipate the reopening of Indiana Avenue and the city has been working really hard to get that done. And so we've, we've been pushing, we were trying to get it done for move in day. We're not going to quite make that but we hope to have that done by Labor Day.
Speaker 1
All right. Any other projects going on this summer that are wrapping up that you can think of are
Speaker 2
we have projects all over the place? So we're right now unfortunately, we're wrapping up the storm debris cleanup, and so, you know, that was a unintended project. But in fact, we've done a full after action review on the storm response, as as my administration will do with any major incident and are a major project and so we're we're really proud of the way the city responded. We do see need in areas of improvement. We did have people reaching out who wanted to volunteer and we didn't have an immediate way for people to volunteer. So that's one way we'll be improving storm response in the future. We are wrapping up all of the pickups so if people had already filed you reports we are we are really following those and doing those last pickups but I want people to know that not to take new debris to the curb expecting us to if they're trimming trees and things now. This was really storm debris picked up and it was to be done the Two weeks following that storm. So we're wrapping that up. And then of course, the new project on the horizon is that the Board of Public Works will be approving. Hopefully there'll be hearing about the petition to close right of way for the gateway projects on the north end of Bloomington, by Miller showers Park and the dredging, which everybody's excited about is almost done.
Speaker 1
That's what's happening over there. The lane closure, I wasn't sure, yes,
Speaker 2
we've been dredging. Okay, so every once in a while, you've got to do a little cleanup at Miller shower. Yeah.
Speaker 1
All parks almost done. What about the gateway kind of timeline on that? When will people start seeing construction there?
Speaker 2
You know, I don't know when construction is, is going to look visible that we are applying for those permits to close down this fall. So yeah, that's common. Wear it Yeah, the designs done it looks really great. And we're excited about it.
Speaker 1
So we're down to our last minute of the show. But I always like to leave it to you any other announcements in general you'd like to let everyone know about what
Speaker 2
I'm we're really excited to that that Bloomington is home or temporary home to so many Olympians. So that's it's timely right now. I hope everybody's watching the Olympics and really has a lot of Hoosier pride. Not all of them are competing on behalf of the US which is also really incredible. And will host our own park the Olympics on August 10. So you can check out the parks page for that and we'll be celebrating the Bloomington ties to the Olympics during that during that event.
Unknown Speaker
Terre Haute Mayor Brandon sackbut Yes, sister. Yes, she's competing competing for Cambodia. Yes. Isn't that interesting? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker
So what a talented family.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you so much, and hope to see you next month.
Unknown Speaker
Thanks, Joe.
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren. This week, we have Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson, we're at City Hall. Thanks for having me.
Unknown Speaker
Back, Joe.
Speaker 1
Thank you. Thank you. All right. Well, let's just get down to it annexation partial ruling was out on the constitutionality litigation, did not go the city's way, was able to get a statement during that reporting. But do you have any more reaction on that partial ruling?
Speaker 2
Well, you know, as as the public knows, we, we did ask for the final ruling. And we did then file our notice of appeal last week. So we will be appealing that ruling, both because of the annexation, which we're of course concerned about what it means for contracts in the state. By and large, because it's it's concerning that those contracts won't stand.
Speaker 1
Yeah. So it is official, the ruling, or I'm sorry, the appeal has been submitted. It has. Okay, and what grounds are you seeking with the Court to hear that appeal?
Speaker 2
So the the appeal is, is, you know, based only on the constitutionality piece of the case? Of course, there is another case that the judge is still considering, and those are, that's considering one A and one B. So there are two separate cases, and the appeal has just been filed for for the constitutional case.
Speaker 1
So what would the court need to hear? Do you think to overturn the judge's ruling?
Speaker 2
I think it needs to, obviously hear evidence that that there are considerations that weren't taken into account. And we believe that there were
Unknown Speaker
Can you elaborate on those a little bit? Yeah,
Speaker 2
I think that they'll, they'll be apparent in the filing. And, and so we're looking forward to having that reconsidered.
Speaker 1
All right. The city is planning to clear a fourth encampment since the start of the year was delayed last week. So where is that encampment? And what criteria do you use to decide whether an encampment needs to move or be evicted from that area?
Speaker 2
Yes. So we are unfortunately, moving another encampment that that encampment is south of town. And it is, as the others have been that we have moved, that encampment has become unsafe. And so the city is working hard, of course, to work on permanent and temporary housing solutions so that people don't need to be sleeping outside. We know people are still sleeping outside. And when those encampments become unsafe in any way, we are committed to disrupting them and and asking them to move. And so we had initially given notice, and that was back in, in June, actually. And then it came to our attention that our legal department didn't have anything other than a formal two week notice which we were posting and then giving verbal notice otherwise. But in collaboration with the Housing Network, we've agreed to do 30 days, which was our intention. We then reposted with a legal notice for 30 days. So these folks actually had about 45 days notice. And, and so we'll be moving that encampment and my my urging both to people who are living in encampments and to the general public is that it's our responsibility as residents to keep everybody safe. And and as the mayor of the city. My leadership is and my team is committed to leaning forward towards safety.
Speaker 1
Is this the one near switchyard? Park? It's south of switch or it's south of switch on Park. Okay, yes. Okay. So, I mean, this kind of be well, this would be the fourth since January when you took office. And I don't know if it's too early to really tell but it's this approach working with finding permanent and temporary housing with those that the encampments are being disassembled, the
Speaker 2
approaches and targeted towards providing housing. That is a body of work that we are also working on. And what we what we desperately need are affordable rentals. We need shelter beds that that people can stay in. We need To understand why the empty shelter beds are empty, and why they're not accessible to, to some of these camp residents. And then, you know, ultimately we need a comprehensive plan where the service providers, the city, the county, everybody's rowing in the same direction towards solutions for homelessness.
Speaker 1
And obviously, a long term plan, that this is just one of the many steps that's being taken by the city to help address this issue.
Speaker 2
We need a long term plan. But I, I have been working with service providers on an emergency plan as well. Because we really are in a situation where we can't wait for just the long term plan. And our city's gonna really need to respond in our county as well. I mean, we're all connected
Speaker 1
during an h2 article on the 4g to the new tech center that's coming up just down the street here. And it was an interesting article, saying that Bloomington isn't as special anymore, or maybe it used to be, and that a tech center may not be what drives more economic activity in the area. And I thought that'd be a good question for Mayor Thompson. Das. Yeah. What does Bloomington need more than just a tech center or land to be special to make it that businesses and companies want to move here?
Speaker 2
I'm so glad you asked this question, because what we really need is a shared vision of who we are and where we're going. And I would say that we haven't had that in maybe the last decade, maybe longer. People describe Bloomington as this really special place and really exceptional place. But when you talk to them about that, they may not be able to pinpoint why. And so really, it's it's my administration's plan over the next year to put together some public input and a really organized way to talk to our residents and our leaders about what it is that makes Bloomington special. And looking forward. What is it that we really have that is so exceptional that we want to grow? So what is our vision moving forward? And so you'll hear about that more in the budgeting process? And I'm really excited about that question because we can't attract economic development, if we're the same as everybody else. And so we need to know why we're exceptional. And then we need the vision for how we're going to grow into that exceptionality.
Speaker 1
So residents of Bloomington Green Acres are seeking historic protections for the neighborhood in response to the threat of five homes being demolished to establish a conservation district. And I believe that would just require anyone wanting to demolish move or build, they're to first gain approval from the historic preservation commission. So there's this also battle in town about what's historic, what's not historic, we've seen graduate hotel wanting historic designation to be able to sell alcohol. So what's your take on Historic Preservations in the town, you know, what, what makes it a good thing, but yet not to hamper economic and develop development?
Speaker 2
I think you hit the nail on the head there, Joe, we want to preserve these really notable properties that really signify points in history, that that blooming where Bloomington has, has had architecture that really makes a contribution to our community, I would say just the age of the building doesn't necessarily make it contributing. And it is important for us to balance how we are going to house our neighbors and preserving the properties. And so I'm really watching the Green Acres conversation. And and I think it's a it's a conversation that we we do need to balance as a community. Because that, you know, any of the neighborhoods that are at all walkable, are places where people want to live. And so making sure that that the notable properties get preserved. And that the properties that are I mean, sometimes in some neighborhoods, there are properties that are really blighted, and I don't know if that's the case in Green Acres, but we certainly want to provide decent housing that is also affordable.
Speaker 1
When I'm speaking of housing I drove by the former hospital site yes in town and it is interesting to see curbs going in dirt being moved in kinda now see, oh, this is where we were, this is going to go. Do you have an update for us?
Speaker 2
Sure. So, you know, we've been doing the long work of a lot of infrastructure I'm so what you see going in right now are things that may not be super exciting to everybody in the public. It's exciting to me because I know the legwork that goes into the point in time where you have a street paved, where you have done the plotting work, you've got the sewers, and the water lines in and you know how those roads are going to form up. So that's what we've been working on. And in addition, of course, we have that Hopewell Greenway going in the new park. And we, many members of the Cabinet, got to have a sneak peek of the park just a few weeks ago, it is shaping up really, really nicely. And so I'm excited about that. And then we will, of course the core building has, which is that original hospital building that'll limestone building that has a housing development plan for it. And we'll start start bidding out the the other housing developments shortly here. So you'll, you'll see neighborhoods start to go up. Hopefully within the next year, you'll see some some something coming out of the ground. Exactly.
Speaker 1
Like you said, all we're seeing is the infrastructure, we don't know all that's going on underneath the ground. So are you referring to I know, it's different phases. So is this just the phase that's next to the Beeline? Or Or does this actually extend out into the
Speaker 2
so we actually are not going to start on the the one that's just adjacent to the Beeline yet. We'll do the one that is on the western end of the Beeline and then we'll build north from there north and east from there.
Speaker 1
Okay. Okay. Any major legislation to put before council or our budget talks now starting to take over your business,
Speaker 2
our businesses all budget right now. So we're working hard to get that in front of council in, you know, in time for their hearings. And so that, of course, is coming at the end of August. And, of course, the council has been on recess. They resume later this week. And so we're looking forward to having them back in City Hall.
Speaker 1
All right, what kind of proposals do you have for the police budget? You know, we were just covering the salary increase for IU police. The everyone's trying to keep up. I feel like it's a LeapFrog. That's right, with trying to get pleased to on a pay scale. It's competitive, isn't it?
Speaker 2
That's right. So we're looking at salaries, you know, across the board, as you know, you mentioned the crow study. That was for all of our non union employees. were of course in this is the season that we're doing our fire contracts now. And we do need to look at police pay. And so we are having those preliminary discussions, and we'll be talking about that with counsel.
Speaker 1
Any updates on the progress of the Big Dig? I'd like to call it refer to it that's on Indiana has Indiana Avenue close down? Yeah. See they moved through the parking lot. We talked about this a couple of months ago there was a tunnel that may have needed historic designation. That's right. That's right. It's tough. You just never think about can you give us an update on that?
Speaker 2
Yes, I didn't plan for a historic designation on a culvert when I ran for mayor. So that's been part of my joyful learning curve. But we do anticipate the reopening of Indiana Avenue and the city has been working really hard to get that done. And so we've, we've been pushing, we were trying to get it done for move in day. We're not going to quite make that but we hope to have that done by Labor Day.
Speaker 1
All right. Any other projects going on this summer that are wrapping up that you can think of are
Speaker 2
we have projects all over the place? So we're right now unfortunately, we're wrapping up the storm debris cleanup, and so, you know, that was a unintended project. But in fact, we've done a full after action review on the storm response, as as my administration will do with any major incident and are a major project and so we're we're really proud of the way the city responded. We do see need in areas of improvement. We did have people reaching out who wanted to volunteer and we didn't have an immediate way for people to volunteer. So that's one way we'll be improving storm response in the future. We are wrapping up all of the pickups so if people had already filed you reports we are we are really following those and doing those last pickups but I want people to know that not to take new debris to the curb expecting us to if they're trimming trees and things now. This was really storm debris picked up and it was to be done the Two weeks following that storm. So we're wrapping that up. And then of course, the new project on the horizon is that the Board of Public Works will be approving. Hopefully there'll be hearing about the petition to close right of way for the gateway projects on the north end of Bloomington, by Miller showers Park and the dredging, which everybody's excited about is almost done.
Speaker 1
That's what's happening over there. The lane closure, I wasn't sure, yes,
Speaker 2
we've been dredging. Okay, so every once in a while, you've got to do a little cleanup at Miller shower. Yeah.
Speaker 1
All parks almost done. What about the gateway kind of timeline on that? When will people start seeing construction there?
Speaker 2
You know, I don't know when construction is, is going to look visible that we are applying for those permits to close down this fall. So yeah, that's common. Wear it Yeah, the designs done it looks really great. And we're excited about it.
Speaker 1
So we're down to our last minute of the show. But I always like to leave it to you any other announcements in general you'd like to let everyone know about what
Speaker 2
I'm we're really excited to that that Bloomington is home or temporary home to so many Olympians. So that's it's timely right now. I hope everybody's watching the Olympics and really has a lot of Hoosier pride. Not all of them are competing on behalf of the US which is also really incredible. And will host our own park the Olympics on August 10. So you can check out the parks page for that and we'll be celebrating the Bloomington ties to the Olympics during that during that event.
Unknown Speaker
Terre Haute Mayor Brandon sackbut Yes, sister. Yes, she's competing competing for Cambodia. Yes. Isn't that interesting? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker
So what a talented family.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you so much, and hope to see you next month.
Unknown Speaker
Thanks, Joe.
