A person who advocates in court for those who can't for themselves is known as a guardian ad litem. But there's an even greater need for children who have suffered abuse and/or neglect and find themselves lost in the justice system. Every state except North Dakota has court-appointed special advocates, or "CASAs" for short. Despite being an integral part of the local justice system, Monroe County's CASA system [is not funded by] gets only partial funding from county government; it became a nonprofit more than 40 years ago. 

Our guest today, Tia Arthur, is the executive director of Monroe County CASA. She and a dozen employees and a hundred volunteers provide advocacy for more than 75 cases serving more than 200 children in the justice system through no fault of their own. But another [50] 60 are on the waitlist for a CASA. Arthur talks about the need for CASAs, what the intensive training requirements and challenges are like...and what it's like for a CASA to have to name an infant! But they also  the local nonprofit manages related programs, like their Child Visit Monitor program, for people with less time to volunteer but still want to help.

UPDATE March 28: Monroe County CASA reached out with corrections to the figures they gave us in this episode. It's more than 200 children being served by CASA through 75 cases, and almost 60 children who are on their waiting list for an advocate. Also, while the nonprofit organization is indeed not a county agency, they do receive some county funds, which they're grateful for. [Corrections made above via boldface and brackets. 

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Today we're talking specifically about a topic that could take several episodes to discuss: the primary source of drinking water in metropolitan Bloomington. The reservoir commonly known as Lake Monroe is the largest body of water inside the state of Indiana. It was the state's idea to put a university in the middle of nowhere in 1818, and the city that grew up around it was always in danger of losing the university to Indianapolis because of the lack of water. We outgrew Lake Griffy, then Lake Lemon. When the Army Corps of Engineers built Lake Monroe 60 years ago, it solved once and for all what had been Bloomington's existential problem since its founding in a place without a ready water supply. 

Our guests today are from the Lake Monroe Water Fund: Michelle Cohen is the executive director; Jane Martin is president of its board. Formed less than five years ago, their primary mission is to raise money for shovel-ready projects that help the lake: related to protecting the forests around it, helping farms run less fertiilizer off into it, and even helping homeowners with septic systems to prevent runoff. 

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We continue our series of Work Sessions — interviews with members of the local media discussing issues involving local government — today with Jill Bond, News Director and Editor of the Bloomington Herald-Times newspaper. 

We ask about her editing philosophy (which she just gave a TEDxIU talk about). Then we dive into some of the big issues the city's paper of record has been tackling lately, including ambulance service in Monroe County, the Monroe County Community School Corporation's need to downsize, and the current state of the city annexation lawsuit. 

Today's Last Pitch is about the Mayor's recent decision to appeal the decision on that annexation lawsuit to the Indiana Supreme Court.

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Forty years ago, Bloomington's downtown was all but over. Half of the land had been cleared for parking lots to compete with auto-centric development at College Mall and other places on the outskirts of the city. A coalition of downtown businesses assembled to try to reverse the trend. As a result, Bloomington is one of the few cities in the state that saved its downtown, through the rehabilitation of many historic buildings. And, to give the community civic meeting space, an old car dealership was converted to a convention center. 

Our guests today are from Downtown Bloomington Inc, a sort of chamber of commerce devoted to revitalizing the city's core. DBI also has a contract with the county to run the Monroe Convention Center. We talk with Talisha Coppock, DBI's executive director since 1987 and director of the Monroe Convention Center, and Jim Doering, president of the DBI board of directors. 

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When friend of the show Geoff McKim was on the show last May, he was in the final year of his four-term, 16-year career as a member of the Monroe County Council. Now in retirement, he rejoins us to discuss issues of the new term, like the development of the new justice complex, and the impact of the recently discovered $3.8 million shortfall in the county budget. He also looks back on his county council career, and talks about his new role as one of the seven members of the joint city/county Capital Improvement Board, which just got approval from the Bloomington City Council to issue a bond to build the expansion of the Monroe Convention Center. 

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Our topic today is the Center for Sustainable Living, a peculiarly Bloomington institution. Since the 1990s, it has been a kind of not-for-profit co-op, foster projects that help the environment or allow people to live more sustainably. Their projects include Discardia which puts on the annual Trashion/Refashion show at the Buskirk Chumley; the Southern Indiana Renewable Energy Network which advises homeowners on how to solarize their homes; and the Bloomington Community Bike Project.

The Center manages the overhead for a typical nonprofit -- insurance, taxes, governance, and the start-up costs associated with organizing a business however modest. Each project it sponsors pays a small part of its proceeds to sustain the Center. Some projects complete their missions or fade out; others grow big enough to graduate and become their own separate nonprofits. The Center has applied for and received many a grant, including from the city of Bloomington, on behalf of its many constituent projects. 

Our guest is Sura Gail Tala. She's been associated on and off with the CSL for decades, and is a member of their board of directors. We get from her the scope of their work, how they manage all those projects, and we dig into her own history as an environmental activist -- which includes her story about attending the first Earth Day in 1970.

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Our guests today are from Tandem, the perinatal and reproductive resource center. Through Jack Hopkins grants, the city of Bloomington helped Tandem launch in Bloomington five years ago, with a certified nurse midwife, who's considered an APRN, an advanced practice registered nurse, in the state of Indiana. They now also offer a postpartum house with overnight rooms and are building a birth center, all at their location on East Third Street near the Bypass. Julie Duhon, the center's executive director, and Erin Loughery, their office manager, join us to talk about their programs, and the challenges of providing modern-day midwifery services.

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In 1991 the city of Bloomington sold the rights to its 1915 City Hall building to nonprofit groups. One group made most of it what you know today as the John Waldron Arts Center. Another group acquired the attached old Fire Station No. 1: with the money it raised they made it the home of Bloomington's community radio station, WFHB, which got its call letters because they stand for Fire House Broadcasting. That conveyance of a city building has been a key reason for WFHB's successful operation for more than 30 years. Money for operations can be scarce, and rent has been the undoing of more than one worthy community radio station around the country.

A community radio station is like a public radio station in that it's non-commercial and supported by underwriting and listener contributions; unlike a public station, most of the programming is also done by volunteers. Our guests are Jar Turner,  the general manager of WFHB, and Brooke Turpin, its development director. They talk about what a community radio station does, how it helps make community, how you can benefit from it, and how you can support it.

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It's not just a new era nationally, it's a new one locally. We have the other elected county newbie on our show (besides County Council Member David Henry, who appeared late last year), and that's County Commissioner Jody Madeira. She's taking a swing at all the big local issues of the day -- the new jail, the county health department, the county's new development ordinance -- and some of the niceties of how the commissioners collectively do business day to day. 

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Our topic today is Kirkwood Avenue, specifically the five blocks of East Kirkwood between the Courthouse Square and the Sample Gates, which many people consider to be the heart of Bloomington.

Since 2020, the city has closed public rights-of-way to benefit local restaurants. Some establishments, mostly around the Square, have rented adjacent metered parking spaces as outdoor dining space. On Kirkwood, the city closed whole blocks to allow restaurants to host diners while social distancing. It also made those blocks de facto pedestrian streets. The idea proved so popular that it has continued each year since. Last month, the city council approved an ordinance permanently delegating the decision to close any and all of the five blocks of East Kirkwood as the administration sees fit, at least between the months of April and November. 

Jane Kupersmith was last on almost a year ago to talk about the  city department she leads, Economic and Sustainable Development. We invited her back to discuss the prospects of a seasonal pedestrian mall, and what ideas they're hoping to explore in addition to the now-usual outdoor dining and low-speed thoroughfare -- festivals, pushcarts, food trucks, and other new kinds of programs.

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