A three-day event brings Bloomington's founders, investors, employers, and talent together across six venues; free and open to the publicAmplify Bloomington will host the inaugural AMP Bloomington, a three-day event to strengthen the region's innovation economy, Oct. 28-30 at six venues across the city. The event is free and open to the public and leads into Indiana University's Homecoming weekend.
AMP Bloomington brings the founders, investors, employers, and university talent who drive the regional economy into one place, built for the connections that move ventures forward: a first customer, a next investor, the right hire, a research collaborator who can take an idea to market. It grew out of Innovation Week, which drew roughly 350 attendees last year, and reflects Bloomington's momentum as a top location for innovators and entrepreneurs. The event opens Oct. 28 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater with the keynote from Mike Clem, alongside Brian Kelsey of Heartland Forward on the heartland's innovation opportunity and Polina Osherov of Pattern on creativity as economic infrastructure. The evening moves to an opening reception at the Waldron Arts Center.
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The City of Bloomington Plan Commission will hold a special public hearing on Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall Council Chambers, 401 North Morton Street, to review the City’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) and other land development regulations.
The hearing fulfills a requirement of Indiana House Enrolled Act 1001, or HEA 1001, which directs cities and towns to review zoning and development regulations with the goal of increasing housing development. The special session comes amid existing work to examine how Bloomington’s development regulations and permitting processes affect housing and development. The City is implementing recommendations from its development review and permitting audit, while separate UDO amendments continue through the Plan Commission and Common Council process. The Oct. 28 session provides an additional public forum to consider how those rules function in practice. The Bloomington-Monroe County Metropolitan Planning Organization (BMCMPO) will host a public open house on Monday, Oct. 12, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Bloomington City Hall, McCloskey Conference Room, to collect public input for the development of the Fiscal Year 2028-2032 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for the Bloomington-Monroe County Urbanized Area.
The BMCMPO FY 2028-2032 TIP is a comprehensive list of planned, federally funded multimodal transportation projects programmed for the Indiana Department of Transportation, Monroe County, Rural Transit, Bloomington Transit, and the City of Bloomington within the Bloomington-Monroe County urbanized area. Development of the new TIP requires public involvement—including public review by the BMCMPO Citizens Advisory Committee, the Technical Advisory Committee, and adoption by the Policy Committee—before submission to state and federal agencies for final approval. Meeting attendees will help shape the project investment priorities for the next five years by providing comments on the proposed list of TIP projects. The intersection of Kirkwood Avenue and Rogers Street will temporarily operate as a four-way stop beginning Monday, October 5, while crews complete traffic signal and curb ramp improvements associated with the Grimes, Kirkwood, Patterson, and Rogers Project.
During this period, the existing traffic signal will be removed while the contractor completes curb ramp work at all four corners of the intersection and installs a new traffic signal. The existing signal equipment had reached the end of its useful life and experienced reliability issues, prompting both maintenance needs and numerous requests for improvements at the intersection. The replacement will also bring the signal up to current safety standards and best practices. Drivers traveling through the intersection should be prepared to stop in all directions, use caution, and allow additional time when traveling through the area. Weather permitting, the new traffic signal is expected to be operational by October 24. Additional project work may continue in the surrounding area after the signal is activated. For the latest information on road, sidewalk, and parking restrictions, visit bloomington.in.gov/inroads. Elmore will share his decades of experience starting, running, and acquiring various businesses across industries, including locally based education services company, Solution Tree Ivy Tech Community College Bloomington will welcome DG Elmore, entrepreneur, investor, and chairman of Elmore Companies, as the featured speaker for the 16th annual Gayle & Bill Cook Center for Entrepreneurship fundraising luncheon on Oct. 14.
“Ivy Tech Bloomington is honored to welcome local business leader, DG Elmore, as the featured speaker for our annual Cook Center fundraiser, supporting innovation and free enterprise in the region,” said Steve Bryant, executive director of the Cook Center for Entrepreneurship. “DG’s decades of success in the business industry will offer valuable, real-world insights for our students and community.” Elmore is Chairman of Elmore Companies, a family holding company in Bloomington, Ind. It buys profitable, founder-led businesses and holds them for the long term. The City of Bloomington’s College and Walnut Corridor Study will begin its formal public review process when it is presented to the Bloomington Transportation Commission on November 16, 2026, at 5:30 p.m. The review is a long-range planning step and does not authorize construction or commit the City to implementing either of the study’s full corridor concepts. Adoption would establish a planning framework the City can use to pursue future state and federal grant opportunities.
The study examines approximately 4.2 miles of College Avenue and Walnut Street, from the SR 45/46 Bypass to Allen Street, evaluating how the corridor can evolve over the long term to improve safety, accessibility, and economic vitality. Between 2018 and 2022, three fatal crashes and 34 serious injury crashes occurred within the project limits. Although College Ave. and Walnut St. account for a portion of local street mileage, arterial streets like these represent a disproportionate share of severe crashes citywide. Speed monitoring across 14 study locations revealed that over half of drivers exceeded posted limits at 11 of those sites. Historical traffic data collected for the study shows that while Bloomington’s population has grown by 44% since the 1970s, vehicle traffic on College and Walnut has dropped by 31%, indicating that the existing multi-lane highway configuration no longer reflects actual travel patterns. Hoosier Hills Food Bank will present the 42nd Annual Community Book Fair from October 15-20, 2026 at the Monroe County Fairgrounds. This treasured event will again feature a wide selection of two buildings worth of books, games, puzzles, movies and music at bargain prices to support the food bank’s hunger relief programs.
The Book Fair will kick off Thursday, October 15th at 9am. Opening Day carries a $10 admission fee, but it’s also Veteran’s Appreciation Day and veterans are welcome for free admission. All other days are free admission. This year’s schedule is:
How does a Winter Banana compare with an Arkansas Black? Is a Mutsu sweeter than a Gold Rush? Find out at the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market’s annual Apple Tasting Saturday, Oct. 3.
The free tasting takes place from 9 a.m. until noon, or while supplies last, on Fernandez Plaza at the Saturday Market, 401 N. Morton St. in downtown Bloomington. Visitors can sample more than 15 locally grown apple and pear varieties from familiar favorites to heirloom varieties rarely found in grocery stores. Apple varieties available for tasting include:
October 30 - November 15 | Waldron AuditoriumGet in the Halloween spirit with a show that’s sure to give you goosebumps! This fall, Constellation presents R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps The Musical: Phantom of the Auditorium, a spooky fun musical for the whole family, playing October 30 - November 15 at the Waldron Auditorium. In addition to standard performances, Constellation is offering a sensory-friendly performance on Sunday, November 15 at 4:00pm.
Get ready for a frightfully fun adventure with Goosebumps The Musical, based on the wildly popular books by R. L. Stine! When Brooke and Zeke are cast in their school’s spooky new play, The Phantom, they start to wonder if the show is actually cursed. As strange messages appear and rehearsals are disrupted by a mysterious masked figure, they must uncover the truth: is it all an elaborate prank… or is their theater truly haunted? Full of catchy songs, laugh-out-loud moments, and just the right amount of Halloween-season chills, this musical mystery is perfect for kids, tweens, and grown-ups who remember reading by flashlight. Susan Borries Reed Selected as New President/CEO of the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation9/29/2026  The BEDC Executive Committee is pleased to announce that Susan Borries Reed has been selected as its new President/CEO. Reed was chosen following an eight-month national search led by the executive search firm Jorgenson Pace.
Reed will begin her duties on October 19, 2026. She brings more than two decades of experience in economic development, public finance, municipal advisory, and community investment—work that combines strategic leadership with deep expertise in how businesses, local governments, and capital markets intersect. Reed’s background includes senior leadership roles across investment banking, municipal advising, and economic development organizations. She has served as a Managing Director in a municipal advisor firm where she oversaw a bond transaction team, provided oversight for compliance, rating agency strategy, and post-issuance responsibilities for hundreds of clients, and led sustainable public sector and resiliency-focused services. She also has extensive experience working directly with municipalities and utilities on financing strategies, disclosure approaches, and investor communications. |
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