The morning of June 15, 2024, around 6:30am the Monroe Fire Protection District was out on the Rail Trail for a fire at the homeless camps north of Gordon Pike on City owned property. The City should not be allowing the homeless to openly burn material back in the woods there. The fire department cannot easily get their equipment back into the wooded area to deal with fires at the homeless camps.
June 16, 2024: In the evening the homeless camp on the Rail Trail north of Gordon Pike smelled as if it was burning trash. The smoke was heavy in the area and smelled like burning trash. The City should not be allowing the homeless to openly burn trash on property that is owned by the City along the Rail Trail. This needs to be shut down immediately as it is hazardous to the health of everyone in the are.
The homeless camp along the Rail Trail north of Gordon Pike is burning trash on the evening of June 18, 2024, after 10pm. The smell is very strong in the surrounding area. The City needs to put a stop to this activity immediately as it is occurring illegally on City owned property. The city is allowing the homeless to openly burn on City property, which is ridiculous.
This was reported as a fire hazard, and also being reported as a trails issue to keep the parks dept updated on the activity along the Rail Trail. Large fire at 10:10pm on June 19, 2024, in the woods along the Rail Trail. The homeless camp on City-owned property (according to the GIS) is burning a large, open fire this evening. This is on the Rail Trail north of Gordon Pike maybe 0.3 to 0.4 miles, east and south of the Terrace Drive area. This is a significant hazard to the City property and neighboring private property. The fires need to stop and the camps need to be cleared out immediately before the homeless burn acres of woods, fences, sheds, houses, trailers -- anything in the vicinity could go up in flames soon.
Homeless encampment off B line trail.
ped crossing sign is knocked down on b line.
I noticed the recent guidelines for scooters don't specifically explain who has the right-of-way on the B-line trail. It's already unclear whether cars are supposed to yield to bike traffic. Some do, some don't, leading to confusion in the entire community. Now the same is applying to electric scooters. I was on a scooter on the B-Line this morning, slowed as I approached 2nd Street, and cars in each direction had also slowed as if they were yielding. I proceeded through the crossing but the westbound car did not in fact yield and nearly hit me (at a very low speed, granted--so I couldn't tell if they didn't see me or were being super aggressive). So when I approached the 4th Street crossing I came to a dead stop, as did the cars on 4th Street, waving me on. TL;DR the right-of-way rules on the B-Line were already unclear and are even more so now with a third major type of trail use. Please create clear signage at every major intersection on the trail that states who has the right-of-way so that both trail users and vehicular traffic understand the rules.
There was evidence that someone is trying to live in the woods on the northern section of the NL trail at Griffy Lake. I hiked parked of this trail 8/26/16 and saw what seemed to be the beginnings of a make shift shelter as well as various Styrofoam to go containers scattered throughout this part of the trail. There was a man who was clearly not on a recreational hike on the NL trail who we saw multiple times before we decided to turn back and head towards the NS trail. The man had long brown hair, was clearly dirty and smelled strongly. He was young (less than 40 years old). We saw him several times on different parts of the NL trail and it was clear he was not hiking the trail in a linear fashion (possibly going of trail to cut to a different part?). The presence of this man plus the food containers/shelter seemed very suspicious and VERY unsafe for recreational hikers. Please have someone take a look out there to clean up the trash/take down the shelter. I have a attached an image marking the location of the food/shelter. Feel free to contact me with additional questions/concerns.
I am the President of the Board of Trustees at Unity of Bloomington. Our parking lot is partially owned by us, and partially City property as the B-Line runs behind our building on S. Rogers & Gordon Pk. (We currently maintain the entire parking lot vis-a-vis snow removal etc.) Recent changes, especially in Switchyard Park, have precipitated a migration of unhoused persons south on the B-Line trail. The UoB parking lot has become a stop-over for derelict vehicles and we're experiencing a significant increase in loitering and trash. The Board of Trustees recognizes that this is an important ministry opportunity, and we are engaged in prayerful consideration of reasonable steps forward. In the meantime, we host a nursery school in our facility and safety is an ongoing concern. My current request is this: 1. Could we receive help from the City to secure a larger trash barrel than the small trail-sized container currently in place near our parking lot (and would it be up to us or the City to tend it)? 2. Could the City help by providing a cigarette butt receptacle for our parking lot? (My husband and I collected more than 100 cigarette butts from the Unity parking lot before services last Sunday) 3. Are there any other recommendations or resources the City might provide in a situation such as this? Thank you for any advice and assistance you can provide, Joanie Spain UoB Board President
Someone has been camping in the woods east of the rail trail behind my house for the past week. They have multiple dogs and have been running a generator.