03-25-19 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETING March 25, 2019 slip. Well, I don't know, but he canceled that appointment. They cancelled another appointment, the guy from Fisher Lawson canceled the next appointment, too. Thank you. Maggie Mackowiak, 51616 Clubhouse Drive, South Bend, IN, stated, Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I am the Principal of Corpus Christi Catholic Elementary School located two (2) blocks from the proposed site of the Oxford House. Our school has been in this neighborhood for fifty-eight (58) years and has educated many City residents over those years. Our students range in age from four(4) to fourteen (14) years old. Our primary concerns with the location of Oxford House is one (1) of safety for our school children, some of whom walk to school through the neighborhood and all of which have outside recess on the school grounds adjacent to the neighborhood. While we are empathetic to the people who are battling various addictions and understand the overall goal of the program, we feel strongly that there are plenty of places in the City to locate a group home that are not in such close proximity to an elementary school. The location of the house presents significant personal risk to our school's students and, on behalf of the school community, I feel I must object to the consideration of the group home in our neighborhood. The nature of addition is that sometimes there are relapses and if, or when, there are, it can also lead to dangerous behavior which poses an unacceptable risk for our student community comprised of very young children. We strongly urge the City's leaders to find more appropriate locations for the rehabilitation of residents who have addiction issues. Not to mention the fact there is Boland Park,which has a lot of activity in the summer, and the narrow streets. The house,right now,has a one(1) car garage and if you're going to put eight(8)to twelve(12)people in there, there is no room to park on the streets. That is a safety issue with children darting in and out of cars. I'm just very concerned. Thank you. Tai Verbrugge,18370 Dunn Road, South Bend, IN, stated, Last month, there were two (2) Common Council meetings regarding the possibility of a Climate Recovery Resolution or Ordinance, and recognizing that not all Council Members were present, I simply wanted to stress, again,the importance of taking legislative action regarding climate change to prepare for,mitigate, and to adapt to the outcomes that will come if we don't prevent climate change. I work at the Robinson Learning Center and I've worked with a bunch of ten(10) and twelve(12)year old kids whose homes have flooded multiple times in the past couple of years due to historic flooding in South Bend. I'm concerned that if definitive action isn't taken soon, those kids are going to grow up in a South Bend where that flooding is very common, even though they really had nothing to do with the fact and they didn't really cause climate change, being ten (10) years old right now. So, I simply ask for the speedy consideration of a climate recovery resolution. Thank you. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Council, President Tim Scott adjourned the meeting at 7:32 p.m.