By Howard Packowitz

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner said Tuesday night the city and Town of Normal are “joined at the hip” on many issues, so the planned Trail East development in Uptown Normal is not going to stand in the way of cooperation between the Twin-Cities.

Normal Town Council candidate Stan Nord claims in Facebook postings that Normal is using tax incentives to “poach” existing Bloomington businesses to move into the five-story building planned for the northeast side of Uptown Circle.

Renner said Nord has talked to him about the project, but the mayor wants more information about the developer’s plans at Trail East.

According to Renner, “poaching” is probably too strong of a word to describe Normal’s efforts in Uptown.

Occasionally, Renner said there’s friction between the two, but that won’t stop the local governments from working together.

“The Metro Zone, the possibility of a shared sales tax, many things that have strained Bloomington-Normal’s relationship in the past half-decade or so, these things will happen from time to time,” said Renner.

“The thing that all citizens can be sure of is that Bloomington and Normal, neither of us are going anywhere,” said Renner.

“We’re going to work together no matter what the situation might be, and we’re certainly going to work together on police, fire, 911, critical services that citizens depend on every day. We have to, ” the mayor said.

Renner acknowledged the communties are stronger when they work together on economic development.

“We’re joined at the hip, and that’s okay,” said Renner.

“We’re two separate jurisdictions, but we are one community,” he added.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]