Dowagiac City Council Monday night set a public hearing for May 23 to establish an industrial development and plant rehabilitation district for the newer section of the industrial park off Pokagon Street.

To be eligible for an industrial facilities tax (IFT) abatement, a project must be located within such a district.

“Since IFTs are important economic development tools,” City Manager Kevin Anderson said, “it is crucial to make sure that a potential client’s application can move forward as quickly as possible.”

The council was addressed by a woman who introduced herself as homeless.

“Join me for two weeks, living out on the streets,” she challenged. “You all can see what homeless is really like. I know. I’m homeless. I’m in bad health. I don’t know how much longer I’ve got to live. This is a real problem. I know more than what you all know about what’s going on in this town … a lot of people are homeless here.”

Mayor Donald Lyons asked Anderson to respond to several questions First Ward Councilman Junior Oliver posed at the March 28 meeting about purchases of padlocks and gloves and two mileage reimbursement amounts.

“We do typically buy gloves in bulk,” the city manager said. “We did buy a couple individual gloves when we were short-handed. The supervisor is responsible for distributing them as a control mechanism. We key all our padlocks alike so maintenance workers when they’re out just have one key. We ended up buying 20 in that stretch — 10 for the parks and 10 for utility areas. I don’t expect we’ll be buying any more soon. Different rates for mileage, there are two — for those who have car allowances who are traveling more than 100 miles in one day, there’s one rate for that and then there’s the full federal rate for those who do not.”

Anderson also commented on the Merit agreement letting fiber to connect rural areas throughout the state attach to utility poles. “The question was would they be bringing this into residential homes?” he said.

“Merit received grant money to get high speed into less-populated areas. Non-profit organizations can contract directly with Merit for service,” such as the city, a library or the hospital.

“However,” Anderson added, “there will be some additional capacity in the lines. Merit has the ability to lease those out to a third-party vendor which could then sell to residential properties. Frontier and Comcast, both of those companies have pretty extensive fiber in the area.” Oliver asked the administration to look into complaints about lime deposits and water pressure in the Third Ward on Dewey, Clyborn and McCleary streets.

Council gave first reading to the ordinance change city planners recommended April 4. At the request of Hess’s neighbor, Mike Moroz at 104 Oak St., rezoning the block’s non-conforming status from general business district to office service district will include both addresses.