Tag Archives: city of bloomington

Bloomington Chamber Calls on City to Rescind Arizona Boycott

The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce issued a statement today, urging the Mayor, City Clerk, and members of the City Council to rescind the City of Bloomington’s boycott of Arizona businesses.

“To date, The Chamber has been contacted by more than 40 individuals, most of whom have expressed their intent to discontinue support for business and tourism in the Bloomington area,” said Christy Gillenwater, Chamber president and CEO. “Moreover, several of our members are receiving similar calls that customers will boycott their business until the city removes its boycott on Arizona. The action taken by city officials has become damaging to local businesses.”

The City’s boycott stems from controversial legislation passed by the Arizona state legislature regarding immigration. “To be clear, The Chamber has no position on Arizona’s legislation nor do we intend to engage in discussion regarding the Arizona immigration bill,” explained Gillenwater. “Our concern is about our local elected officials calling for an economic boycott of another state and the price being paid here at home in Bloomington.”

Gillenwater stated, “The Chamber is committed to serve and protect businesses in our community. We believe that action was necessary to advocate for our members and to hold our local officials accountable for acting in the best interest of the local community.”

Statement:

The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce urges City officials to recognize that the actions they engage in have the ability to impact residents, businesses, nonprofits, community Continue reading →

What’s Going On With Water?

Last night, the City Council heard the first reading of the proposed water ordinances that would expand the City of Bloomington Utilities water treatment capacity, and install much needed water infrastructure, such as the redundant water line from the treatment plant to the City. As many of you know, this has been an ongoing discussion for several years, and recently two ordinances were brought forward to seek water rate increase approval from the Indiana Utilities Regulatory Commission (IURC), and to obtain bonding authority to fund the $42 million dollar project. Continue reading →

City to host public meeting on Google Gigabit for Communities project

The City of Bloomington will be hosting a public meeting to receive input from the community for compelling, creative and outside the box uses for an experimental broadband network being proposed by Google.

According to Google’s Web site, the company “plan[s] to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. Our networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections.”
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BEAD's March Exhibit to feature work from photographer John Bower

This month the City of Bloomington’s Entertainment and Arts District (BEAD) will showcase photography by local artist John Bower in an exhibit entitled “Capturing the Soul of Indiana, The Documentary Photography of John Bower.”

The exhibit will contain a variety of his black-and-white images capturing remnants of Indiana’s rapidly disappearing past. Bower’s photography is motivated by the quest to rediscover that which has been ignored, forgotten or cast aside. Bower states that, “By using the inherent drama of black-and-white photography, I am able to capture the essence -the élan vital- of these subjects. The abandoned houses and rusting automobiles dotting the countryside retain a special energy left behind by their former owners.” Continue reading →

City Recognizes Local Women For Community Service

Mayor Mark Kruzan has announced that three local women have been selected by the Women’s History Month Committee to be honored during March for their outstanding service to the Bloomington community.

Kerry Thomson has been named Bloomington’s Woman of the Year, Tomilea Allison has been named the recipient of the Lifetime Contribution Award and Maggie Sullivan has been chosen to receive the Emerging Leader Award. Continue reading →