By: Diane Benjamin
From the City of Bloomington website: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=535_
Sidewalks: Property owners and tenants are dually responsible for clearing sidewalks, and by ordinance this should be completed by 10 a.m. Residents and businesses along school routes should consider getting it done earlier on school days. School students at times are trudging through blanketed sidewalks and at others are walking in the streets. Tickets for $50 can be issued for noncompliance but generally are issued only after the Department of Planning and Code Enforcement receives a complaint about a sidewalk and the responsible parties do not clear the sidewalk even after being told by the City to do so. Bloomington City Code Chapter 38: Section 71
This is a rental property owned by Karen Schmidt and her husband, John Elterich:
I guess they never heard of “ice melt”.
Karen voted for the rental inspection ordinance.
Maybe they should start their inspection here.
Oh, one more!
She’s the most two faced Alderman on the council. Can’t stand the woman.
The council members are not familiar with City ordinances. Maybe the council should hire a snow inspection crew to enforce the ordinance and raise the fines from $50 to $500.
No no no…they can’t do anything without a consultant’s input.
Looks to be a hazardous condition. Obviously an irresponsible landlord. Shame, shame.
If the city truly enforced that ordinance there would not be a budget problem. I walk my daughter 4 blocks to school and nobody has cleared their sidewalks on either side of the street except for me. Has anyone ever been cited for not removing snow?
Even if they wrote fines, they wouldn’t collect the majority of them. How many fines sat on the books for years? Did Karen ever pay that $800.00 fine she owed? How about David Hales and Joni Painter. Did they pay their fines? Once I started pointing out they, along with several other City wheels owed the City money, they started responding to my FOIA requests with data in different formats so I have no idea if they paid up.
The city will only fine if a neighbor complains about unshoveled sidewalks
How did she vote for the inspection ordinance without violating a conflict of interest. You know it has nothing to do with sub-standard living quarters. Its just another tax that the landlord can use to justify raising the rent.
Conflict of interest hasn’t stopped from voting on items in the past.
The royal elitists better know as the city council are exempt from such pittance of rules!
This house is directly ACROSS THE STREET from Karen’s home. NO excuses!