06-17-2013 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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SOUTH BEND BOARD OF PARK CONMUSSIONERS REGULAR MEETING JUNE 17, 2013 The Board of Park Commissioners of the Park District of the City of South Bend, Indiana met on Monday June 17, 2013 at the O'Brien Administration&Recreation Center, 321 E. Walter St., South Bend, Indiana for its regular meeting. Notice of the date,time and place of the meeting were duly given as required by law. Park Board members present were as follows: Mr. Robert Goodrich,President Ms. Amy Hill,Vice President Mr. Garrett Mullins Mr. Bruce BonDurant Park Board members absent were as follows: Staff members present: Phil St. Clair,Director;Bill Carleton,Fiscal Officer;Betsy Harriman, Administrative Director; Susan O'Connor,Deputy Director;Randy Nowacki,Director of Golf Operations; Sharon Smith,Potawatomi Zoo Food and Gift Manager;Richard Payton,Development Director;Mike Dyszkiewicz,Maintenance Superintendent; Cheryl Greene,Park Board Attorney I. The meeting was called to order by Board President Robert Goodrich at 4:00 p.m. H. The first order of business was the interviewing of interested citizens. 1. Mr. Christopher Huff of 1831 College St. addressed the Board regarding the City Cemetery. He suggested that in conjunction with the Mayor's initiative to clear 1,000 houses in 1,000 days,that the land made vacant when houses around the cemetery are demolished be platted as additional cemetery plots and sold to supply a cash now for the facility for restoration. He suggested 34 houses around the cemetery that are in poor condition that could be used for this purpose. 2. Ms. Elisha Feasel of the Historic Preservation Committee gave an update of the cemetery records project. One thousand volunteer hours were used last year and 300 hours so far in 2013 have been clocked. They have been used to scan 20,000 index cards that contain information on all the burial sites in the City Cemetery and Bowman Cemetery. The data from these cards have been transferred to a searchable database. The City GIS department has been developing a overlay map to provide a data point for each burial location. This has been merged with the searchable database to provide the burial information as each location is highlighted on the map. This will be available on the internet and is modeled on the interactive map of Arlington Cemetery. Notre Dame's Architecture Library restored five fragile, one hundred year old oversized maps from the wall of the sexton's cottage and digitized them. The Notre Dame Conservation Lab restored the four one hundred year old leather bound ledger books and pages were scanned and digitized. She reported on the condition of the cemetery itself. A plan is being developed to upgrade the cemetery and make it more appealing as a tourist attraction. - - I - -