The Bloomington Arts Commission (BAC) invites area arts groups to apply for funding through the Spring 2021 Grants for the Arts program. Nonprofit organizations and arts-based entities in the arts and cultural sectors may apply for operational funds (only for eligible nonprofits) or support for projects that foster the arts and cultivate cultural experiences in Bloomington.
Applications will be evaluated according to organizational or artistic capacity, community impact, equity and inclusion efforts, and programming needs. Completed applications are due Friday, April 30 at 5 p.m. with awards to be announced and distribution anticipated by early June. Grants are to fund projects taking place between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022. Applications and more information are available at https://bloomington.in.gov/arts/grants.
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A joint high-speed project that has attracted national industry attention took its first steps toward providing fiber service for up to 3,40o residents in Monroe and Owen Counties on April 12. The first high-speed customers for both companies came online as part of a unique fiber project directed by Smithville Communications, a top 100 national broadband company, and SCI REMC, Indiana’s largest rural electric cooperative. “It is always good news when we can announce the availability of high-speed fiber in a rural area of Indiana, but this milestone is great news in that it represents the first fiber service jointly developed by a unique partnership between Smithville and SCI REMC,” said Cullen McCarty, Executive Vice President of Smithville Communications. “Since both organizations serve customers in essentially the same geographic area, this represents an excellent opportunity to work together to accelerate fiber availability to the customers we jointly serve.” Hidden River Pathway Project, Butler Playground Replacement, Goat Farm Design Planning Underway4/13/2021 Numerous infrastructure improvement projects are underway this season to advance community goals, including safety, sustainability, accessibility, equity, economic vitality, and quality of life in Bloomington. The City will provide regular public updates on a range of these improvements as they progress.
Hidden River Pathway Project The Hidden River Pathway Project is progressing with the replacement of the network of culverts that carry the Campus River (formerly the Jordan River) from Dunn Meadow on the Indiana University campus southwest under downtown Bloomington to 1st Street and College Avenue, where it reappears as Clear Creek. WHAT: Mayor John Hamilton invites the press and the public to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the Trades District Garage. The event will include remarks by the mayor and other local leaders, tours of the new facility, and an opportunity to contribute to the public artwork commissioned for it. The ribbon-cutting will be held in keeping with current public health protocols for physical distancing and face covering.
WHO: Mayor Hamilton, Bloomington Redevelopment Commission (BRC) member Cindy Kinnarney and CFC President Jim Murphy will provide remarks. Members of the project team will offer tours, and artist Esteban Garcia Bravo will lead a workshop for community members to design tiles for the artwork “Aurora Almanac” to be installed in the facility’s stairwells in the second half of the year. WHEN: Saturday, April 17 at 10 a.m. WHERE: The Trades District Garage is located just south of West Tenth Street between the Showers City Hall building and the B-Line Trail, just east of North Rogers Street. Event parking is available in the gravel lot at Tenth and Rogers, with parking in the facility available after the ceremony. Program Uses Cohort Model for Job Seeker Training, Support and Placement Local entrepreneurship and co-working center The Mill, nationally ranked startup accelerator gener8tor, and the nation’s largest singly accredited statewide community college system, Ivy Tech, announced today a program to help individuals get new digital skills in IT administration. This partnership builds on The Mill and gener8tor’s partnership called The Mill Code School, a gener8tor program.
Funded in part through a $100,000 investment by the City of Bloomington, the Mill Code School is currently accepting applications from Indiana residents. The program is focused on quickly getting people into jobs in the digital economy, and is tailored to individuals seeking to develop new skills or become proficient in a variety of in-demand technologies and programs associated with IT. Program participants do not need any prior experience or degrees. gener8tor team members will guide participants through the IT Administrator learning modules that are available at no cost via the LinkedIn Learning platform. The deadline to apply is May 5, and the course runs from May 10 through July 16. The City of Bloomington’s longstanding commitment to the arts will produce four major public artworks in 2021, as the city recovers from the pandemic and its distressing effects on the economy and the arts. Projects at the Trades District, Switchyard Park, the Trades District Garage and the Fourth Street Garage, funded through the One Percent for the Arts Ordinance mechanism, will be installed this year. An expanded search process and creative funding arrangements have resulted in a selection of works by a diverse range of artists.
Adopted in 1994, the One Percent for the Arts Ordinance (Bloomington Municipal Code section 2.12. 021) stipulates that at least one percent of the cost of construction for selected capital projects be used for public art at those projects or elsewhere. Bloomington was the first city in the State of Indiana to adopt an ordinance of this nature. Just since 2016, the City has invested at least $635,000 in public art through the ordinance. A diversity education consulting company located in Bloomington, Indiana, believes that forgiveness and grace are key to healing racial tensions, according to a news release.
The Guarden started in 2018 as a podcast and grew into a consulting firm offering diversity education workshops, cultural sensitivity training, and cultural remediation. “The end goal is that everyone who has an experience in The Guarden grows through their education around race, class, gender, and identity,” founder and CEO Nichelle Whitney said. “It doesn’t matter where you are on the spectrum, if you're at the point of resistance, or if you're at the point of, ‘I'm energized and motivated around this work.’ We help people build toolkits for dealing with DEI stuff.” Numerous infrastructure improvement projects are underway this season to advance community goals, including safety, sustainability, accessibility, equity, economic vitality, and quality of life in Bloomington. Projects are described at the City’s website, and regular public updates offered on a range of these improvements as they progress.
Sare Road Multiuse Path and Intersection Improvements/College Mall Road Resurfacing Improvements at the Sare Road-Moores Pike intersection and a new multiuse path on the west side of Sare Road from approximately Cathcart Street to Buttonwood Lane are ongoing. Road striping was completed this week and the installation of the new traffic signal is in progress. Lane restrictions may be in place during the installation of the traffic signal, which should be completed within the next two weeks. More information is available at https://bloomington.in.gov/engineering/projects/sarepath. Just north of the intersection, a project to mill and repave South College Mall Road from East Moores Pike to East 3rd Street is underway this week with the replacement of curb ramps along South College Mall Road. As part of this project some curb ramps will be upgraded for ADA compliance and new bike lanes added from East Moores Pike to East Buick Cadillac Boulevard. Milling and paving of South College Mall Road will begin in mid-April, with lane restrictions in place. More information is available at https://bloomington.in.gov/engineering/projects/cmr-repave. Sixty-four new homes are on track to be built on City-owned land adjacent to Switchyard Park, with groundbreaking scheduled for June. Retreat @ the Switchyard will provide a mix of supportive and affordable housing as well as market-rate units in a new apartment building at 1730 South Walnut Street. The City’s Redevelopment Commission (RDC) purchased the 1.5-acre site at the park’s eastern entrance in 2017 to help steer development consistent with the community’s long-term goals.
The RDC in June 2020 selected RealAmerica Companies to develop the mixed-income and mixed-use project, which will include at least 48 units dedicated to residents earning 30 to 80 percent of Area Median Income (AMI), 10 of which will be reserved for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, supported by Stone Belt, a local nonprofit organization. The Bloomington Housing Authority (BHA) will provide project-based vouchers to increase access for low-income households and residents with disabilities. Affordability requirements will be in place for at least 99 years. Sixteen apartments will be offered at market rates, and the plans include ground-floor commercial space of 3,000 square feet as well as parking. Mallor Grodner Legal Alert Article: American Rescue Plan Provides Changes to FFCRA and COBRA4/6/2021 On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) into law which became effective on April 1, 2021. The ARPA contains key provisions impacting employers and employees. We have set forth a few questions and answers below regarding some of these specific issues. Please keep in mind that guidance governing these topics is not fully developed and may continue to change.
Q: Does the ARPA require employers to provide paid sick leave to its employees? A: No. After December 31, 2020, the paid leave provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) were no longer mandatory for employers. However, those employers with less than 500 employees who elected to continue providing the paid leave provisions of the FFCRA could do so and continued to receive a tax credit for payments made through March 31, 2021. Under the ARPA, employers can continue to provide paid sick leave under the FFCRA on a voluntary basis and receive the tax credit for leave paid through September 30, 2021. Even if an employer did not voluntarily extend the FFCRA after December 31, 2020, they can do so now with an effective date of April 1, 2021. |
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