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that will track requests for service or complaints and provide quicker response time. This too <br />will tie into the web site and provide better service for our customers. Please visit the new <br />SouthBendIN.gov and see for yourself all that you can learn. <br />As we use technology internally to enhance our productivity and creativity, we are also <br />making sure that the infrastructure is in place for future growth and new jobs in South Bend. <br />You are already familiar with the - , -`~; f ~, '* ~ Y <br />MetroNet, a 40 anile loop of fiber optic <br />lines which connects key facilities and <br />institutions. It makes access to <br />broadband services more affordable fox <br />users by enabling competition. <br />Founding members of the MetroNet are <br />realizing unexpected savings and ~ ' ^' <br />discovering ways to enhance business <br />operations. One investor told me that ~ u <br />............. <br />his company was initially involved as a public service because he thought the infrastructure <br />would be important fox the community. To his surprise, he has learned since then that he will <br />recover his investment cost in three years because of lower pricing. The MetroNet has also <br />allowed us to keep and compete fnr new high tech jobs that will be an important part of our <br />future economy. The Research Park at Notre Dame will leverage the intellectual capital in our <br />community to create new jobs, new products, and new businesses. It will create a community of <br />researchers that flourish in the creative environment. It will be a catalyst for our local economy <br />as we meet the challenges of a changing world. A great example of finding new solutions to old <br />problems is the embedded sensor netwoxk developed by Dr. Luis Montestruque, with Professors <br />Jeff Talley and Mike Lemmon. If this concept, which has been successful during beta testing in <br />our sewers, can scale up and add other modules to test for various pollutants, it has the potential <br />to save communities millions of dollars as they address CSO issues. We are eager to use the <br />assets on our college campuses, the creative research, the quest for la~awledge, the energy and <br />idealism of the 22,000 college students who axe in our community. We want them to be able to <br />find good jobs here, to stay in South Bend - or to came back after they have had their big city <br />experience, to be a brain gain, not a brain drain. <br />A-45 <br />