It's Your Business: Greater Bloomington Chamber works to improve life for businesses, community1/13/2023 NOTE: This "It's Your Business" column by Chamber CEO Eric Spoonmore was published in the January 13, 2023 Bloomington Herald-Times. ![]() The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce deeply appreciates the support we receive from our members and the Bloomington-Monroe County community. 2023 marks the 108th year of the Chamber’s presence in Greater Bloomington. For more than a century, the Chamber has been working to improve the quality of life in our community through a thriving business sector. Our membership includes over 850 organizations in the Greater Bloomington area. More than 80% of our members are small, locally owned enterprises — the businesses we know and love that make Bloomington such a wonderful, vibrant, and compassionate community. We also partner with our public-school corporations, numerous nonprofit organizations, institutions of higher education, local government and many corporate employers in the Bloomington metropolitan area. Membership in the Chamber sends a powerful message that you care about our community, and you want Bloomington to thrive for generations to come. In other words, we recognize that our businesses and employers are instrumental to achieving the high quality of life that our residents deserve.
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NOTE: This interview with the Director of Advocacy & Public Policy, Christopher Emge, was originally aired by WGCL Glass in the Afternoon on Monday, January 9th, 2023.
NOTE: This "It's Your Business" column by Chamber CEO Eric Spoonmore was published in the December 30, 2022 Bloomington Herald-Times. ![]() The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce continues to support the expansion of the Monroe Convention Center. The expansion will be paid for by revenue from the 1% food and beverage tax that was passed in 2017 by the Monroe County Council. Disappointingly, there has been no tangible progress on the expansion despite nearly $15 million in food and beverage tax revenue collected over the past five years. However, a glimmer of hope came in November when meaningful steps were taken by county government to move forward with expansion plans. All three county commissioners unanimously agreed to create a Capital Improvement Board (CIB) that would give the city of Bloomington equal representation on the CIB. In the following weeks, all seven county council representatives unanimously supported the county commissioners’ CIB plan. Two weeks later, a supermajority of city council members voted 8-1 to support the plan for a CIB. For the first time in six years, strong momentum was building for the long-awaited convention center expansion project. Elected officials across the city and county were working together to achieve progress on this shared community goal. NOTE: This interview with the President & CEO, Eric Spoonmore was originally aired by WGCL Glass in the Afternoon on Tuesday, December 21st, 2022.
![]() Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Eric Spoonmore announced today that the Chamber is backing a plan that involves a newly created Capital Improvement Board (CIB) to manage the Monroe Convention Center expansion project. The Chamber urges elected leaders to swiftly accept the proposal and appoint members to serve on the CIB as soon as possible. “The Chamber closely examined the various governance proposals submitted by City and County leaders, and we agree that the community’s interest is best served by a CIB that will oversee the expansion and related construction activities of the convention center,” said Spoonmore. Over the past year, the Chamber along with other local economic development organizations has urged elected leaders to take quick action on the expansion plans to avoid a sunset of the Monroe County Food & Beverage Tax funding mechanism by the State Legislature in its upcoming 2023 session. “Time is truly of the essence to get this done. We hope all parties can agree to the CIB governance plan as it stands. Taxpayers have been paying the Food and Beverage tax for five years with no tangible results. It is time to deliver on the promise of an expanded, world-class convention center here in Bloomington,” said Spoonmore. County Commissioners took a step forward on the expansion plans by enacting a CIB in November. The CIB is fully accountable to the public and established in accordance with state statute. The County Council unanimously favors the CIB plan, but it requires City leaders to agree by January 1, 2023. The City Council is expected to discuss the CIB proposal at its next meeting on December 14. ![]() The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce is inviting interested parties for lunch and conversation on Justice Reform on Tuesday, November 15th at the Elks Lodge located at 400 N. Walnut St. in Bloomington. “This important discussion will inform the public on the many complexities of our local system of criminal justice including the need for a new jail facility in Monroe County,” said Eric Spoonmore, the Chamber’s President & CEO. What Justice Reform Entails. There will need to be a new justice center to replace the one built in 1985. According to the 2020 Criminal Justice & Incarceration Study conducted by the RJS Justice Services, “The jail facility is failing and cannot ensure consistent and sustainable provision of constitutional rights of incarcerated persons. The report goes on to declare, “daily inmate population exceeded the jail’s functional capacity on most days since 2004 and all days per year consecutively since 2015.” Beyond the new justice center, the study reveals that 75-80% of the daily 250-320 inmates have some sort of mental illness or substance abuse issue. The current facility does not have the space nor the staff of mental health professionals to address this issue. NOTE: This article with Chamber President and CEO, Eric Spoonmore, was originally published on October 16, 2022 in the Indiana Daily Student by Meghana Rachamadugu. The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce hopes the board of Bloomington Transit will vote to expand Route 3 by 1.3 miles in the west direction to serve those in Park 48 and Ivy Tech facilities, according to a Herald-Times guest column. In his column, Eric Spoonmore, the president and CEO of Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, said City Council also supported this idea when they passed Resolution 22-16, a document sponsored by Councilmember Steven Volan.
Spoonmore said the resolution favored extending the transit services outside city boundaries, something the municipal code didn’t allow previously. While the resolution signifies council members want to expand transit lines, it doesn’t formally approve an infrastructural change or construction. Spoonmore said the expansion has been an ongoing conversation in both the business and residential community and by extending services, the city will be able to serve those accordingly. WGCL Glass in the Afternoon: Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce Update: October 12, 202210/13/2022 NOTE: This interview with the President & CEO, Eric Spoonmore was originally aired by WGCL Glass in the Afternoon on Tuesday, October 12th, 2022.
NOTE: This article that highlights The Chamber's Success School was published in the October/November, 2022 issue of Bloom Magazine by Barb Berggoetz. Choosing a career isn’t always on the radar of middle school students. But the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce is trying to kick-start them into thinking about the possibilities with its Tour of Opportunity program.
“It’s a way to plant the seed and start the conversation about what they might want to do in the future,” says Katie Sensabaugh, director of Success School, which operates the program giving students real-world experiences at local workplaces. “We have done virtual tours for the last two years, but this is the first time we are doing in-person tours,” Sensabaugh says. Groups of about 50 seventh- and eighth-graders visit two or three businesses in one day to talk with professionals and learn about careers. NOTE: This article that highlights The Chamber's Elect Connect event was published in the October 5, 2022 B Square Bulletin by Dave Askins. On Monday evening, several candidates for local and regional office made an appearance at a networking event hosted by the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce (GBCC) at The Mill, a co-working space north of city hall.
Each candidate got a chance to deliver a quick three-minute stump speech. This B Square roundup is limited to candidates in contested, partisan races where both candidates appeared. That leaves out school board races, which are non-partisan. But one takeaway from Monday’s event was the position taken by school board candidates on the Monroe County Community School Corporation ballot referendum. Each of the three MCCSC school board candidates who attended Monday’s event expressed strong support for the levy increase that appears on the ballot. The three who spoke were: Daniel O’Neill (District 3); Ashley Pirani (District 3); and Erin Wyatt (District 1). If it’s passed, the referendum would set the school referendum levy rate at $0.185 for eight years, which would increase the average residential taxes paid to the schools by about 35 percent, according to the ballot question wording. The ballot language says the additional money will support the retention and attraction of teachers and staff and enhance programs in STEM, the arts, and special education. The last day to register to vote in the Nov. 8 election is Oct. 11. Early voting for the Nov. 8 election starts on Oct. 12. In Monroe County, early voting will take place at the election operations building at 3rd and Walnut streets. The GBCC has set up a website with a roundup of information on candidates. An additional resource for information about candidates is the The League of Women Voters Vote411 website. |
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