10-28-13 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING OCTOBERT 28, 2013 reinforce that and/or remediate some of the most trouble areas that remain along the stretch from downtown out to what is sometimes called the (inaudible) Councilmember Oliver Davis: The last part besides the wells that you have worked with and I’m thankful for that and the Western Avenue, part of our bus tour we talked about curbs and sidewalks, in terms especially when you look at the west side and a lot of this whole Kankakee issue that we have dealing with the wells, and dealt with the whole issue of muck out there, you see that with the curbs and sidewalks out there, could you share with our people out in the audience and the Council what your plans are again, reiterate the issue regarding the curbs and sidewalks. Mayor Buttigieg: Our goal is for everybody to have an adequate sidewalk in front of their home. Not every resident in the City has that right now. And that is true in many parts of town, one of the ones that I remember you bringing to my attention is an area where is really feels like seesaw, because of what is going on with the earth under there. We have extended the availability of funds for that, over $1 million dollars having listened to some of the concerns raised by Council about the prior level of funding not being enough. I want to offer truth in advertising, I don’t know if this will take care of the problem, we have much more work to do but we certainly recognize why we were asked to commit more to do something about and hope to be able to afford to expand the program and pick up our pace when it comes to deal with and what we acknowledge is already back log in dealing with those trouble curbs and sidewalks around the city and in our neighborhoods. Councilmember Oliver Davis: Again, I want to thank you for digging deep when it came to our wells issue, Western Avenue issues and then when it comes to our curbs and sidewalks because that is what our neighbors and people have been asking for and I want to thank you for listening. Councilmember Gavin Ferlic: Sure, I just want to say thank you to the Administration for its responsiveness regarding Council feedback and the budget and I think that it is represented very well in the list of amendments presented today. So thank you for your response. Councilmember Dieter: Thank you. Can you clarify about the streets are we still looking at dealing with William and Jefferson or are you looking for us to make a motion to take the others out? Mayor Buttigieg: Certainly not asking for you amend the package. Councilmember Dieter: I spoke with people under your administration and I thought we were? Mayor Buttigieg: Yeah, it is certainly adjusted from what we talked about in the first instance. I don’t know if Scott would you like to give a chance to reiterate for those from the public that are here and how you think that the different phases you think need to be appropriated for now. Councilmember Dieter: You can probably do that on Wednesday. Chairperson White: Wednesday, because we will make sure each Council person has the opportunity to address the questions to the Mayor and to anyone in his department that can address the questions. Councilmember Dieter: The motion would be if we were to amend that motion would be made on Wednesday? Chairperson White: Yes, that is correct. Councilmember Dieter: One quick, and I don’t know if Mr. Ford would have to answer that because you talked about changing and doing things everything in South Bend and I haven’t seen anything and I have read a lot that specifically says if we would do William and Lafayette that we would create jobs there? 10