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going to argue that tonight, because quite frankly, the standard that I think applied under the 1977 Statute is substantially similar to in many ways to the standard that I understand you are operating under. And then on top of everything else, we subscribe to a service, or our firm does, to the South Bend City Code and we annually get releases from the company that we buy this South Bend city code from is owned by the City Counsel's attorney, Cathy ...Cekanski, and we historically receive, at least once a year, sometimes twice a year, the updates to the South Bend City Code, we have not been furnished yet and still haven't been as of today the 19. We understand there is a new copy of the City Code that her company is producing. The code was recodified, as some of you may know in 2005, and we were reading the old City ordinance for the Historic Preservation Commission, and so Shawn was nice enough to send us the current version, which does not vary that much from the old version, very slightly. And not only that, but he also forwarded to me the two sets of standards which various Commissions, either this board or an earlier board, had adopted that govern your consideration and determination of an application for a Certificate of Appropriateness. Now withstanding all that background, we ... our client would very much like to demolish the building in question. Before I get into our reasons for doing so, we did read the staff report initially and I must state that we must respectfully take exception to some of the statements contained in the staff report. We want to make it clear though that in doing so that our goal here this evening is not to offend anyone or even to make this an adversarial proceeding. There is another forum for that after we decide to go that route. We even respect the Commission's and the staff s goal of trying to preserve this structure if economically feasible. I kind of have mixed emotions being here representing Alderwoods as an advocate ... As Todd knows, I'm a member of Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana. I even serve on an Advisory Commission, or Board, I guess I should say for the Northern Regional Office, of which Todd is the Director. Notwithstanding my historical background - I'm a history major from Ball State - and my desire to see virtually any reasonably preservable historic building or structure preserved. There are some real problems with this particular building and any attempt to do so. And notwithstanding your goals and our understanding of those goals and the appreciation of them, as owner of the structure and the property, we feel we have a right and perhaps an even an obligation to present our perception of not only the situation but our perception of the realities of the situation. Before I get into specifics, I also want to make known that we did receive a verbal proposal from Todd wearing his other hat as Executive Director of the Northern Region Office of Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, and he asked us, the client, to consider whether we would consider gift this property to Historic Landmarks as a non-profit organization and hopefully they would be able to salvage the building and preserve it. I can tell you that we have discussed this by phone with ... including one of the Vice -Presidents of Alderwoods and we are going to seriously evaluate that request. We are asking and we want to it on record tonight, to request that HLFI, I'm sure Todd will follow up on this, present us with a written proposal along these lines. At the stage, it's only been verbal and we need something in writing. Unfortunately, because of the size of our organization, we can't make this decision in 48 hours or 72 hours or any thing like that. It will probably will take anywhere from 30 to 60 days... Assuming that they do submit that written request, and that is a serious request on the part of HLFI that we have 30, minimum 30, preferably 60 days to consider that request and we will gladly do that. And I'll be honest with you .... Pat and I even gave a list of about six reasons why we thought it might be appropriate and would be advantageous to our client. But, quite frankly, it's not my decision to make nor is it Ms. Primmer's decision to make. And we assure you it will be given serious thought and there are some advantages to that possibility if it develops. Unfortunately, it's quite a ways away at this stage. We would prefer even though that's a distinct possibility and it will be decided presumably within the next sixty days, that we would prefer to go ahead tonight make our presentation on our application for a C of A to obtain a demolition permit for this building if for no other reasons for time. As you know you do have a say in determining whether or not you will grant our C of A. If you don't, there are other subsequent steps that we have to take to obtain demolition of the building if we decide to 23 January 2006 HPC Meeting Minutes [Corrected Version] 4