by Emily Ernsberger emelerns@indiana.edu | @emilyerns
Before any legislative business took place, the Bloomington Common Council and Mayor John Hamilton took a moment at their Wednesday meeting to address President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority nations and halting refugee intake.
“We in Bloomington stand shoulder to shoulder with Indiana University President Michael McRobbie and the IU community, with mayors across the country, and with the many millions of patriotic Americans, to speak out against these unwise, shameful, and unconstitutional orders,” Mayor Hamilton said at the meeting.
He added the city will work to be as effective as it possibly can in protecting the rights and safety of residents.
“You speak for the community, and you speak for the council,” city council president Susan Sandberg said after Hamilton’s remarks.
The Bloomington city council voted 7-1 to fund a downtown business revitalization project.
Envisage Technologies Inc., a company specializing in law-enforcement training software, requested money from the city to renovate their current office space in Fountain Square Mall. The total renovation costs are estimated to be $350,000. Envisage is requesting a maximum amount of $300,000 from the city’s Industrial Development Fund.
Envisage and other businesses downtown are located in the Community Revitalization Enhancement District. CREDs are state-approved zones within cities in which businesses can request funds to create gainful employment opportunities, attract new businesses or expand enterprise within the district. Cities must establish areas that designate the CRED.
The balance of the CRED account was $8.3 million at the end of 2016. It’s revenue, which comes from state payroll income and sales taxes, is set into the city’s Industrial Development Fund. The resolution is a request to use money from the fund for the project.
This is a six-year agreement, in which Envisage will have to pay back some or all of the $300,000 should leave the CRED during the agreement. Renovations would include updates to floors and walls, furniture, and computer equipment additions.
The renovations to their current space would help bring in about 80 new full-time jobs and an additional payroll of $4.6 million by 2022. .move this up to put it with the total cost David Haeberle, chief financial officer of Envisage, said at last week’s committee meeting that the majority of the jobs created after these renovations would be based in Bloomington.
Council members were generally supportive of the resolution, with many members saying this is exactly how the development fund is to be used.
Council member Andy Ruff, the lone member to vote against the resolution, said that while he supports the funds and the project, he did not feel comfortable voting in favor of it due to the lack of clarity of clawback clauses, which details what would happen should the contract break.
The council also unanimously voted to approve sales of city property that is being unused.
The land plots at 1901 and 1914 W. Third St. were purchased by the city in 2000 by private property owners for a Third Street expansion project. He said they are no longer needed, and the board of public works would like to get sell the properties. Adam Wason, director of the Board of Public Works, said the parcels were purchased as part of a larger property purchase by the city, but the two parcels in question were never used.
Wason said the properties were considered for other projects, such as affordable housing, but did not seem like ideal land for any public project. Money made from the property sales will go to the city’s general fund.
The council also made one appointment to the Commission on the Status of Children and Youth.
