The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Highlights from Common Council meeting
ONEIDA, N.Y. » Officials shared a few updates at the City of Oneida Common Council meeting on Tuesday.
In regards to the feral cat issue being spearheaded by Council Members Carrie Earl and Jim Coulhart, the two announced that a revised ordinance should be ready to be heard and placed on file at the next common council meeting.
Weeks prior Earl and Coulthart proposed a local law that would require residents to license their pet cats in a similar manner to the current law in place to license their dogs.
The reasoning behind this law was to generate a revenue stream for a Trapneuter-release program to target the feral cat population, Coulhart explained. However, the proposed law was met with backlash from a handful of residents present at the meeting, as well as local officials, and so the council members decided to forgo a hearing and instead offer a revised ordinance.
Coulthart shared that the new ordinance will focus on penalties for those who harbor feral cats, and will also include strict suggestions for outdoor feeding protocols for residents’ pets to detract feral cats.
One resident at the meeting voiced his concern that a handful of people held too much influence over the feral cat committee’s decision, and said he hopes backlash doesn’t prevent progress.
Residents should check the agenda for the next council meeting to ensure the issue will be addressed, and keep an eye out for a public hearing about the matter if they have opinions or ideas they’d like to express about legislation to control the feral cat population.
In other news, tax revenue is down this month in Madison County, Mayor Helen Acker said in place of the county supervisors who could not be at the meeting. She was told by them that the county is currently planning two budgets: one best-case scenario, one worst-case scenario. Officials are waiting on more information in terms of funding from the state and local levels.
A public hearing was opened to review a proposed local law authorizing a property tax levy in excess of the limit established in the general municipal law. Acker said this is done every year to give the city clearance just in case they need to go over the set limit of 2%. No one spoke at the hearing, and then it was closed.