This is the WFHB Local News for Wednesday, April 28th, 2021.

Later in the program, WFHB News speaks with Alex Crowley, Director of Economic & Sustainable Development with the City of Bloomington and member of the Board of Directors for the Lake Monroe Water Fund. More on that in today’s feature report.

Also coming up in the next half hour, we have Better Beware - your weekly, consumer-watchdog segment on WFHB. More at the bottom half of our program.

But first, your local headlines:

Bloomington Park Commissioners 

The Bloomington Board of Park Commissioners talked about the Public Health in Parks initiative. Health and Wellness Coordinator Jess Klein presented the partnership between Bloomington Parks and Recreation, the Monroe County Health Department, IU Health, and Centerstone. She proposed a longer program that alternated between Seminary and Switchyard Parks.

Klein added that the sharps containers initiative will also be rolled into the Public Health in Parks program. Commissioner Kathleen Mills asked what Parks and Rec could do to reduce the number of sharps found outside of containers. Klein responded putting the containers in more discrete places could help. She says the stigma of having needles prevents people from disposing of them in more public places.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the partnership.

Bloomington Board of Public Works

Project Engineer Neil Kopper presented an amendment to a service agreement at the Bloomington Board of Public Works meeting. At the April 27th meeting, he recommended an amendment to an agreement for consulting services for the Seventh Street Bike Lane Improvement Projects.

Kopper stated the change would reduce fees paid to the contractor. The motion passed unanimously. The next Board of Public Works meeting is May 11th.

MCCSC School Board

The Monroe County Community School Corporation School Board discussed Online learning in the 2021 to 2022 school year. Assistant Superintendent Doctor Markay Winston talked about the need for consistency in online lessons. She said that, moving forward, MCCSC would have teachers exclusively teach online or in-person. She proposed other changes that would make hybrid learning easier on both teachers and students.

Doctor Winston clarified that a lottery would be used to choose who qualified for Kindergarten through eighth grade online learning if the school corporation received too many applications. Board Member April Hennessey asked what this lottery would look like. Doctor Winston was not sure, but she said student choice would focus on equity.

Board member Brandon Shurr showed concern that students may not be able to get vaccinated before the beginning of the school year. He asked Doctor Winston if families waiting to see if the vaccine will be available will be unable to apply for Online learning.

The deadline for the first round of applications is May 14th. The next MCCSC School Board meeting will take place on Tuesday, May 18th.

Feature Reports:

According to its website, the Lake Monroe Water Fund is an active funder for watershed projects that conserve, protect and sustain Lake Monroe as our shared community water resource.

Lake Monroe has a watershed of 276,000 acres. It also serves as the primary source of drinking water for 128,000 Monroe County residents and as a supplemental source of water for Brown County.

(Photo Courtesy of Visit Bloomington).

The man-made lake was built to last about 100 years. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished constructing the lake in 1965. And according to the Lake Monroe Water Fund, the lake has no coordinated plan to manage and sustain it.

(Photo courtesy of the City of Bloomington).

The Lake Monroe Water Fund partners with local organizations,...