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South Bend Redevelopment Commission <br />Regular Meeting - June 16, 1978 <br />Page 6 <br />5(c) Continued- <br />Jeanne Derbeck: It wasn't quite clear to me what you said the financing <br />problem was - it has to come through the School Board? <br />Mr. Napoli: The financing problem is that we do not - cannot - bond, for <br />capital improvements. In other words, we cannot raise large sums of money <br />because we don't have bonding power as other public libraries have so <br />the way we build up capital for capital improvements is through the <br />library improvement reserve fund. We save money every year from the <br />ope ating budget and when we have enough we build something. That is <br />how we built the Main Library and that is how we built the new Roger <br />B. 7rancis Branch in Clay Township. But it takes years to save money <br />lik that - it took us more than ten years to save enough for the Roger <br />B. rancis Branch and with the time deadline that we have - we'll.have. <br />abo t $125,000 in the library improvement reserve fund by the end of this <br />year. That won't be enough to start any major construction so we will <br />hava to look toward other options for funding capital improvements and <br />one of those options would be a private or non - profit leasing or holding <br />com any - such as the Plymouth Library formed and did it that way. Through <br />tha method we could add an addition. <br />Jeanne Derbeck: Would that be cutting yourself off from the School Board? <br />Mr.lNapoli: No, not at all. <br />Cha r: That is by State statute..what the relationship is. If you became a <br />Cla s One Library you would have your own Library Board or governing <br />boa d and would not be under the School Board, that is another. <br />Mr. Napoli: I would say that would be the last option, the first option <br />would be to form a leasing or holding company operation; the second <br />option would be - according to our lawyer, Mr. Bruce Bancroft, it is his <br />opinion that the library does have limited bonding power up to $500,000, <br />through the special provisions of Indiana codes 20- 13 -36 -1. Under this <br />statute, the school corporation could allow the library to share its <br />bonding power up to a limit of $500,000. We are not really sure about this, <br />it would I believe, require test litigation. Another method would be <br />through federal revenue sharing funds. This year the legislature passed <br />Public Law #119 which allows cities, towns and counties to appropriate <br />revenue including federal revenue sharing funds, for operating expenses <br />or capital expenditures for public libraries. Quite frankly, we have some <br />doubts with the competition for these funds, if it would be approved in <br />the very near future... especially when we are talking about capital <br />improvements that would cost between $500,000 and $1,500,000. The last <br />option would be to form a separate Library Board. <br />Chair: Any further questions or discussion? <br />Dav Anderson: Would you envision that the need for free public parking <br />aro nd the library area would be solved if and when the parking meters <br />are removed downtown.? <br />