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3110 Woodcreek Drive Downers Grove IL 60515 Ph: 630.598.0007 <br /> <br /> www.cagecivil.com <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />November 19, 2020 <br /> <br />Ken Smith <br />City of South Bend - Water Works <br />125 W Colfax Avenue <br />South Bend, IN 46601 <br /> <br />RE: Valvoline <br /> 215 E Ireland Road <br /> <br />Dear Mr. Smith: <br /> <br />The purpose of this letter is to present information to your office and the Board of Public Utilities <br />with respect to Core Acquisitions (property owner) request to re-commission the existing water <br />service tap located at 215 E Ireland Rd. <br /> <br />During the initial due diligence period as the logistics of this potential redevelopment project were <br />being evaluated, CAGE Engineering made contact with the City of South Bend to discuss existing <br />utilities servicing the property. Zach Hurst (City of South Bend Project Engineer) provided <br />information related to the sizing and locations of the municipal utilities adjacent the property. CAGE <br />asked Mr. Hurst if the City permitted the re-use of existing water taps and Mr. Hurst replied “we <br />always push people to reuse existing taps where practical” (email dated November 5, 2019). <br /> <br />CAGE prepared engineering improvement plans following the direction from the City of South Bend <br />with the plans showing the re-use of the existing water service connection located adjacent to <br />Ireland Road. The plans were submitted for permit review on June 15, 2020. The City reviewed the <br />plans, provided comments and CAGE revised the drawings for submittals on July 6th, August 3rd and <br />August 17th all with the plan depicting the re-use of the existing water service tap. On August 26, <br />2020, the Engineering Department issued a comment stating that South Bend’s Rules and <br />Regulations require that for any demolished building, a new tap is required. That was four reviews <br />before the requirement was brought to our attention and contradicts what was relayed to us during <br />our initial conversations with the City. <br /> <br />When we inquired about the reasoning behind this regulation, the City informed us that the primary <br />driver for this regulation is the desire for any old, lead water service taps to be removed from the <br />system. The property owner had the site contractor excavate the existing water service curb stop so <br />that a visual inspection could be made in order to ascertain the pipe material. Upon excavating t he <br />service, it appears that the piping is copper from the curb stop to the corporation stop at the water <br />main. There is no way to know with certainty that the water service is in fact copper fully to the <br />water main, but the water service was constructed in 1973 and it was becoming increasingly rare <br />that lead services lines were being installed new in 1973.