Steve Bonchek, whom everyone just calls "Roc", is founder and principal of Harmony School, the independent, non-religious school not funded by the state, which is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary, 40 of which have been in Bloomington's old Elm Heights School, which itself is turning 100 next year. Bonchek talks about how the school came to be, how it works, and why he doesn't call it a "private" school even though it's neither a public nor a charter school. He also talks about the founding of the youth organization called Rhino's, which, with the cooperation and sponsorship of the city and county, served an important role as an all-ages center and night club in downtown Bloomington for more than 25 years.

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Due to unforeseen circumstances, the episode scheduled for today has been delayed until tomorrow, Tuesday, June 3. Look for it in your podcast feed then!

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When last here in December, Nathan Ferreira was the director of real estate development for the Bloomington Housing Authority. He's now executive director of the BHA, and at a trying time for government-assisted housing, with cuts facing the Housing and Urban Development grants that fund so many housing authorities around the country. We'll get a sense from him of what's facing affordable and supportive housing in Bloomington, as well as find out how projects like the Kohr Building remodel or the Summit Hill Community Development Corporation are going.

A Last Pitch today, in response to the conflict brewing at the Monroe County Board of Health, which is courting the Streisand Effect.

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People and Animal Learning Services, or PALS, is a nonprofit center, dedicated to providing meaningful, therapeutic hands-on experiences with horses for individuals with disabilities, veterans, senior citizens, and underserved youth through partnerships with entities like the Monroe County Youth Services Bureau. We talk with Christine Herring, the Executive Director, about the normal work PALS does, and the harrowing impact of the tornado that destroyed their horse barn on May 16, days after they celebrated their 25th anniversary.

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NOTE: The 812 will take Memorial Day off; new episodes resume Wed., May 28.

Stormwater needs to be channeled somewhere -- lakes, rivers, retention ponds -- or it becomes floodwater. If there aren't ditches or box culverts near where you live or work, you may have been wading around last weekend. Communities do their best to manage stormwater, to not mix it with their wastewater. Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems, also known as MS4, exist throughout Monroe County: they reduce pollution and the costs of cleaning water for human reuse at the water treatment plant.

Erica Penna is Monroe County's stormwater program manager. We talk with her about MS4 and other kinds of concerns she deals with, like illicit discharges into storm drains; the challenges of preventing problems created by construction; and the county's current decade-long plan for stormwater, which is about to be updated next year. She can even tell you the difference between the local drainage board and the local stormwater management board. 

There's a new Last Pitch today, too: in light of the recent decision by the Election Board, it's about the prospect of changing from precinct voting to vote-center voting.

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Children have very real-world needs, and sometimes face problems that adults would have trouble dealing with. That's why the city's Commission on the Status of Children and Youth exists. The commission advocates for local youth, collects data on their needs, and debates how to solve persistent problems that those under 18 are having in our community. 

Erin Reynolds is the chair of the commission; Katie Hopkins is the fomer chair and the current secretary of the commission. They talk about how they try to help all the other organizations, including the city itself, coordinate to better serve children, and to define and address issues like literacy rates, chronic absenteeism in school, digital equity, and, yes, the mental health needs of children. They also promote the SWAGGER Awards, recognizing children in the community who go above and beyond.

After only 17 months, The 812 is celebrating its 200th episode! We hope you'll support us to do at least 200 more. Visit our Patreon or our website for how you can help.

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City councilmember Sydney Zulich (D-6) returns to the show to talk about:

• downtown beautification, including planters and the new art going up at last on traffic control boxes; 
• some of the logic behind this year's Kirkwood closures; 
• Bloomington Transit's summer experiment with a new downtown shuttle; and 
• the breaking of ground on the convention center expansion.

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There's bus service to Ivy Tech and Cook at long last. A dozen new fully-electric buses in the fleet. And, this summer at long last, the first experiments with a free downtown circulator. John Connell, General Manager, returns for a 2025 update with Shelley Strimaitis, BT's Planning & Special Projects Manager, to discuss many improvements coming or already implemented: the new #13 route, the new downtown shuttle-bus route, an update on the Green Line (the name of BT's "bus rapid transit" initiative), and more.

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We talk shop with our counterpart in the state’s other major college-dominated metropolitan area. The city of West Lafayette, the home of Purdue University, only became a second-class city like Lafayette and Bloomington in 2013, with a mayor and a nine-member council. Now a city of 45,000, it's experienced 50% growth in a decade, thanks to pressure from a growing Purdue student body attracted by a tuition rate frozen since cityhood. David Sanders is a councilmember at large in West Lafayette. We talk with him about housing, relations with Purdue, and the state water grab that almost drained the Wabash river.

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Judy Sharp, the Monroe County Assessor, has seen it all in her decades in office, and is back with an update on property taxes. We talk with her about the debate between whether assessors should be elected or appointed, and in the second half, all about Senate Bill 1, which passed the statehouse in April, and had a number of surprises, mostly unpleasant, for municipal and county governments. 

[Note: We had problems with the quality of the audio in this episode's interview, which we're working on. We hope the audio doesn't detract too much from your enjoyment of the episode.]

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