because
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somewhere near um
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hang out
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foreign
experience
on Monday May 8th common council meeting to order Park Jones I believe you would
like to make some comments regarding the link to this meeting and other
expectations
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your remarks thank you thank you at this time we will have Reverend Andrew Brown
amount of Missionary Baptist Church come up for the invitation
welcome Reverend Brown
this way by the way
it's not quite like Sunday morning huh
Eternal God our Father we thank you for this opportunity Lord that you have
given us and these that are gathered here to do the business of the city of
South Bend we pray Lord that you have bless them strengthen their minds their
hearts and their souls and the spirits of God give them what they need to do in
the way you would have them to do it for your words just let not to be done in
Strife for vain Glory but alone in the somality to see mothers better than
themselves for this was mine that was in Christ Jesus we pray that might fall
upon these who are in the decision-making policy so God test them
right now in the name of Jesus who is Christ amen amen amen thank you so much
maybe stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please
thank you
Clark Jones will you call the role please I believe Troy Warner is um
excused
I know that um counselor Hammond said that she was
going to be on Virtual
council member Lee present
council member Warner
the council member wax present council member white present council
member Thomas Morgan present council member Hammond
vice president president McBride present we have six
presidents thank you
at this time we will go to the reports from the city first up we will have an
update by Andrew Berlin from the South Bend clubs thank you so much welcome
please state your name and address for the record Andrew Berlin Four Winds
Field South Bend thank you
is there a way to advance the presentation
is there a clicker
foreign I'll tell you when to flip okay thank
you yeah thank you very much thank you for having me it's it's on the
heels of some very good news that South Bend received from Indianapolis uh the
passage of the Senate Bill 326 that sends 100 million dollars to South Bend
in the form of 5 million dollars a year for 20 years there will be a bonding
process of course in an effort to raise those funds earlier to do the kind of
work that we want to do in the city but it was fantastic news and so with that
with those uh Tailwinds I'll uh I'll proceed in the first slide I start with
is this word imagine and the reason I start with this slide is just for a
moment before I get into the details and I will keep my presentation relatively
short even though I could wax on about the partnership with South Bend which
has been magnificent uh when I first came to South Bend in 2011 and first met
mayor licky the South Bend silverhawks were in
trouble the team was uh having difficulty I
would say it's failing but out of respect for our dear friend Governor
Kernan I won't say it was quite really failing but it was really struggling I
was on the cusp of leaving South Bend to go to the state of Illinois to a city in
in Central Illinois and so I want just for a moment if we
can imagine what it would have been like not to have four one's field not to have
South Bend Cubs anchoring a significant a part of tremendous Renaissance in
downtown South Bend but not just South Bend in the entire region you'll see on
my presentation and I'll foreshadow it but we've had 3.2 million people come to
South Bend coming to Four Winds field since we've
had it and we're going to improve and increase
that number dramatically for the next eight to ten years with the kind of that
investment that the state is making an investment that does not require us to
increase taxes it only keeps the income taxes the sales taxes that are paid in a
certain part of the city from going to Indianapolis and simply staying in South
Bend so with that that fixture in your mind what downtown looks like without
all of this going on in our little corner downtown let's proceed with the
presentation to the next slide
so today the ballpark looks pretty good I'm here with Joe Hart the president of
South Bend Cubs hina's team have done a wonderful job winning all sorts of
Awards as you might imagine Major League Baseball when they absorb Minor League
Baseball there used to be 160 minor league teams the United States now
they're a little less than 140. many of those cities that used to have ballparks
no longer have an Affiliated team no longer have minor league baseball if we
hadn't made the improvements up into this point South Bend wouldn't have a
baseball team either but Joe and his team at the Southwind
Cubs have won awards for their fields the best field in minor league baseball
we've won best ballpark in all of the United States twice in 2015 2017 but
we're not resting on our Laurels this is not just about increasing revenues it's
not just about having an Enterprise that makes some money but it's really it's
about this mission that we had to really improve not only everything around us
but also to drive economic development for all of South Bend and in particular
in our downtown Corridor where we are it is a jewel but it's going to become even
more special as we move forward next slide please
it's hard to tell from this particular aerial rendering what we're going to do
but I'm getting into a little bit of detail before I get into the detail
however beef what the ballpark is going to look like when we slip to the next
slide I believe that's a very short two minute video
so it's always been more than a game if you just make sure our volume is up a
little too but thank you
at the beginning of the World Series of 1947 I experienced a completely new
emotion when the knife in Latham was played this time I thought it would have
been play for me it's always been more than just a game
80 years ago in this town where a handful of men and women born
here we changed everything for Betsy Oakman and others she played
for the southbound blue socks and Ted strong who played for the Kansas City
monarchs baseball was a big deal even a way out
the Studebaker alone had over a dozen Factory teams by the time Ted passed
away in the late 70s the factory teams were mostly history
until mayor Roger parent had an idea that would someday lead to a Renaissance
for South Bend building a professional Stadium
the team in the stadium nurse
by the next mayor soon to be governor Joe Kernan ultimately found a new owner
who not only committed to the city of South Bend but put his own money into a
stadium owned by the citizens of this great City
the Renaissance your head took a while but when it got
here wow
baseball's a big deal again and the future
is bright the South Bend Cubs have committed to this great City for decades
to come and legislators like Maureen Bauer David nescott Dickey Ryan micheler
Jake teshka and others have paved the way to make
I like the city like the dramatic causes by expanding Roger's parents original
idea which by the way has paid off in big big
ways baseball's more than just a game a lot
more
ask Ted strong here's to the next several decades of
professional baseball in the city of South Bend and the next generation of
professional players here's to the city
and the citizens of South Bend Indiana [Music]
what's marvelous about this presentation is especially the fact that it's a
city-owned stadium owned by the people of South Bend it's created a partnership
with me and my team for whatever we do here it stays in
South Bend whatever we're able to achieve in improving the ballpark we
can't and won't take it with us the Cubs are here to stay as long as you want
them here as long as people come out to the games and so it's been a success
but we're not done so if we go to the next slide
you'll see some of the renderings of what we're going to be planning here
so for example we're going to go up a whole nother deck above us where all the
Suites will align from all the way from one end of the stadium to the other
you'll see additional seats outside the Suites and then we'll be opening up The
Concourse below and you'll see that in future slides you'll also see in the
left field corner there's going to be party space convention space conference
space and other clubs and amenities where we can attract and and bring more
corporations to downtown South Bend to do their entertaining in our city the
next slide please another view this time from the left
field Corner looking back towards the center and you'll see what these look
like again another slide
next slide we're also going to capture some of the
architecture of Wrigley some of the open Iron and beams that that hold up the
signs and the lights at Wrigley were bringing those arches of Steel here to
South Bend to kind of give a sense of the connection between Four Winds field
the South Bend Cubs and the Chicago Cubs and if you uh remember regularly in the
roof of Wrigley this is reminiscent of what the roof looks like there
is also going to be a concourse in the left field Corner that'll have a bridge
extending the top part of the Suites across to the building you saw in left
field corner and a more dramatic entrance there in the corner of South
Bend and it's going to have you know ivy on the walls there's going to be a large
Concourse and of course it'll be it'll have a lot of brick and a lot of iron
and just drive a more beautiful beautiful Park
this is what the meeting Center will look like in left field corner
next slide so what we also like about the
investment in the ballpark is it's also attracted a number of different
developments in downtown South Bend uh and as you see if you know about the
real America baseball investment I think has attracted 60 units of housing half
of which are aside for low-income families we built our own four IV
apartment buildings along the outside of the Outfield with balconies overlooking
the ballpark but there are a number of people that are building more homes more
apartments in downtown South Bend than ever before in the last several years
when I was here we didn't have that kind of population growth when I first
arrived in 2011. so I'm sure all of you are very familiar with just the growth
and the and how busy it is again downtown
next slide
another comment here you could read for yourself I don't I want to read the
slides to you in the essence of time next slide
next slide again so a little bit about Senate bill 326.
next slide uh the original law for the psda was in
2017. uh excuse me it expired in 2017-17 we passed the new law 2021 to take the
cap up to two and a half billion excuse me two and a half million the other
number would have been uh would have been better I'm sure and then we crossed
we increased it to 5 million just recently which is also commensurate with
what Fort Wayne gets next slide
uh the revenue that we're currently generating that the city is currently
generating with income tax and sales tax in the prescribed area is easily
expected to exceed the five million dollar Gap so it's going to ensure
ensure a very strong bond offering which is very good news and keep the expenses
down on the bond and of course it represents a hundred
million dollars of new Revenue to the city of South Bend if we wait the 20
years to collect it it's a little historical perspective
next slide
city was built in 1987 for just a hair less than 10 million but we rounded up
to 10 million dollars with the work that we have done together the city and
ourselves we have done a very good job in keeping the fine bones of that
Stadium which is wonderful in the manner which it was built I don't know if you
were aware of this but the foundation and the pilings that were used in
putting the roof over the lower Concourse the same Foundation can be
used as we go up in another floor so well actually it was it was actually
built to contemplate a second level so save us a lot of money on
foundational work next slide
again something to note since 1998 no property taxes or general funds have
been used to improve the stadium we've done it all on our own with you and
there are only two unique sources have been used to improve the stadium and
surrounding properties again the city and myself
next slide I made an investment of 32 million
dollars in the area between around nine million dollars in my own money I
invested in the city-owned stadium I know the new when I got here the city
was not in a position to make the investment itself so I made the
investment for my own personal funds and then I built the four apartment
buildings that surround the stadium but it was important to demonstrate to the
city that that I was all in as well you would be very very hard-pressed to find
an owner at least in minor league baseball they would have done something
like that but when I had faith and of course at 1.75 million it was
earned by the team through the original psda Law which was used to improve the
stadium
so as I said before we're not going anywhere and we've decided to extend our
agreement through the 2044 season and it'll either be up to my sons my
daughters or maybe another owner someday to take it and beyond that but it I plan
to be around for a while I'll do my very level the best but I'd love to extend it
even Beyond 2044.
um as I mentioned before we've drawn more people the city South Bend than any
other local amenity 3.2 million people since I arrived in South Bend
that's to the ballpark and of course a larger enhanced Stadium
will bring even more so the idea is that we want to increase
the seating capacity maybe is up to about 50 percent
there are so many games that we have throughout the season that were sold out
this will give us the opportunity to bring more people in the more people
that come in the more sales taxes are collected the better it is for the city
and the city-owned stadium yeah so again I I you could imagine this
would be so but not only with the construction but with the employees and
the people that will be surrounding South Bend and surrounding the ballpark
it'll bring more jobs and economic activity
and you'll see even more PS to CDA Revenue
um something to keep in mind and I'll be finishing up here in a moment Major
League Baseball has imposed new standards of minor for minor league
stadiums any stadium that doesn't keep up with the standards that Major League
Baseball is now imposing once Major League Baseball took over Minor League
Baseball they lose their affiliation so whether it's lights or the field or
the facilities for the players for the umpires for the coaches having amenities
for female coaches female Empires umpires it all has to be there or you'll
lose your affiliation as that strict so there are going to be needs for
improvements and we're going to make all of those improvements here with the next
couple years and we've worked hard to make sure the
city doesn't lose the affiliation and just so you know we're not wasting any
time the bill was signed last Thursday and we had our first planning meeting
with the city this morning so we had about 10 or 12 people on the
call it was at eight at nine o'clock this morning and we're already Off to
the Races and so I'm really excited to see that everybody is leaning in and
leaning in very very well we're working well together as we always have
um again just a little education this is not Tiff financing obviously Tiff
projects are are owned by the developer in this case the project is still owned
by the city with all of these improvements it's still a city-owned
stadium which is terrific and the operation the professional team
is the private investment and that's what we're doing
next step we have to extend the area to capture the income taxes and sales taxes
and that resolution is coming before the city council very shortly
and we need to do that before June 30th and with that I'll take any questions
you might have
thank you so much for that uh awesome presentation I'm excited
for the city and for what you all have brought to us and exciting news for our
tax payers that we are not raising taxes and also to the attraction that is
coming to our city and the phenomenal job that you have done over the years so
thank you for the charge and the lead with that and have to give kudos to Joe
for your tireless works as well so thank you so much for your efforts at this
time I will open it up for my colleagues if there's any questions at this time
I don't have questions I just have comments I'll open it up for questions
and or comments so it's okay appropriate thank you so much I just want to thank
you thank you I remember when you when you
first started this your commitment was strong then it's
even stronger now for your own personal investment in our city but also the
vision that you have continuously articulated to take us higher New
Beginnings New Visions can we imagine and to see where we're at as a city and
the stadium and all of your uh supporters but also Joe and others it's
been a great great experience and again I'm extremely grateful for you and your
team and what has been done for the city of South Bend it means a great deal to
me thank you very much we really have poured our hearts into this it's really
been more of a best it's more than just a business
if you imagine being in a business where you get to throw a party for 8 100 of
your neighbors it's a it's an extraordinary experience and Joe and his
team really do make us all look good so thank you thank you Joe
I'll go down the line counselor Thomas Morgan yes thank you president
yeah let's add my thanks and gratitude to
your image of imagination your vision your investment in the city of South
Bend I live on Chapin Street so not far from the ballpark and so have seen this
amazing investment over the 20 years that I've lived in that neighborhood and
we benefit every Friday from those wonderful fireworks in the summer so my
family very much enjoys going to the ball games I my question
um uh relates to is is part of the expansion also to um
uh to increase the the training facility as well
um is that part of the investment no the training facilities actually own owned
by myself okay so any kind of work that's done on the on the performance
center would be either the Cubs or myself investing there so that that is a
that is my building so it won't be used for for my building okay but the rest of
it yeah we'll we'll not only be adding and improving but we'll also you know
since the ballpark was built in 1987 and much of like the one kitchen if you can
believe there's only one kitchen that serves the entire Ballpark and that's on
the second floor of the main building so that one elevator in the entire ballpark
has to move people and food and spread it out through the entire ballpark it's
so inefficient and and arguably just bad so we really want to improve the food
distribution and the efficiency of the stadium as well so we'll be improving
even the the 1987 part of this as well great and then
you do have the best the best dogs in town we do have the best hot dogs I
agree thank you thank you counselor Lee yes I just would
like to say thank you for the presentation it is so good to know that
this ballpark has been such a important part of the revitalization of the
downtown area and my father was a baseball uh person and
one of the greatest Pleasures was to be able to take him to the Cubs games and
and I just want to tell you just how much joy that place brings so many
people and uh we've taken inner city kids who've had and didn't have an
opportunity to see a professional ball game before
and they just had a blast and we we do it every year and so I just want to tell
you thank you for your investment thank you for your vision and uh very much
excited about the Cubs stadium and all that it's going to do and all that it's
going to be so thank you very much thank you very much I appreciate it
thank you president McBride yeah I don't have much more to add than my colleagues
have kind of already said but um just watching that presentation and seeing
you before us thinking of all the collaborative efforts that have brought
the park to where it is at right now to me is just it's amazing it's part of our
South Bend history now and you are going to be part of that history as well
because your vision is just amazing your own personal investment because of how
much you believed in the stadium um and it's really you know the Love of
the Game yes I remember Joe Kernan loved baseball he truly loved it with all of
his heart um and I'm sure that he would just love
to see where it's at now God bless him um but thank you so much for your
investment in the community it brings so much joy to families I've been to so
many picnics there and events there um my grandchildren love it there they
love to all the the activities you have for children so it's
really just a wonderful place and a gem for the city of South Bend and I just
can't thank you enough I know it's been a lot of work to get to where you're at
but um you got there and and it's a blessing thank you very much and you
know anything that's worth it takes a lot of work but but I will say this and
Mr Lee I don't know if your father is still with us is he now he passed away
this past February yeah it reminds me of a story when the Cubs won the World
Series in 2016 the Chicago Tribune covered that game seven uh when the
against the Cubs you know were about to clinch and in cemeteries throughout
Chicago there were people sitting in lawn chairs with their laptops streaming
the game because they wanted to be with their fathers and mothers and
grandmothers and grandfathers to watch the game with them it really is about
family it's you would think it's about baseball but it really isn't each and
every one of you have made comments about how wonderful it is I agree but
the wonderful part is actually coming there with family and friends and
sharing an experience win or lose you can still have a great time there
counselor wax thank you and you literally uh took the
words out of my mouth I was going to uh comment on
the fond memories that I had going to the
South Bank Cubs with my father and siblings as a little kid and now being
able to share that experience with my own children is is really wonderful and
I just wanted to thank you for your faith in and belief in the city of South
Bend and its future um
sorry to change the theme by asking your question
you mentioned the two sources of uh two income sources for the previous
Investments you said you mentioned yourself and the other one is the city
the city yeah so what's the total investment that's been made over the
past well the total investment I know that my
investment's been about 32 million dollars that's included the four
apartment buildings in the and uh and what I've done with the stadium itself
uh the city I would probably say about 18 million
yeah it's been wonderful I mean to rebuild that Stadium today would
probably be about a 75 million dollar Endeavor wow so that I think the city of
South Bend can take a bow if you will generation about generation of leaders
here that's something you built for about nine and a half million dollars
actually increased in value to about 75 million dollars
and and so the investment keeps going as long as it continues to be relevant and
it will for many many years to come it we'll all leave it behind for the for
the generations that come after us and it's I think it's a real Jewel it's a
real Jewel we're the investment and then uh you mentioned so the likely procedure
would be to issue a bond against Advanced uh yes sales tax do you have a
timeline for that or well interest rates are a little high right now so it'll
impact what the bond will yield so we'll try to hold off until perhaps interest
rates improve but in the meantime we do have the funds to begin the planning
stages and uh the hope is that we'll break ground the day after the 24 season
because we don't want to disrupt the season itself so the day after the last
game of 2024 we'll try to get the we will have the stadium open by the first
day or April of 25. whether or not the whole project is done I doubt it we'll
probably have it done sometime during the 25 season or a little bit after the
25 season but we'll be working on Parts outside the bowl so it won't disrupt the
crowd or the game wonderful thank you
I'll turn to my colleagues online to see if counselor Davis if you have any
questions or comments and also counselor Laurie Hammond
councilman Davis said he can't hear you so we're trying to work on that now okay
with that being said Thank you Mr Berlin for the presentation we're looking
forward to working with you and continued improvements we thank you so
much the one thing I do have for you it is not the presentation you just saw but
it's a list of all the different things that we've done from a philanthropic
standpoint about two million dollars in philanthropy has been achieved from the
South Bank Cubs to cities exactly so may I give this to the clerk yes please
thank you
thank you thank you
at this time we will move on to our update
on Cherry Street we have Leah Phil the director of sustainability maycog
let me see we have Caleb here from Community investment
yes and Chris okay oh we have the dream team
of council members we've got a a good group here
um and we'll uh so I'll start by introducing myself Kayla Bauer executive
director of community investment with offices on the 14th floor of this
building joined by Chris dressel senior planner in the Department of Community
investment Leah till with maycog Mark espich from the St Joseph County Health
Department and Dave Jeffers from Roberts environmental so we'll all be kind of
switching off here to to share updates to you uh on a couple of parcels in the
near West Side neighborhood so just to kind of give you the overview
there were a few Parcels that came up during the near West Side neighborhood
process as concerns for neighbors and and there have been ongoing
conversations about a number of these Parcels so the three we're going to hone
in on today to discuss is uh their designated here one two three number one
is the former Oil Express property on West Washington Street which
is owned by the South Bend Redevelopment commission
number two just to the south of that on Cherry Street is the former South Bend
range building privately owned and was on a certificate sale this last year it
was a bid was placed but then was not ultimately a petition for issuance of
that tax deed wasn't wasn't filed so that means that it will go back to tax
delinquency Still Remains with the existing private owner and then parcel
number three uh the former her which Iron Works which is the large groupings
of parcels here that are along the railroad track there and the vacated
rail line in the middle of these Parcels so three distinct Parcels here one of
them is owned by the Redevelopment commission and we'll give you a overview
of activities at each of the these Parcels as we proceed today so I'll
bring Chris up and he can share a little bit more about the near West Side
neighborhood plan which is when neighbors shared concerns about these
parcels and kind of kicked off some activity around all three of these and
then we'll go through each of the parcels
thanks Caleb uh good evening everyone again Chris Trussell Department
Community investment offices on the 14th floor of this building
um be indulges for just for a moment to take you back to last year you recall we
sort of initiated the conversation [Music]
um that we're continuing today and that was also around the same time that we
that the council's heard the uh near West Side neighborhood plan and adopted
the same back in September so just cover a lot of information in that plan but
just couple a couple things that we'll cover today just a quick plan project
highlight and the Planned zoning as it pertains to our subject matter today
uh in the near West Side neighborhood plan
um part of a series of neighborhood plans
that we're doing uh continuing to do for for different parts of the city in this
plan in a number of major components in a series of projects
um that were that we're looking to achieve over the next uh 20 years
and those planned project areas are denoted here uh with the the numbering
system and on the far uh west side of the neighborhood that's sort of the the
red box highlighting this will focus on that
and just mention a couple of these things in a little more detail one of
which was the the commentary about industrial reuse for the area number one
and that's the area that includes the sites that that Caleb just pointed out
the herwich iron site and the also the site the former South Bend Range site as
well so that was something that we wanted to address is encourage New Uses
here an assess and address environmental
conditions is necessary and then I'll skip the number three which is talking
about the 1500 Block of West Washington Street that's a property that we denoted
in the plan is one that we'd like to see
be reused as multi-use with multi-family housing and
uh also mixed use so um
I'm going to point those out and then uh just to get onto the topic of
environmental activities and some of the updates that we have
um I think it's important to note anytime we're doing
uh sort of brown filter activity or environmental activities like such it's
all about reducing the number of known unknowns
um I think we've done that we'll have those results for you very briefly very
quickly and then obviously encountering some unknown unknowns but
um I think we we've made some definitely made some strides in that area so
just a recap on on some of that and give you some just some of the the
terminology and language real quick um as the plan was used as a as a framer
to address a whole range of issues and priorities Brownfield sites were just
one of those and it's not a detailed road map
um and then Brownfield that quick definition it's it's property that's
it's experiencing uh some some hold up due to real or perceived concerns
um and then just recognize environmental issues are complex there's a whole host
of different ways that they can be addressed
um and looking for solutions for future use and then in the due diligence the
tools that we have available to us the most common ones are what's referred to
as the phase one which is sort of a historical inventory and interview
regarding the the use on the site and then a phase two which is looking at
testing and and sampling going as far as a remedies remediation plan for the site
as well so we'll take you back to that map and
look at site number one the formal Oil Express and the 1500 Block of West
Washington and this point I'll turn it over to Leah
yes hi I'll keep it very brief my name is Leah thel director of sustainability
with the Michiana area Council of governments with offices on the 11th
floor of this building I just wanted to update you that maycog has fully funded
the sampling work that we're talking about we're investing about forty two
thousand dollars of our grant funding that we secured from the EPA and we have
additional funding set aside both for additional sampling that may be needed
on this site as well as South Bend range currently we only have eligibility to
work on that site but this is something we prioritized from day one when we were
applying for this funding we were thinking about this area in South Bend
so with with that I'll introduce our environmental professional to talk a
little bit more about the results from sampling that was conducted this year on
this site maycog has contracted directly with metric environmental which is a
minority-owned business and they've subcontracted with Robert's
environmental and we have a person from Roberts Dave Jeffers who's here to talk
with you about that so turn it over to Dave
thank you Dave Jeffers senior hydrogeologist with Roberts
environmental we're out of Goshen Indiana I actually live in St Joe County
though so
let's go ahead and Advance here how do you advance it oh there we go
so we did sampling across the entire uh part one site if you will
so we did a good whoops there we go
second one now doesn't want to work
there we go so we did sampling all these little dots
are where we took soil groundwater and soil gas vapor samples
and what we found in the groundwater that really isn't that bad one of our
seven samples was over a screening level and we know the rivers over to the East
and that exceedance was right up here at B1 which is right on the Western
Property boundary so we actually think that exceedance is coming from an
off-site area to the west of the property not from the actual site
soil gas very similar results we had one exceedance and I believe that was down
over B12 but again it was barely over what they call an item screening level
it was very low matter of fact it's so low that we'd probably want to go back
and confirm that that exceedance was even real if you will
so back every one of these dots we took a soil sample so that becomes a driver a
lot especially when you're going for redevelopment on the residential side of
things so out of the 27 samples we took I'm a
data guy obviously only nine of them were over and we all know our high
school math that's 33 percent so 70 of the site we didn't have any exceedances
in soil so which is really this whole East and central portion of the site was
all quote unquote clean and if we take care of some of those
with a cap or digging those up that's where we start to talk about can
we redevelop the site well yes we can and another important consideration is
all those samples that were over were from a layer of fill material that we
found and it was anywhere from three to
oh five feet thick across the site and that it could be
it almost looks like a blackish type there's coal stored there back in the
day Cinder gravel but that was all below the
surface so on the surface here you have as you saw in the street view it's the
city takes care of the side the city owns it it's mowed with a vegetative
cover but we also found there's anywhere from 3 to 12 inches of clean topsoil
across the site that's been added that's above this fill so I know some people
had some concerns about children playing soccer just walking their dogs on the
site so as long as nobody's out out there digging we should be good as far
as a current receptor issues and then in general and Leah can attest to this that
this site is is generally not bad we've seen way worse than this site and our
work we've done with maycog so again I guess any questions on the data as far
as the environmental samples I already want to wait till questions at
the end
good evening Mark aspect San Diego County Health Department I'm the
director of environmental health and um offices in the eighth floor ninth
floor of this building so
um South Bend range on Cherry Street was brought to our
attention by a couple councilmen and so they were concerned about it I was able
to find a hole in the fence went in uh did an inspection of the property
we didn't like what I was seeing ended up getting a hold of idem the Indiana
Department of Environmental Management had them come take a look at the site
send them a bunch of pictures there were piles of drums outside in
various conditions a lot of them were just rusted through leaking all over the
place some really old material in there but there was also just a lot of piles
of combustible material that look like it could uh you know catch on fire then
we would have this toxic plume floating over the city we wouldn't know what was
in it so it was a pretty big concern of ours and then uh working with idem they
reached out to EPA EPA came in immediately got everything secured we
have a total of 76 drums on site and about 35 5 gallon or less containers
or contact with EPA they're hoping to get the stuff out
maybe by the end of this month it's still on site everything's been
characterized and staged in a secure location and but then the train
derailment in Ohio Kevin had he's been over there ever since that took place so
but he's hoping to get the drums out at the end of this month
great and then moving on uh to cite the third site part of this discussion which
is the former her which Iron Works largest of the three sites don't have a
lot from the city end to share but just wanted to share some
changes there has been a new change in ownership there so a Rochester Metals is
a company out of Rochester Indiana they have purchased all of the parcels that
Encompass the herwich Iron Works site and are in the process of planning a
potential investment there this company generally has a history of purchasing
sites with potential environmental contamination and remediating them and
then making Investments on the site so a good track record from the company that
site had been under an item enforcement action and so that means that the
Indiana Department of Environmental Management was investigating potential
concerns there I I think the new property owner has been Cooperative
there was a phase two conducted on the site
I believe within the last six months and so we're optimistic with the new
ownership that they have one been Cooperative with idem and two that that
site is moving in a positive direction we'll be sure to engage uh cooperatively
with that owner but that's really the the high level update there mostly has
been handled by idem and the private owner up to this point so all that to
say um there are definitely next steps for a
couple of these sites the Oil Express site which is owned by the city we will
pursue additional sampling funds available through maycog and then
explore the opportunities for cleanup grants through the state of Indiana
there were some points of concern on that site and so we would look to
remediate those additionally then on Cherry Street like
Mark shared the EPA will be out to remove those drums again those have
already been secured they're encapsulated so there's field they just
need to be removed from the site and disposed of properly and and we hope EPA
will be able to do that here in short order and then additionally maycog will
pursue potential additional sampling funds that would come with the
cooperation of the property owner there to ensure that there hasn't been any
additional contamination of the soil from those drums so that's kind of the
high level overview of these sites appreciate your time and and interest in
these and I think with that we'd be happy to take any questions
thank you at this time I'll go down the line again if you're online I'll start
with counselor white since I know that you had been requesting the meetings
with the various partners with myself and the County Council and the city as
well with maycog in the health department so if you could
go ahead that would be great I would like to like to thank all the
individuals that did come together we've been discussing this for quite some time
I want to say since September or maybe later than that but I would
like to say that for the record the concerns did not
grow out of the plan for many of years and I want to say at least 50 some years
there have always been concerns about Cherry Street and also about her rich
art and so those have been ongoing concerns from the environmental
perspective so I don't want it to be stated or view that because of the plan
that these concerns were raised as well as as I begin to look at what type of
investment is the Rochester company planning on putting in that site
what type of generally they work in metal processing so some form of metal
processing facility but I I don't have I haven't spoken directly with the company
because you know I'm looking at is that what we want and I know may have a
zoning concerns but if you look at housing and you looking at the West
Washington site for
housing if I'm not mistaken the neighborhood plan does contemplate
multi-family housing on that on the on the Oil Express site so is that the type
of investment that we would want homeowners to live around because not
only we really are looking at three different issues uh the first one was
the oral Express and less Redevelopment uh property you have stopping ran range
which is up for tax sales again and then you have her rich R so you have these
three entities and are they how do they come together
to really reach a comprehensive approach towards what is best for that
particular area again these are long-term issues
well I think on the on the south end range property that's one that the city
has indicated uh that our department Department of Community investment we've
indicated our willingness to uh purchase the tax certificate
um uh well not purchase it but have it transferred to the city from the County
Commissioners uh generally how that's worked in the past when we've done that
is that occurs after it is unpurchased at certificate sales so because there
was payments made against the property taxes it will revert to tax sale and
then certificate sale and then we would seek and requests that the County
Commissioners transfer that tax certificate to the city so that would
allow the city to own the South End Range site and work to remediate or
demolish the building there whatever is necessary as we will hopefully discover
from further sampling of that site look at it what are the plans for this
area when you look from Walnut going all the way down to her
rich iron when you look at Cherry Street there's only two houses I mean four
houses and one is vacant it's not you know what's living there you go on the
next street there's only two or three and so we look at putting permanent
housing but you look at surrounding it's more industrial more so than you know
wanting someone to live in that area I know I probably would not want to at all
that surrounding me so those are concerns I have
well I think you know the neighborhood plan contemplates potential multi-family
there obviously there was a rezoning request a number of years ago for that
site at this point in time we don't have any plans or you know we haven't been
any conversations with developers related to that site and I think to the
west of the site the herwich iron site we still believe is is a good industrial
use would be an appropriate use there it lies on the railroad tracks it has
historically been an industrial use and so it is still zone for industrial
come back okay councilwoman Thomas Martin yes thank you
thank you Mr Bauer and others for this update
um and pertinent information I I just have a few comments and
um question I so it's my understanding that
in the in the 80s and 90s previous
administrations had addressed brownfield's remediation across the city
to some extent I know standards change over time and so that leads me to my
question was there a particular event that triggered additional soil
samplings at the
at the time that the testing started
no I Leah can potentially speak to this but I think it was primarily driven by
Resident requests and concerns we had heard concerns about the city-owned
property the Oil Express property and what contamination could or could not be
there but Leah yeah I recalled um back in 2019 there
was a city council meeting where the permanent Supportive Housing project
came up and I think a number of the council people mentioned environmental
concerns and it was like um what Chris was saying we just didn't
know and not knowing is not a good position to be in if there are health
risks related to exposure and environmental contamination so macog
wanted to help the city know what's there and that's the step of that that
we've taken but we don't have a current direction forward as far as a specific
plan to use so at this point we would not do additional sampling because now
we know it's it's not a danger but in order to redevelop it for some use it
would need some additional sampling and limited cleanup thank you um I was oh
just a follow-up question I um uh was at those long meetings and part of the
neighborhood conversation around that I uh so know
this intimately um I think my my
I I guess kind of outstanding question is my understanding is that when we go
to pursue additional uh well go to pursue development that these
environmental testings occur and any remediation then what
would happen based on what the land use is so that's I guess my my working
knowledge of how we move forward to address these kinds of environmental
concerns is that correct correct so you know if we were to go
back to 2019 with that rezoning request if that developer itself inheritage had
moved forward with the project they would have needed to conduct a phase two
environmental on the site themselves and they then would have to you know if they
were going to build there if there was need for remediation they would do that
at that time so that that's generally standard practice uh that we have phase
ones uh on on many of the properties that the city owns those are reviews of
Records historical data but a phase two which involves physically boring the
soils we do in circumstances where the phase one may indicate that there could
be concerns and then additionally then those are always something that would be
necessary before someone were to develop a site okay so that is standard practice
and diligence move for moving forward yeah yeah and just real quick I think
what Leah alluded to since we don't have a plan yet so once you have a plan in
place where the buildings are going to be where the parking lots are going to
be well then you can tailor your sampling plan so do we need to sample
surface soil where there's going to be an asphalt parking lot well probably not
so and so we have a good general idea of where the bad spots I guess if you will
so we can work with that planner to say this would be a good spot for green
space or to walk your dog and this might be better spots for a parking lot or
building so you kind of try to tailor that sampling and the development to
what you have you know to save cost on the remediation portion of that so
that's helpful thank you yes I first of all thank you all for the
presentation we know that this has been a great concern for many people for a
long amount of time and I just wanted to be clear that out of 27 areas there were
only nine spots that were abnormal and but and even the abnormal was very
low for soil some of the spots were higher
uh with lead specifically there was three spots that were high for lead but
again we're not too worried about it because we know it's from that fill
layer is the reason it's impacted and we have clean soils and the vegetative
covers so like I said unless somebody's taking a shovel out there and or an
excavator that nobody's going to contact that but so those are really the what I
don't even want to call them hot spots really but the areas that would need
either a cap or to be dug up and basically removed from the site
how big are those areas um one's actually three of those spots
are from the far northwest corner so there's actually three different spots
and I think I pointed out the whole Central area and the northeastern area
was there you go yep see if this thing works again
okay so this cluster right up here these three borings and they were all over
and then I believe it was down beef 15 here and then one spot way over here so
this whole quadrant here was clean so that's kind
of what we're getting at do you go ahead and clean up these spots that we know
and then the rest are are just averaged out if you will and are clean
below the screening levels and I'm talking residential screening levels
here so that's that's what you have to contemplate as far as the cost scenario
do you want to go ahead and dig those up and remove them should you just cap the
whole site with what's required as two feet of clean soil so
those are the things you'd have to do a cost analysis basically what's what's
the best thing and I know there's limits on the grants you can get so you you
know you kind of want to Factor all that in what what's your cap
on cost and what can you do for that price so but it's it's definitely doable
so so the consensus is that it's it's not as bad as we thought it was
and the areas that are bad
they can be remediated pretty easily yes yes that's a good generalization yes
all right thank you I just have to understand in the simple terms
councilman skowski thank you president McBride um I just had a question back to
the Cherry Street 76 drums on site you said some were leaking and that they're
now encapsulated and ready for removal um in the area where those were found
where there'll be some samples taken there or a phase two so to
speak to see exactly what that contamination is or are you just going
to wait and we will fund sampling for that but we cannot do anything on site
until the EPA gives us the all clear so but we have that in our plan and
we've budgeted for it okay I just wanted to make sure I understood clearly that
process thank you and I just want to take the time to say
thank you for the collaboration and meetings that we have had over
um the course of several months and talking about you know the abating of
the juries as well as this site and for macog and the health department and
along with idem and EPA to get involved and to want to help and coming in
encapsulating everything right now it's just refreshing to hear that it's not we
thought that it was bad and we do have some work to do but just happy to know
that um
back in 2019 I had gotten on a council on 18 and this was one of the first you
know projects that was halted because they were talking about putting the
permanent Supportive Housing there so to bring this to the Forefront and to get
it cleaned up is uh great work so thank you so much
the that site there's the lead is is covered with a cleaner surface level
surface layer
correct yeah how deep are how tall is that surface layer
uh one LED was uh taken from a foot down uh the other lead was one to three feet
and one was actually three to five feet down so
thank you at this time I'll turn to my colleagues
online to see if they're on and see if they have any questions I'll start with
counselor Lori Hammond
if not I'll turn to counselor Henry Davis to see if he has been able to
adhere and to speak oh yeah I'm thank you I'm on my phone uh
for whatever reason is not happening with my computer
but the phone is a computer as well so whatever uh no I don't have any like
thoughts or anything I I no I shouldn't say that I do
I know when you go into developing an area there are obviously rules that are
uh State mandated and they're federally mandated as well
as as we're talking the conversation continues to talk about just the place
in the dirt in the position that is exists right now
what happens when a person or a developer wants to come in and redevelop
the site for maybe housing or whatever it may be
does that change the environment and how we look at it at that point
it has to
well I would yeah generally if there was a developer interested in the site
um what our department would do is oftentimes the developer would say I'm
interested in this site uh does the city have any phase ones or phase twos so
either that historical documentation which is a phase one or the phase two
which is these results of these soil borings and we would say in this case
yes we've got both the phase one and a phase two and here you go and that would
then help inform them of okay you know as they're laying out design for the
site like Dave was alluding to maybe placing the parking lot over areas
where there could be areas of concern as it relates to soil contamination that
essentially caps that soil it's it doesn't need to be dug out and removed
or vice versa maybe they say we want we really want to have green space here
and you know in that case maybe they do remediate soils or place a cap on top of
those soils so I would say that those are all things that they would look at
as part of a phase one and phase two prior to Redevelopment and yeah so
that's kind of the high level view there prior to Redevelopment and
any other questions Mr Davis
if not we'll move on um oh counselor I just wanted to make
some closing comments if I can because um having lived on
this area for years has always been a concern in regards to bromfields and the
lack of investment and looking at some of those concerns this discussion
started way before 2019 if I'm not mistaken at that time if
the sopin Heritage Foundation was going to be building permanent housing on that
site and there were a lot of concerns that were raised to the point that the
council members decided to wait and it was my understanding that the first
round of testing had been done or was being done but some of the developer
developers felt that they had approval to move forward and the second testing
had not been done is that correct I want to make sure I have all my facts and I
think that's when we became aware that it was the need to do the second round
of testing before I'm talking about the West Washington site
found no evidence of extensive site-wide sampling in any of the box of records
that we obtained from South Bend Heritage all that we were able to find
was record that tanks had been removed on the western portion of the site and
sampling right where those tanks were but we found no record of additional
sampling across the whole rest of the site so that was a big question mark for
us what the site conditions were so we
found no record of extensive sampling okay and I think it's you know
individuals have a right to ask questions I think that's one form of
democracy and it's not to try to start stop any type of
development but I think that as we continue to look at we know that the
city of South Bend and other cities they have a lot of ground Fields you know
it's just part of being we have a filling station you need to look at all
kinds of things and this good conversation and I I really appreciate
the collaboration with the health department with Macon with the County
Commissioners with yourself and with council members as well because we have
a responsibility to ensure that we do ask these tough questions and that we
have the very best you know information as possible and having lived in that
area for quite some time I understand the concerns that the residents had and
some of them who's still there which is very very few they still have that
concern they want to make sure that they're living in safe clean
neighborhoods and we have the responsibility to ensure that that is
the case so those are my comments thank you so much I appreciate that
yes counselor I just have a comment too I really do want to thank you for the
presentation that you've provided I think this help this information just
provides um really good information for the
neighborhood and the community in general to know where things stand and
how we can move forward I do understand that you know EPA standards change over
time and with changes in federal Administration and so
I think um when I what I want to leave us with
is that standards continually change and and trust that
um that we are all watching that that city government our County and so as
um as these kinds of EPA standards do change that we come back to some of
these you know questions and and sites and and continue to assure that uh that
we are I guess up to up to current standards
um and keeping our residents safe so thank you
Thank you Kirk Jones can you see if there's anyone in the virtual audience
that has any questions
I'm looking forward
I'll turn to the public is there any questions or comments from the public
counselor Davis yeah look I was trying to say something
I don't know if my computer fine took over and I got it back on my computer so
thank God the uh the question I well so this
conversation goes a little bit further than just this particular area although
it is a very important space in this community
um I don't know if anyone remembers this but probably about a year ago when I
talked about the areas over in the sixth district uh
where you have uh like the Industrial Park area Walnut Street
um going south uh towards Indiana Street is off to the left and also to the right
and I was talking about how in order for us to begin to recruit employers or new
employers or even maybe housing developers those areas will have to be
cleaned up in order to even start having those conversations with those
particular investors perhaps and so I I think it makes sense
obviously the hardest discussion of my particular area but overall in areas
that have not been up and have not had any sort of investment in the in the
last several decades uh there's a larger discussion here in the same conversation
we had I'm over here by Beck's Lake as well it's the same conversation yes we
are Russ Bell City and we have moved on from that time so what did we do to
cover ourselves or to make ourselves our Prime ourselves for the future
development is to better quote the conversation
um not to say this conversation is bad I just think overall South Bend deserves a
higher level of investment to help clean up some of these areas I remember I was
on council at one point in time when we were cleaning up the area where in
Mission Park is at right now and how that you know took
time for the grants to come in and get it cleaned up but it was an intentional
effort to clean up that entire area uh it took maybe about a year year and a
half but it happened at work and so if the city is interested in growing uh and
being able to recruit people in here we have to clamp those in those areas no
matter how small or how large it is no one wants to deal with any contamination
in any level at any level in any area they move away from it because it's a
headache thank you so much for your hard work Karen and sharing on this one and
all those who are from um that help from maycog you know City staff Etc but it's
a larger discussion and in order for South Bend to return towards greatness
those areas have to be cleaned up thank you so much for your input and
your comments um duly know that for the record
at this time I'll open it up to the public and while we're waiting on the
public to come up I will say if you are here for Bill number 1123 or 1723
or 1823 they have been tabled until May 22nd
again 11 23 1723 and 1823 have been
tabled until May 22nd so if you are here and you are here
for those purposes you can leave if you will Mr Bogner Jim Bogner 807 West
Washington Street South Bend Indiana 46601 I want to thank the city for the
presentation and their concerns in maycog and also the county and the folks
in government that have done this one of the things that I did not hear this
evening was something that concerned me deeply
and that is been talked about at the federal level you can go take a look at
it anywhere you pleased to with the EPA and that is environmental justice
contaminated sites also the justice 40 Initiative for the
first time in our nation's history the federal government has made a goal that
40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal Investments flow to
disadvantaged communities that are marginalized underserved and
overburdened by pollution what kind of Investments fall in the
justice 40 initiative climate change clean energy Energy Efficiency clean
Transit affordable and sustainable housing training and Workforce
Development remediation and reduction of Legacy pollution and development of
critical Clean Water and Wastewater infrastructure
I think there's an opportunity here to ask Community investment and the
administration to focus a little bit more on Justice because it has primarily
been the poor the disadvantaged the
African-American community that has suffered because of this and I think
it's time to uh say that if we are all members of Team South Bend
there are parts of this city that don't really need South Bend's help but there
are other areas that do and if you've got part of the team that needs a little
bit of help you've got to go to it you've got to care for it
and accepting that we have these problems and moving forward with it is
something that I think is critical it's not easy for anyone to get up here and
talk about this sometimes I think the city would rather me just disappear
I would like to see this area cleaned up I think it can do a better job I'm
grateful for what has been done and for the people who have done it
but I do think that we owe it to places especially on the west side of this
community to restore some honor and some dignity
and some proper housing and make it a much more pleasant place
to live and it's hard we all know it's hard but we can do it and if we really
are a team as we all say we want to be then we've got to go to parts of the
team that need the most help and that's the west side I want to thank
Council for their time I know I've been a bit of a pest I want to thank the
administration for their work it's never been easy
but I appreciate it and I hope that out of this we will take a look at what the
EPA is offering we will look at more grants we will move forward not just
with this area but other areas on the west side and give it the help it
deserves and I thank everybody for their time and their energy and I appreciate
the privilege of your time and have a good evening thank you so much
thank you for the presentation we really appreciate it
at this time I would like to entertain a motion to resolve into the committee on
the whole it's been moving second in the role please
council member Lee I
I might not be able to hear you okay can you hear me
council member Davis I
council member White present
aye remember Thomas Morgan
aye
um
all right again we want to announce that if you
are here for Bill 11-23 it's been tabled to May 22nd if
you're here for Bill 17-23 it's been tabled to May 22nd and bill 18-23 has
been tabled to May 22nd and so now the committee of a whole is in session this
is the portion of the council meeting where bills are given a second reading
and public hearing I wish to share with you that bills that will be given a
second reading in public hearing haven't been given a first reading except for a
committee meeting and public hearing prior to this evening's meeting in
addition you will hear from the chairperson of the committee where the
bill was discussed and the results of their discussion if the proposed
ordinance is a zoning ordinance a report from staff members will be given and all
other situations the former presentation on the proposed ordinance will
immediately follow the committee report the formal presentation shall be on time
clerk Jones would you please give Bill 19-22 a second reading
that's it I'm sorry 1923 sorry
1923 public hearing on an ordinance of the common Council of the city of South
Bend Indiana approving a petition of The Advisory Board of zoning appeals for the
property located at 506 North Olive Street councilmanic District number two
in the city of South Bend Indiana
all right um is there a committee report
on behalf of zoning and annexation I'm not on the committee whose device
counselor Davis I am yes thank you um thank you
um we uh send this bill to the full council with a favor recommendation
to the committee on the whole I'm sorry we send this bill to the
Community Hall with a favorable recommendation
thank you okay is the petition of President she is I
ask that you state your name and your address and share it with us key points
regarding the bill that's before us good evening Angela Smith zoning
administrator for the city of South Bend with offices located on the 14th floor
the petition before you this evening is for 506 Olive Street at the corner of
Bertrand in Olive the petitioner is Seeking a special exception to allow for
vehicle repair the property has historically been Auto
oriented it was a gas station then it was a vehicle repair and then it was a
car sales and now they want to legalize it as a vehicle repair again and that's
what the petition is here for you this afternoon
the property itself is not proposing any changes other than to bring up the code
for the Landscaping so this is the current site they would be working to
bring up the access points to meet the engineering standards to add a parking
area screening buffer and to add streetscape Landscaping the rest of the
site at this time is proposed to essentially remain as is to allow for
the continued use as an auto repair this comes to you from the border zoning
appeals with a favorable recommendation and the petitioner is present
anything you'd like to share with us well
my name is uh Cleveland Brown I own a 506 North Olive and um
like I said this place is just a legendary place to me
you know I probably started here at 12 years old
and then it was sold to someone else and then here 40 years later here I am
right back on the same corner so you know this probably
100 people in the area and I've done a lot of work for even a lot of people
down here you know so I just love taking care of the community and uh
keeping everybody getting back and forth to work
that's really what it's about you know and then like I said earlier you know I
like to grab a few of these kids that's real bad and teach them something that's
really what's wrong with some of these kids they don't have anything to do no
guidance you know so give them a little bit of
that I believe things will change in the neighborhood
thank you we we had extensive uh uh conversations
in the committee but council members do you have any any questions for the
petitioner at all
yes I do I have a question kind of a council member Lee
go ahead uh Mr Brown you uh stated that you
wanted to help provide opportunity to youth uh to learn a skill
that's correct my question to you have you taken that a bit further I know that
the city uh delivers like inspired grants and so many other things to help
undergird non-profits perhaps with financial
backing to help um
Google on the initiative to help youth I think that because you have a space you
have a talent you have a skill as well to help teach
and also to help give someone a job uh I think that your conversation will be a
natural conversation with uh maybe I don't know if it's Marie Scott that's
over that program still or someone else but since this is in front of me in
front of us and the summer is coming and we need our kids employed and also busy
doing something worthwhile uh I think it'll probably be
um um
a good conversation to to bring in those who are a part to say who though who
does the funding for that that particular Grant I don't know if the day
has passed or not but to see if you can get some of that funding to employ uh
some youth in your in your in your yard okay that is correct you know so I'm not
sure yeah those are a lot of things that I thought about you know but I guess I
have to pass this stage first I'm sure you're gonna pass this so
that's why I'm bringing it up so I don't know um who on the council is connected
to that resource but um I'm hoping that somebody on this
Council can help pouring him the right direction to help help develop that
discussion in that conversation and hopefully that opportunity
I pray to God that they do too because this is an opportunity right here for a
lot of kids I mean I was a kid and I was trained very well sent to trade school
and everything and it's really not that hard
if I can do it anybody can do it all right well thank you very much any
other council members with any questions or statements
all right council member Lee yes Mr Davis who was that uh that conduit for
that program it would be the second district council person
I'm asking for help sir so I'm asking you who was the conduit for that program
are you are you talking about you said any night grants or what what particular
it's a are you talking about the alive and free grants
whoever grant that can help provide him with the funding to help employ and
train a youth or use for that particular for what he's trying to what he's going
after
oh that would probably be Community Investments wouldn't it
I'm not sure sir that's why I'm asking I can't ask you that question it's a body
of nine people so someone has to be answered
I just don't have the answers that means we'll do we'll look into it I'll follow
up with uh Mr Bauer with committed investment
thank you thank you
thank you all right at this time we'll go to the
public hearing portion um
Clark Jones is there anyone from the public commission to speak in favor of
Bill 19-22 23.
I looked right at it I'm sorry
I
do have one person in the audience okay well please state your name and
address for the record
yes uh Roosevelt Stewart 1222 Huey South Bend Indiana 46628
um me and uh Mr Brown uh spoke uh previously a couple times before he has
a um a business over there that he's been
running and also uh have a piece of property over there as well and we we
share both of the same interests as far as like serving and finding something
for our teenage at-risk uh youth in that area
um I serviced that building uh prior before you got there as far as like
painting and uh things of that nature we had youth kind of watching
um so I'm in support of in support of him and uh as far as like the funding
into uh I think that he should be led to directing
um to finding those resources so he can uh get that Vision off the ground so I'm
in support of that all right thank you very much appreciate it
anyone else
Clark Jones is there anyone uh wishing to speak in opposition
looking to see if there's any
nope I don't see anyone wishing to speak in opposition of the spirit okay
um well at this point the public hearing on Bill 19-23
is now closed uh council members would you like to make any statements
yes just want to uh thank you for all your efforts it's always wonderful when
you have a business that's not only well obviously the purpose of a business is
to make money and support you and your family so it's nice when you have a
business owner that's looking beyond that and trying to see how we could lift
up other people's along the way so thank you for that
thank you I just want to say I've been known to you and the family for a long
time and thank you for your hard work and giving back to the community you
know we grew up on that side of town and so a lot of service in our vehicles so
thank you to you and your family for all of the hard work you have done and
what's to come
continued efforts in the community and um this will help up with the
neighborhood as you had spoken earlier as well as helping our youth so you know
I'm I'm a for sure yes on this when we vote on it
and I would just like to say that uh five generations of Browns have been
fixing cars and doing repairs in this city
um we've had experiences as uh with our
snowplow truck for the church Mr Brown fixed the transmission on it and when it
when it wasn't quite right he went back and fixed it again and got it right so I
am very much in support of of you and your entrepreneurial spirit and not only
that but your your vision to do something to help the kids that area on
Olive and Bertrand is a very troubled area with some troubled spots and
hopefully this will be a place of hope um in that neighborhood well can I say
one thing I'm from that area yeah I grew up right
there in between Lincolnway and Western and it is real bad there but
I'm not scared you know not scared at all you know and
everybody that comes by there every kid that comes by there instead of just I
mean attacking them you just talk to him and teach because
that's what's wrong in this community the teaching has stopped that's right
you know and it's got to start back up or we're gonna never have control of the
youngsters again ever that's right and mentors are important
councilwoman Thomas Morgan
I think everything has been said I just thank you for your investment and
continued work and investment in in our city and with the youth that you do
thank you that's right I was just like to I think
we go way back I'll I don't I'm not gonna say how long with the butt uh your
father grandfather I know okay uh but I would like to thank you for the point of
wisdom that you just shared that they just need someone to talk with them to
listen give them opportunity because all of us we've been given opportunities and
we would not be where we're at now without having someone who's willing to
invest and pour into us and show us that there's a better way so I really really
appreciate and I know that your family they're smiling on you at this time
all right we'll go to our online people before well we'll do that okay uh Mr
Bowers came up and answer well I just want to say thank you Mr Brown and to
address uh councilmember Davis um I I think Mr Brown Angela hopefully
already shared with this with you at committee but uh vibrant places is our
matching grant program for business owners so as far as making those
improvements to your parking lot adding that barrier
um it's a matching grant program so it can match 50 percent uh of those
Investments so what just encourage that that's one option for business owners we
did recently expand that program so it's a city-wide eligibility for locally
owned businesses to to get those matching funds so we'll make sure you
have the link in we can work on that thank you appreciate it
we see um councilmatory Warner is with us would you like to have anything or
I think everything has been said thank you
and Mr Davis any any last statements yeah I think Caleb had it wrong he was
asking about and I could be wrong but he he was saying something about a matching
Grant uh for a facade and parking lot Etc that wasn't the conversation the
conversation was about the ignite grant that many non-profits get to help
deliver Youth Services my question was
is or can he be eligible for that same type of Grant if he's talking about
employing youth that's basically what those grants are meant for whether
services or is meant for uh um payment right and so that's what I
that that's the conversation I was trying to help undergird him with what
he would need to make good on his dream if those resources are available that is
my question it wasn't about a facade Grant it wasn't
about anything matching okay all right thank you
all right well I would not entertain a motion regarding bill 19-23
let's attended to the full council with the favorable recommendation second
there's been a motion in the second clerk Jones please call the roll council
member Lee aye council member Warner
council member Warner yourself
all right okay council member wax
aye council member white aye council member Thomas Morgan
aye vice president
aye council member Davis before I deliver my vote again I'm not
sure if we're clear on what I was asking for so are we going to move forward or
is somebody going to figure that out or is that is that available I mean Mr
Davis hold on one second uh president McBride said that she would
check to make sure okay okay
she said she would check to make sure that she had the right
my my answer is I thank you Mr Lee okay well we wanted to make sure
on the boat uh state law requires that Mr Davis's camera be activated to be
able to vote that's true
Mr Davis there can you please turn your camera on to vote please
is it on because I don't see it it's on but you might want to tilt it a little
bit so we can see your face
yeah great you want me to say I again yes yes Mr Warner aye Mr Warner thank
you Mr Warner
that's just what this thing all requires I didn't write it okay we have eight
eyes all right thank you
um it will be sent to full Council council
with a favorable recommendation I will now entertain a motion to rise from the
committee of the hold and report back to the full Council
it's been moved in second Clark Jones please call the roll
council member Warner
aye council member Davis I
gotta turn your camera on it is on
the salon council member Lee
aye president McBride aye
all right motion carries
the full council is back in session this portion of our meeting is where bills
are given a third reading and action is taken regarding bills that were heard
during the committee of the whole clerk Jones will you give Bill 1923 a third
reading
South Bend Indiana approving a petition of The Advisory Board of zoning appeals
for the property located at 506 North Olive Street Council Manning District
number two in the city of South Bend Indiana thank you council is their
recommendation from the committee of the whole regarding Bill 1923 yeah Bill 19
23 Was Heard and the committee of the whole and it comes to the full council
with the favorable recommendation I will now entertain a motion regarding Bill
1923
second it's been moving second and clerk Jones the role please
vice president aye council member Davis
I
council member Lee aye
council member Warner aye president McBride
aye thank you Bill 1923 has been adopted
resolutions this is the portion of the council meeting where the common Council
here bills filed as proposed resolutions the title of each proposed resolution is
read by the city clerk a report from the committee chairperson of the stand
committee to which the bill is referred to for an advisory review and
recommendation is then given during the public portion on each proposed
resolution members of the public are invited to address the council we ask
that you please give your name address and comment on the bill if you have any
questions they will be addressed by the presenter during their rebuttal each
member of the public is limited to five minutes with those speaking in favor
going first followed by those in opposition then a five-minute rebuttal
for the presenter of the bill Clark Jones will you please give bill
23-21 of first reading 23-21 a resolution of the common Council
of the city of South Bend Indiana designating certain areas within the
city of South Bend Indiana commonly known as 3201 West Calvert Street South
Bend 46613 and economic revitalization area for purposes of a five-year
personal property tax abatement for verbio North America LLC
thank you councilor White I would make a motion if I can that
resolution 23-21 and 23-22 be heard together for
purposes only for the public hearing second
Dr Jones if you call the road please yes councilmember white
aye council member told my
aye Council council member nasty aye our vice president
council member Davis aye
council member Lee aye council member Warner
aye
okay council member wax aye president McBride aye
thank you clerk Jones could you read resolution 23-22
23-22 a resolution yes we just have a comment in the in the
chat if the clerk could speak directly into the microphone her microphone is
not on so because I'm right here so I don't
know if you wanna what can you save one of these chords will reach
thank you so much oh good idea
23-22 a resolution of the common Council the city of South Bend Indiana
designating certain areas within the city of South Bend Indiana commonly
known as 3201 3201 West Calvert Street South Bend
Indiana 46613 an economic revitalization area
for purposes of an eight-year real property tax abatement proverbial North
America LLC thank you you can take it with me reaches yes thank you so much
please state your name and address for the record
Eric Lovich director of growth and opportunity within the Department of
Community investment with offices on the 14th floor of this building thank you
Council before you for your consideration is a package of two
declaratory resolutions for tax abatement for a company named for Bio
North America LLC verbio has purchased South Bend ethanol the facility out on
West Calvert Street and we'll be investing over 230 million dollars into
the facility to upgrade the current process of ethanol production and also
to create new renewable natural gas quite
an investment over 215 million dollars in new personal property will be
installed on the property thus you'll for this is the reason why there are two
separate abatements for your consideration
for Bio North North America LLC will is applying for two separate abatements the
first is a five-year personal property tax abatement listed on your screen you
will see examples of the manufacturing equipment that would be eligible for a
personal property tax abatement and as I mentioned
about 220 million dollars total in new equipment and soft software will be
installed onto the property through this investment for Bio North
America will retain all of the current jobs at the facility and within 12
months we'll have create new we'll create new eight brand new jobs high
paying jobs Engineers um you know roughly making you know
approximately a hundred thousand dollars per position
on your screen you'll see the um kind of the numbers related to the personal
property tax abatement one thing to point out that there is current personal
property on the property which pays property tax so the new equipment will
be on top of that what you can see is that just based on our estimates we're
looking at total estimated taxes during the abatement upwards to about 20
million dollars 19.2 roughly and a good portion of that
would be a beta overall we expect verbio to pay about three and a half million
dollars in new taxes over this five-year period on the screen you can see that
we're looking at by year 10 between year six and ten after the abatement expires
that they would pay roughly 11 million dollars in new taxes again this is new
taxes on top of what's already being paid
um
that's just as you look this is the abatement schedule and the estimates
that we've provided through our analysis shifting shifting gears now to the real
property so in order for them to make this investment they will have to build
an estimated 10 new buildings on the property totaling about sixty thousand
square feet their investment in building these this real property is about 11
million dollars they qualify they would qualify for an eight-year property tax
abatement which is what we're presenting for your consideration
current taxes on the property this is real property taxes not prop not
personal property taxes or about 150 000 per year with an 11 million dollar
investment we anticipate that the taxes filing completion of the project would
increase about three hundred thousand dollars per year
the first year alone first year of the abatement alone with the abatement in
place they would still pay sixty five thousand dollars more that first year
than they currently than what the city is currently receiving through the
property again you can see the numbers on your
screen estimate during the life of the abatement we estimate about 3.6 million
dollars in estimated taxes out of that amount roughly eight hundred thousand
dollars would be abated again these are it's a significant investment in a
property on the west side of town that we're very excited about
and the president of verbio North America LLC is here he would like to say
a few words provides a presentation and answer
questions related to the project
a good evening while we're getting the logistics going my name is Greg Northrup
I live in Grand Rapids Michigan but I'm happy to be in South Bend tonight
talking to you the members of the council this is a truly a
wonderful time for our company hopefully after I get done with this presentation
you'll agree with me it's a wonderful investment for the city of South Bend
and as I alluded to earlier this afternoon it's an important part of our
overall energy strategy here in the United States as we develop Renewables
to mix our diverse our diversity of supply and so I walk first of all I want
to thank the city staff for their support we've been in conversation with
them since early March to talk about this investment we've been in a due
diligence stage on potentially purchasing this site above for the last
six months and what I'll tell you before I get into the details of Hoover bio is
and a little bit of background is there's over 200 ethanol plants in
the United States today that are operating that could be potential
locations for us to do what we're proposing to do here in South Bend
and we've spent time looking at those those opportunities in other states in
other locations and and we will continue to do that
because our plan is to build out multiple facilities here in the United
States as part of our process we debated uh it's about South Bend
internally a number of times as to whether this is the right decision for
us to make at this point in time yeah and as you can imagine based on the
amount of money that we're proposing to spend this was not an easy decision for
us to make without having given good thought to why it is that we're doing it
uh the long and short of it is um I would suggest you if we're not
making this decision this community could be looking at a plant that would
be closed
um and but for the investment that we will be making we can change that
scenario so that in fact we will have a plant that will be successfully
operating not only making ethanol as it does today but making renewable natural
gas and with that Foundation let me just do a quick recap for you
as the Hoover bio is I have happily am the first employee that was hired in the
United States to run the bio North American operations our company verbio
has been in operation for over 25 years our CEO and founder is a grower
a person that's been involved in agriculture and so when you listen to me
talk about our commitment to Ag and eggs piece of the equation here you can
understand our background and our commitment to using AG residues as part
of a process it's not food it's AG residues that we're using to make
renewable energy so that history comes with us as part of our long-term
background we're located in a number of countries we have
a rice straw product a rice straw project in India same thing waste stream
that's being used to make renewable natural gas there we own a plant in
Nevada Iowa which I'll show you a picture of here that the began operation
in 2021 making renewable natural gas in the fourth quarter of this year we will
start making a renewable ethanol at the same site and using that ethanol output
to actually make more renewable layers gas at that site the same thing we're
proposing to do here in South Bend we're a one billion dollar company in
terms of sales when I started with this group five years ago we had 500
employees today we have a thousand
in in Nevada we have close to 100 employees in South Bend I'm happy to
report as Eric alluded to that we will retain 61 of the current employees and
we will add a date additional positions over the course of the next six 12
months in professional positions uh additional resources for us as it
relates to engineers and what you'll learn as you look more into Barbara bios
history our strength is our technology we have our own internal engineering
capability we're very protective of our proprietary information we do things
that have made us very successful as a company and made us learn how to operate
in renewable energy industry if you look at the industry and read some of the
Tales there's a lot of things that haven't happened very well in Renewables
and so I'm very cautious about what I say and what we do in the sense of
making sure that we actually walk our talk and so we've done that and I'm
proud to represent the company here today we're the largest producer
biomethane or renewable natural gas we're also in the ethanol business and
we're in the biodiesel business so we understand all facets of the renewable
energy business as it relates to this project I'll point out to you and just
to give some data in the lower right hand corner it says 35 3.5 million mmcf
of natural gas at this site when it's fully developed we will make 2.8 million
mmcf or almost as much as we currently make it also and there's a later slide
that I'll show you that's equal to about one or two percent of the total natural
gas that's used in the state of Iowa on an annual basis so while one or two
percent that might seem like a lot it's coming from a waste stream that we're
adding to the mix of product that actually can be used here in the state
or elsewhere in the country for that matter
so these are the locations for other facilities one of the things I'll
reinforce that I I think I alluded to earlier today we're self-funded
so we're using internal cash flows to make these Investments we're not seeking
government grants or loans as a way to back up our project we believe in what
we do and for that reason we've been slow to expand but I hope to to see
accelerations in that growth in South Bend is another step along the way for
us this is uh we don't have enough time
tonight but what this intend is to do is to show you that everything we do is in
a closed loop process so we take materials in we process those materials
we reuse them in other portions of the plant so I'll tell you in a minute Bob
what we're going to do with stillage which is the waste stream from ethanol
but we take those products and when we get all done in Nevada for example we
make what's called hummus and basically it's a compost type
material so we take the corn Stover that we put in there to our anaerobic
digestion process when we're done removing the carbon to make methane we
end up with a compost type material this returns of the land
and we return phosphates and nitrogenes back to the soil so we have a great
relationship with Growers we're helping them with a revenue stream for their
corn Stover and then we're helping them with a soil amendment on the backside of
our process so everything is closed loop in terms of what we're doing
we have a great relationship here in South Bend thanks to the work of the
prior management with the growers in this area and I think the feedback I've
gotten has been wow this is going to be great because I can tell you what the
Growers had concerns about whether they were still going to have a revenue
stream as it relates to Corn sales for this facility
this is our largest facility it's in svet Germany
and I say that as as well as the Germans would pronounce it so trust me
on the left hand side you'll see where it's biomethane the large tanks there
are in Aerobic digestion tanks what happens material goes in there it's an
airtight oxygen no action environment and that's what allows the bugs inside
to process the materials into myomethane no different than what a cow does in
terms of when their processing materials through their system but similar in the
concept except we do it one tank instead of seven stomachs so we're a little bit
more efficient from that standpoint this site also has the biodiesel and the
bioethanol as you'll see at the top and we integrate the ethanol and the bio
methane at this location we do the same thing in zorbic
methane and ethanol coming together so what's different about what we're doing
in a traditional ethanol plant they make ethanol in the case of this
location we hope to make 85 million gallons of ethanol we don't currently do
it at that level but that's the plan and if we're really successful we will make
more down the road but at this point my commitment is to get us back to the
design level of the plant which is 85 million they produce a waste stream
which is called stillage typically the steel age is turned into
what's called dry distillers grains and that's used as a feed feedment
supplement for cattle or other animals to make it dry obviously as the name in
in Furs you have to heat it up and you dry it you spend energy drying it to
make this material that we give best feed what are we gonna we're gonna take
the steelage and that becomes a feedstock for our
anaerobic digestion process so in the large tanks that you see the stillage
will go from the ethanol production into the large tanks to make more renewable
natural gas or more methane so we're basically reusing that waste stream in a
way that's much more effective in the sense that we're reducing the energy
consumption that's required and at the same time creating a product that we
need as it relates to the diversity of Supply as renewable natural gas
this is our facility in Nevada guess what it looks just like the other
facilities because we apply the same design
techniques the same strategies for what we're doing here in the U.S as what
we've been doing in Germany for the last 10 to 15 years with the same processes
this is not new technology this is what we've been doing
successfully and now we're bringing that process to the United States and
replicating here what makes us different is your ethanol plant will now become a
biorefinery instead of just making ethanol you'll
make renewable natural gas as part of the production process
oh and like as I say it looks exactly the same there's one less tank here
because I took this picture in a sunny day there's actually 16 tanks as we're
proposing for this site which I'll show you in a minute
so this is the existing site in South Bend
to the west of the site there's vacant area there and so on the left hand side
of the slide where you see the 16 blue dots those are the anaerobic digestion
tanks that we're going to put in to make renewable natural gas at this site
below that are a series of buildings and so when Eric talked about 10 buildings
that we're building you can see a lot of these square boxes represent new
buildings that will be part of our construction process but there are
things to do like removing sulfur carbon dioxide getting gas up to pressure when
we inject into the system the natural gas system that's owned by Nesco we have
to increase the pressure to be able to put it into their pipeline another
caveat so you understand this when we make upgraded renewable natural gas it
has to look exactly like fossil Nitric gas
because when we inject a molecule into the pipeline that goes into the
distribution system for Indiana and the rest of this country that molecule has
to look exactly the same so when it comes to your home to be used in your
furnace or your water heater the water heater wants to make sure I'm getting
the product I'm supposed to get so our product has to look exactly like the
product that's being used as a fossil based product in the rest of the U.S
natural gas system okay which means we're held to a very high standard
because the utilities won't last inject unless we meet their requirements and I
can tell you there's lots of testing equipment and measuring equipment to
make sure we do exactly what we said there's uh we'll be making fertilizer at
this site for uh resale back to our Growers as partners
hummus which I mentioned was the waste product that will go back as a soil
amendment um
and so and then the recycle one other point we we recycle all of our water
again continuous loop we're not pulling new water sources from the city or from
the wells we're going to continue to use so basically the water requirement will
not change significantly from where it is I'm not familiar with this but
apparently this the operation of the plant has been helpful to the city as it
relates to water issues potentially in that area and so I think for a benefit
to the community at the same time as a result of that
this is that slide I talked about where the line represents the amount of gas
that's used in the state of Indiana on an annual basis and up in the corner
there is the amount that we will produce at the facility so you get a sense of
how much gas you actually use here how much are we going to make as part of our
production process and while it doesn't seem like a big number it is a big
number in the sense of the amount that we're producing at the scale that we're
doing using waste streams to do this
so 230 million dollars of new investment 85 million gallons of continued ethanol
production the good news for us is we have a really well-trained Workforce and
we're gonna we took over on May 1st we had a team of people here meeting with
all of the employees I'm happy to report that went very smoothly I think I can
report Faithfully that they're very happy that they have a new investor
because it gives them a future because they know what's going on at the plant
probably better than you and I do in terms of what needs to be done
I always push our people to make sure you listen to your people because
they're the ones that actually know what's going on
uh 2.8 BCF of gas 61 employees retained and then new eight eight new positions
in the fact sheet that I gave you there's lots more details about what it
is that this is all about I'm happy to talk about this subject
um at my age to be doing renewable energy just is a really nice way to to
finish off things and I feel really good about what I'm able to do and I feel
really good about what reviles wants to do in this community and I want to thank
you for considering the tax abatement because it will be important as part of
one of the financial tools you want to make sure that the Investments you're
making us makes us successful and that means we have to have a complement of
financial tools to deal with a risk profile so I thank you for support
considering supporting us and I thank the committee this afternoon for their
favorable support at least in the first round of discussions and I look forward
to having many more with you any questions thank you so much at this time
I will turn to my colleagues to see if there are any questions at this time
counselor Thomas Morgan well I I just think it's worth reiterating a question
that was raised uh earlier in committee and if you can just speak briefly to it
Mr Northrop um you'll be the production of the
facilities qualify for the new section 48e investment tax credit uh authorized
under the inflation reduction Act of 2022 so could you speak to the
requirements of that sure so the one of the critical features of the inflation
reduction Act is to improve America's reliability and renewable fuels if you
make renewable natural gas that's one of the things that they're trying to
incentivize as a federal process to improve our overall energy policy
the that section provides for what's called an investment tax credit
it's equal to 30 percent of the capital investment you'll receive that back when
we file our income tax return I can tell you that the IRS makes sure
that we dots all the I's and Crosses all the t's as part of that though we have
we'll have a commitment to improve act to pay prevailing wage rates and in fact
our wage rates will be 24 above the average here in South Bend as it is
we will also have it we have a commitment to higher apprentices during
the construction period pipefitters electricians those types of positions
and I'll tell you as a technology company we are big on interns we're big
on apprentices because if you have good skill sets to operate these kinds of
facilities you need talented people and we're willing to pay talented people to
do great work thank you Mr Northern thank you
councilor Lee I just wanted to thank them for the
investment and again to reiterate when it comes to this tax abatement that
even after the first year we're going to be getting sixty five thousand dollars
more than what we're getting currently so again
there we're not losing we're gaining plus we're getting investment in the
community 61 jobs that make a hundred thousand
dollars a year and eight new positions that will be I mean that's that's a win
for this area my final question is this as a kid
growing up in South Bend with the ethanol plan we had to deal with the
smell and with what you guys are doing now
does does that change that we'll we'll we not have to deal with the smell or or
has has technology changed that word doesn't have that so a good question
um obviously these kinds of facilities uh have some potential issues as it
relates to odor issues I don't think there's any current odor issues with the
ethanol operation that I'm aware of and that was part of our due diligence
assessment the renewable natural gas production the methane gas is made
inside of the anaerobic digestion tanks the large tanks that I showed you
pictures of those are airtight tanks the only way the gas gets out there is
either it's pulled through the pipe to be upgraded for pipeline quality and
then injected into the system or on the photo that I is in your package there's
two flares there if we were to have a problem uh with the gas the gas is moved
to the flare and then it's ignited and sent into the environment so that it's
not causing any odor issues or any other kinds of potential Hazard issues
um it's a it's a critical it's a critical design feature of the plant but
that's the way we deal with it so you shouldn't have odor issues thank you
very much counselor niskowski
thank you um and thank you so much for the
presentation and for the potential investment with the ethanol plan I think
it's so important to secure the future for that facility
um and I believe this is this is a wonderful opportunity
um but I just want to go back when you had talked about the fact sheet you
talked about the 61 job secured another eight jobs that you'll be hiring but I
believe in the presentation you made you said the total project for this indirect
impact on jobs is somewhere between six to seven hundred yeah if you look at the
data that our good friends at the Chamber of Commerce actually put
together for us it's projected with the construction jobs that would be included
as part of the process and I I don't think I looted to this but the
construction will occur over a two-year three-year period with the commission is
expected in 2026 it's estimated that there's approximately 650 jobs that are
created in terms of what we're doing plus the construction jobs plus the
other jobs within the committee on an ongoing basis they would continue to be
other jobs that are supported as a result of the direct job we have data on
that as well so I think if I recall the data just for
our plant only the annual revenue is about 60 million dollars coming from the
payroll for our existing employees and so it's obviously a significant critical
number and it represents our commitment to our employees but at the same time it
obviously brings Revenue sources to the community over and above what we're
going to pay in terms of taxes thank you so much
Muffler wax
these are really high paying jobs uh both you said compared to the average
but if you just you know just the number itself objectively or talking six figure
jobs here so um those are wonderful jobs to maintain
and to increase potentially we talked earlier today about the
property tax and I believe um you stated or uh that the property
tax would be depreciated on a 30-year straight line depreciation
um so that would mean just to make sure that I understand that the tax revenue
would of the personal property would decrease over over each year but it
would continue on for about 30 years is that is that correct right were you able
to and I know there wasn't a lot of time between meetings were you able to get a
ballpark of what the total tax revenue might be
on the new personal property
council member wax I did run some numbers I
full honesty I don't think they're accurate but I tried I tried doing the
30-year depreciation I again I I have
um net taxes paid in the range of 85 million dollars over 30 years I don't
know how accurate that is but I did I did print this out so that I could give
it to you for your you know you can take your red pen to it if you okay I
appreciate that because especially when uh sometimes when we're looking at
personal property tax uh abatements sometimes the personal property only
lasts for five to ten years so when you're evading most of the front end you
know the question could be what what are we from a revenue basis of course
there's other benefits to uh getting a project like this off the ground like
jobs or other economic impacts in the area but just from a pure tax revenue
basis uh the question is um what would we be getting in the
future and so I'm happy to hear that I'll take with the the caveat that I
know that this is uh back the napkin calculations last minute but it's good
to know that it'll be a very significant amount of tax revenue over the next the
other thing I would add to that I think you had the question earlier today you
know what's the life of these plants are these assets and so the tanks themselves
typically 40 to 50 years if not unheard of so the the asset will last well past
the depreciation schedule so at least that person is covered for that period
of time so if if these numbers uh needed a little
bit fine-tuning I'd be happy to work with Eric and we can deal with it
further if necessary but I think it's a good it's a good investment for the city
I got the answer that I made for tonight thank you thank you thank you I'll turn
to my Council colleagues online see if they have any comments or questions
also Davis thank you I'm saying no and I'll turn back to council
well no l is public portion time I'll open it up to the public is there any
one wishing to speak in favor of
resolution 2321 or 2322
state your name and address for the record please sure good evening
um Allison Herzig director of Economic Development South Bend Regional Chamber
offices at 101 North Michigan Street we just wanted to take enough opportunity
to come up and thank the council for considering
verbaya's proposition for our community they are it's a significant investment
we're seeing an economic impact of the construction alone over the three years
of 350 million dollars on top of the economic impact that was
already referenced of the jobs and so as we kind of look at the different
companies that will be impacted by this investment and by the new workers we see
that it it kind of rolls through the whole Community Building Services will
have three jobs supported we have Employment Services of two jobs and so
it kind of extrapolates out when you look at how significant this is for
South Bend and for our community I really appreciate you taking the time to
consider this we are very excited about the possibilities we look at the
continued partnership with local farmers and businesses as a wonderful
opportunity to to support services that are already existing and jobs that
already exist as well as the commitment to sustainability is so very important
as you all know I'm thrilled that they are considering our community thank you
so much thank you so much for your comment anyone else Clark Jones do you
see anyone in the virtual audience wishing to speak in favor of either
resolution 2321 or 23 22. modern audience expressing interest to
speak in favor of this Bill thank you I'll turn anyone wishing to speak in
opposition of 23 21 or 23-22 you're welcome to come up to the podium
Sheriff Nikki 3822 Ford Street not really opposed to it but I do have a
question the smell was brought up last summer and the summer before that the
noise coming from the ethanol plant is very disruptive to the neighborhoods and
as Eli I'll tell you I don't live that close to it but yet we could hear it and
if you go on Facebook they were talking about it out into the county and across
Lincolnway so
anyone want to address that
so I'm not familiar with the noise issue um I know Tucker you want to address
that
please state your name and address for the record good evening I'm Chuck Tuscan
general manager of South Bend ethanol reside in South Bend
as as regarding the the noise issue that is related to The energy used so the the
steam that is used on the back end of the process that Mr Northrop was talking
about the stillage where we dry the stillage
all of that initially before we even have the uh the new investment is being
worked on to eliminate the discharge of the high pressure steam to the
atmosphere but once we get the RNG that will that part of the process will be
not used anymore so again we we apologize for the sound the noise but we
are currently working on it to eliminate the discharge to the
atmosphere of steam thank you so much does that satisfy your
question summer will tell thank you I'm sure
we'll see you again anyone else
there's no one else expressing interest virtually to speak in opposition of this
Bill thank you so much with that I'll turn back to my colleagues what's your
pleasure
for the adoption of resolution 23-21 second it's been moved in second and
Clark Jones The Royal place council member Thomas Morgan
aye vice president naskowski aye
councilmember Davis
I
council member Lee aye council member Warner
aye council member wax aye council member white
aye president McBride aye eight eyes thank you resolution 2321 has been
adopted I would like to entertain a motion
regarding Bill 23 resolution 23-22
the second clerk Johnson role please vice president
aye council member Davis I council member Lee
aye council member Warner aye council member wax I
council member white I council member Thomas Morgan
aye president McBride aye eight eyes
thank you resolution 2322 has been adopted there are no bills on first
reading I'll turn to see is there any unfinished business from the council
is there any new business from Council
seeing none I will open it up to the privilege of the floor
individuals who wish to address the council must State their name and
residential address individuals will be limited to three minutes only
the maximum time for this portion of the meeting shall be 30 minutes individuals
should not be permitted to the address topics which the council has heard
previously on tonight's agenda the council president May assign a topic
raised by an individual doing the privilege of the floor to the
appropriate council member and or request the city clerk to contact the
member of the city Administration for review and topics assigned and shall be
responded to at the next scheduled council meeting please state your name
and address for the record
please state your name and address for the record please
see Castle 4022 Kennedy Drive in South Bend thank you I would appreciate the
council getting back to me on the items that I'm about to bring up I still
haven't heard heard back on the abatement reports or if the
zero dollars for 10 years was legal also um
when I go to look for information it's great that there's videos of these
meetings but there's no transcripts I'd like to suggest to the council and
the clerk that you research something like otter a i o t t e r dot a I what
happens is that the artificial intelligence listens to the meeting and
creates a transcript so this would be really nice for all of
us can you repeat that otter
otter o t t e r dot a i there are other transcription softwares
but I'm just suggesting one to start with
um what I handed out to you is that there are missing Financial reports
I'd like to see those uh appear on the website
um in 2018 there was a city-wide debt update to the council
I'd like to see you guys have a new debt update
and um I'd also like to bring up that there are
quite a few rape kits that have never been processed
and those women have never received Justice
if the rape kits had been processed and put in the system the DNA could possibly
found the perpetrators it could have possibly
created prevented other rapes from occurring
perhaps Mr King is part of the new police board could put this on his
agenda to review the unprocessed rape kits they've been unprocessed for a long
time some of them may have even timed out
I think that the women of our community deserve justice
for that trauma obviously then they are concerned that
that perpetrator comes back to them again
which is very stressful for them so um I did
um I'm not supposed to mention names I did approach to council members about
this issue that I would like to see it um
a higher priority so those are my issues and if you could
get back to me I'd appreciate it and I'd love to hear on the abatements and
especially on the missing Financial reports thank you
thank you I just wanted to mention that on YouTube
they do the transcripts that's where we get our transcripts from is from YouTube
on the video when you have a video the trans but the transcripts on YouTube are
not the legal documents held by the city and we use otter too and they didn't
they're just weren't real good either so um but no the video is the legal
document I know but I can't go through hours of videos to to scan for what the
information I'm looking for right but you can you should be able to do that
through YouTube I mean I know you said it's not legal but you can do that
is there a legal opinion on that
perfect I can't do it but you
ain't no need to should have no need to
I would prefer not to have to go through YouTube and I would prefer that the city
have legal documents and transcripts that's my opinion thank you
thank you
Sharon panicky 3822 Ford Street I'm just checking back in Eli and I did spend 45
minutes together he got to see myself been sixth district he got to see Bob
the Builder's house he got to see the two houses that have been shot up by me
he got to see a lot of different things and I'm hoping Eli through a different
set of eyes than what you have seen before
and did you ever figure out why the speed limit signs in the parking lot
I'll wait for you to get back to me on that I just wanted to express my
appreciation to Eli for giving me and I did keep it at 45 minutes but we did
make a very good round tour of it also
um this Wednesday is the crime stats meeting at the police department and I
was there last month and some of some of the citizens are asking why doesn't the
city council people come do they get this information
I can't answer whether you get the same reports that we get but the officer in
charge did say that they don't invite the city council to come as council
members but I think it would do a world of good
for the relationship if you came as Citizens to listen to what the people
there are saying to hear what's going on in the neighborhoods to hear the fears
and what's going on now I did have a police car parked in front of my house
for two weeks they picked it up Saturday so we know it's just a matter of time
before the fifth shooting happens in front the gentleman two doors down was
arrested a second time they got him for resisting arrest resisting arrest
because one was driving his car away then he fled from the scene he wrecked
the car they caught him with the machine gun
and it eludes me what the fifth was but the prosecutor
drop three of the five charges from Jump Street the bond went from no bond to a
thousand bonds to he was released with promise to appear
the pressure needs to be put on the prosecutor because you know the police
like us are getting tired of seeing the same people going to jail going to jail
slap on the hand out to go this child's father was arrested last year after
their house raid he got caught with guns and drugs and cocaine and he got one
year probation so and I mean they're still doing what
they do and there's no incentive not to do it because the prosecutor's not doing
what he needs to do so whatever pressure you can put on the prosecutor would be
appreciated thank you thank you yes Clark Jones
um just to also let Miss Kessler know we have transcripts on our team's video as
well so that would be legal
thank you and for Mr Mr Nikki thank you so much I do attend weekly in my dukem's
role with the police department separately from the community so I'm in
on those uh private meetings of uh what's going on in the community so
thank you for that but it is very informative for us to stay informed with
that information thank you president McBride yes Mr Davis
just just a Food For Thought
um Miss benicki probably has a better conversation with the mayor than he
would with the council because the marriage in direct control of the police
department I understand the council members are a part of the city
government and also a part of the funding mechanisms of the of the police
department but as far as the enforcement tool and the conversation that she's
asking that needs to happen between uh city government along with the
prosecutor probably will be best served with the mayor and the prosecutor versus
council member and prosecutor just a thought
thank you for your input because it is County as well as I know some I think
the rape kits were under the prosecutor as well but I will
um I will send an email to see the status but I do uh know that years ago
when we were trying to get that the rape kids that it fell under the prosecutors
but but I will follow up as well the um rape kits are held in freezers at the
police department some of of them got moved to a garage and so that may have
broken the chain of evidence on some of them okay thank you I will follow up
with that as well thank you Mr Davis I will also um
advise or ask I know Mr Nicky will still come to uh Council but and and maybe she
have already reached out but I will follow up with you as well Mr Nicki
thank you um with that this meeting stands
adjourned thank you