Dan Brady

Mayor Mboka Mwilambwe thinks it's worth paying the redeveloper of the downtown State Farm building a bundle over the next two-plus decades to get the project completed.

Dan Brady says the city faces several big challenges as he prepares to take the mayor's office next month: public safety, water problems and what he calls a pending storm — the city's financial crunch.

According to unofficial results on Tuesday, Dan Brady [48%] won decisively over city council member Cody Hendricks [33%] and mayor Mboka Mwilambwe [19%].

This is Part 3 of a series of stories about the mayoral election in Bloomington. Election Day is April 1.

The Bloomington-Normal branch of the NAACP held an election forum on Saturday that included the candidates for the municipal election on April 1, as well as information on the proposed countywide school sales tax referendum.

Whoever takes Bloomington's top job will still have to contend with the issues of a housing shortage and an uptick in the number of unhoused people in the city — though aid to both issues is currently in the works.

Incumbent Mayor Mboka Mwilambwe, first-term city council member Cody Hendricks and 22-year former Republican state Rep. Dan Brady are all in the running for Bloomington's top job.

The city has implemented temporary water filtration improvement, using a repurposed liquid lime feeding system. A new powder-activated carbon system will take about a year to arrive.

Candidates for Bloomington mayor sparred on several key issues at a WGLT forum Tuesday evening at Illinois State University's Brown Ballroom.

The mayoral candidates for the April 1 election in the Town of Normal and the City of Bloomington attended a town hall meeting Saturday hosted by the McLean County Republicans.