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HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION PRESERVATION SPECIALIST REPORT June 17, 2013 June, at last? As expected, there has been a great deal of landscaping being done around the neighborhoods, coinciding with equal amounts of houses that have received letters from code to cut their lawns. The city forester has had their hands full with, downed trees and dead ones. If anyone has a chance they should really take a look at the Riverside Drive embankment west of the duck pond. The bank is eroding at a staggering rate and these trees are dying off or simply collapsing. At 944 Riverside Drive a tree "slipped" and is now leaning on the carriage house. The rock steps that used to lead down to the river behind that house are now simply washed out or simply sheer drops after just a few steps. This is frightening to say the least. On a happier note, the Plaster/Drywall Workshop was a great success! I ! We had 16 attendees for the lecture and 12 attendees for the hands on portion. Craig Barber our expert demonstrated large plaster repair and texturing techniques, while I handled the lecture part and the hands on for the drywall repair and mudding. We had attendees from all over the area including two separate property owners from Indianapolis, one from Lebanon, IN, a city councilman from Peru, IN, a property manager from Goshen, IN, and even a couple from Benton Harbor, Ml. I would like to mention that Wayne Doolittle was a huge help for me that day, as none of the Indiana Landmarks staff showed up. (hmmm) I will be giving a walking tour of the East Wayne Historical District on June 270' for the Studebaker National Museum. They have been so kind to us by allowing free use their chairs for the workshops that this was one way of showing our gratitude. If anyone Would like to share any additional East Wayne fun facts for that tour, I would gladly welcome them via email. As a side note, we are completely sold out for the August bus tour. We need to start thinking about next year's tour schedule and acquire underwriters for the cost of the buses. Last month I had mentioned the Studebaker Fountain. Margaret Fosmoe from the South Bend Tribune is currently working on a story that should appear yet this week. The East Bank/Howard Park business group is having a meeting this evening at bpm. They have expressed an interest in reinstalling the fountain near its original location. I will attend that meeting and will report shortly. dim Janowiak from the Studebaker's Driver Club has really spearheaded this effort to get the fountain installed at the site of the original Studebaker Blacksmith Shop at the corner of Jefferson and Michigan streets. We have met with Sarah Heintzelman from the 933 Bridge Project. We had worked with Sarah to get information about local landmarks in the downtown area for the mural. The information that is provided for these landmarks on the website is that information we provided. This is a great project and we should be involved with as it features some of the buildings that this commission has worked so hard to preserve. Please reference the brochure included. Steve Szaday Preservation Specialist