Thomson talks about new annexation legislation, convention center hotel discussions, the city council climate committee disbanding, new pickleball courts, and more stop signs.
In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson addresses these issues and more at City Hall. 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: We reported on the city's response to the annexation appeals last week, asking the State Supreme Court to take up the case. Of course, we'll wait and see, but is this beyond the courts, does something need to change with state legislation?
Thomson: Perhaps that's a conversation to be had. And of course, this annexation was originally filed before the state legislature changed some things. So there's been a very long path with this annexation. And we have invested a great deal of time and energy. And our ultimate concern is for the financial well-being of the entire area, the county included, because when a city's boundaries have no elasticity, what we know is that it starts to go into economic decline and population decrease, which is already happening. We haven't expanded boundaries in 20 years.
Read more: Bloomington's annexation attempt continues to hit roadblocks
Hren: This leads us to annexation legislation from Rep. Dave Hall from the Indiana House who's district covers Bloomington, Brown County, and Jackson County areas. Have you had a chance to look at this and what do you think about it?
Thomson: The waivers actually are in place for people who are already receiving city services. So they have sewer and water and that's why the waivers are there. Then some folks have also signed remonstrance petitions. So they're officially declaring they don't want to be part of an involuntary annexation. So those are two different things.
Dave Hall's legislation essentially seeks to eliminate involuntary annexation and then create a path for voluntary annexation. I think that Representative Hall has really done a great job with voluntary annexation and how to do that. The concern is for cities like ours that have already extended services with the understanding that those places would be annexed anyway. How are we gonna catch up with those areas if they are not annexed already? Because essentially, once you create a wall around the city of places that have refused to be annexed, then you lock the city boundaries. That should be concerning for economic development for our entire state if we're saying that all of our urban areas cannot grow.
Hren: The Capital Improvement Board meets in a couple weeks. President John Whikehart mentioned at the previous CIB meeting Dora Hospitality was chosen as the convention center expansion's full-service hotel. They want the Bunger Robertson property, which is owned by the city, not by the CIB. So it's just been kind of quiet and just wondering if you've heard anything?
Thomson: Absolutely. We've been in active discussions with Dora about that hotel. They are putting together their financials right now and schematics and things like that, so that they know what it's going to take incentive wise to get that hotel built. And so those conversations, they're ongoing. And then we will need to come to the table with some kind of incentive package to get the hotel that our city really needs. So that's where it is and that's why we're not hearing a lot publicly.
Read more: Whikehart on tariffs, parking, hotels for convention center expansion
Hren: I still see a lot of things pop up on social media with people saying, well, great, there's $56 million not going to feed the hungry or house the homeless. What's your response to that?
Thomson: We have a lot of needs to be met in the community, and there's no doubt about this. This is all food and beverage tax that we added for the specific purpose of doing this convention center, and so we are obligated by law to use that in certain ways. I will comment that our economic prosperity, which includes our tourism industry, which is pretty profound here in Bloomington, is a part of taking care of everybody. When we can lift the whole boat, we will have more resources as a city because we'll be getting more taxes to meet other needs in town.
Hren: City Council is looking to disband the Climate Action Resilience Committee and directing those initiatives to other streams within City Council. What does that mean and why are they looking to do that and are you behind that?
Thomson: City Council has several different committees and I want to be clear a committee is not a commission. So a commission works for the entire city, it has appointees by the council and by the mayor's office and they work in many different ways to help us set policy but also to carry out programs. This is a committee of city council, but we also have two commissions working on climate and environmental issues. Each of those commissions has 12 different community members on it. And so there is, I believe council decided, and again, council committees are not under mayoral control in any way, and they are, the legislative body is doing its legislative thing, and so they have full right to dissolve or add committees as they see fit, and they have decided to dissolve that one.
Hren: Does that change the way the city looks at environmental aspects?
Thomson: Our climate priorities remain the same, the city as a whole, and I imagine that they're doing that, although I have not had specific conversations with council members about it. I imagine they're doing that because having an entire separate group working on something, while it can provide some helpful redundancy at times when you're getting something started like our climate action plan, it can also really tax our resources.
Read more: Mayor Kerry Thomson to Deliver Annual State of the City Address on April 3
Hren: Had someone ask me, next time you see the mayor, ask her about Hopewell. What's going on with Hopewell? What's next?
Thomson: Yeah it looks really cool. So we have received bids for Hopewell East. Those will be opened officially in early April. That's a public bid opening and also we're in discussions about Hopewell South and then Hopewell West will be later. The Kohr building is on track. They'll do the exterior work, I believe finishing up mid-summer and then move inside to do that work.
And we also are having conversations about moving our police department over to the building at 714 South Rogers Street, which is part of that Hopewell development. Perhaps the most fun action, though, is that we put in some temporary pickleball courts, which haven't been announced officially, but the dedicated pickleball players have already found them, and I have seen the lines waiting to get onto those courts.
Hren: What's been the feedback on the new location for the police department?
Thomson: Broadly very positive. We've gotten a lot of support from the neighborhood there in McDoel Gardens. The police are for it. Many community members are really for it. B-Line Trail users are for it. We've had some concern from some neighbors there and so we really are listening hard to any concerns and addressing whatever we can to make it more palatable or to create solutions for whatever problems exist.
Hren: How much feedback are you getting on the stop signs going back up on 7th Street after coming down?
Thomson: So far the people who know about it are broadly super supportive. We have had quite a number of safety incidents and of course our safe streets for all is pointed towards reducing those accidents and it's pretty clear from the data that those stop signs are needed.
