Water treatment plant resignations, I-69 completion date, Trades District Dimension Mill construction, bond proposals and your questions!
On this week's installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington's John Hamilton addresses these issues and more. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs on WFIU Wednesday morning at 6:45 and 8:45.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: Have you been able to get to the bottom of the resignation of two city employees who were blamed for large containers that went missing from the water treatment plant?
Hamilton: Each container is worth $50 or $70. The issue was, this has been going on for several years. So the individual, at least one, has been taking them away. They were salvage, but they could be sold through Ebay so that's what this individual did. So that's not kosher in public sector. So the individual stepped up and resigned. This wasn't someone doing something in the dark of night and stealing in a way. It was sloppy and shouldn't have been done and we have to have tighter systems.
Hren: I see where the city is looking at issuing permits to host Airbnb's which is a way for local residents to rent out a guest room or their house as a hotel would, why did the need for permits come about?
Hamilton: We want to make sure that we safely review the Airbnb. We're one of the few cities in Indiana that's allowed to do rental inspections. The state took that away, but we already had it in place so they let us continue. We do rental inspections to be sure all the rental properties in the city are safe, habitable and with Airbnb we want to be sure you have a great experience when you come to Bloomington.
Hren: There's been progress on the Trades District as the tech office plan for Dimension Mill moves forward, how do you feel the communication has been from the area tech firms who want to have a say in how this gets developed?
Hamilton: There are a lot of things going on and they never move as fast as you wish. I think we made the right decision a year ago not to do one large building in the tech park. We knew that would mean it's going to be a more organic growth. Dimension Mills was the first piece of that puzzle and I'm really excited about the prospects for that. We're talking with other potential investors who want to be in the Trades District and this builds over time.
Hren: I've been keeping up on the renewal of a bond proposal, that would generate $20 million – you see it as keeping a line item revenue source per say as final payments come up, that would pay for capital improvements over five years. The city council doesn't seem all aboard on the list of items, specifically the sanitation proposal. Do you feel confident the vote Wednesday night will approve the bond?
Hamilton: I've been talking with city council and I think we've cleared up some of those issues. There are two things we need to do right away. Number one, we have trucks that are wearing out and we have to replace them and we need to replace those trucks that can lift the garbage up by mechanical power rather than human power. We are hurting our employees. The second thing is, if you're going to automate that lifting, you have to have uniform trash receptacles.
Hren: Looks like I-69 workers are back on the job, you've really been trying to find answers and raise awareness of the construction troubles, do you feel like you've gotten any answers?
Hamilton: I don't feel confident yet that we have a transparent relationship of what is happening. I do think the delays have not been due to weather. They've not been due to unforeseen physical circumstances. They've been due to management and operational controls and that's very frustrating.
Hren: Lisa, Jesse, Kayte and Sarah e-mailed in about what the city is doing to control drug abuse. What are some of the ways you're looking to combat this epidemic?
Hamilton: This is a big issue. My view is we gotta have more investment in health care, prevention, detox centers. We now have distribution of free needles to try to diminish the chance of some of these diseases spreading. Six weeks ago we created a task force to really look at safety, civility, justice in our city which certainly connects right up with the drugs. Our firefighters now carry narcan because we find so many heroin addicts where that can save a life. We've had to use it twice in one day on one person. You can't arrest your way out of the problem, it's public health. We welcome ideas.
Hren: Kayte asks if you are in contact with organizations such as the Indiana Recovery Alliance?
Hamilton: Absolutely, I'm meeting with them this week and we're meeting with health care providers, mental heath providers, addiction services, faith communities, law enforcement professionals, business owners, economic development and social service partners because this cuts across all aspects of our community and we're going to have to wrestle with it.
Hren: Sarah has one more follow up question, why are police officers still arresting participants of the needle exchange for possession of syringes, when the Prosecutor will not be charging individuals who are participants?
Hamilton: I just heard of that issue which doesn't quite make sense to me that if you're giving out needles you then arrest someone for possessing them. I don't know that that's happened, I know that our law enforcement personnel are not going to make arrests that are automatically not leading to prosecution for the heck of it and I don't know that's happening at all, but we'll be looking at it. I know as a community we've embraced the public health response of free needle and if there're legal adjustments that need to be made in light of that, we'll certainly look at that.
Hren: Paul writes in regarding the enforcement of speeding within the city. He cites a statistic from Police Chief Diekhoff that the city issues only one ticket every two days for speeding, is this a public safety issue?
Hamilton: I share the commitment to safe streets. I can't affirm those figures, but I think it's good to look at those figures. I've focused on transparency and making sure people know what's happening in the city. The biggest factor we want to know is what is the average speed of people driving through the city. There's a move to lower from 30 to 25 MPH. But I appreciate the e-mail and will be looking at that.
