Shots fired on Bloomington’s Southside
On October 16th at approximately 1:46pm, Bloomington Police Officers responded to the shopping plaza in the 300 block of E. Winslow Road in reference to reports of shots fired. Upon arrival, it was determined that two men had exchanged gunfire with each another. Investigators were not able to locate any victims but discovered that a nearby building had been struck by bullets, and witnesses told Officers that a white SUV had fled the scene shortly after the shooting with a shattered rear window.
A short time later, Officers observed a white SUV with a shattered rear window on S. Rockport Road. The vehicle was therefore stopped by officers in the 2300 block of S. Rockport Road and the occupants of the vehicle were taken into custody without incident for questioning. During this time, S. Rockport Road was closed to traffic for a few hours while the investigation was ongoing.
Several witnesses at the scene of the shooting were interviewed and video footage from area businesses was reviewed. It was learned that the 18-year-old man and 19-year-old man involved in the shooting knew each other and that this was not a random incident. Bloomington Police Detectives also recovered a stolen firearm during the investigation.
The investigation remains ongoing and no further information is currently available.
Ivy Tech Bloomington makes list of Best Places to Work
Ivy Tech Community College Bloomington was named one of the Best Places to Work in Monroe County, presented at the Community Innovation Awards reception at The Mill. Ivy Tech Bloomington is the largest organization to make the list of eight best places to work, among 22 total nominees. The award celebrates the community’s top employers and is scored based on both employee and employer surveys. The campus won awards in all three categories during The Mill’s Innovation Week.
Chancellor Erik Coyne won the Fuse Business Innovation Newsworthy Event of the Year Award for his work in publicly demonstrating the positive impact the college makes in the communities it serves. The Fuse awards recognize the accomplishments of companies and individuals in our community’s thriving technology and innovation scene.
Sarah Cady, Ivy+ Career Link employer consultant, won a Fast 15 MVP Employee Award for her work in responding to local employer training needs. The Fast 15 MVP Awards recognize employees who drive innovation and fuel company growth.
For more information about the Community Innovation Awards, visit communityinnovationawards.com. For more information about Ivy Tech Bloomington and to view open jobs, visit ivytech.edu/bloomington.
Annual Pumpkin Launch Sends Pumpkins Soaring Through the Skies
Parks and Recreation hosts the annual Bloomington Pumpkin Launch Oct. 21 at the Monroe County Fairgrounds, 5700 W. Airport Rd. Gates open and activities begin at 11am, and pumpkin launching begins at noon. Admission is $10 per vehicle.
Pumpkin launching is just one part of the family-friendly fun. Activities include hands-on games prepared by students from Indiana University’s Event Planning & Program Development course, pumpkin drops from Parks and Recreation’s bucket truck by “Team Bob”, STEM-related activities with the IU School of Education’s Uplands Maker Mobile, and an Extraterrestrial Encounter Showdown game for children. A variety of concessions are available for purchase on site from trucks, including Kona Ice, Fried Hoosier Food Truck, and Uno Mas Taco Truck. Live music by Chris Dollar takes place during the pumpkin launching competition.
Two teams are currently registered to compete in this year’s launch:
Youth Division (elementary and middle school students)
Soaring Squash (catapult)
Adult Division
Tetanus Express (trebuchet)
The Tetanus Express will compete at the Bloomington Pumpkin Launch for the 13th time. The launcher is a large, steel trebuchet, made from mobile home and automobile parts by two local families and their friends.
The Bloomington Pumpkin Launch takes place rain or shine.
The Bloomington Pumpkin Launch is presented by Parks and Recreation in partnership with the Monroe County Fairgrounds, and is sponsored by GigabitNow.
For more information about the Bloomington Pumpkin Launch, contact Bill Ream at reamw@bloomington.in.gov or 812-349-3748.
INDOT to hold public hearing on East SR45 proposed improvements
The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) will hold a public hearing on Thursday, October 19, 2023, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the North Central Church of Christ, 2121 N Dunn St, Bloomington. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. with the presentation beginning at 6pm. The public hearing offers the opportunity for community members to comment on proposed improvements to East State Road (SR) 45 (East 10th Street) from the bypass (SR46) to 0.19 miles east of the Pete Ellis intersection, including the intersection itself. The proposed improvements include, but are not limited to:
- widening SR45/E. 10th Street,
- adding exclusive left and right turn lanes on all approaches,
- adding a bike lane in each direction (east and west along SR45/E. 10th Street),
- adding a sidewalk and multi-use path, and
- improving drainage.
For a complete description and diagrams of the proposed project, please refer to INDOT’s project website at bton.in/zVwGu. If you are unable to attend the in-person public hearing, you may submit written comments by mail to Crawford, Murphy, & Tilly, Inc, ATTN: Cassie Reiter, 8790 Purdue Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46268, or by email to creiter@cmtengr.com. Alternatively, you may contact INDOT Customer Service at 855-463-6848 or indot4u.com. Comments will be accepted until November 3, 2023.
This Week in Hoosier History
1966 – Angel Mounds near Evansville is added to the National Register of Historic Places. Angel Mounds State Historic Site is an expression of the Mississippian culture, is an archaeological site managed by the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites that includes more than 600 acres (240 hectares) of land about 8 miles (13 km) southeast of present-day Evansville, in Vanderburgh and Warrick counties in Indiana. The large residential and agricultural community was constructed and inhabited from AD 1100 to AD 1450, and served as the political, cultural, and economic center of the Angel chiefdom. It extended within 120 miles (190 km) of the Ohio River valley to the Green River in present-day Kentucky. The town had as many as 1,000 inhabitants inside the walls at its peak, and included a complex of thirteen earthen mounds, hundreds of home sites, a palisade (stockade), and other structures.
For more local news . . . Check out our archived episodes of What’s Happenin’ and Talkin’ Sports with Nick Jenkinson