By Howard Packowitz

BLOOMINGTON – A member of the Downtown Bloomington Task Force says city leaders need to focus on filling an ever-growing amount of vacant space in the area.

Task Force member Justin Boyd, also chairman of the city’s planning commission, said efforts on the east side to help Eastland Mall reinvent itself and to find replacements for shuttered big box stores get a lot of attention.

Boyd told WJBC’s Sam Wood much work needs to be done to fill a lot of vacant space downtown.

“Let me remind people, we have five large buildings that are vacant downtown now. We have the Elks, CII East, Front and Center, the Peoples Bank-Commerce Bank building, State Farm just left a little while ago,” Boyd said.

“Let’s put some of that energy in there,” he added.

The city council Monday night rejected a proposed catalyst project to build a new public library and Connect Transit transfer center at the site of the aging Market St. garage.

The library will expand at its current location on East Olive Street, based on the wishes of the council and library board.

Boyd said he’s not surprised, but disappointed aldermen ended discussions without collecting more information. He said downtown needs some quick and easier-to-achieve victories to regain momentum such as improving landscaping, lighting, and adding public art.

“Public art brings a unique value and character to our downtown. We already have some of that. We could defintely have more,” Boyd said.

“Other things like landscaping, we talked about letting the parks department, (which) does a wonderful job, come in and do some beautification downtown, maybe some decorative lighting above sidewalks,” he added.

Boyd recently moved his business downtown from the east side. He said placement of garbage and recycling bins and removal of snow and ice from downtown sidewalks are important for the area.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected].