The 812 - Steve Volan / Plateia Media

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185 ]S3E31]: Understanding Ellettsville with Its Town Council President Scott Oldham Apr 09, 2025

Show notes

In the incorporated place that is Bloomington's primary official suburb, there's no mayor. The part-time town council in Ellettsville is the legislative and executive body -- sort of like the board of commissioners that runs the county -- but they're also the fiscal body. They're everything; in Indiana, only counties and cities have separation of powers.

Scott Oldham is in his nineteenth year on the five-member council for the town of more than 8000, and currently serves as president. He talks about what he's seen since he started in 2006, and current and future issues concerning Ellettsville. It's the first time The 812 has gotten the perspective of Monroe County's second-largest community.

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184 [S3E31]: "Big Mike" Glab Makes Big Talk about Bloomington (and Chicagoland) Apr 07, 2025

Show notes

Today is a Work Session, an interview with a member of local media where we talk about the city and local issues of the day. Michael "Big Mike" Glab is a former reporter for the Chicago Reader who's covered every kind of news, hard and soft. After 50 years in the Windy City, he eventually found himself in Limestone Country, where he became the host of Big Talk, a half-hour interview show not unlike this one. Where this show's theme is local government, Big Talk focus more on creative Bloomington. Glab is a creative himself, who continues writing on his long-standing blog The Electron Pencil.

At any rate, Big Mike invited The 812 host Steve Volan to Big Talk last year; now it's time to return the favor. We talked about differences between here and Chicagoland, about Bloomigton's ambitions as a city, and about books — Glab also is a bookseller who works at the local institution known as the Book Corner and its late, lamented long-time owner, Margaret Taylor.

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183 [S3E30]: Tackling Problemas with the City Commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs Apr 04, 2025

Show notes

The 812 converts to "El Ocho Doce" for the day, to welcome representatives from the Commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs, which "works to identify and research the issues which impact those populations in Bloomington, especially in the areas of health, education, public safety and cultural competency." They help break the language barrier that prevents many residents from accessing services like medical care or housing, through forums on mental health or orienting newcomers to the community. Our guests are Marlo Libel (LEE-bell) — he's chair of the commission — and Ximena (hee-MEN-a) Martinez — she's the commission's liaison as well as the Latino Outreach Coordinator in the city's department of Community and Family Resources.

We also get a brief update on the Vote Center Study Committee (VCSC), the special body appointed by the Monroe County Election Board, which has completed its report on whether the county should move from precinct-based to center-based voting, in which a voter can cast their vote on Election Day at any polling place in the county. (Last November we had an episode about the topic featuring Ralf Shaw and Ami Gandhi from the VCSC.) The report is now open for public scrutiny. VCSC chair Ilana Stonebraker outlines the final steps before the Election Board's decision in May.

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182 [S3E29] All About the Trashion Refashion Runway Show, with Devta Kidd and Stephen Hale Apr 02, 2025

Show notes

One person's trash is another's treasure...or so the Trashion Refashion Runway Show tries to demonstrate. The 16th annual event will be presented by Plato's Closet at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre April 13. The virtually all-volunteer event presents and models clothes designed almost entirely from waste, recycled, or upcycled materials.

We talk about promoting sustainability through haute couture, the history of Trashion, and all about how the event works with Devta Kidd, producer of this year's event (and also about her former role as Director of Innovation for the City of Bloomington), and Stephen Hale, immediate past producer of the show for the past several years, and a member of the board of the Center for Sustainable Living which the event benefits.

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181 [S3E28]: The Taste of Bloomington Returns, Says Jordan Davis of the Chocolate Moose Mar 31, 2025

Show notes

Even before they make the formal announcement later this morning, we have details on the official revival of the Taste of Bloomington, the summer celebration of this city's bustling local restaurant scene that happened for 35 years before the pandemic said we couldn't have nice things.

Anyway, the Taste is back -- for at least one year, anyway -- courtesy of the Chocolate Moose. It's moving from its longtime home in the parking lot at City Hall to all five blocks of East Kirkwood Avenue, and it's moving from June to August. And: for the first time, admission will be free.

How do we know all this? Jordan Davis, who last appeared on this show a year ago to talk about his very popular No Dishes podcast, happens to be the director of operations for the Moose, and he's leading the charge to reestablish Taste by reinventing it. And the plans are intriguing to say the least.

(The previously scheduled interview with Devta Kidd and Stephen Hale about the coming Trashion Refashion Runway Show will air Wednesday.)

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180 [S3E27]: Andrea "De" de la Rosa on Managing the Bloomington Urban Enterprize Zone Mar 28, 2025

Show notes

We talk about the Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association. It's run by a city board of directors appointed by mayor and council. The BUEA oversees the city's Urban Enterprise Zone. Businesses and residents of the Zone can benefit tax-wise from the Enterprise Zone's Investment Deduction; revenue from the EZID generates a pot of money in the mid-six-figures annually. Someone has to figure out how to distribute each year -- which is harder than it sounds.

Andrea "De" de la Rosa is our guest today. We learn some of the finer points about the BUEA, and talk about her role working with small businesses, as she's both the executive director of the BUEA and the Assistant Director for Small Business Relations and Development in the city's department of Economic and Sustainable Development.

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179 [S3E26]: How Court-Appointed Special Advocates Go to Bat for Children in Need Mar 26, 2025

Show notes

A person who advocates in court for those who can't for themselves is known as a guardian ad litem. But there's an even greater need for children who have suffered abuse and/or neglect and find themselves lost in the justice system. Every state except North Dakota has court-appointed special advocates, or "CASAs" for short. Despite being an integral part of the local justice system, Monroe County's CASA system [is not funded by] gets only partial funding from county government; it became a nonprofit more than 40 years ago.

Our guest today, Tia Arthur, is the executive director of Monroe County CASA. She and a dozen employees and a hundred volunteers provide advocacy for more than 75 cases serving more than 200 children in the justice system through no fault of their own. But another [50] 60 are on the waitlist for a CASA. Arthur talks about the need for CASAs, what the intensive training requirements and challenges are like...and what it's like for a CASA to have to name an infant! But they also the local nonprofit manages related programs, like their Child Visit Monitor program, for people with less time to volunteer but still want to help.

UPDATE March 28: Monroe County CASA reached out with corrections to the figures they gave us in this episode. It's more than 200 children being served by CASA through 75 cases, and almost 60 children who are on their waiting list for an advocate. Also, while the nonprofit organization is indeed not a county agency, they do receive some county funds, which they're grateful for. [Corrections made above via boldface and brackets.

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178 [S3E25]: The Lake Monroe Water Fund: Raising Money to Protect Bloomington's Watershed Mar 24, 2025

Show notes

Today we're talking specifically about a topic that could take several episodes to discuss: the primary source of drinking water in metropolitan Bloomington. The reservoir commonly known as Lake Monroe is the largest body of water inside the state of Indiana. It was the state's idea to put a university in the middle of nowhere in 1818, and the city that grew up around it was always in danger of losing the university to Indianapolis because of the lack of water. We outgrew Lake Griffy, then Lake Lemon. When the Army Corps of Engineers built Lake Monroe 60 years ago, it solved once and for all what had been Bloomington's existential problem since its founding in a place without a ready water supply.

Our guests today are from the Lake Monroe Water Fund: Michelle Cohen is the executive director; Jane Martin is president of its board. Formed less than five years ago, their primary mission is to raise money for shovel-ready projects that help the lake: related to protecting the forests around it, helping farms run less fertiilizer off into it, and even helping homeowners with septic systems to prevent runoff.

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177 [S3E24]: The 812 Work Session with Herald-Times News Director Jill Bond Mar 14, 2025

Show notes

We continue our series of Work Sessions — interviews with members of the local media discussing issues involving local government — today with Jill Bond, News Director and Editor of the Bloomington Herald-Times newspaper.

We ask about her editing philosophy (which she just gave a TEDxIU talk about). Then we dive into some of the big issues the city's paper of record has been tackling lately, including ambulance service in Monroe County, the Monroe County Community School Corporation's need to downsize, and the current state of the city annexation lawsuit.

Today's Last Pitch is about the Mayor's recent decision to appeal the decision on that annexation lawsuit to the Indiana Supreme Court.

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176 [S3E23]: Downtown Bloomington Inc. and the 40-Year Revitalization of the City Core Mar 12, 2025

Show notes

Forty years ago, Bloomington's downtown was all but over. Half of the land had been cleared for parking lots to compete with auto-centric development at College Mall and other places on the outskirts of the city. A coalition of downtown businesses assembled to try to reverse the trend. As a result, Bloomington is one of the few cities in the state that saved its downtown, through the rehabilitation of many historic buildings. And, to give the community civic meeting space, an old car dealership was converted to a convention center.

Our guests today are from Downtown Bloomington Inc, a sort of chamber of commerce devoted to revitalizing the city's core. DBI also has a contract with the county to run the Monroe Convention Center. We talk with Talisha Coppock, DBI's executive director since 1987 and director of the Monroe Convention Center, and Jim Doering, president of the DBI board of directors.

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