The Normal Town Council on Monday approved an ordinance allowing Connect Transit to expand its services.
Connect Transit is currently operated through a joint ordinance from the town and the City of Bloomington. The change would extend the agency's service area from the confines of Bloomington-Normal into all of McLean County.
If approved by Bloomington, the move could fill the gap left when McLean County ended a contract with Show Bus last year. The funding amount paid by the Town of Normal and City of Bloomington would still not include expenses outside of their respective city boundaries.
“Just to allow the Connect Transit board to decide and give them the opportunity to expand,” Normal City Manager Pam Reece told council members during their brief meeting.
The service is largely funded through federal and state grants. The Show Bus service previously handled transportation from the Twin Cities to rural communities in the county. It is still up to the Connect Transit board to decide whether or not to include a similar service.
The Bloomington City Council will meet next week.
In other business, the town council:
— Approved an ordinance reserving money otherwise set to be sent to the State of Illinois for a homeowner program that assists first-time home buyers. The town and every other home-rule municipality in the state is authorized to issue private activity bonds at $130 per capita, but the town can either elect to use that money, allow it to be retained by the state or give it to another community.
Normal elected to use it for sponsorship of the Illinois Assist Homeownership Program that issues mortgage credit certificates to eligible families to help them with down payments and closing costs associated with buying a home. Normal has sponsored the program since 2020.
— Approved ordinance to vacate easements and re-subdivide three lots in the Blackstone Trails subdivision in northeast Normal at the request of the owner of the lots. The move combined the three lots into two lots that made for less restriction on the property which the developer planned to use for larger single-family dwellings than could be possible with three lots.
— Approved renewing a contract with Securitas for security services in Uptown.
