By Joe Ragusa
BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner said he’s proud of what Bloomington accomplished in 2015.
“Bloomington’s assets are the envy of most cities throughout the United States and certainly throughout our state,” Renner said. “We have the best educated and best trained workforce in downstate Illinois, low unemployment, the highest income levels, a great public school system and low crime rates.”
Renner said during his State of the City address Monday night the city’s economy was up and down in 2015.
“We had the major setback of Mitsubishi’s closing over the last year but there have been some notable successes as well,” Renner said. “We had the opening of Hy Vee in a, to say the least, underutilized Lakewood Plaza. We now have plans in another underutilized strip mall, Colonial Plaza, for Dick’s Sporting Goods and other stores to move in.”
Renner says the city is making strides towards eliminating a structural deficit in the next fiscal year and completing several infrastructure projects. But he also said the city needs to do more downtown.
Joe Ragusa can be reached at joe.ragusa@cumulus.com.
