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recreational facilities with updated programming and friendly productive <br />service. <br />Community and <br />Economic <br />Development: Creating and expanding opportunities through partnerships in <br />neighborhood revitalization, commercial and industrial development and <br />community enhancement. <br />Public Works: Providing leadership in the development and delivery of engineering, fleet, <br />transportation, sanitation, wastewater, water and other services as called <br />upon by our customers. <br />Building <br />Department: Serving our customers by inspecting, informing and ensuring a safe place <br />to work, play and live. <br />Century Center: Providing a state -of- the -art facility with excellent services to customers <br />while generating maximum economic benefit to our community. <br />Building South Bend in 2003 and beyond <br />Mayor Stephen Luecke's theme for the past several years has been "We're Building South <br />Bend." That theme has had a major influence on the development of the 2004 budget. There <br />were five areas of concentration that became or remained budget priorities for 2004. <br />We're Building Neighborhoods - Mayor Luecke and the City's elected <br />officials continued their strong commitment to neighborhoods. The City <br />will invest $4.7 million to fund or leverage state and federal funding for <br />housing assistance, development and home ownership programs, <br />neighborhood public works and parks, neighborhood development for <br />social services and organizations, and public safety initiatives. <br />Committing these resources will help us maintain, improve and support <br />strong neighborhood development. <br />We're Building a Safe City - Public safety is the foundation of all the <br />City's efforts to build South Bend. Through the targeted and creative use <br />of available resources, the City is working to provide quality police, fire <br />and ambulance services for the community. The crime rate has increased <br />in several significant categories over past year. South Bend has 2.4 police <br />officers and 2.3 firefighters per thousand population. These ratios are <br />among the highest in the state and well above the national average. We <br />believe that these extra officers are important for officer safety and <br />community safety. We will also complete the long awaited and much <br />needed design for renovation and expansion of Police Department offices. <br />The City's Fire Department is rated one of the highest in the State. We <br />have recently refurbished three main fire trucks to like -new status. This <br />xiii <br />