The county is having trouble finding a location for the new jail, the city's public safety report is out, no update on the convention center expansion, and homeowners shouldn't be responsible for fiber sewer repairs.
In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton addresses these issues and more during a Zoom interview Tuesday afternoon. 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.
Hren: Do you have an update on a proposed location for a new jail. I know last time your said the city wants to be more involved.
Hamilton: We've offered to be more involved. We have every three weeks meeting of leadership of county and city government councils of both city, the mayor and the commissioners, and we just had that recently, we did talk about criminal justice reform. I think the county is struggling to identify locations. In my view, we really should be leading with the non jail service improvements, which can happen quickly and should happen immediately on substance use disorder, mental health, etc. Those kinds of services that we need.
I think everybody in the community understands we need a high quality place to detain people. But I believe we ought to lead with the services.
Hren: City council is moving forward with the plan to buy a portion of the downtown Showers Building to rehouse the city fire/police headquarters, something you've been pushing for. It was a close vote, lots of debate, lots of concern. Is this a done deal?
Hamilton: It is - we got the vote from the city council. We have now done that, we now are the owner of that western third of the Showers Building. We're looking for an architect to get under contract to do the redesign. We'll be working very closely with the frontline police officers, the fire administrators, all the folks who will be in that building to design it. I think it's the right thing for the city and for our public safety efforts. And in the months ahead, we'll be digging into the details and rehabbing that as well as three new fire projects as well to update some fire buildings and build one new one.
Hren: I want to take some questions from our Facebook City Limits group, and it really generated some good discussion. One of those items was could the purchase have been done by eminent domain paying the assessed value, the poster claims the offer was about half million to a million more than the value?
Hamilton: You can use eminent domain for public purposes, we would be careful, we don't like to do that. Eminent domain appraised values don't always give you the fair market value. It's a little tricky, perhaps in a circumstance where we weren't using the whole building, as well - if we were going to keep some private sector folks in there, that can make eminent domain a little complicated. We do look at that, but only use it as a last resort.
Hren: There's concern that the building can't be brought up to the same safety standards, is that something you're worried about?
Hamilton: We care deeply about safety, of course. It's the building where I am and where many of us work. And it is at least as safe as the current police headquarters, it is true that if we built a building from scratch, a brand new building, you do have some different standards than if you're rehabbing an older building. This is preserving a 100 year old historic building, which we're also pleased with, but it will be safe. There's a lot of detail to review. But we're very confident that it'll be a great police headquarters and fire administration center and really connects us all together in City Hall a little better.
Read more: Hamilton introduces housing assistance program for police, bonuses for firefighters
Hren: I'll take one more from the Facebook group - there is concern the building is in a very social area, the B-Line is right there, the farmers market. So police response time will be more dangerous and take more time than the current location.
Hamilton: Well, there was a lot of debate about that at city council. I think this is a much better location than where they are if you really think where they are now. They're next to a park with hundreds of kids that go in and out of the park all day. And they're going by them when they dispatch, it's also really important for people to remember that a police station, unlike a fire department, you don't get dispatched from the station. The police officers are generally out and about among the community when calls come in. It does happen sometimes from the station, but not that much.
These are issues that we'll be working with with the architect. Ultimately I also say, the more the police interact with the community and the community with the police, not just in criminal response settings, but community policing means we're all part of this public safety effort in the police department. So I'm actually happy that we'll have more interaction in more different ways with the police department, our public safety officials and the community as a whole.
Read more: Violent crime up 6% in Bloomington last year; overall crime down
Hren: Wanted to address something I read on Reddit and then the H-T also reported on fiber installation causing some sewer backups leaving repair bills to unhappy homeowners. What's the city's response?
Hamilton: Homeowners shouldn't be subject to the bills. We're very excited about the fiber build, I think I've seen the latest number close to over 30 miles of conduit have been installed, there's more to go - a couple of 1000 homes have been crossed, if you will. And in the drilling of those, there can be some sewer lines, which are not on the utility. But the homeowners should not be responsible for whatever company did that and some of them are the Gigabit Now but some are AT&T or Comcast to whoever did that is responsible for fixing that with the homeowner. So if anybody has a problem, we're happy to talk to them.
Hren: Also the city and The Mill signed a partnership agreement for management of that area. And just saw that The Mill is hiring John Fernandez former mayor to help develop that area.
Hamilton: We're very excited about the Trades District overall - the trajectory is wonderful. We've got a lot going on, the fastest growing co-work space and rising Tech City in the Midwest etc. This is kind of a next step and John Fernandez the former mayor has been brought on full time to help advance the Trades Tech Center that includes a new building, it includes relationships with IU, it includes activating the property there with more investments and it's really the kind of the next step I think in the Trades District's activation.
