The city of Bloomington plans to pay a contractor $38,300 to clean up trash left in a former homeless camp on the city’s west side and to prepare the area for a new public trail.
A city official said she expects the contractor, MSI Security, to clean the former camp — in Browns Woods, east of Interstate 69 and south of the AMC movie theater — by the end of July.
City documents show that the contractor is tasked with removing about 16 piles of debris, each estimated at 8 tons.
The city’s parks department takes care of the property, though it is owned by the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County, which is expected to reimburse the city for the cleanup costs.
The city on Nov. 7 had issued a 30‑day notice for residents to vacate the camp. A spokeswoman for Mayor Kerry Thomson has said the camp was cleared of people by early December.
Julie Ramey, the parks department’s community relations manager, said this week that the foundation already had reimbursed the department for nearly $8,000 it paid for equipment rental last year when parks employees completed an initial site cleanup.
City officials previously have said the camp is in a hard-to-reach spot, and parks staff gathered the trash initially to have it removed before winter. City officials postponed the cleanup because the ground froze, which made it dangerous for heavy equipment.
For months, large piles of debris have remained visible from I-69, prompting complaints and renewed attention.
Total camp cost cleanup is near $46,000, though that figure excludes the hours parks staff spent on the work. Rebecca Swift, the parks department’s operations and development director, said city staff spent about 215 hours on cleanup last year. That’s the equivalent of more than a month of full-time labor or about $5,000 to $10,000 in labor costs, based on typical municipal pay and benefits.
The cost figure does, however, include about $1,500 the city and foundation have paid Spectrum Trail Design to design a trail through Browns Woods.
Ramey said the trail plans are still in the early stages, though city leaders expect a 0.4-mile natural-surface trail that will connect to sidewalks or paths of nearby apartment complexes.
She said a timeline for trail construction has yet to be determined, though it probably will not happen this year. Before building the trail, parks staff will work to repair the land by cleaning it up and helping plants and wildlife grow there again.
Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington to clean former homeless camp months after eviction
Reporting by Boris Ladwig, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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By Boris Ladwig, The Herald-Times | USA TODAY Network
