Dan Brady

Bloomington Mayor Dan Brady said the summer is marking progress on more than $315 million in public and private investment projects.

Bloomington appears ready to more aggressively market naming rights opportunities for the former Grossinger Motors Arena in Downtown Bloomington. Sponsorship by the auto group ended in 2022, and the city has called a news conference next Wednesday to highlight revived use of the building.

The City of Bloomington will continue making annual funding contributions to the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council, but with a series of conditions attached.

The council’s monthly nonvoting meeting at 6 p.m. Monday will mark the first time the council has planned to consider policy on data centers since it hosted two public meetings earlier this month.

In his first State of the City speech, Bloomington Mayor Dan Brady said the city has accomplished a lot in his first year in office.

Gov. JB Pritzker is pushing for statewide zoning changes to spark housing construction. Not everyone is jazzed about the proposal though.

Officials representing McLean County, Bloomington and Normal said “the system worked” by implementing an all-hands effort during Friday’s powerful thunderstorms.

A big chunk of the community volunteers on appointed boards and commissions in Bloomington will have their terms expire at the end of the month. A few more terms will lapse at the end of June, according to the city website. And there were already a lot of vacancies among the 138 seats the mayor fills by appointment.

Pope Leo XIV has told the mayors of Bloomington and Normal that authority must be understood as service. The Pope referred to the example of Christ, who came “not to be served but to serve.”

McLean County Board Chair Elizabeth Johnston said she disagrees, in part, with Twin City mayors Dan Brady and Chris Koos who have criticized the performance of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council. Johnston said she thinks the EDC has delivered a lot of bang for the buck.