Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU I'm Joe Hren this time, it's happy new year in Bloomington with Mayor Kerry Thomson at City Hall. Hello. Happy New Year. Thanks for joining us on the show again. Happy
Speaker 2
New Year, Joe. It feels like we're almost through January, but I guess it's happy new year for us, because we haven't seen each other since December.
Speaker 1
Yeah, and a lot has gone on in three weeks. It does feel like a full month has gone by. I know you're always busy, but with the Trump inauguration on Monday, MLK Day, we've also had Braun inaugurated as the new governor. Lots going on right now. How are you feeling? How you doing?
Speaker 2
I'm doing great. And I think our community here in Bloomington is is is also doing really well. Bloomington is great at taking care of one another and sticking to our our values and and our vision for what our community can be. So I'm, I'm still heading forward with that vision and and looking forward to 2025,
Speaker 1
when we hear about Governor Braun signing these executive orders, President Trump signing executive orders, how much of that trickles down to your desk?
Speaker 2
I think that local government is going to become very, very important to folks. Certainly, there are things that that come directly to my desk, more so from the brown administration than from the Trump administration. But you know, I'm really focused. I've been up at the state house a couple of times already this year. I'm really focused on what we can do here in Bloomington to make Bloomington really the absolute best community that we possibly can and to find any intersectionality of agreement. And we do have some agreement that really does not, does not go by party lines. I think our economic development focus that we really have here in Bloomington is shared by many in the state house.
Speaker 1
Are you looking at any particular bills that are passing? I mean, there are a slew of them right now as well. Do any jump out to you? There
Speaker 2
are a lot of bills. And of course, the you know, the ones that are going to catch my attention are any that may interfere with people's human rights and and then, of course, there's also likely to be an annexation bill that comes forward, as well as one that really, that I'm concerned about, that is we think is going to be put forward on homelessness.
Speaker 1
So we just coming out one of the larger snow storms we've had in a while. How is the salt supply? Truck drivers? How's all that going? We
Speaker 2
have just about expended our original salt supply already, already have replenishments on the way. Our public works team has, has had a couple of round the clock snow adventures lately, and I'm just really deeply grateful to them. Do want to share a reminder to everybody that is, it is the property owners responsibility to clear off sidewalks. We had mostly good success with that in many areas of the city, but there were some areas where the sidewalks didn't get cleared off. But my, my great thanks to public works, and we'll continue to really target communication to private homeowners on clearing those sidewalks. And
Speaker 1
that was something Brandon Mayor sack button said in Terre Haute that he needs to work on more is how to get people to shovel their sidewalks, and not just residents, but property owners as well. Bloomington has a fine in place. A city ordinance is that something that is enforced, it is
Speaker 2
enforced. So we have to wait until the clock starts, when the snow stops falling. And so with that original storm, of course, we had a lot of snow, then it stopped for a little while, almost a full day, and then we got more snow, and then it stopped and started again. So every time that clock restarts, it delays when we can notify people and start finding them. But but our businesses were by and large. Great at keeping downtown cleared, and also really grateful to the parks crew. I've heard lots of residents express gratitude that the Beeline was cleared really pretty immediately, and other trails so that people could get
Speaker 1
out and walk. Do you know, by chance, how many fines have been issued? I don't
Speaker 2
know to date, but what we have been out there now,
Speaker 1
you know, there was some cancelations too, and it's hard. It's something that you kind of, I'm sure, have to balance with, how much do you close city services or the farmers market, knowing that it's also going to leave people out right? What? What's your take on that
Speaker 2
well, you know, our top concern is always safety, safety for our residents and safety for our employees. And with that snow coming on a Friday that was it was a tough call to make. We did make it as soon as possible, because we know that those farmers are really, you know, they have prep to do. And I think by and large, the farmers understood that, that we notified them as soon as we could, and we do a full after action review at the city every single time we have a major event like this. So during the summer storms, we did had a whole list of learnings, and we can do better with this next time we have a few of those on on these recent winter storms. But by and large, I think our city team did great, and we're just going to keep learning and improving.
Speaker 1
So I see the mill Executive Director, founder to I believe Pat East is leaving. Senior Vice President John Fernandez is taking over for now. Does that deal a blow to the city's efforts to keep that momentum going over there at the trades district, oh,
Speaker 2
I, you know, I want to express my deep gratitude to Pat east for all that he did for the mill and the trades district. And of course, he himself is a startup entrepreneur, so really a gift to have him in that role for as long as we had him, and totally understand when it's time to move on. And really, John Fernandez is a perfect person to take the reins now he, of course, has great relationships at the EDA, as well as throughout the state and nationally. Because of his history, he cares a lot about trades district, obviously, and I think, you know, Pat gave us a great launch, and John is going to continue the momentum really forward, if not even increase it.
Speaker 1
So is there a position open for that, for what Pat is leaving, or is just John taking over?
Speaker 2
John's been named interim executive, right? Okay, and so there will be a search.
Speaker 1
So as the convention center finish up design phase bond agreement with city council, I see state legislators looking to get ellisville A piece of that food and beverage tax. Is this concerning as part of the funding of the of the convention center? To you, or do you think that ellisville, or maybe other entities, see the food and beverage tax as a way to fund other things in the city? It's
Speaker 2
absolutely not concerning to the city, because the that part of the food and beverage tax actually doesn't come out of the city's portion, of course, and the city's portion is what's going to pay for the convention center. And so all of that food and beverage tax that was intended to go for the convention center will continue to go for the convention center.
Speaker 1
Okay, that's something I feel like. It's been missed in some of the report, some of the reporting that I've read about it, and felt like it wasn't getting maybe a big enough Hey, what's going on here with that money? Yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 2
the city, the city's food and beverage tax is the only thing paying for the convention center.
Speaker 1
And of course, there's Monroe County is getting a portion as well. So that's that, and that's separate.
Speaker 2
Ellisville will come out of that, right? Okay, okay,
Speaker 1
you know, I found it interesting on the city cons, on the city council's agenda may have been a couple weeks ago, I think they just had a first hearing. So not much has happened on this, but there was a mixed unit development off Pete Ellis had 15% of its housing set aside for workforce development, but had trouble filling that. So they want to change that to more than $1 million pay out to the city's housing fund. So why do you think they had trouble filling housing? When something we talk about on this show so much about workforce. Housing as needed? Well,
Speaker 2
I think filling housing at a specific income level without dropping the rent. I mean, the reason people can't afford housing in Bloomington is because the rents are too high for their income level. And so it actually makes a lot of sense. So if you're going to commit to filling a unit with a certain income level, you probably are going to have to figure out how to drop that total rental cost just for that unit.
Speaker 1
So when you hear the developer saying, Okay, we want to change our contribution now to more than million dollars. Where does that money go, and how does the city use that money
Speaker 2
that goes into our housing development fund? And so we use that to subsidize developments that are for, usually for strictly affordable housing. Quite frankly, we are not really subsidizing these partial workforce units. Those are incentives that a developer has taken in order to increase density, etc, etc,
Speaker 1
right? So we haven't talked about this a while. The Bloomington Meridian Fiber project should be complete in three years. Construction start at the end of 2025 50% complete, from what I think, a press release that came out, are you happy with the progress that fiber installation is having on the city? Number one and number two, are residents taking advantage of that? Residents
Speaker 2
are signing up, and I am, I think we'll all be glad when the construction is done. There have been some issues with the contractors hitting various lines and things like that, and so I want to encourage residents, if there are any challenges to there, is a process to to file grievances with that contractor and and we're very much tracking those. But you know this, broadband is critical, and getting it into into everybody's home, no matter your income level, no matter what neighborhood you live in, this is access to education and employment. And so this really levels the playing field quite a bit.
Speaker 1
And I see there's a broadband or project, maybe I should say a project dashboard that the city has that people can go look and see the progress on that yes, as well. And we'll link to that on the web portion of this show.
Speaker 2
Yes, it's going live in my neighborhood in the in the next month. So we're eager to sign up. Yeah.
Speaker 1
So I know we got about three minutes left, so I do want to get to as this being the first of the year, as we look to 2025 what are your top two, top three priorities? What's on your desk right now? Yeah,
Speaker 2
so my my priorities should surprise no one economic development is is really top of mind. You know, the developments that are happening in the trades district are great. Really pleased to be welcoming Novo to to to Bloomington. That is for those of those of us in Bloomington who may have been away when that acquisition happened, Novo Nordisk has acquired Catalan. That's a big deal, and the drugs that they're manufacturing really have a pretty promising future financially, and so we're really, really thrilled to retain and possibly add some jobs there, and really creating an environment where trades, and taking advantage of that CCC grant, trades really becomes the home of innovation, and the hub of innovation for our state. The second thing, of course, and everything is in balance, is so we're doing economic development and getting really a thriving picture for our economic future in Bloomington, also really working that housing action plan in a serious way in 2025 to really address street homelessness.
Speaker 1
And what is the you just because you said that, it just hit my my memory the development south of town, is that still Summit?
Speaker 2
Summit? Yes, Summit is still on target. We are working with them very actively. It's a huge, yeah, it's over 4000 units, and that is, it's a very promising future down there for housing. And so it does seem to be on track. We're very. Inactive, very active conversations with developers on that and excited to get some more housing on doc.
Speaker 1
Anything I missed that you would like to say or announcements?
Speaker 2
I can't think of what it is. I'm really pleased we're already, already seeing the impacts of our of really backing our public safety workers through the salary increases, and so we've had our largest recruit team yet in the police department, and fire is pretty much fully staffed for the first time in a long time. So we're we're we're really starting to catch up and and it's one of the key things we need for a thriving future for Bloomington, interesting
Speaker 1
to see that that development. And then on top of that, of course, I believe it's coming up very soon. There's a discussion on the police station, that's
Speaker 2
right, that's on the 27th of of January, at five o'clock in at the at police headquarters. Make sure I get that date right. Yeah, five o'clock, that was moved, I think the storm. Yes, it's at 530 at the at the current police station. So we'll have an information session on everything that we've been examining and where we are with things. And that's
Speaker 1
open to anybody, everybody can come, and we hope you do Yeah, yeah, thank you so much. Thank you, Joe.
Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU I'm Joe Hren this time, it's happy new year in Bloomington with Mayor Kerry Thomson at City Hall. Hello. Happy New Year. Thanks for joining us on the show again. Happy
Speaker 2
New Year, Joe. It feels like we're almost through January, but I guess it's happy new year for us, because we haven't seen each other since December.
Speaker 1
Yeah, and a lot has gone on in three weeks. It does feel like a full month has gone by. I know you're always busy, but with the Trump inauguration on Monday, MLK Day, we've also had Braun inaugurated as the new governor. Lots going on right now. How are you feeling? How you doing?
Speaker 2
I'm doing great. And I think our community here in Bloomington is is is also doing really well. Bloomington is great at taking care of one another and sticking to our our values and and our vision for what our community can be. So I'm, I'm still heading forward with that vision and and looking forward to 2025,
Speaker 1
when we hear about Governor Braun signing these executive orders, President Trump signing executive orders, how much of that trickles down to your desk?
Speaker 2
I think that local government is going to become very, very important to folks. Certainly, there are things that that come directly to my desk, more so from the brown administration than from the Trump administration. But you know, I'm really focused. I've been up at the state house a couple of times already this year. I'm really focused on what we can do here in Bloomington to make Bloomington really the absolute best community that we possibly can and to find any intersectionality of agreement. And we do have some agreement that really does not, does not go by party lines. I think our economic development focus that we really have here in Bloomington is shared by many in the state house.
Speaker 1
Are you looking at any particular bills that are passing? I mean, there are a slew of them right now as well. Do any jump out to you? There
Speaker 2
are a lot of bills. And of course, the you know, the ones that are going to catch my attention are any that may interfere with people's human rights and and then, of course, there's also likely to be an annexation bill that comes forward, as well as one that really, that I'm concerned about, that is we think is going to be put forward on homelessness.
Speaker 1
So we just coming out one of the larger snow storms we've had in a while. How is the salt supply? Truck drivers? How's all that going? We
Speaker 2
have just about expended our original salt supply already, already have replenishments on the way. Our public works team has, has had a couple of round the clock snow adventures lately, and I'm just really deeply grateful to them. Do want to share a reminder to everybody that is, it is the property owners responsibility to clear off sidewalks. We had mostly good success with that in many areas of the city, but there were some areas where the sidewalks didn't get cleared off. But my, my great thanks to public works, and we'll continue to really target communication to private homeowners on clearing those sidewalks. And
Speaker 1
that was something Brandon Mayor sack button said in Terre Haute that he needs to work on more is how to get people to shovel their sidewalks, and not just residents, but property owners as well. Bloomington has a fine in place. A city ordinance is that something that is enforced, it is
Speaker 2
enforced. So we have to wait until the clock starts, when the snow stops falling. And so with that original storm, of course, we had a lot of snow, then it stopped for a little while, almost a full day, and then we got more snow, and then it stopped and started again. So every time that clock restarts, it delays when we can notify people and start finding them. But but our businesses were by and large. Great at keeping downtown cleared, and also really grateful to the parks crew. I've heard lots of residents express gratitude that the Beeline was cleared really pretty immediately, and other trails so that people could get
Speaker 1
out and walk. Do you know, by chance, how many fines have been issued? I don't
Speaker 2
know to date, but what we have been out there now,
Speaker 1
you know, there was some cancelations too, and it's hard. It's something that you kind of, I'm sure, have to balance with, how much do you close city services or the farmers market, knowing that it's also going to leave people out right? What? What's your take on that
Speaker 2
well, you know, our top concern is always safety, safety for our residents and safety for our employees. And with that snow coming on a Friday that was it was a tough call to make. We did make it as soon as possible, because we know that those farmers are really, you know, they have prep to do. And I think by and large, the farmers understood that, that we notified them as soon as we could, and we do a full after action review at the city every single time we have a major event like this. So during the summer storms, we did had a whole list of learnings, and we can do better with this next time we have a few of those on on these recent winter storms. But by and large, I think our city team did great, and we're just going to keep learning and improving.
Speaker 1
So I see the mill Executive Director, founder to I believe Pat East is leaving. Senior Vice President John Fernandez is taking over for now. Does that deal a blow to the city's efforts to keep that momentum going over there at the trades district, oh,
Speaker 2
I, you know, I want to express my deep gratitude to Pat east for all that he did for the mill and the trades district. And of course, he himself is a startup entrepreneur, so really a gift to have him in that role for as long as we had him, and totally understand when it's time to move on. And really, John Fernandez is a perfect person to take the reins now he, of course, has great relationships at the EDA, as well as throughout the state and nationally. Because of his history, he cares a lot about trades district, obviously, and I think, you know, Pat gave us a great launch, and John is going to continue the momentum really forward, if not even increase it.
Speaker 1
So is there a position open for that, for what Pat is leaving, or is just John taking over?
Speaker 2
John's been named interim executive, right? Okay, and so there will be a search.
Speaker 1
So as the convention center finish up design phase bond agreement with city council, I see state legislators looking to get ellisville A piece of that food and beverage tax. Is this concerning as part of the funding of the of the convention center? To you, or do you think that ellisville, or maybe other entities, see the food and beverage tax as a way to fund other things in the city? It's
Speaker 2
absolutely not concerning to the city, because the that part of the food and beverage tax actually doesn't come out of the city's portion, of course, and the city's portion is what's going to pay for the convention center. And so all of that food and beverage tax that was intended to go for the convention center will continue to go for the convention center.
Speaker 1
Okay, that's something I feel like. It's been missed in some of the report, some of the reporting that I've read about it, and felt like it wasn't getting maybe a big enough Hey, what's going on here with that money? Yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 2
the city, the city's food and beverage tax is the only thing paying for the convention center.
Speaker 1
And of course, there's Monroe County is getting a portion as well. So that's that, and that's separate.
Speaker 2
Ellisville will come out of that, right? Okay, okay,
Speaker 1
you know, I found it interesting on the city cons, on the city council's agenda may have been a couple weeks ago, I think they just had a first hearing. So not much has happened on this, but there was a mixed unit development off Pete Ellis had 15% of its housing set aside for workforce development, but had trouble filling that. So they want to change that to more than $1 million pay out to the city's housing fund. So why do you think they had trouble filling housing? When something we talk about on this show so much about workforce. Housing as needed? Well,
Speaker 2
I think filling housing at a specific income level without dropping the rent. I mean, the reason people can't afford housing in Bloomington is because the rents are too high for their income level. And so it actually makes a lot of sense. So if you're going to commit to filling a unit with a certain income level, you probably are going to have to figure out how to drop that total rental cost just for that unit.
Speaker 1
So when you hear the developer saying, Okay, we want to change our contribution now to more than million dollars. Where does that money go, and how does the city use that money
Speaker 2
that goes into our housing development fund? And so we use that to subsidize developments that are for, usually for strictly affordable housing. Quite frankly, we are not really subsidizing these partial workforce units. Those are incentives that a developer has taken in order to increase density, etc, etc,
Speaker 1
right? So we haven't talked about this a while. The Bloomington Meridian Fiber project should be complete in three years. Construction start at the end of 2025 50% complete, from what I think, a press release that came out, are you happy with the progress that fiber installation is having on the city? Number one and number two, are residents taking advantage of that? Residents
Speaker 2
are signing up, and I am, I think we'll all be glad when the construction is done. There have been some issues with the contractors hitting various lines and things like that, and so I want to encourage residents, if there are any challenges to there, is a process to to file grievances with that contractor and and we're very much tracking those. But you know this, broadband is critical, and getting it into into everybody's home, no matter your income level, no matter what neighborhood you live in, this is access to education and employment. And so this really levels the playing field quite a bit.
Speaker 1
And I see there's a broadband or project, maybe I should say a project dashboard that the city has that people can go look and see the progress on that yes, as well. And we'll link to that on the web portion of this show.
Speaker 2
Yes, it's going live in my neighborhood in the in the next month. So we're eager to sign up. Yeah.
Speaker 1
So I know we got about three minutes left, so I do want to get to as this being the first of the year, as we look to 2025 what are your top two, top three priorities? What's on your desk right now? Yeah,
Speaker 2
so my my priorities should surprise no one economic development is is really top of mind. You know, the developments that are happening in the trades district are great. Really pleased to be welcoming Novo to to to Bloomington. That is for those of those of us in Bloomington who may have been away when that acquisition happened, Novo Nordisk has acquired Catalan. That's a big deal, and the drugs that they're manufacturing really have a pretty promising future financially, and so we're really, really thrilled to retain and possibly add some jobs there, and really creating an environment where trades, and taking advantage of that CCC grant, trades really becomes the home of innovation, and the hub of innovation for our state. The second thing, of course, and everything is in balance, is so we're doing economic development and getting really a thriving picture for our economic future in Bloomington, also really working that housing action plan in a serious way in 2025 to really address street homelessness.
Speaker 1
And what is the you just because you said that, it just hit my my memory the development south of town, is that still Summit?
Speaker 2
Summit? Yes, Summit is still on target. We are working with them very actively. It's a huge, yeah, it's over 4000 units, and that is, it's a very promising future down there for housing. And so it does seem to be on track. We're very. Inactive, very active conversations with developers on that and excited to get some more housing on doc.
Speaker 1
Anything I missed that you would like to say or announcements?
Speaker 2
I can't think of what it is. I'm really pleased we're already, already seeing the impacts of our of really backing our public safety workers through the salary increases, and so we've had our largest recruit team yet in the police department, and fire is pretty much fully staffed for the first time in a long time. So we're we're we're really starting to catch up and and it's one of the key things we need for a thriving future for Bloomington, interesting
Speaker 1
to see that that development. And then on top of that, of course, I believe it's coming up very soon. There's a discussion on the police station, that's
Speaker 2
right, that's on the 27th of of January, at five o'clock in at the at police headquarters. Make sure I get that date right. Yeah, five o'clock, that was moved, I think the storm. Yes, it's at 530 at the at the current police station. So we'll have an information session on everything that we've been examining and where we are with things. And that's
Speaker 1
open to anybody, everybody can come, and we hope you do Yeah, yeah, thank you so much. Thank you, Joe.
