Vaccine preference, fans at NCAA games, city infrastructure, rental assistance, herd immunity, and no-income housing are just a few of the questions submitted for Mayor Hamilton today.
On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton addresses these issues and more during a Facebook Live Zoom event Tuesday. 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 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU. Here are some highlights.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Rhet: I heard this morning Indiana vets >18 would be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination next week, but can’t find info?
Hamilton: The thing I'd say is just call 211. If you can't find info, there's a lot of information online in the state Coronavirus website is a good place to start. But if you if you feel frustrated or can't find that information, just call 211. And people can help steer you and answer the questions that you have about that.
Constance: How many have had the disease and are therefore now immune? What percentage of the population is that?
Hamilton: I'm always cautious and say I'm not an epidemiologist, I'm not a health expert. I hang around with some of them. So I picked things up. But ultimately, I think we estimate something around 10% of our folks overall have gotten the disease, tested positive for the disease. But from what I understand, there's probably three times that many that have actually had the disease - that is gotten sick just never got positive tests.
So something in the order of a third of our state, our community, our country has probably had the disease, give or take. And that means there are some immunities. But we still want to have virus vaccines to everybody. That's that's what's going to get us through this pandemic.
READ MORE: Indiana Makes COVID-19 Vaccine Available To Those 45 And Up
Caroline: Where to get Johnson & Johnson at?
Hamilton: The basic point is when it's your turn to get vaccinated, go get vaccinated regardless of which vaccine it is. There is not much Johnson and Johnson available now. It's pretty unusual to have. It's being used in some of these pop-up clinics where people are traveling long distances. I know they did that at the Speedway for example. So it's a one shot regimen. Most of the vaccine that's being delivered in our community and in the state are the two other vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna. You can ask again when you register. But the basic point I think I want to just keep saying is, all three vaccines are safe.
Amy: I appreciate the updates for the vaccine, however I have ethical concerns with the Johnson & Johnson, and would not accept that vaccine.
Hamilton: If there's a particular difference for you for a medical reason, or an ethical reason that you have, you can explore that at registration.
READ MORE: Monroe Co. Will Administer Pfizer Vaccine At New Assembly Hall Clinic
Email: So, if I have an appointment for a 2nd shot at the Convention Center, on Saturday, 3 APRIL 2021, should I still go to the Convention Center?
Hamilton: Right, there is a transition happening from the convention center. This is the program run by the county health department and it's being picked up by Indiana University as a delivery site. Basically, my understanding is any second shot, you can still go to the convention center where you originally got it even when the other ones stood up. But if you want to be sure, again, I'd call 211. But I do believe the health department is planning to provide all the second shots from the same place you got your first shot. If that's different, we'll try to clarify that in a press conference in the upcoming Fridays.
Sherry: Can you please tell me when the rental assistance opens up. What do I need to do to sign up?
Hamilton: Rental assistance is available to people right now. If what you're talking about is the program locally here that can help through the township trustees. That's a level of government a lot of people don't really pay attention to or aren't aware of, but every county in the state and every resident in every county has a township trustee that serves. And the county has helped to provide funding through the township trustees to help people if they have emergency needs related to rental costs or other issues. So contact your township trustee. Now there may be federal or state programs that I'm not as aware of the details of that. Happy to try to figure that out if you want to call my office.
Jamie: Allowing family members to attend basketball games indoors but not allowing family members to attend graduation in a stadium makes no sense.
Hamilton: Well, look, I mean, it's complicated stuff, everybody's trying to do the best we can to protect public health. On the one hand, job one, and on the other hand, to allow life to proceed as we can. The hospitals have to make decisions on who can visit in a room where somebody is sick or even dying. Churches are making decisions, schools are making decisions, restaurants, bars, universities, everybody's doing the best they can to balance those protecting public health first, but also allowing things to happen that we can.
There are differences that are sometimes not obvious in venues in protocols. For example, the basketball games that are being held this week in the NCAA tournament. Extraordinary safety protocols are allowing people to attend. We've learned a lot with schools over the last year. It's frustrating for everybody but try just try to be patient and understand. Nobody is the enemy here. Everybody's just doing the very best to protect everybody's health, while also letting things happen.
READ MORE: Monroe County, NCAA Taking Precautions As Bloomington Prepares To Host Teams
Suzann: Why no fans in Bton?
Hamilton: Well, let me give credit to Indiana University taking what I believe is a very prudent and careful approach. They're allowing 500 people into Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall during the game, but that includes coaches, trainers, immediate family members of the teams. So 500 isn't very many. The tickets that were left are being dedicated to first responders and direct healthcare workers, which is great, so they're going to get to go see some of the game.
Other communities, Indianapolis, West Lafayette have taken perhaps a different approach. But this county has been very careful. And that's one of the reasons we've done, I think relatively well, in protecting against the surge. And I want to thank you for that. It's not an easy decision, the NCAA didn't love all of it. But they've worked together. And again, this is people of goodwill, making really hard calls, making judgments.
READ MORE: Utility Crews Repair 12 Water Main Breaks In One Week
Paul: Are there plans to upgrade the entire water service pipes throughout the city? And what is the dollar amount total and dispersed of the funds collected from developers for affordable housing?
Hamilton: There's really kind of three water systems, there's the drinking water system that provides water to all of us that comes out of our tap. There's the wastewater system, that's basically the sewer. And then third, there's a stormwater system. And that's the system that collects rainwater, essentially. All three systems are under the City of Bloomington utilities management. All three systems are definitely upgraded regularly.
Now, you will hear about the drinking water system, those water mains. When I came into office, we were on a schedule to replace each pipe every 300 years or so. That's not enough, they break and they fail faster than that. So we are improving that system. It takes money to get a better replacement system and rhythm going to get it down below 200 years and then ultimately, it really needs to be below 100 years to replace those pipes.
The then the other two systems are separate systems. But they're all being upgraded that you may notice in Bloomington downtown, what we call the hidden River Project. What used to be known as the Jordan River now the Campus River and Clear Creek flows right under downtown Bloomington. And there's a $13 million project. It's working to upgrade those 100 year old pipes.
WATCH: Mayor Hamilton's State Of The City Address
The second question was about affordable housing. We have an affordable housing fund that's gotten between $3 and $4 million I think. I don't know the exact number offhand that that is been coming into that fund and we have more coming, that we then push back out to help support those 1400 new bedrooms of affordable housing. And that's been a program over the last five years, it's been really important and helpful.
For the latest news and resources about COVID-19, bookmark our Coronavirus In Indiana page here.
