Who knew that sanitation could be such a popular subject? 100 years ago, the State informed the City of Bloomington and the Town of Normal that the polluting of Sugar Creek with sewage would have to stop. The City of Bloomington passed a resolution offering to cooperate with Normal in constructing a septic tank to contain the waste.
Ah! I thought, perhaps 100 years ago the two municipalities were more willing to work together -- save the citizens some money or not duplicate their efforts. The construction of one larger septic tank would have cost much less than TWO tanks.
No, that was not what happened. Less than a week later, Normal answered and declined to participate in a common septic tank. The primary impediment would be the calculation the sharing of costs. No need to do that if the metropolis was under one government!
As a new resident to Bloomington Normal, I have often questioned why some services are not combined between the two. Wouldn't it be more efficient to have one city government, one police department, one library system, or one school district? The administrative fees alone must be astounding, let alone the cost of maintaining offices, payroll, vehicles, etc. Imagine, only one water processing plant, one school board, one fleet of school buses carrying children to the school that is closest rather than the one dictated by city boundaries.
Has there ever been a serious discussion of combining the two cities?
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