McLean County Board

The McLean County Board on Tuesday unanimously approved establishing Grossinger Motors Arena in downtown Bloomington as an Election Day voting center where all registered voters can cast a ballot.

Several McLean County Board and Bloomington City Council members are calling for Michael Madigan to step down as Illinois House speaker and leader of the Democratic Party of Illinois.

The crowding of the McLean County Jail, and its relationship to a COVID-19 outbreak there, took center stage at Tuesday’s county board justice committee meeting.

McLean County Board Chairman John McIntyre has delayed plans to have government committees resume meeting in person through the end of the current term in November. 

UPDATED 9:25 a.m. | A record 405 people were tested Monday at Bloomington’s drive-thru testing site, as McLean County officials expressed concerns about delayed results.

The City of Bloomington plans to move more city offices and its city council meetings to the McLean County Government Center by the end of the year.

Calls for racial justice took center stage at Tuesday's McLean County Board meeting.

McLean County Board member Josh Barnett said the recent calls for racial justice are a reminder that the county must have its own house in order.

After nearly two hours of discussion, McLean County Board members voted 12-8 Thursday night to table a resolution to implement the Restore Heart of Illinois plan. 

McLean County's Board of Health is studying how the county health department will have to respond when businesses start to reopen during the pandemic.

McLean County Board members have started debating whether the county should begin reopening its economy ahead of Gov. JB Pritzker’s timetable, but it’s not clear the governing body has the authority to do so on its own.

McLean County Board Chairman John McIntyre has called a special meeting for May 28 to consider adopting a plan to reopen much of the county's economy on a faster timeline than the one Gov. JB Pritzker has implemented.

A McLean County Board member wants to see the county go through with a regional reopening plan that many local leaders have abandoned.

McLean County Board member Chuck Erickson has his own proposal for the county to reopen.

McLean County Board Chairman John McIntyre got mixed reviews when he asked whether the county should formally back a proposal to create a subregion from Gov. JB Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan.

Managers of a new emergency loan program for McLean County businesses say the second round of federal aid through the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) has, so far, muted response to the county's stimulus effort.

National debate over expanding mail-in ballot efforts has come to McLean County.

McLean County government leaders took an additional step Tuesday to streamline an emergency loan program that’s been retooled to help small businesses struggling because of the pandemic.

A McLean County Board committee is eager to send money from a seldom-used loan program to businesses struggling because of COVID-19’s economic fallout.

A McLean County government panel has endorsed a proposal to delay interest penalties on late property tax bills due to the economic setbacks COVID-19 has caused many homeowners. 

McLean County Board Finance Committee members Wednesday evening asked Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council Director Patrick Hoban to develop guidelines to repurpose money from a business creation fund to help existing businesses hit by pandemic-caused shutdowns.

McLean County plans to use a portion of revenue from a new sales tax on recreational cannabis to pay for mental health services, based on a plan the County Board adopted Tuesday.

McLean County administration is proposing maxing out its tax rates for recreational marijuana sales, as a starting point for discussions the county’s elected leaders plan to have in the coming weeks.