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South Bend Redevelopment Commission <br />Regular Meeting —May 24, 2011 <br />Unfortunately, for the staff and for the animals, the <br />current facility is extremely inadequate for the <br />work that they do. <br />Since we presented the project to you on February <br />19, 2010, there have been a number of issues that <br />have impacted our progress on this project. The <br />first delay came when the original bids for the <br />project came in over budget. As a result, the bid <br />specifications needed to be reviewed and revised in <br />order to accommodate this issue. Next, the city's <br />increased commitment to Leadership in <br />Environmental Energy and Design, or LEER <br />standards, required that we review and revise <br />many of the building specifications. Sadly, for us <br />and for the animals, these delays increased our soft <br />costs (i.e., architectural and engineering fees). <br />These delays bring us to today and the request you <br />have before you. As a South Bend taxpayer, I <br />appreciate the oversight and scrutiny your <br />committee applies to these requests. We all need <br />to be responsible stewards of the city's resources. <br />The reasons I hope you will be compelled to <br />support this request for additional funding are as <br />follows: <br />L SBACC manages over 4,000 animals each <br />year. Due to the severely limited holding space in <br />the current facility, we are faced with having to <br />euthanize approximately 65% of those animals <br />every year. Many of these animals are healthy, <br />adoptable animals that we simply can no longer <br />hold. <br />2. SBA CC welcomes thousands of visitors every <br />year. Sadly for our handicap visitors, our building <br />is not handicap accessible. <br />3. SBA CC has several structural issues as a <br />result of its age. For example, the building has <br />appalling drainage problems due to the aging <br />plumbing. <br />4. Another issue with the building is the lack of <br />8 <br />