Members of Hagrid’s Hope Cat Rescue asked the Portage City Council for help in finding homes for stray cats. “We were trying to find a solution to some of the complaints we have for the high cat population that seems to be homeless,” Police Chief Michael Candiano said. The cat rescue group members expressed concerns about the fate of cats picked up by the city’s animal control officers. “That’s not really a policy of our police department or animal control that we just turn our backs on cats,” Candiano said, but the city is under contract with the Porter County Animal Shelter, which is taking in dogs but not cats. Candiano complimented Portage’s animal control officers for reaching out to other shelters for solutions to the problem of feral and homeless cats – the latter being abandoned pets rather than wild animals – instead of having them euthanized. The city’s proposed 2025 budget includes money for a treat-and-release program to spay or neuter captured cats before letting them go again, Mayor Austin Bonta said. That doesn’t find homes for the animals but at least keeps them from reproducing and multiplying the problem. “It’s an ongoing community problem. I think it’s a safety issue. I think it’s a health issue,” Hagrid’s Hope volunteer Kate Schlobohm said. Stray cats attract coyotes and other predators, she said. There’s a low-cost spay/neuter program in Portage, but it doesn’t get as much attention as it should, she said. “People don’t know about it.” “We’re full, and it’s because we constantly get calls from residents,” Schlobohm said. “Just recently we got a call from animal control because they got a call from a cat with kittens and they couldn’t handle them.” Hagrid’s Hope CEO James Shultz said the animal control officer took that cat to Westville to have it euthanized. “We’re not asking for money. What we do want is help with resources, finding a place where we could do something to help with animals,” Shultz said. “Cats can be just as loving as a dog, so they deserve the same rights.” “We’ve adopted over 30 cats, all to good, loving homes,” he said. In all but one case, the new owners send photos and periodic updates on how the pets are faring. Raising funds is problematic for the group, too. “We have a lot of yard sales,” Shultz said, but the city put them on notice there’s a limit of seven yard sales per year. “It puts a big roadblock in the way of trying to do what we can to help these animals.” “We’d be happy to talk to you about it,” Bonta said. In other business, the council on Tuesday approved a 10-year tax abatement for Portage Kedzie LLC to build an 88,500-square-foot industrial flex building near Bass Pro Shop in the Ameriplex development on the city’s north side. The vote was 5-1 with Councilman Ferdinand Alvarez voting against it. Councilwoman Melissa Weidenbach was absent. The abatement follows a new schedule for phasing in property taxes that is different from the normal pattern of reducing the abatement by 10% per year. This one calls for a 100% abatement in year one, 2026, followed by 95%, 80%, 65%, 50%, 40%, 30%, 20%, 10% and 5% in each of the subsequent years. In addition, the company will pay a fee to the city’s Redevelopment Commission of $100,000 or 15% of the additional amount of additional property taxes, each year for the duration of the abatement. City Attorney Ed Graham recommended the council revise its tax abatement ordinance to set this as an official standard for the city to follow in the future. “This schedule is actually more favorable to the city than a 10% reduction from year 1 to year 10,” he said. Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.