City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. If you're here to speak at public comment and you didn't get a chance to register online, I can get you registered.

All right. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. If we're ready and back, we'll go ahead and call the meeting of the Bloomington City Council for Monday, March the 16th at 6 PM to order. And we'd ask that you'd stand. Please join us in the pledge of allegiance and remain standing for a moment of silence.

And then madam clerk if we can have a roll call for attendance please. Council member Karns here. Council member Mosley here. Council member Dannenburgenburgger here. Council member Strazza here. Council member Hendricks here. Council member Lee here. Council member Scott here. Mayor Brady here. Thank you. Next uh we will move to uh public comment. And do you have madam clerk individuals for a public comment this evening?

We do. We have two people registered to speak after you read your statement. We'll start with John Woods and then to follow will be Cam Touché. Um and then just for the record, we did not receive any emailed public comment.

Okay. Thank you very much. So we'll start with Mr. Wood. And before Mr. Woods speaks. Uh we'd like to remind individuals that the opportunity for public comment is an opportunity for speakers to provide their view and feedback to the city council. It is an opportunity for the city council to listen and hear diverse points of view to maximize the impact of public uh comment. uh speaker show respect and the issues pertain to city government and that if that is not the purpose in remarks then the uh privilege will be uh revoked and any speaker that engages in threatening or disorderly behavior will be deemed out of order and their time uh ceased. Mr. Wood,

thank you very much. I'm not uh familiar with the microphone or familiar with the room, but I hope I do well. Um an auspicious occasion to be here this night. But nonetheless, members of the council, first I would like to uh by the way, I did send an email in. I just mentioned that. We're going to check on why that's not available to you. I'd like to thank all who contributed to a nextdoor thread created to discuss prescribed burnings in city parks and to recognize them with appreciation. This time last year, the rushes around the shoreline of White Oak Lake were turned to charcoal, destroying habitat that served to nurture and protect wildlife in the park. Nesting habitat was destroyed during breeding season. when young are especially vulnerable to predators and wildlife that could not escape the fires was roasted in place. I was there. I've got the pictures to prove it. As I understand, the same thing happened at Typton Park. This cruel destruction of habitat, death of wildlife in our parks is part of a native plant restoration project. It is therefore a tradeoff and the lives of geese, malards, turtles, rabbits, muskrats, and human residents around the lakes is in the balance. Please suspend the currently scheduled prescribed burns around the park lakes before these very local tragedies happen again. This is not about the merits of prescribed burning. It is not about mediation of invasive plants. It is

about very small slivers of shoreline around city park lakes that are preferred habitat for local wildlife and the complete destruction of that habitat and the horrific death of wildlife within. The smoke from fires saturated homes in neighborhoods around White Oak Lake. And the notice from the city includes apparently a hint that if a resident has respiratory issues, they might want to leave home the day of the burn. Displacing residents that have trouble breathing and filling their homes with smoke is in the balance. An alternative option worthy of civic pride would be to designate wildlife sanctuary status. You can define it any way you want for city parks and burn somewhere else.

I hope you guys enjoy the rest of the meeting. Thank you. Have a good one and very best to all.

Thank you. Um for the record, I did just find his email. Apologies. It was stuck in our junk file. So I am forwarding that to you right now. It's regarding the message that he just uh the comment that he just left. Um I did also find in the junk file two others and I'm going to really quickly sorry for the delay. Uh one from a Paul um and so I'll forward that one along as well and um be sure to check that before the meeting. Um, next up we have Cam Touché who I do not see as present at the meeting. So there is no further public comment.

Okay. Thank you very much. So no further public comment. Then we're going to move to the consent agenda and we'll ask if any members of the council have any item they wish to have removed from the consent agenda and have further question uh discussion on or questions about. If not, then I'll look for a motion. I'll motion to approve by member Hendricks, seconded by member Strazza. And I think we'll do a voice vote. Yep. Council member Karns. Yes. Council member Mosley. Yes. Council member Dannenburgger. Yes. Council member Strazza. Yes. Council member Hendrick. Hi. Council member Lee. Yes. Council member Scott. Yes.

Thank you. The item passes. No names to announce. Thank you. Next then we'll move to um our regular agenda. And under 7A, we'll have the presentation discussion of the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget uh related as it relates to capital projects and other key initiatives. Um, and we will have our city manager, Mr. Jurgens, take it from here.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Uh, tonight we are continuing the discussion for our FY uh 27 budget. We are going to, uh, we usually do not have presentations this long. Uh but because we have a number of initiatives and number of projects that we're going to be outlining, we wanted to spend some time and allow the council to to ask questions and allow staff to answer them. Uh the way we would like to do this, we're we've got a presentation on the capital projects and you see a number of the directors with different projects up there that will talk about those. Then we are going to roll into a pres a a presentation about key initiatives in the FY27 budget. we'll get through that uh presentation much quicker and then we would like to go to questions uh and answers at that point in time and we can have staff kind of going back and forth. So with that I'm going to turn it over to Scott Rothman our finance director who's going to be the MC for the next hour or so.

I have a top hat but I didn't wear it tonight. Next slide please. Okay. Uh this is a repeat of a slide I think you've seen a couple times. Uh just highlighting by fund the capital project totals for the FY27 fiscal year as compared to FY26. Um as we've talked about it's 111.7 million is significant a portion of the total citywide budget. Actually 30% of the $370.5 million citywide budget up almost $31 million of the prior year. uh this represents a significant emphasis on investing in the infrastructure of the city and putting the taxpayer dollars uh directly to use to benefit the taxpayers. So tonight, as city manager mentioned, the directors and department heads will be reviewing the details on those projects. So next slide, please. So to kick it off, we're going to have Jim Kh, director of engineering. Uh we we have organized uh the projects not by fund. That's what way you'll see them in the uh budget books uh by responsibility. So, engineering overseas motor fuel, asphalt, and concrete and several uh projects within the capital improvement fund. Jim, uh good evening, mayor and city council. We'll try to be as brief as we can be on these items, but there is a lot to cover. Um so, we'll start off with motor fuel tax. Um it's a joy for me to be able to say that this is one of many ID do projects both ongoing and in the future. This is one in this next fiscal year we'll focus on is Locust Street, Illinois Route 9 from Henshaw to Towanda. While the city has a $500,000 share, it's a $7 million ID dot share that they're putting in as well. Um that's estimated to be bid in the fall of 2026. It's going to consist of some reconstruction and resurfacing with new sidewalks as well as some traffic signal modernization. Jumping down then to capital improvement in the general fund. We've got the Grove on Kikapoo Creek subdivision pavement oversizing. This is for the city's share of oversizing of the Kikapoo Creek Road, which is a collector road in the Grove

on Kikapoo Creek subdivision. The next three we have, the city's received three grants and varying projects uh throughout this. The first one is Hershey and Hamilton Road Trail and Ireland Grove Road sidewalk improvements of $600,000. This is a multi-use path at the northwest corner of Hamilton Road and Hershey. The proposed path is going to connect an existing path at the bridge of Hamilton Road west of Hershey and the new pedestrian crossing on Hershey Road. It's a we've got a DEIO grant of half million dollars for this project. So that's a great a great project we have. The next one, Constitution Trail Extension Lafayette to Hamilton Road. U it's only for $2,000. This is just for land acquisition, but it's forecasting an FY28 project that we got an $800,000 uh grant, an ITP grant for. So that's another great project. The last one is Airport Road and Cornelius Drive traffic signal improvements. This is new traffic signals and sidewalk ramps at the intersection of Airport and Cornelius. Uh the project timing is really good with the recently announced Carl development to happening just to the east of that and that's a $600,000 DEIO grant that we received. The next six items I'm going to lump together, they're part of the asphalt and concrete budget. It's a total of $10 million. This fund the city council earmarks out of 8 cent gall per gallon local motor fuel tax and 10 cents of the annual receipts of the city's home rule sales tax. So we address things like the annual reservicing program as well as a pavement preservation items like reclamite highress pressure slurry and we're even trying to get back into our subdivisions to do some of those concrete panel repairs. So all those are going to be dependent on negotiations and bid items. We'll move those monies around as needed. Uh the next we get into sewers. Uh this first one is a multi-year sanitary sewer re rehabilitation program. It's $2.1 million. This is annual ongoing. It's the behind the scenes.

Next slide, please.

Oh, my apologies. Um this is the the next one that we now gone into the sewer. This is again this is the behindthe-scenes workforce workhorse program. Uh it keeps our sewers in healthy shape. The vast majority of these funds are installing aligners inside of existing pipes and manholes, but we also use it to deal with roots and grouting and televising. Um, the next project is Locus Colton CSO elimination. This is phase 8. Um, this has been a project, the Locust Colton project has been around since the early 2000s. Uh, we need to get phase 9 completed by April of 2030. And so this is a a great project that also includes new sanitary sewers, converting existing combined sewer into storm sewer and laying new water mate. So this covers across sanitary, storm, and even water mate. Um so our next one is the East Street Basin phase six land acquisition. Uh the city's we're hopeful to receive another grant, a FEMA grant. We're in the final running for this grant that would help us cover with phases five and six. We're hoping to hear about that within the next few months, next three to four months. Um the design for phase five is complete. So we need to move forward with phase six in preparation for this project. Um this covers work in the Baker Ash Basin as well as the Clayton Miller Basin. It's part of a larger multi-phase project designed to separate our combined sewers in the core part of the community. Uh we're hoping to this will we know this will help reduce flooding in the street and basement backups. The next one, the Grove on Kikapoo Creek uh Creek subdivision sewer oversizing. Uh this is the city sheriff for oversizing sanitary sewer for the Grove subdivision. Now while this agreement the annexation agreement has expired uh we are working with DSD uh department of development services and we're looking to bring this back in the future. This probably will be modified based on some uh the annexation agreement discussion we'll have. So the next one is the Sugar Creek

pump station upgrades. In 2021, we upgraded partially upgraded this station uh but left most of the original station intact. It was a 1990s pump station. So, we need to go back in and finish the work on this this major pump station in the southwest part of our community. Going to the storm water fund. Uh most of these are duplicate. So, I will not cover a lot of these projects are already covered in the sewer fund. I will though talk about the top one, Marian Rosny Culvert Rehabilitation Design. This is part of our Binward City of Bloomington intergovernmental agreement. We took over four of the box culverts. We need to design those. We need to look to to rehabilitate those along a whole piece of Sugar Creek. And so those four four structures, some of them need to be one of them needs to be removed, others just need to be re rehabilitated. So we're going to be maintaining those. Um all this information and more can be found on the city's infrastructure dashboard website, which last year we had 12,000 views. So always like to promote that. Thank you.

Okay, next slide, please. Next, I'd like to introduce Brett. Got one slide over that's working. Brett Lucian, the director of water. Again, uh water is $81.9 million of the total 111.7 million. So, 73%. So, Brett, take it away. Thank you, city manager, mayor, and council. Bear with me as I'm fighting a chess cold. though. Um, the first one here is a very small amount, but it's $43,000 of multi-year GIS uh consultant services. So, obviously it's very important for us to upgrade our where our water manes are, our valves, and our services and stuff. So, this 43,000 is um just kind of working with a consultant and helping um get our GIS up to to where it needs to be at. And we actually could uh do that with engineering um multi-year uh leak detection and for um water loss. So, this is $500,000 that we actually assess our water manes and especially in our older neighborhoods and stuff to see where we do have water loss. So, money well spent trying to find leaks and so forth. Um, next project is going to be design and construction of phase two of our census track 59. So, this is our lead service line program. Even though uh phase one starts this year, we're going to be year before the EPA and the federal regulations are making us uh start replacing lead service lines. So, this is actually going to be for phase two for design and construction. Um we should be able also see some forgiveness money and stuff like that from the feds and the state for the the census track uh projects. Next project is six miles of water main design. Um each year we try to replace so many miles of main. So this um $500,000 is actually going to be for six miles of design. Um like Jim talked about the Locust Coloulton projects. Uh water also has a portion of that. Why we had the roads tore up. We might as well be replacing the uh water manes in those areas as well. And typically those are

the older neighborhoods that also have lead service lines. Next um next project is the oversizing of water manes. Just like engineering for roads and sewers, we do have a portion of water manes that we like to oversize to be able to look or to be able to supply for future. So that's $70,000. Next two projects are um reservoir shoreline and stream erosion for both planning and construction. So this is how we protect our reservoirs um to make sure that uh we don't get erosion and stuff um in in both of Evergreen and Lake Bloomington. Um next one's watershed also protecting our two reservoirs. Next slide please. Then we go into systemwide and this is where Scott talks about big dollars. So systemwide distribution improvement. This is actually going to bring our system, our transmission mains and some of our pump stations up to today's standards. Um, a lot of our transmission mains and pump stations were uh built back in 1929. So, this is actually doing much improvements that helps brings everything into compliance and bring our transmission mains up to um today's pressures. Um, so obviously this is um several different phases in different years. So when we talk about systemwide, we're talking about a four to five year project. And the last one we have here here is the um Lake Evergreen water quality management system. This is for design and construction. So it's $6.9 million. We are in pretty good shape to be able to receive state funding for 100% for this project. Um this is for um the MIB and G Osman the taste and odor issues that we've had in Evergreen. So we are very hopeful that we'll u be able to get some forgiveness uh funds for this project.

Thank you Brett. Next slide please. So for this we're going to kick it down at the table uh to Billy Tus talk about parking.

Hello mayor and council members. Um you all are familiar with this project. Uh we talked about it last week. We've been talking about it over the last several months. Uh long story short, we've been working with Connect Transit for the last several months. Uh with Connect Transit over the last several months related to the proposed transfer station and parking facility at Market Street Garage. As you know, those costs came in significantly higher than were anticipated. Uh so we were were able to pivot in in the design but also we we approached Lifelong Access who was doing a services campus across the street uh which will also need parking. We were able to negotiate agreement that you you thankfully approved last week um to allow for us to take on some parking on that site. When you combine what we will now get as part of this project, which is rough 117 spaces plus what we will get at Market Street, we will be able to get what we would have gotten at Market Street for a fraction of the cost. Roughly $12 million to the city versus an estimated $1.1 million. So, we think it makes sense. Um, that's what this project references. We're still working through the timing of this happening. There'll have to be some shifting uh during during construction of the transfer station, but um we're excited about it and we think it makes sense.

Thank you, Billy. I I should have referenced that um all these projects, the the header there, capital improvement fund, CIF/general fund. So, um we're bouncing back and forth a little bit, but the capital improvement fund is funded via the general fund. So Jim went through a few of the capital improvement funds related to engineering, but the projects we're going to be going through the rest of this uh exhibit are from the capital improvement fund. So moving on uh to the fire uh capital improvement projects and Chief Matheni. Hey, good evening, Mayor and Council. Um this year, the fire department's capital requests focus primarily on maintaining the stations we already operate. Everyone should know that our facilities run 24 hours a day and regular investment helps ensure they remain safe, functional, and ready to support emergency response. Overall, this year's requests are about taking care of what we have while planning responsibly for future needs, which aligns with the city's broader focus on maintaining facilities and infrastructure. The first project focuses on replacing a retaining wall or headquarters fire station located at 310 North Lee Street. This wall supports the elevated ground and landscaping that separate the lower administrative parking area from the upper level parking and apparatus driveway. The retaining wall is showing clear signs of deterioration and movement. It's showing signs of cracking, separating, and heaving outward, which indicates the wall is no longer properly retaining the soil behind it. This movement is also beginning to impact adjacent sidewalks and stairway access areas. Continued movement could lead to further structure failure of the wall and damage to surrounding sidewalks and the access points. The stairway and walkway are critical areas to get into the facility and the administrative area. So, maintaining these safe conditions is important and addressing the wall now helps prevent more significant structure safety issues in the future. The next project shifts from maintenance to planning for future needs at one of our stations. This request would fund the architectural and engineering design work for a future addition at station

number four located at 1705 South Morris Avenue. Station 4 was originally built to house three firefighters each day. Since 2008, when additional ambulance was added, that staffing has increased to a minimum of five personnel daily, and the station has been operating with space constraints for over 15 years. For example, the workout equipment is currently located in the bedroom, and the training space also serves as a dining area. The goal of the addition would be to create dedicated space for fitness equipment and sep that is separate from the bedroom along with a dedicated laundry room that is currently located on the apparatus floor. Uh completing the design work now allows us to properly scope, plan and budget for the future project. This is planning and preparation work and it ensures that any future expansion is welldesigned and fiscally responsible. The final project returns to facility maintenance with the re roof roof replacement at station 3 located at 2301 East Empire Street which has reached the end of its service life. Station 3 not only houses firefighters but fire engines, ambulances and other response equipment that serve the east side of our community. We have made significant investments in that station over the past couple years, including a kitchen remodel, and it's currently undergo undergoing an HVAC replacement that expected to be completed in June. Replacement of the roof helps protect those investments as a roof failure can quickly lead to interior damage and more costly repairs. This is a planned life cycle replacement that protects the facility and keeps the station fully operational for years to come. Together, these projects represent responsible investment in our facilities by maintaining what we have, planning for future needs, and ensuring our firefighters have safe and functional spaces to serve the community.

Okay. Thank you, Chief Atheni. On to uh upgrades at the range for Chief Seington.

Yes. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, thank you for this opportunity to talk about the $100,000 investment at the Bloomington Police Department outdoor range facility. There have been no significant upgrades in the 22year history of owning that property for the pistol range. Um it sits on 78 acres um east of Bloomington. Phase one of the multi-phase approach is to make the needed enhancements for officers. The Bloomington Police Department uses this range for seven Illinois law enforcement training and standard boards mandatory training sessions annually where our 133 sworn personnel. In addition to that, Bloomington Police Department also has a agreement with the Normal Police Department, the MLAN County Sheriff's Office, and a Lexington Police Department um to for their personnel to come use that range for qualifications. We also take the city of Bloomington's zoo personnel out there for training as well. Um this range supports the mobile mobile field training unit for police officers and other agencies, including SWAT teams um in the area. So up to about 450 police officers use this range on an annual basis. The capital project will include major surface upgrades needed on the pistol range and the rifle range. Um reducing safety concerns, increasing officer experiences, and decreasing the probability of injuries to anyone using that facility.

Thank you, Chief. And moving along to uh facilities capital projects, including parking. I'd like to introduce Josh Fitassic, the facilities manager.

Thank you, Mayor Council. Uh today, I'd go like to go over the facilities capital improvement projects. Uh we have unforeseen major facility repairs. Uh that's a line item holder in case something uh breaks and that we're able to address it. Uh the replacement of the lower level gate at the police garage. Uh this is the main entry gate where the squad cars come in and out and that'll be uh getting replaced and upgraded. Then we have the police department HVAC improvements. Uh part of that is is associated with the gates and then we have some other improvements that'll be uh done in this next fiscal year. Uh we also have the police parking deck improvements. That's the uh maintenance of uh minor structural uh components and sealants and that of the parking garages that are on the lower and uh two level and lower one level. Uh we also have the design and hopefully construction of the generator uh replacement. uh that system is almost 30 years old and so we're looking at getting that upgraded to that way the uh building systems can continue during storms and whatnot. Then we also have our parking uh fund and then in that is the arena garage improvements. Uh we're looking to pair that with the police uh parking deck uh garage improvements. That way we can leverage leverage those two projects together to get uh more power in our buying and that way we can get both those projects completed since it's the same similar type of work. Thank you.

Thanks Josh. Next slide, please. So, moving on to Eric Vil, uh, director of parks and wreck. We'll be covering the parks department and golf life.

Thank you, Scott. Mayor, council, city manager. Item number one tonight for us is the Miller Park Zoo Kto for Animal Building, which is over 100 years old. We still have uh money at 375,000 in the Illinois Department of Natural Resources public museum grant funds that were originally originally 750,000. These uh upgrades will help with the AA Association of Zoos and Aquariums uh accreditation which we received for that facility. Unforeseen major repairs. We uh added that in a couple years ago and unfortunately we've used it. We had a catastrophic failure at the uh McGrath Fountain two years ago and this year we've been using it for Lincoln Leisure Center upgrades to the elevator which you'll hear more about down the page. uh Tipton Park playground. That was donated fund uh donated land from the Tipton family. Uh it's time to repair that. We've had to make repairs to that playground and the replacement of this will uh be a good value to the east side of town. The Route 66 trail and crack and seal, those are requirements per the agreement with the county and town for the Constitution Trail, which we've had for 37 years since 1989. Uh we did our sections first and now we're getting to the outside sections in Mlan County. The Liberty Branch Trail though is within um our opaces and uh we maintain and as we try and upgrade some trail every year, this is the trail we'd like to work on this next fiscal year. Uh two more for the zoo. The KOA building exterior exhibit netting. If you're not aware, we have four outdoor exhibits. Uh one of the animals is no longer in one of those exhibits and we would like to cover it. so we could have more versatility and add different species in that uh holding area. Uh we also need red barn roof replacement. Um for obvious reasons it's leaking. Uh Bloomington Ice Center uh we would like to replace the original facility flooring over by the bleacher section. As you can imagine, ice gates

on any flooring takes wear and tear. So that'll fill our gaps. Lincoln Leisure Center, a reminder, we need elevator modernization coming up in the future. So, we would like to put 150,000 in there uh to become more compliant with the changing state guidelines and codes. Lincoln Leisure Center stairwells, plaster repair, and painting. That is actually a continuation of the Lincoln Leisure Center project where we've done uh with facilities, we did tuck pointing, we've done the roof, and now we're going to go to the inside now that we're not leaking from the outside in. Uh golf fund, the Highland Park shed and clubhouse replacement. I think you might have seen that if you've been on the council for the last year or two. That project has been delayed, but we do have the ability. We hope to get that done this year. Excuse me. And I'll lump the next three together. The den uh Fox Creek is our signature course and and represents our regional draw, not just the city. We need some minor replacements like carpet, interior, and concrete work. And this year we have the ability to host for the first time the AJGA, which is the American Junior Golf Association. which is one step below the PGA and a very high ranking opportunity for us as a municipal golf course. So, we hope you can support that. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Eric. Next slide, please. Then we're moving on to Anthony Nelson, director of arts and entertainment to go over the BCPA and arena projects.

Uh thank you, Mayor and Council. Uh just a few items. This will be fairly short. Uh at the BCPA um the ballroom ceiling and floor um have both started to show their age. The ceiling has started to fall in some places and the ballroom floor has uh shown some significant cracking. Uh with the 100-year-old building, um the proactive maintenance and repairs are critical to preserve the historic asset. The ballroom is a uh high quality space for community events and rentals and a revenue generator for us. So, we want to keep that in tip-top shape. For the arena arena, uh we have the video control replacement. That's the video room. Uh that is on the main floor of the arena. Uh Bison hockey games, IHSA events, Jehovah's Witness. Uh that's kind of the production studio for the events. Uh the equipment in there is all original to the building. Um so, a lot of it is not not kind of up to standard uh to help improve uh connectiveness and also reliability during those events. And then the last one is year three of five of upgrading the refrigeration and the smaller HVAC units uh around the building.

Thank you, Anthony. Next slide, please. Uh we're not going to be going over this project. This is meant to highlight the information that's available online in the budget books as you can see in the header. Project list and detailed project sheets can be located FY2027 proposed budget book two beginning on page 169. There's a detail sheet on each and every one of these projects. It has pictures, emphasizes the need, a funding source, etc. Uh sometimes there's multiple pictures involved. The the listing um shows the funding source because as many of the department heads mentioned that some of these projects were funded via grants, some of them are being funded via operations or reserves or we may be borrowing for some for some of them. So there's columns for the funding sources for each of the projects in in the listing um of the projects of the total projects. Next slide please. This is a redundant slide from last week. Just again emphasizing the information that is online. Two full budget books. Also going to emphasize one more time that there's table of contents at the beginning of each of those books with hyperlinks. So you don't have to fumble around try to find things. If you're interested, if the community is interested in one of these topics, uh you can take a hyperlink right to it. Next slide please. And then again, this is just the um the recap of the remaining schedule for the budget. Um I think at this time we're going to have these guys sit down. Thanks for the department heads and go through the next presentations and they'll come back up for questions if need be.

Thank you guys.

Lance, if you could go ahead and pull up the other presentation. So, in addition to capital projects, this year we have uh some very specific programs within our um FY27 proposed budget as well that we we've had some questions from the council on. We thought uh would be wise to spend a few minutes going over a few more of the details and again allowing the council council to ask any additional questions. So, with this uh we are first going to start uh with one of the initiatives of the council housing. Uh next slide, Lance. And with this, uh, Corderell Patrick, our, um, director of community development, uh, has brought some of his expertise from other communities and has talked about a lot of these programs before with the council, but we asked him to revisit, talk a little bit about how much he's looking at spending with each program, and then at the end, he'll kind of recap what the what we believe the impact is going to be as well. So, uh, next slide and then, uh, Cordel, go ahead and begin. Thanks, Jeff. Good evening, mayor, members of council. Uh, so I just want to um talk through some of the uh FY27 community revitalization projects and programs that we are planning to do uh with FY27's budget. Uh I will say that these programs uh and projects will be targeted. Uh and um we have about 16 different projects and programs in which 10 of those are new uh uh the other six are projects and programs that we would typically do mostly through our CDBG state and and uh and some of our local funding that we receive already. So, um, Reb Bloom the the block program, uh, from from vacant to vibrant. Uh, that will that's a new

program and that program is really slated to again, uh, help rehab some of those vacant parcels that, uh, we kind of talked about maybe, you know, a year or so ago of the properties that we've identified to be vacant, but they're not too far gone to be u demolished. Uh so maybe we can begin to help save some of those those homes. Uh the small home improvement program uh which is budgeted 130,000 are those projects that uh you know with our own occupier rehab program. We we run into homes that don't need a full rehab. They may just need a new roof uh or they just may need new windows and doors uh to make sure that those properties can stay uh efficient and sufficient, right? and keep them online for the next 10-15 years versus those props becoming demo candidates at some point. So preserving the the existing housing stock is the idea there. Uh with residential demolitions, we're budgeting 322,000. That's a mix between uh general fund uh as well as state and federal funds. Um and so uh we we have not done residential demolitions at scale uh and so we intend to do so next fiscal year. Next slide. Uh you heard me talk about proactive uh proper maintenance enforcement. Uh but with proactive proper maintenance enforcement, we also need abatement, right? Um we're we're not uh 10 for for 10 with getting individuals to abate, you know, violations as it relates to property maintenance. And so those things remain in the community even though they have violations. So we need a process in place as well as a funding in place to be able to do abatement at the same time. um the uh vacant and foreclosure ordinance. Uh had many conversations with you all uh about this. I think we did three ones about about this as well. Um and so this is going to be a game changer for us, right? How do we make sure that we're sending the message that

you can't have vacant and forecloses property in the city of Bloomington left for taxpayer to take uh care of for you uh without paying the cost to do that. Next slide. the uh West Bloomington Quality of Life Plan. Um and so that plan was done a couple decades ago and so it's it's time to really kind of get it off the shelf uh blow the dust off of it and and go back to the community to reaffirm, you know, that those things that they brought up then are still the challenges that we're seeing on the west side or what are those new things. This will be a very intense grassroot effort uh as it relates to community engagement. Uh this process will be anywhere from 10 to 12 months. That's the level of engagement that we plan to do uh with residents in and around the west side for this project. Uh and so this project will be the highlight for us for for this upcoming fiscal year because it will begin to create the road map uh of what we do next, right? what are the out uh years for community revitalization will look like on the west side of town. Next slide. Uh I just want to just share some of the the numbers here with you. So, um, to do these programs and and pro programs and projects for next fiscal year, um, between our federal, state, and general fund dollars, we do expect this investment to be about $1.7 million of community revitalization efforts in our community next year. Um, as it relates to metrics, uh, for rehab, we do intend to touch anywhere between 25 to 32 properties with the funds funding that we're asking for in FY27. And we do plan to demolish anywhere from 13 to 16 um, units with the funding that we're asking for in FY20 27 as well. I just

highlighted two of the other programs and projects that we're working on as well. cleanup, Greenup program which is designed to help those individuals especially where again this is targeted especially where we're going to be doing rehab and demo. And so how do we make sure that uh we are capitalizing on the investments that we're making in neighborhoods and show also doing cleanup and um sort of greening and beautifification uh on those same blocks uh at the same time. And so we plan to do 10 to 15 of those. And we also plan to um give out uh at least five neighborhood micro grants with our neighborhood partners. Um and so we we intend to touch anywhere between 52 to 68 properties between rehab and demo and FY27 which is something that we have not done uh so far. So with that turn it back over to you Jeff.

Thank you uh Corderel. And next we're going to turn to Kelly Feifer from development services who's going to walk us through some of the initiatives that they have uh with regard to economic development.

Sure. Mayor, council, thank you. Uh so first um we have really been looking at our economic development presence and we have some core foundational things uh that need to be taken care of. One, we really need an economic development website. Uh so right now we're just inside of the city's site which is informational but doesn't exactly tell our story and entice uh folks to be coming to us. So we're looking at doing a new format for that. Once that is there we can talk about the projects. We can direct people and guide people into the story that really is Bloomington. Uh with this we also recognize that we haven't really done an economic development strategy in well over a decade. So, we're really looking for somebody to help assist us to walk us through um what that strategy might look like using all of the feedback we've already gotten from you guys as well as assessing the services, the tools we provide in the current market. Um we also frankly need a lot of legal support as you know we've been doing a lot of development agreements um and that requires not just in-house counsel um but specialists. So, and then again the site marketing. Um, one of the things that, uh, our website doesn't do, but other economic development websites do, is that they provide custom data for whoever is trying to look at at us. So, if they're looking at Bloomington, they can figure out and how to compare us and our demographics. So, we'd be embedding that in our new website. That is a service that does cost, but it prevents us from having to keep certain data up and allows people to custom their approach. So we also have 1.05 million for redevelopment incentives in our budget. So these are the non-tiffs. So this is your sales and food and beverage tax. So when I see this number go up, it's a good thing because we're always in a share. So that means we're making more

um if we're spending more in here. So we do have um 308,000 for tiff districts. So we have three active tiff districts. Um Empire Corridor that was established in 2016. uh downtown East Washington in 2018 and then the downtown tiff district um in 2024. Um for planning and zoning, one of the big things is that we have old tools and I use old tools as we have old codes. So we really need a new subdivision code. I have wanted to do this since I got here uh nearly three years ago. um it really takes um a a coordinated approach and really once you dive in you kind of have to keep going. We've been unable to find that time and dedicate that time to it. So we're seeking to go out uh to a specialty firm to help actually turn into what we're hoping uh that can do that will help any investor um and any land owner do things more quickly, more efficiently. Right now our code is very difficult to work with. Um so the GIS tool so you know we have been working on maps so you can see what developments are in what stage of process but we've had to do a whole lot of foundational work just to get our current data and files into um a layer type system. So we're looking for a little bit more support in there and help make some documents available to the public. So neighborhood and downtown grants. So, in the past, the Harriet Rust grant has been funded at 125,000 a year. This is the fund that helps do matching downtown. So, we are asking for that to increase. So, at the same time, we're trying to take care of what we currently have all over town. Um, we are hoping to capitalize on the attention that we're spending in the downtown uh to try to encourage more people to do uh that facade work. And it's really beyond just

lipstick. So, you know, these facads actually have to be taken care of. Um, so we're asking for some more funds um in that and this has been a nice partnership because it's traditionally been managed out of the planning division, but we're working really tightly with the downtown development team uh to help market it. So, really encouraging that we're um able to more spread that word. Um, one thing that we have, um, is we have one plumbing inspector, we have one electrical inspector. Um, and so it is really hard. We support $220 million worth of construction. Uh, so we're seeking a multiddisciplinary inspector which will help keep those things running when we have those bursts. Um, so they are what I call the most flexible type of inspector position. Then we basically provide direct funding um to our various partners um when it comes to for uh business attraction retention and marketing. So the convention and visitors bureau were at $325,000. The Bloomington Normal Economic Development Commission in the past few years we've been doing $100,000. Um they had asked for 120 about two years ago, I think. Um and so we put that off. Um and we're proposing 120. We do support the museum uh right here in our downtown and that's a 45,000 and the SBDC is a great partner for us because we have a lot of people that have ideas and business plans um and this helps put them together. So this is something that we can't really help to that level. So with those folks we send them to the SBDC for help with that business plan. They're a great partner when we're trying to nurture um some of those entrepreneurs into getting brick and mortar or etc. Um, and that's it.

Thank you, Kelly. And last but not least, we we kept them last because nobody wanted to go after them because it's hard it's hard to beat road work. Everybody wants to see the roads improved here. Uh, so with this obviously a key initiative of the council is infrastructure and director Mo Ricky from our public works department is going to talk us through how they're proposing to help get ahead of some of the road issues.

Thank you, Jeeoff. Good evening, mayor, city council. Next slide, please. So, tonight, uh, as you may well see, I'm only bringing one initiative in front of the council. Hopefully, that demonstrates public works desire for the need for this project. Um, we're talking about a crew of four to operate our asphalt paver. Inclusive of that four is a $750,000 price tag. test includes not only the crew of four but also additional materials in which we will need uh during the asphalt season. Next slide please. So when we're looking at our permanent pothole patching operations compared to a contractually provided complete road restoration, it really is kind of apples to oranges. And as you can take a look at some of the different bullet points on this slide, some of the things I would talk to is the fact that one thing that we escape is the upcharge for mobility. Our crews will always be very mobile. We have that ability to provide services where needs are needed. I know each and every one of you uh always puts your constituents first and foremost in your decision-m and I believe each and every one of you definitely has some asphalt needs in every one of your words that you represent. So that's probably why this is such an imperative situation in regards to us putting this paper into use. A couple things I would also talk about is the fact that uh in the earlier map you can see well over 20 different identified permanent pothole needs. Um that's on our current list. Uh but again as you all know there are going to be other needs that pop up. There's others are unidentified and being mobile like this allows us to address those. The other thing I would want to talk about is the fact that as we move through the usage of this PA, it's like any other skill set. Everybody sitting the council as well as the directors behind me all have very special skill sets. The more we use those skills, the more efficient we become and the better we become at them. So obviously more we're on the paper, the more efficient and the better skilled our crews will become. I'm looking forward to see what

the future holds for that. Also in talking about some of this permanent pothole patching, it's okay. I'll keep talking. One thing to remember is it's not just the paving, right? There's a couple different components in regards to what this permanent pothole patching looks like. So, a large component to this this permanent pothole patching is the fact that we have to institute a grinder out ahead of the actual paving machine. Um, so while you may not see the PA in effect, you might see the grinder working, understand that's all the same operation. You can't do one without the other. And the other thing I want to touch on real quick before I move off this slide is that, you know, our asphalt season is roughly five to six months. Um, this crew would be able to be reallocated inside of our streets and sewers division uh when they're not working on power or when they're not working on this particular crew. Next slide, please. Okay, so just real quick, I don't want anyone to get nervous. I did not hire professional models for this slide. These are actual these are actual public works staff. I know they look like models, but these are actual public works staff. Uh, and this was during the testing phase of the PA. And in that in that photograph there, you can actually see the PA at work and you can see your dedicated public works staff uh, operating it. So, a couple of different things we talked about mobilization is important, right? We we retain that ability. The other thing is the fact that this is probably something that the city need to invest in a long time ago. In my opinion, um, the way we have always done it and the way we are currently still are doing it is we're calling thrown by hand. So, if you can imagine what that's like, it's hot, dirty work. Uh, it's backbreaking work. It's manual work. This gives us an opportunity to become more mechanized in the way that we put down the different asphalt needs in our community. Um, so all these years that work's been done with nothing but muscle and shovels. uh and with this with this opportunity I think what you'll see is not only um a more efficient manner a better product at the end of the day but and maybe the

most important thing is the fact that you know we're going to have a group a bunch of staff who are going to be uh in a less likelihood of becoming injured uh having some of the different uh liabilities that come along with doing this work in the hot summertime and they they deserve that ability to have that tool in their tool belt. Um, again, I appreciate your guys' time listening to us talk about this. I know we've all talked about this on multiple occasions, I think, for close to a year now. So, I look forward to your guys' decision. Thank you. Thank you, Mo. And just also add in there that that also I think they're predicting can help extend the life of the pavement by up to 10 years. Is that accurate?

Yes, it would definitely extend the lifetime of the payment we put. So, uh, next slide. Again, uh these are information on these initiatives can all be found in budget book one. Uh the last the capital projects are all in budget book two, but those are all online. And next slide, similar to what Scott showed. Um we are we are on the uh March 16th. So we'll have the public hearing on the budget next week on Monday and then potentially adoption that first meeting in April. Um, council can do whatever it pleases here, but um might suggest you start with questions on anything just covered and then we could uh bring up the the directors if you have additional questions on any of the capital projects.

Thank you and thanks to each and every one of you for your presentations tonight. Greatly appreciate all of us. and and then we will start with um questions from members of council. Um and member Karns, you have your light on? Yes, you do. Would you like to start?

Thank you. Appreciate that. Um I just have a quick question. It's basically kind of for Kelly and Cordel. you, Kelly, you had mentioned that that there's you're looking to do to get a specialty firm to kind of help with the reszoning or talking about zoning for the subdivision plan. Is there are there opportunities to kind of check in with neighborhood revitalization efforts? And I I guess I'm just kind of wondering if there are crossovers and if there are if those those will be you'll work together on those or if there's community input involved if that if that's where it comes in. I just want to make sure that we're

I I'll start off. I would just say that the answer is yes. Um the property maintenance inspectors are responsible for also uh enforcing some of the zoning ordinances as well. And so as part of the zoning updates, we will have team members as part of the internal stirring committee if I can call it that for the zoning update. So we will we will be getting the mix in the know of what's what's changing so that we know how to enforce those those new ordinances.

And then when we talk about the subdivision, the subdivision is about dividing land. So usually they audience, it's developers, um things that haven't been done yet. It's less about those that already have a house or anything on there. It's the process by which we change l uh lot lines. So, there's less overlap when it comes to the revitalization programs, but more as it comes into how we develop or how we do infill, specifically with things like missing middle housing that talks about how you divide things up um and how you use better what you have. That's why that role um and that's why we've really wanted to get the subdivision code also done.

Okay. Yeah. I guess that's just what I was thinking about is planning for the future of like at some point what we have had to get subdivided and so just make you know thinking about it from that perspective of like not just developers and you know their needs but what like the actual people who are going to be living there and and what makes sense for the the eventual residents if that makes sense. So, just I know that's I I understand what you're saying about it not being like a complete match, but just kind of where there's overlap.

We will absolutely make sure that there's public input with some of the organizations that are out there already doing some of the work. We'll make sure that that happens. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you, Member Mosley. Yeah. I just have a few questions and I I'll start with you. Um Corduro, you had mentioned um just the foreclosure and enforcement and things like that. Will that take additional resources or will that that you have planned for or will that be outside of that? Is is it new roles or

No. So the uh vacant and foreclosure ordinance is that the one you did. So the vacant and foreclosure ordinance uh will be more of an internal thing and so we are planning so the the way it works is um so we're working with the legal team on the ordinance itself um just to make sure that it's legal. Okay.

Right. Um and then once once that is done that ordinance will come before uh the mayor and council for your consideration. um if if it is approved then we will also do an agreement with with a firm outside firm that we would consider as an extension of our staff right we don't see them as a firm or consultant we truly see them as an extension of our staff uh and they will be responsible making sure that that information is updated that they're collecting fees etc etc

okay and then my last question was for for um Jim CH I didn't know if it was okay for you to ask that question now and you may be able to answer it Jeeoff um it was more so around. I heard Mo talk about the additional crew. Um, but I had thought I had heard before that we were looking for additional engineering assistance and things like that um for consult with that as well.

So, so Jim, do you want to come on up in case I I don't say this wrong? So, we are constantly looking for new engineers. So um engineers is one of those positions that is has become uh scarce in our society and so we are always looking to bring on engineers so that we can do uh observation and planning and those types of things and so we are currently searching for some engineers. Jim, do you want to speak to that? And is that what your question is? It it was and it was more so I thought I had heard it before that you were and I just didn't see it caught out there. There's no there are no new engineering positions proposed in the budget, just the current positions that we have and we currently have some vacancies in those positions.

Oh, I said it perfectly. Okay, he made you walk all the way up. Sorry about that. And so Jeff, my last question for you is and I don't know where this fall um you or Scott, but um I had heard Kelly kind of mention right looking at modernization for code and leveraging technology. Are is that something that traditionally goes into this budget or is that just in your operating budgets that falls outside of the general fund? I would say that's probably more in our operating budget and and really falls with it and and with the departments individually. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Member Ward member.

That's all right. Um I'm honored. Um so, uh question again for Cordial. Thank you so much for all the effort that you put into estimating all the different parts of housing that we will be uh touching. I I recognize that is a challenge to to make those kind of estimates. Um and that said, I won't hold you to those exact numbers, but um I am particularly excited about that. You know, housing housing housing is our issue and any sort of touch that we have that that lifts up our housing stock is is great. So, um I'm looking forward to to coming back and and having check-ins recognizing again that these are these are these are big estimates. So just appreciate that. And then um to your uh discussion on the um amounts that we give to other community uh groups in the community, the BNEDC, the SB, uh the visitors bureau, etc. Can you expand on um the return on investment for those those items?

Um can Yeah, I'll I'll I'll take a stab. So we are um we had asked the visitors bureau for some information today to kind of help get ahead and address that. Uh they according to what they provided um visitors to McLean County generated 519 million in direct spending. Total economic impact of 878 million. Tourism in McLean County generated 15 million in tax revenue and almost 4,000 jobs. So they gave us some very specific information that we can provide. In the past, we've also at times invited the director from the CVB to come and speak to the council and and kind of tell their story. So we can certainly I'll provide this information and then we can certainly invite them back as well. Uh for the B in EDC, um as uh Director Feifer said, uh the budget request was originally 120,000. Um we anticipate that given kind of some of the uh shakeup with the B&E that that might be a little bit less in the ultimate budget that is approved. Uh the B&E does do a number of functions uh for the city. Um and Kelly you can help me here when I forget something but uh one of the biggest is they are the administrator of the enterprise zone. So we have a number of projects that rely on enterprise zone certificates and uh incentives from that that they help us with and they are responsible for those types of things. There are other um uh the tripa program I think the cpace program that they did with the county uh that they help administer and so um we can provide um there are a number of projects where we kind of bounce back and forth. Uh, one of the ones that I get probably the the easiest example is the urban equity properties in the state farm building where, you know, they would work with us for a little bit, then the developer would work with them to try and figure out where to fill some gaps. So, it's it's been a collaborative relationship,

but Kelly, I'll I'll let you speak more to that.

Yeah, I can't spe speak about specific return on investment. Um, what we are is we work in partnership and collaboration. So when a larger entity specifically comes in is looking at our area, they often will start with the BNEDC because they haven't committed to a particular piece of property whether it's in normal or whether it's in the city. Uh so they will look there, they'll get some direction, they'll look at what's currently listed. Um and then they'll direct them either to normal or to us. So and at times and we kind of go back and forth. So when it comes to leads and doing things like that, um we look to them to help uh nurture those prospects. We're very we spend a lot of our time responding to our direct customers. If you think about it with direct work, it's very hard. You wouldn't prioritize a prospect over somebody that is specifically waiting on a project. Um so we really look at that partnership. um that enterprise zone that they manage is hugely helpful to us. So the parts of the land, the land that we have, it is one of the draws um that's helping make some of our land competitive. So for that part, we just literally direct any lead to specifically to the BNEDC for those questions. Um and they process all the certificates. So we don't have tiffs everywhere. We don't want tiffs everywhere, but that enterprise zone is taking off some of that percentage and making development enticing. No two pieces of real estate are ever the same. So, it doesn't mean necessarily that normal and Bloomington, we may have the same size piece. They're just very different operationally. Uh, so I like working with somebody that can be that pinpoint. um and also has the financial expertise in those certain types of

funds that can help some of these gaps. We really don't have a lot to offer when you think about it as a city. We could do something with our property tax levy if you will. Um but there are other programs, historic tax credit, things from the state and they pay attention to those things. So for big big dollar recruitment, they're one of the better. Um, and needless to say, they're not subject to FOYA. And I don't say that we want to do things in a vacuum, but there are I have to sign a lot of non-disclosure agreements. Um, and so, and it really is to have an entity that understands what we're trying to do, but can speak and work a little bit more anonymously is helpful um, at certain stages of that process. So I can't speak directly to return on investment but I do very much enjoy them as a collaboration. Um I know of no other model. This is we we use and we leverage what we have.

Got it. Thank you. Thank you. Uh other members members

I'm going to go with you again on the economic development. Uh a couple things uh just as we look at the codes and you're wanting to re revisit the codes. uh infill current existing subdivisions. Are we kind of somewhat assuring people that currently as we went through this just recently about codes and people concerned about how uh certain areas of their the the zoning was done a certain way? Is this going to take care of that? So people don't feel like we're going in because what people will hear, well, we're going to change the codes to fit wherever it needs to fit and we're just going to kind of get rid of codes and we can build wherever we want to build. I want to make sure that is not what we're doing. Uh that we are working on infill. We are working on filling the areas that we need housing, not just because we need housing, so we'll just do whatever we can to do that. So I just want to make sure that is correct.

Yeah. So, we have two main tools, zoning and subdivision. They're related, but they're different. So, one thing that we alluded to with the prior text amendment was the fact that we had standards in zoning that you could build something, but you couldn't plat it. So, our code would not allow certain minimum lot sizes, etc., and wouldn't do it efficiently. So depending on zones, zoning is still very much an important aspect of Bloomington. We can't just build anything anywhere. There are I'm even when it comes to the missing middle and you guys wanted us to look at the regeneration and preservation areas. I'm honestly concerned about the underlying infrastructure. I am not sure that we can handle more sewage. I'm not sure that we can handle more water. I'm not sure that we can do that. So we use zoning as a predictive force of what the infrastructure is. So when we look at we look at population of equivalence when it comes to sewer, we use zoning to help inform some of that. So there isn't a situation where despite that it seems to be an allure um to somehow get rid of some of those requirements and that zoning, it really isn't practical for us. It won't work. But we are trying to see where there are places that we could have more that we used to have forplexes we used to have. Can we still do that? Do we have the underlying infrastructure? And if that's the case, is our zoning stopping it? Do we have a minimum lot width of 100 feet? Okay. Well, that's a lot. Maybe there's something. So, they there is an interplay between them. Um, right now, let's say you want to do a PUD. Okay. A PUD is a tool that has traditionally created its own zoning standards. You go in with a plan. You say, "I want to

divide this and build this housing." And you get to create your own kind of setbacks, lot sizes, lot areas. We've only allowed those to happen if it's five acres or more. So, we've looked at that big thing. What basically that that you're hearing a lot at the state level is why can't we do that on a smaller scale? We are not looking to overhaul the zoning code to get rid of we may add another zoning district. Um we only have one two family district. So what we were seeing was a lot of single family houses in a two family district mixed use. We really need to probably add another one in. So those single family lots that were only meant for one unit, we don't have enough street width to do it. We don't have enough infrastructure. So we reinforce that that's for a single lot while still creating our R2 for two family. So there is an interplay. Um but really the subdivision that missing part is because right now it's almost impossible to divide things in an efficient way or even move a lot line between two that have already been platted. We just don't have a way to do that. Um, and we need to fix that. Does that help answer?

Got a question for Mo. Uh, question on the paver on with that being portable and having four people on a crew. So, are you talking that it's like only patching like paving? Are you saying the whole street you could actually just pave the whole street to be where it's get rid of all the little So, we would probably be working either four or eight foot sections as far as width goes. Yes. uh we probably want to maintain the crown of the original road. Uh but otherwise we would be looking at long linear stretches where uh we were looking at pavement failings and that would be very beneficial for us.

Okay. I was just cur was like are you doing a whole street like a neighborhood that like because I I've have u people that call me and say their whole street is kind of got good giant been patched because you guys come in and patch them right away but I'm just curious if it's can you smooth it all out or we're going to try our best really. So we want to maintain that original crown and have that. Correct. And then uh patch off that. Okay. And those would mostly be residential, not out arterial roads. Mostly residential. Correct. Yes.

And if I could just add to that too, some of the pictures that we showed, those are actually of pavement that we've done. So there was, you know, like that stretch there, you can see it's it's not just a a 4x4. It's actually going down. You know, it's on the stretch. Correct. I guess yeah, I could send the exact block if you guys would ever want to have a good look at it. I would just touch on this, too. I'm sorry. I probably should just stop, but I can't. Jeeoff,

uh, you know, the fact of the matter is, I know our mayor came out and, uh, went with us uh on our snow plowing expedition, and I think it went well for him to see those operations, what the snowplow looked like. He's expressed interest in wanting to come back out to see other operations. Uh, I would strongly suggest that if anyone here has questions about the operations of public works and how some of these things work as it's not common knowledge for everyone to reach out to me and we could schedule some time for you guys to do that. Member Lee.

Yeah. Um, a question for Jim and Brett um on those items that affect Ward 8 at the Grove. Um, you you mentioned two uh oversized items. Um I believe one was to oversize the road and the other one to oversize the um the the water man. Can you explain uh what the need is there to oversize and what does that actually mean oversized?

So oversizing so typically a subdivision would require a 8 inch water mane for additions for that subdivision to continue growing. it may require a 16 to be able to to feed the rest of the subdivision. So the developer will pay for the 8 in and the city is paying for the upsizing of that 8 in to a 16. So that's just for help future development for future proofing then that is okay

that same concept applies to sewer and the streets. You know, there is a a minimum amount that normally is provided for developments. Whenever you have additional need for for other regions, other areas, then the city then pays for that oversizing as part of our overall development of the community. Okay. So, um are there is future plans for like expanding the subdivision or um like what's the need for for the oversiz?

The wonderful thing is we also do this in conjunction with DSD. So they they'll work on developments. So the annexation agreements uh in this area they'll work with but the infrastructure piece both water and engineering we help provide the sewer roads water and then so there are pieces in the preliminary plan but they are looking to to modify and update that annexation agreement but it's not just for the Grove subdivision in that whole area sewer in particular. Everything to the north of there drains south. And so, you know, you've it's really hard in the past to get past that Tanda Barnes dividing line. Everything everything east of there drains east in general. So, that's why that there was a a pump station that was put in that area. So, all of that drains to the north. So, Ireland Grove Road, everything sheds down to Ireland Grove Road. So, any developments happening north of there would come in that direction.

Thank you. Um and then Brett, you mentioned um some work that needs to be done by 2030. Um is that um to meet some kind of federal requirement or what what's what's driving that 2030 deadline?

So if you're talking about the um systemwide distribution, so a lot of our infrastructure of our transmission mains is dated back in the in the late 2020 20s. And so the systemwide project's actually going to take care of some of our reservoirs that are um needing a lot of updates. Also taking care of our transmission mains that run through the town of Normal that are probably leaking because they were built in 29. But it's also um improving our our pump stations as well. Okay. I remember um Sue mentioning something about water loss. There was some drama over that water loss. So that's kind of going would help would say

no it will help with some of it. Where we think we'll see our huge benefit of water loss is the lead service line replacement program. Most lead service lines are connected to a galvanized line and over time galvaniz actually breaks down. Um, so where we where we think we're going to see a huge um um help with our water loss is whenever we get all of our lead service lines replaced. And that is a 10-year um requirement by the federal government and the Illinois EPA for us to replace all of our lead service lines.

And then one other question regarding water. Um I I know this is an item that was passed previously and that's the the new pack silo. Um, do you have any updates on how that's going? Um, when can we expect that to be online to help with the taste and odor issues?

So, obviously for taste and odor right now, our temporary pack system still up and running. Um, we are having really good luck with it, but our new silo um it's we should be seeing that um delivered here sometime in uh March. the contractor has already started the ground work and so we'll be seeing the foundation going in here probably in the next few weeks just depending on weather but we've had some good weather here so that we're actually able to get out there and do some work and so forth. So hopefully by um June July we'll hopefully have the new pack system up and running.

That's good news. And then one last question for Mo regarding the paver. Um, so is is this a a new paper? I saw pictures of the paper, so we already have it. Um, what what is this? Is this for a new PA or is this for the continued operation of that PA? Um, we're just adding the crew to operate that PA. Correct. Clarify. Yep. Clarification is no problem. This would allow us to operate the current paper we have in our possession. So, we went ahead and purchased the paper. We had an opportunity. We want to take that opportunity and now we need these this crew to run that paper.

So, um, kind of get some better return on the investment that we have in 100%. I don't want to shut down any other work. We have so much other work going down that I I can't rob Pier to pay Paul. So, I want to dedicate services to where they need to be dedicated to and I want everybody going home safe and this is one of those things that puts our guys in the best position to go home safe after every day of work. Thank you, Hendris. I don't really have any specific questions. I do have one question for Jeff that I already know the answer to, but I want it for public record. It's true that if not for water, the required work that we have to do on water, that this budget would actually be decreasing compared to last year.

Yes. If if you took that comparison, the $82 million that Director Lucian is uh needing to spend is making this a historic budget. Uh but for that uh we the the actual budget would be going down slightly. Um so it is the historic water spend and that's going to be a trend that we continue. Again we have $400 million in projects that we knew we needed to do um that we've been planning to do that we have a rate structure in place to pay for but that is the the uh cause of the historic budget.

Yeah. Yeah, I just want to draw attention to that because we have you all here presenting to us so many new and creative ways that we're going to be doing city work and we're doing it for cheaper than we did last year, right? And so I just I don't have any specific questions, but I just want to express appreciation to all of you. Um because I see the things the initiatives that we've been asking for and they're in this budget and you guys are doing it in a fantastic way and that starts from Jeff, you know, on down. uh and the level of transparency that we have, right? We continue to reiterate that there this can be found online. Uh there are point people for the projects. Um and so just encouraging the community if they have deeper questions on these uh to to reach out. But really just thank you for all that you guys do. We are extremely lucky as a city to have uh each of you.

Thank you. Other members? Yes. Sorry. I just I just had one quick question. uh council member Lee's discussion made me remember it um because we had talked about the locust colton phases that were required and so remind me you had made a statement that nine has to be completed by a certain date but are we only with eight and nine left or because I know we kind of bounced around orders at some point so remind us what we've completed and what is still left to do

great clarification so yes as I said this started in the 2000s whenever I started in 2000 July of 2000 literally this was project was handed to me so that was so this is one to where now we have gotten everything done one through seven now we have eight that's now out for bid currently and then we have phase nine that is going to be need to be done with completed by 2030 April 2030 why because in working with the EPA we don't want to become like the city of Poria to where they have a consent decree forcing them to take action We have a a combined sewer overflow that we are looking to eliminate. And so they're across the country. They're trying to eliminate combined sewer overflows. That's partially why we've gotten state revolving funds for this these type of projects, grants. They're attractive. They want these eliminated. So we're we're working judiciously toward that. Does that help? Wonderful.

Other questions or comments from members of the council? Just quick questions. Yes, members. Brett, um you had mentioned in your uh talking about forgiveness funds. Can you uh just have been hearing about this talked they you know through our when we were out in DC talking about that stuff because one of the things some of the we went out there was several water projects. So separation water you know storm and sewer water um talked about that and someone talked about oh what have you looked at the forgiveness funds. Can you just for everyone to understand that there is a level how much can be for you know a forgiveness of certain funds for each year for fiscal?

Sure. So I don't have a a dowel amount and stuff but like our lake management system that we're looking at for evergreen we're looking at 100% forgiveness through the Illinois EPA because that is our taste and odor issues. Those are the compounds that that we are actually trying to take out of the water. this lake management system will actually kind of help prevent those um from even happening and so forth. So we have a very good chance of getting forgiveness funding for that just because that's a highle tasting odor issue. Um for the lead service line we are looking at some forgiveness money there because it's a federal mandate Illinois EPA mandate. So we're actually having a chance to get some funding there to help us out with some grant dollars. you know the approximate just kind of generally what they will forgive on a on a regular basis.

I don't off the top of my head. So, okay. We could definitely get that information for you. Yeah. Other members of council? If not, I've got a few questions. Um the first circling on water, focusing on water, the 82 million, and maybe this is better for for uh Mr. Jurgens. um that 82 million has been built into the budget and is that part of the increase in water rates that have occurred over the last few years?

Yes. Um and I'll I'll let Brett speak and clean this up if I need to, but absolutely. So, we are we are proposing to utilize bonds to leverage some of that rate structure so that we can get some a big bulk of that work completed. But yes, that is that will be paid for by the rate structure that is in place. And it is I think 75% of that is mandated projects and the rest are necessary to do the mandated projects. Jeff hit it. Yeah.

Thank you. And is that $82 million worth of work realistic from the standpoint that the city can can do that amount of work and if that is not completed what type of when we talk about federal mandates, we talk about state mandates and the EPA, etc., etc. What type of timetable is a city under?

So, looking at like the um the HAB, the the lake management system, that's going to be a totally different contractor than what we would have for underground um replacement of water manes and services and stuff like that. So, our contract um people around or these are going to be different projects. So, not one single contractor is going to be doing one single project and so forth. even with a systemwide, we're probably not going to see well, I'm sure we'll see local contractors bid on those projects, but they're going to be buildings and and building tanks and so forth. So, I think we're going to see a different type of contractor bidding on different projects throughout the water. Hopefully, that answered your question there. Yes.

Yeah. And I was just going to say, mayor, I think that at the end of the day, um, we are going to be ahead of the curve in terms of getting into compliance with a lot of these new laws and regulations. And we have hit the we have hit the mark with our lead llines and with getting the surveys and and getting the inventory in and we are on pace uh to get all of these uh these requirements met. Okay. Thank you. And might need a little more time here. Um I move to extend our discussion by about five minutes. Thank you for that one. Thank you. Um in regards to water real quick, director is um the uh quantitative machine machinery that was purchased I think maybe last year.

Yes. What's the status of that now? So we are actually running the test in house and we are having very very good results. We've tested um what our results we've taken it to two third-party um vendors and our numbers that we are getting with our taste and odor are comparable to what they're getting. So, we've actually backed down using our contractor and we're actually using our equipment and um doing our taste and odor um uh testing in in house now. So, in house in all in house.

Great. Yeah. Thank you. We'll probably send off like monthly a sample just to make sure our machine stays calibrated and so forth, but for the most part we're using our uh lab equipment.

Thank you. Uh, Kelly, um, in regards to, um, and there might be a better question for Jeff or legal counsel, in regards to the enterprise zones that you're referencing, uh, are those enterprise zones, um, by ordinances through the different governmental municipality unities or is that state statute somewhere? So I so I believe it's a state program and our enterprise zone actually encompasses the town of Normal, the city of Bloomington, Mleing County, Gibson City, Ford County and am I missing anybody maybe Pontiac? I don't manage it. So that's

so so it actually encompasses five or six different government bodies that it is a part of. Yes. And that zone is approved by the state. Correct. And I think all five of us have approved the structure of that. That's probably set by some state rule. And we have designated as the administrator of that zone the the CEO of the BNDC. Okay. So the EDC, the economic development council is the agency in which right now anyhow the way things are set up to be signing off on important documents and things that that need to move things forward in that in that zone.

Yes, we have current developments that submit um for their sales tax exemption certificate through there. So they do all that processing um and they manage all of that. We we simply direct folks directly to them. Okay. Um in in regards to another comment or what I saw on the uh slide um $115,000 I believe and you attribute some of it to to website development and different things. If I if I follow correctly, Kelly, can you explain that a little bit further? That that amount is for a variety of things. I'm assuming that falls under that heading.

Yes, that's exactly it. Um and we actually have a lot more transparency in the actual budget for you. Um we've tried to literally list how much each element. So a specific amount for a website, specific amount for uh securing that Zoom prospector tool tried to be really um in there in those details. So I encourage you to look at the details so you can see what the various components are that roll up to that amount. Then you referenced $45,000 to a museum. Was that the Museum of History or was that what what I didn't catch that? Yes. Yes. That is the MG County Museum of History that's downtown

that's coming out of your budget. Yes. Yes. We we pass through we seem to be I think the only fund um that we use to pass through to those various entities. Okay. Thank you. And Patrick You thought you were going to get off. Um, just real quickly, I saw there the the emergency programs, the small home programs. I'm assuming through your department, individuals within the city all can apply somehow. They know someone reaches out to the community, etc.

Yeah. Yeah. They will apply for those those funds through our uh community development division uh within the department. Uh and we typically would send out a notice that the application process is open uh or unless we have a a wait list already for for those funds. Um and so we we try not to send out notifications uh if we already have a wait list and don't have enough fund to to to deal with the weight list so we don't get folks hopes up about the the uh projects. Okay. Thank you. And uh director Mo um couple questions in regards to in particular the the popular PA as we're refer to it as. So we have that PA already it's already part of equipment for the city of Bloomington. Is that correct?

Correct. Okay. And so in past years has that piece of equipment been used or how long have we had it? No, we just recently purchased that. I believe it was last year. Before that, as we talked about, everything was thrown by shovel. So once that once that equipment was purchased then in order to to uh utilize it to its fullest that's that's the staff we're talking about the increase. That's correct. Okay. And and I've seen photos where there's as as little as two employees and six or seven behind what is affiliate or associated with the the PA. What what actually is four going to do the job? You believe

that is correct. I couldn't speak to the pictures um or what various stages they were caught in the pictures, but yes, we need four people to operate that machine correctly. And then those four individual employees are going to be dedicated to that machine. In other words, uh is that going to be the priority or are they going to have to uh be taken off that and go to other hotspots if you will or other things that occur within the uh the day-to-day activities of public works? Correct. For those four staff members, the priority would be for them to be on the PA. We're working pavement um operations. However, they would be flexible when we're not running the PA to help us out in other aspects of streets and sewer. The the PA though, I would imagine, has plenty of work ahead of it if it I would say that's gets through

100% accurate. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And then, uh Director CHC, um today I think work was supposed to start. I'm assuming it didn't because of the weather um on uh nine and also then on Hershey which is the city's responsibility there. Am I correct on that? According to the signs it was that is accurate, mayor. Yes. Okay. So, possibly then in the very near future if the weather will cooperate, we'll be seeing that work starting that we've been advertising for. Right.

Correct. That is a and and I was looking up the dollar figure. It's a $23.5 million project um running along Illinois Route 9 from Tanda Avenue out east to Carneahan and and that's just one of the ID do projects currently. We also have on the west side waiting to get started another Illinois Route 9 along Locust. So again, there are multiple different ID dot projects that two that are currently been bid. Uh one that we've seen the signs as the mayor pointed out. The other one on the west side uh that's from Henshaw, I believe over to center. Uh that same one that'll get going here uh shortly as well. They did say they were a little bit behind IDOT is uh but again we also are looking to have UNI US business 51 uh bid as well this year. Um and so there's there's a lot of work on the horizon. uh the Locust Henshaw to center that's an eight $8.3 million project and then in this current fiscal year they're also looking ID dot is looking to bid Empire from Maine to Towanda which is a $12 million project. I highlight those you will also see a lot of work happening in this community

and and all those are past the bid process and are ready for letting or where? Thank you mayor. Good question. Two of those have been bid and let and awarded already to row construction and those are Empire Towanda to Carneahan and Locust Henshaw Center. The other one that is yet to be bid but is anticipated by ID dot to bid in this current year is Empire Maine to Towanda. And then we also they're telling us they also anticipate on bidding US business 51. So there's a lot of work a lot of work and and the funds are there and being released because we got to keep our eye on our friends in the state. I'm crossing every appendage I have.

I appreciate that. Thank you very very much. Um I think that's all I have unless there's other uh members. Oh, I'm sorry. Is there someone else? No, I was just going to say something. Oh yeah, absolutely.

Um well, if nobody else has anything one again, uh just want to uh say my appreciation to staff. It takes a lot of work to put all of this together and specifically to finance. Scott Rathbon, our director, and Chris Tomlin, our uh budget manager back there, but really to everybody and they've got a a Dean Finch as well that's working on it. The only other thing I wanted to say is we talk about the PA. Not only are we putting in in this budget uh proposed for adding four members to the public works crews, but also a quarter million dollars in asphalt because that's how much asphalt we're planning to spread across the community. And you've got to have that material as well. So that is also an increase but also an indication of how much more we're going to be uh getting out there in terms of improving our roads. And that's all I had.

Thank you. That uh that covers your entire discussion. Covers it. Okay. Um any members of the council? We'll start with Oh, I'm sorry. Got a report. Okay. Let's go with your report then. Oh, yes. I've got I've got a report tonight. Um it it's it's long, but I think it's good stuff. So, that's good.

Uh go to the next slide. Um this is just kind of the trajectory of our of our lake deficit. Uh this map is I think it was updated the drought map was updated on March 10th. Uh the last time I showed the council this map, there was a lot more red in MLAN County. So we're still not we're still in a drought. Still a very significant drought. Uh but it is getting a little better. And you can see the graph I've got up there shows that when we uh in early February we hit the 9.9 um combined deficit uh from both lakes and and we went up all the way to 11 in early March. We we are now back on the downward trajectory where we're now today at a 9.9 deficit. So we will be continuing to monitor this and if this holds we will be able to go back to some of our previous water conservation efforts. Uh but you know, we're continuing to look for rain. We need more rain, but this is the trajectory we like to see. So, just wanted to provide that update to the community. Next slide. Another uh positive announcement. Work has started on uh stage two of the phase one of the downtown streetscape. This is on the 500th block. Uh they are uh that's the yellow piece up there. That will hopefully be completed. They've been doing very well on this so far and we hope this is going to be completed early midsummer at the latest. Um obviously a little bit of a delay today with the weather. They're also working on finishing up the some of the aspects of that first stage. Uh they will be painting the ring and they'll be doing the landscaping and all that when once we get into, you know, hopefully some more uh good spring weather, but progress is continuing on the streetscape. Next slide. Uh this week we uh or actually it was last week uh we held the uh stakeholder meeting for the downtown stakeholders with regard to our transfer station that is being proposed and I'm happy to uh finally start

sharing some of the uh images of this. We are very excited about this project. Uh the council I think uh deputy city manager Billy Ty has talked a little bit about this. Um, this went from being a city share of five and a half million to 12 and a half million to, you know, probably today would have been 20 million if we would have started on that trajectory. And about a year ago, maybe a little bit longer, we said this is just not viable. We need to rethink this project and we need to go about it a different way. And so connect has been a great partner. They did that. If you go to the next slide, you can see instead of instead of this being an entire city block of an of a giant structure, now this is going to be a 5,000 square foot building uh on the site where we currently have the Market Street garage. Uh going to, you know, looks looks really nice. It fits in well with the surroundings. That top floor would be where the connect board could have its meetings. Could also be some community space. We are also going to have a a police office in this building so that we'll have a spot for our downtown police officer to come and go and for other officers to utilize. You go to the next slide. Uh you can see just some different angles of this. The uh the the entry will be off of Monroe Street, but there will be parking under this. Part of the uh proposed deal is that Connect would provide us with at least 90 parking public parking spaces. So, those will be accessible off of Market Street. They'll be covered um areas for people to wait. So, they're out of the out of the elements. Again, over 1500 people transfer in our downtown every single week dur during the week. So, we have a lot of people transferring. You know, I I think it's quite possible we're going to have even more people using this, but really excited about this project. This is still being reviewed by the FTA. As soon as they bless this, then we will see that agreement come forward for the city council to consider and approve as

well as the connect transit board. Next slide. Next slide. And then finally, just a reminder that all information regarding the FY27 budget is available on our website. We're adding more documents all the time to that, more presentations, more information. So, if you have uh any questions about the budget, uh that should be your first stop. And that's all I have. Mayor, thank you very much. Um, members of council report, let's start with me. Are you okay? You want me to go this? You want some water? Got water. We'll come back to you. I'm Yeah. All right. All right. Let's go with me

one more time.

All right. Let's go with member Scott then. All right. So moved by this budget discussion. Um, so I just have one one moment or one thing to mention. I would like to thank the Islamic Center of Mlane County for inviting my husband and I to break fast with them this this past Saturday. Made a great deal to be welcomed in their space. And what stood out to me the most was the warmth and hospitality. I mean, literally from the moment we arrived, we were made to feel comfortable. It is clear that generosity and kindness are at the heart of this community and that spirit reflects the many ways that members contribute to our city every day as doctors and business owners and teachers and volunteers. These folks are our neighbors, our co-workers, our family and Bloomington is stronger because of their dedication. Eden Barak to my friends. Thank you.

Member Lee member Hendricks.

Yeah, I'll just be really brief as well. I just wanted to thank uh we got to meet with the Imam at the uh Islamic Center of Mlan County uh earlier this evening. Member Karns and member Scott and I all went to just meet with the imam uh and to hear about the congregation, receive a tour. I had never been before um and so we got a tour of the center and just to be able to talk about how we can be supportive and helpful uh to his community, his growing community uh here in Bloomington. He was nice enough to give us uh a gift for uh Ramadan as we were leaving. Um and he said to us this quote before we left. Uh the best of the companions in the sight of God is the one who is the best towards his neighbors. And that really stuck with me.

Thank you. Member Strazza. Yes. Uh just to remind everyone, don't forget to go vote. If you haven't already, please vote tomorrow. Uh is your last day to do that for primary. So, please get out there and um get your voice heard. Thanks, member Nanimer. Member Mosley. I just wanted to um close out with just thanking you, Scott, for I know I asked you sometimes some tough questions that I think I'm like I hope he doesn't think I'm talking about him or getting on him, but just appreciate this presentation today and it was really really um seamless and inform informative for me. Thank you guys.

Member Karns. Yes, thank you. I just would like to um echo the sentiments that uh Council Member Scott and um Hendrickx shared. Uh one of the the takeaways that I had from the visit was about building bridges. And so um I I look forward to continuing to build bridges with the Islamic Center and and the community um within. And then the other thing I would like to mention is um it's been a week or so now, maybe almost two weeks, that I had the opportunity to visit the uh police department and their real crime real-time crime center. And so um was very impressed with um the methodology and the way that they go about uh looking at h you know how to solve crime and and how to um honestly to keep our information I know there's a lot of privacy concerns. There's uh community members, there's constituents that I have that are concerned with what our flock cameras are collecting and that information. And so, um I'm looking forward to sharing that with um constituents or helping them understand more about what we're doing or or or fielding their questions and helping getting them connected to um our staff members who have the answers to those questions. So, uh I just appreciated the time uh everyone took talking with us about that. Thank you. Anyone else that I missed? No. All right. I think there might be a slide or two for my brief report. And that first is that um I too want to echo my colleagues comments. Uh, I think I've probably been at the original Islamic Center before you all knew there was an Islamic center in MLAN County and in Bloomington and have served families in a variety of ways of the uh, Islamic

community. Um, and broke bread with the same individuals with uh, that you did, Abby, uh, two two Saturdays ago if I'm not mistaken. and uh enjoy that community as I do many many other communities and recognize the the separation of church and state. And so with that being said, I also want to note that um we had the ability to have a nice tour again of the bridge uh project with um Beth Jensen from the Congressman Sorenson's office and city manager Jurgensson and I believe that's Matt Burgess in the picture if I'm not mistaken. It is. Uh she was very very impressed and we hope to have Congressman Sorenson uh here shortly for a tour as well. and um what is is become of that particular project uh continues to grow every day in positive ways uh for our community. So uh we're glad to be part of that and offer that tour and thank Matt Burgess and his staff for that as well. Um might be another slide if there is fine. If there's not, there is. And that slide would be uh of member uh Strazza and myself representing the citizens of Bloomington and the city council in particular at the uh sharing of the green parade. Yes. In Uptown Normal, we crossed the vision street and represented Bloomington. Well, I believe. So, with that, we appreciate all the um work that everyone did here tonight and presentations from the departments. So, thank you very very much. Unless there's any other comments, I'd ask for a motion to adjurnn.

I'll move adjournment. Motion by member Hendricks and seconded by member Dannenburgger. And is there all in favor? There you go. Thank you very much. Good. Have a good evening, ladies and gentlemen.