City Manager Tim Gleason

The City of Bloomington is paying attention to the potential closure of Holy Trinity Catholic Church at the north end of downtown, after the Catholic Diocese of Peoria recently released a proposal to shutter the landmark building and merge the Holy Trinity parish with another.

The valuation of properties and community growth may result in Bloomington's property tax rate going down, according to City Manager Tim Gleason.

The city of Bloomington is reorganizing its public works area and naming a new Public Works Director. City Manager Tim Gleason said Mose Rickey will oversee restructuring into three distinct departments: public works, water, and operations and engineering services. Rickey had been the Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation.

A draft intergovernmental agreement would add some McLean County Sheriff's deputies to the Bloomington Police tactical squad, resulting in incremental changes to the city's existing SWAT team.

Bloomington City Manager Tim Gleason and Mayor Mboka Mwilambwe said 2022 has been a good year for the city with COVID largely in the rear-view mirror and the city starting to get past the 50% to 100% COVID-related cost increases in materials and projects.

Bloomington's city manager said the heating and cooling units at Grossinger Motors Arena should have lasted four to nine years longer than they have.

Bloomington City Manager Tim Gleason said pandemic relief money could be used to help the homeless, after Prairie State Legal Services promoted the idea of a renter-landlord community navigator program a couple of months ago.

Bloomington's city manager said a search for a director of both the arena and the Center for the Performing Arts is taking longer than hoped, and it might be time for a new approach.

Bloomington City Manager Tim Gleason estimates the price tag for a new downtown streetscape at $25-30 million. That's not to say anything like that has been decided, but now that the O'Neil Pool Project and the Bloomington Public Library expansion are under way, Gleason said it's time to pay a lot more attention to the city's core.

Bloomington will soon have quicker access to legal marijuana after the city council this week approved a zoning provision clearing the way for the new weed sales outlet near Walmart on the city's west side. Estimated potential revenue from a second marijuana sales outlet could be $300,000 a year.