Thousands of crows congregate in trees above the Monroe County Courthouse square last winter. Jeremy Hogan | Herald-Times

Thousands of crows congregate in trees above the Monroe County Courthouse square last winter. Jeremy Hogan | Herald-Times

It's a visible and sometimes stinky problem, and it's one that most people almost certainly remember from last winter.

Crow droppings, everywhere around the Monroe County Courthouse square and core downtown: on cars, parking meters, benches, signs, heating and air conditioning units, sidewalks and more.

And it's a problem that CFC Properties is leading a charge to address proactively as a community.

"They're coming; so let's be ready for them," Jim Murphy, president of CFC Properties, said during a panel discussion Tuesday morning. "Why are we doing this? Because somebody has to. It's a real problem."

Mark Webb, the company's safety officer who also heads up building maintenance, said the dropping can cause real health issues and lead to costly clean-up of skylights, roofing and more.

"There no upside to the accumulation of bird droppings," Webb said.

Murphy said that last year, he apologized for the state of Bloomington's downtown "for the first time ever," describing the sheer number of crow droppings as unsightly and discouraging.

And he said while the city took some steps to address part of the result of the problem by using old signs as hoods for parking meters, the community needs to do more.

"That's not the fix," Murphy said. "That's not the answer."