11-26-18 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETING November 26, 2018 done over on Prairie Avenue. So when we look at the next graph, the orange is what is estimated to be the new annual debt service obligations from the issuance of this bond. As you can see, it is well within our means compared to current levels of anticipated needs in the coming three (3) to four(4) years. The orange is based off of Umbaugh's analysis of a fifteen (15) year term bond at an interest rate one hundred (100) basis points above today's. We don't know what the interest rates will be in three (3) years but we think that is a reasonable assumption. Depending on what the interest rates are and what the City's obligations and finances look like, we might envision a shorter term bond as well. We just don't know that exactly until we are getting ready to do that. The two (2) obligations that don't end until the 2030s are the recent Parks TIF Bond that was approved and the Smart Streets that was used to extend the life of the River West Development Area. Dr. Mueller continued, In terms of community impacts, The South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce has used their modeling to find that the construction phase at this level of investment would generate sixty-five (65) direct jobs and one hundred and fifty (150) directly induced jobs. Direct, indirect and induced economic output will be $64 million. The operation phase, and this comes from the Public Library's projections, they are anticipating five (5) to ten (10) jobs and increased foot traffic in south east downtown. A lot of the other quadrants in downtown have seen a love of activity and more attractions, and this is one that hasn't. So bringing people here will be a good anchor for that part of town and will hopefully drive further development in the coming years. The additional resources this space will provide, as it is called the Community Education Project, there is a lot of additional programing that we anticipate that will reap a lot of benefits for our residents. Deborah Futa, Executive Director of the St. Joseph County Public Library with offices located at 304 South Main Street, South Bend, IN, stated, I just want to start by talking about the changing role of the Library. As an economic development agent, we address literacy, technology skills, small business development and quality of life. As more people live and work in downtown, it is essential to have those destinations that enhance the sense of place in the community. We offer small business support that help small entrepreneurs create business plans and navigate government regulations and online forms.As a digital literacy provider and trainer,we are helping people find and use digital content and our community uses our connectivity to help them live their lives. As a learning center for a lifetime, we are involved in everything from helping parents understand how to interact with their young children to providing training,classes and information programs. Our partnership with the School Corporation for high school equivalency students means those folks are in our facility,every day,using us as a classroom and a resource. Sometimes we hear that people don't use the library anymore so I just want to give you a snapshot of our 2017 numbers (referencing a slide in a presentation which is available in the City Clerk's Office). We have 114,000 people with an SJCPL Card. Of that, 68,000 people live in the City. That is about two thirds (2/3) of the population. Our fast Wi-Fi means more digital inclusion in the community and it was used 423,000 times in 2017. Other visitors logged 178,000 computer hours on one(1) of our pieces of equipment and 3,200 groups met in the Library. Ms. Futa continued, It doesn't matter where somebody lives in the City. There are residents in every district who are using the Main Branch Library.This(referencing a slide in the presentation) is a snapshot that we took for the month of July in town. We have it divided by districts and you can see that,no matter where you live,no matter what district we are talking about,people use the Main Street Branch.This slide also tells us that people move around. They might stop by a branch but they are also using the Main Street Branch. The Main Street Library serves a different purpose than our other branches because of the breadth of collection and the ability to offer programs. The current Main Library was built in 1960, renovated in 1989, was never designed to host the programs, events and collaborative work that takes place today. In 2017 we made the decision to invest $15 million in the neighborhoods. We renovated and added square feet to four (4) branch libraries and built two(2)new ones. We did this with the intent to return to a Main Library project in 2019 when that bond was repaid to reinvest in our flagship location. We spent a lot of 2017 gathering community input with interviews,focus groups,surveys and stakeholder meetings.From all of the data that we got,we found that the community wanted an inviting and intuitive building. They wanted areas for activity and quiet study. We've often said during these presentations that we are not quiet anymore and we love that. We love being a hub of activity, but we need to 5