RM 11-24-81 - Laserfiche WebLink

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South Bend ledevelopment Commission Rescheduled Regular Meeting ;November 24, 1981 5. COMMUNI ATIONS (Continued) a. continued... Councilman Voorde explained that last evening during the pri- vil ge of the floor at a council meeting, we were addressed by Mr. Brademas and some other individuals who represented themselves as potential developers who had been frustrated by the Redevelopment Department. In any case allegations haVE been made. The public believes that perhaps a good faith effort has not been made in seeking out developers for the Odd Fellows Building and in response to that the Human Resources and Economic Development Committee feels that it as to do something and I guess we look to you first to see what your thoughts are. Mr. Nimtz stated he was pleased to have Councilman Voorde here and would refer it to the staff and to Attorney Kevin Butler for recommendation and report. He assured Mr._ Voorde that this will receive due consideration and commented on the fine cooperation between the Commission and the Council and tha ked him for being here and bringing it to our attention. Cou cilman Voorde asked if the demol -ition bids are going to be ope ed December 4th. Mr. McMahon replied they would be. Cou cilman Voorde asked if these claims could be looked into bef re that time. Mayor Parent stated there was no validity to the claims. Two years ago he asked the Redevelopment Commissioners to give additional time to take a look to see if someone could give a via le plan to renovate the Odd Fellows Building and we took a long, long, look at it. Obviously you accuse the staff or me or others of having some ulterior motive for demolishing at this point. There would have been no point in delaying the dem lition for 2 years, if it was just meant for me to carry the Odd Fellows on my back for a couple of years. I will will- ingly give it to anybody else who wants to carry it on their back for a couple of years, but I came back to the Commission a couple of weeks ago after 2 years of hard work by a lot of people, Pat McMahon, Carl Ellision while he was here, Kevin Horton, and myself. We made trips around to people, some of the people that are coming up now, particularly in the person of Mr. Brademas. As a matter of fact his proposal was one of the weakest ones. We did not get into a whole public discussion as to-why the proposal was weak or strong and I am not so sure it would be proper to have a public discussion of that but I am assured and I am pleased that the Commission did take 2 yeas and did delay and gave me and my staff and your staff time to work on the whole situation. I am not going to change my position after taking 2 years of planning on it. I am just telling you that frankly it is your decision to make. I am not asking you to delay it any further. I am more than pleased that you gave the Odd Fellows Building 2 more years of life, 2 more years for developers to work at the project, and I could not in good conscience ask you for additional time. I think that the allegations that have been made are wrong.