Pets, parking and taxes were the main themes of Wednesday night’s Bloomington City Council meeting.
The city council passed four pieces of legislation waving current payments by the Bloomington Housing Authority, a confirmatory resolution tax abatement for Cook Pharmica, updating city code on domestic pets and amending city code on parking and traffic regulations.
Officially, six items were up for vote Wednesday night, but the last two ordinances dealing with parking meters were discussed rather than voted on as since the ordinances were not discussed at last week’s meeting because of time.
The first item up for vote was ordinance 15-10 — adopted unanimously by the council — which waved taxes for Bloomington Housing Authority, an organization that offers government subsided housing to residents in Bloomington.
“Waving taxes is the least we cold to,” council member Marty Spechler said. Spechler, alongside council member Susan Sandberg, praised the BHA efforts to provide affordable housing.
Second on the agenda was a confirmatory resolution for a tax abatement, or a postponement on due taxes, to Cook Pharmica. The city council previously passed abatement to the pharmaceutical manufacturer, but the abatement required a confirmatory resolution, essentially allowing the public to have objection before the tax delay was fully adopted. The ordinance was adopted on an 8-0 vote.
Danise Alano-Martin, director of the city’s Economic and Sustainable Development Department, said Cook Pharmica will add 70 well-paying jobs by 2020.
“Cook generally has had an excellent regard in employing people who may not otherwise find employment, and I enthusiastically vote in favor of this,” Spechler said.
The third piece of legislation that the council approved was one that streamlines section seven of the Bloomington code, which deals with a variety of issues relating to domestic animals.
Ordinance 15-04 covers a variety issues, including clarifying animal cruelty by including pain — with serious bodily harm or death — in the definition of the term, giving powers to animal control to insert microchips into “at-large” animals and categorizing what the city means by a “potentially dangerous animal” into three levels.
“This is not a mater of animal control, this is mater of human control," Spechler said. "People have to have enough sense and consideration for their neighbors to take control of the animals they own."
The last piece of legislation adopted at the meeting dealt with the city’s parking areas, including loading zones, no parking zones and a change in the hours of free parking in the Fourth Street parking garage. Parking meters will now be enforced in the garage from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m, instead of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
