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REGULAR MEETING SEPTEMBER 11, 2006
<br />grant for stabilizing a humanities collection, which the HPC would consider the plants of
<br />the conservatories to be, with a $15,000 award ceiling administered by the National
<br />Endowment for the Humanities. A capital improvement grant, with a $10,000 award
<br />ceiling administered by Rotary International. A Museum’s for America Grant with
<br />available fund from $5,000 and $150,000, also administered by the Institute of Museum
<br />of Library Services. And finally a Consultation Grant and a "We the People Challenge"
<br />Grant of up 1 million dollars are available from the National Endowment for the
<br />Humanities. So its not at all, that they are asking the Council to rescue these building and
<br />then try them in a noose around yours necks to try to preserve and maintain, but the HPC
<br />is more than happy to help assist in anyway that they can, to guarantee the future of
<br />something that HPC values very much.
<br />Ms. Catherine Hostetler, Director, St. Joseph County Historic Preservation Commission,
<br />125 S. Lafayette Blvd., South Bend, Indiana, spoke opposed to the closing of the
<br />Greenhouse and Conservatory. Mr. Hostetler advised that there are viable alternatives to
<br />save the conservatory and greenhouse, and to have firm numbers from a cost analysis. It
<br />was mentioned to put this under interim protection by the Council; this would save the
<br />buildings but not the contents, the collections. She thinks that it is very important that
<br />when these decisions are made concerning the buildings, that the Council is dealing with
<br />good solid numbers. There are creative ways of dealing with this situation, such as
<br />explore the feasibility of gifting the greenhouse and conservatories, possible to the South
<br />Bend Community School Corporation. The SBCSC has one of the top rated science
<br />research departments at Adams High School, who is just a hop, skip and a jump away
<br />from these conservatories. They would make an absolutely fantastic botanical and
<br />ecological study, environmental study available to the students at Adams and all the other
<br />SBCSC High Schools. There are a lot a different ways that this dilemma can be
<br />approached that will preserve the greenhouses, but then not financially burden the City of
<br />South Bend.
<br />In rebuttal,
<br />Mr. Bill Carelton, Director of Financial Services, South Bend Park Department, 321 E.
<br />Walter Street, South Bend, Indiana. Stated that it was obviously it was an extremely
<br />difficult decision that the Park Department was asked to make. The Park Department had
<br />to come up with some cuts and try to maintain their budget at a good rate this year. In the
<br />past, the greenhouse, because of the age of the facility and because it is very energy
<br />inefficient, when they were constructed, it was not such a huge burden to heat through the
<br />winter in South Bend. But the past several years with an increase in energy cost, the
<br />greenhouses are heated by natural gas; the cost approached over $100,000 last year, and
<br />is probably going to be over $125,000 this year, by the time they are done. In the colder
<br />months, it would be $25,000 to $30,000 to heat the desert portion, so considering the
<br />usage from the public that the greenhouse and conservatories had gotten, it was decided
<br />that the Park Department could use those dollars elsewhere and more beneficial to the
<br />Department and the City. The infrastructure itself, including the boiler, the Park
<br />Department has spent $23,000 to maintain it at its current level and it is still not very
<br />efficient. Unfortunately, the decision to close the facility was a difficult one, but the Park
<br />Department thought it was one that they had to come up with.
<br />Mayor Stephen Luecke advised that in 2005, it cost $271,000 to operate the greenhouse
<br />and the conservatories, depending on how you divvy up those costs up between the two
<br />operations, you can come to a cost per flower and a cost per visitor to the greenhouse,
<br />one way of dividing those costs would show that that it cost, and roughly the City grows
<br />25,000 flower in the greenhouse in different parks and places in the City, at a cost of
<br />$4.50 per flower, 4,500 visitors would have cost $35.00 per visitor from the budget
<br />figures from 2005. The City acknowledges that the City did not have the programming at
<br />the greenhouses or conservatories that have been in place in other communities. But
<br />those were some of the significant numbers that were looked at by the Parks Department
<br />as they made the decision. The greenhouse and conservatory are part of the Zoo Budget,
<br />and they felt that it was important to have revenue to be able to sustain the Zoo, with its
<br />200,000 visitors per year. Mayor Luecke stated that Ms. DeWinter, actually hit on a very
<br />important issue, that the City of South Bend provides a number of amenities that are
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