The 812

• 189 [S3E36]: About the Bloomington Fire Department, with Prevention Officer Tom Figolah

  It's The 812's first look at one of the most basic local services, the fire department. Our guest, Tom Figolah, is the Department's Fire Prevention Officer, and his title reflects a trend that may not be self-evident to people who are used to fire departments being just about putting out fires. That's reactive; better is to anticipate potential fires so that they don't start in the first place. Our conversation gets into what they call "community risk reduction", as well as the city's fire insurance rating, the effect of the new union contract on retaining firefighters, and their new initiative to making medical runs more effective through their innovative Mobile Integrated Health initiative.Support the showA production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.

  --------  

  36:03
• 188 [S3E35]: MDWST FABLE and the Power of a Grant from the Arts Commission

  Today's show is a case study in Bloomington's arts economy. Our guests are the founders of MDWST FABLE, a series of performing-arts shows that involve other artists in the Bloomington area, largely centered around storytelling. Tristra Newyear and Matt Rice, both of whom work for local creative media companies and who are creatives in their own rights, began collaborating on events just last year. In today's innings, they talk about their ideas and their work, and how key to their ability to create was a small but significant grant from the angel investors known as the Bloomington Arts Commission. Support the showA production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.

  --------  

  35:56
• 187 [S3E34]: GIS Coordinator John Baeten, on the Mapping of Monroe County

  John Baeten came to town as a visiting assistant professor in IU's geography department, where he spent time doing, among other things, a reconstruction of maps of Bloomington from the past. That led to his current post as the GIS Coordinator for Monroe County. GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems, of which there are many at the county. In fact, it's hard for any local government to do their jobs these days without some kind of GIS capacity.Baeten talks with us about all sorts of interesting projects on the county's state-award-winning GIS website, like stitching together aerial images of the county taken in the middle of the 20th century, a project mapping racial covenants in real estate deeds across the county. mapping the prevalence of radon, even mapping ticks for the health department.We're back from a week's hiatus, and we're starting a mailing list! Visit the812show.org to add your email.Support the showA production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.

  --------  

  36:14
• 186 [S3E33] Getting to Know Bloomington's Sibling City with Vicki Veenker, Vice Mayor of Palo Alto

  So you may know that Bloomington has been a sister city to Posoltega, Nicaragua since 1988, and to Santa Clara, Cuba since 1999. Sister Cities International has been pairing cities across national borders for many years now.But Vicki Veenker asked herself: why can't two American cities be sibs? And that's how Bloomington, Indiana became the sibling city of Palo Alto, California, where Veenker is the Vice Mayor, as well as the founder of the Sibling Cities USA program. We learn about how the program came to be, how they chose Bloomington (hint: Veenker's a Hoosier), and we learn about our sib: how Palo Alto is governed, what their big issues are, and how they compare to Bloomington's. The 812 is taking a week off from new programs to retool. New episodes resume April 21. Support the showA production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.

  --------  

  37:53
• 185 ]S3E31]: Understanding Ellettsville with Its Town Council President Scott Oldham

  In the incorporated place that is Bloomington's primary official suburb, there's no mayor. The part-time town council in Ellettsville is the legislative and executive body -- sort of like the board of commissioners that runs the county -- but they're also the fiscal body. They're everything; in Indiana, only counties and cities have separation of powers. Scott Oldham is in his nineteenth year on the five-member council for the town of more than 8000, and currently serves as president. He talks about what he's seen since he started in 2006, and current and future issues concerning Ellettsville. It's the first time The 812 has gotten the perspective of Monroe County's second-largest community.Support the showA production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.

  --------  

  36:39

More Government podcasts

Trending Government podcasts

About The 812