By Andy Dahn

BLOOMINGTON – Residents looking to learn more about the city’s government will have a chance at the town’s Citizens’ Academy, Bloomington 101.

The 10 week program will cover a variety of local government departments and will include hands on activities, facility tours and more. City Communications Manager Nora Dukowitz said the program is beneficial for both citizens and city officials.

“They spend a night with police, fire, parks and rec, finance and several other departments,” Dukowitz said. “They get to learn more about what each department does and giving their input and ideas to the departments. It’s really a great and engaging program. It’s a way for the public to learn about government and for us to get feedback from them.”

Dukowitz said participants will also get a crack at the city’s budget.

“We do ask the participants to go through and tackle some budget issues on the night we spend with finance,” said Dukowitz. “We love to hear the ideas that come from that. It’s an informal gathering of ideas and opinions, but a very valuable relationship that is formed between the public and their government.”

Participation in the program is free, but only 20 applicants are able to attend. Residents that miss out on the fall session that begins in September will likely get another chance to participate, said Dukowitz.

“We’ve had a lot of interest in this program,” Dukowitz said. “We are doing both a fall and a spring session. We did fall of last year and spring earlier this year, so we’re planning for fall 2015 and as long as interest stays strong, we’ll have a spring 2016 session planned as well.”

The program begins in early September and includes a weekly two hour meeting. Preference will be given to Bloomington residents and business owners that apply by Friday, August 7th. More information can be found at the City of Bloomington’s website.

Andy Dahn can be reached at [email protected].