Council debates fiber-optic plan

The Bloomington City Council entertained a proposal Wednesday night that would complete a fiber-optic cable loop that runs south from downtown Bloomington throughout the city. The project is known as the Bloomington Digital Underground Project.\nGregory Volan, chief information officer of the city's Information and Technology Department, said the high-speed ethernet lines are 10 times faster than the existing lines. Because the cost of installing more than one line is comparatively small, the city could install many lines to ensure they would be there if needed in the future.\n"(Cable) is as much 21st century infrastructure as roads are," council member L. David Sabbagh said.\nThe cable will provide quicker communication between city and state agencies and will give private businesses the opportunity to access high capacity connections. \nMany council members voiced support for the new technology but were concerned with who would be making policy associated with the cable.\nAt issue is a decision whether a private firm or the city will manage the system. If the city manages it directly, it would take on the function of a utility company for businesses that want the service. More specifically, council members wanted to know by whom and by what process that decision would be made before granting $600,000 to continue with phase two of the project.\nThe project was started two years ago by Mayor John Fernandez, and half of the loop is already completed.\nMembers Anthony Pizzo and Tim Mayer voted for the project, and six other members voted to pass until they heard more May 15. Councilman Jason Banach was not in attendance.\nThe council also stated intent to rescind tax abatements for two businesses because those properties failed to meet some of the requirements of the abatement. \nCities tax properties based on their value. A tax abatement allows the proprietor to build or improve an existing property without paying taxes on those improvements for a certain number of years. The city sets provisions that accompany the tax break. One of those provisions set by Bloomington is that improvements have to be made on the property within one year. If the proprietor fails to meet any of the provisions, city council can vote to take back the abatement, as it did Wednesday.\n"I've looked over the tax abatements we've issued over the past 10 or 20 years, and some of them have paid up, and now we're getting 10 to 20 times as much taxes on those properties," Pizzo said.\nThe council will make a recommendation concerning these tax abatements after a hearing is held in May.