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Timothy _Klusczin_ski,_President, Historic Preservation Commission - Sep. 17, 2012 _page 8 documenting them prior to removal, with all units inventoried and their original locations recorded, palletized, shrink-wrapped and removed from the site for storage at the Library's storage location approximately one block away, for a total cost of $107,190.00. Various estimates of costs for removing and restoring the Avon's facade have been given by both the Historic Preservation Commission through Fritz Herget of Arsee Engineers, Inc. of Fishers, IN, and by several experts in the field of masonry restoration that were hired by the St. Joseph County Public Library. All of these estimates, including the one from Arsee Engineers, range in costs from $200,000 to as much as $500,000. The least expensive option overall for the time being that addresses the safety issue appears to be to Option 2 of the Grunwell-Cashero proposal. This removes all the terra cotta units and gets them safely stored. The remounting of the fagade on an interior wall of the Main Library when it is close to completion is another issue, but Option 3 avoids a lot of other costs, such as reconditioning and shoring up its existing wall and especially the costs of reconditioning the entire Avon building to usable condition, while addressing the safety issue now. We hope that the Historic Preservation Commission would prefer to at least preserve the Avon's fagade and not necessarily the entire building, as its report to the Common Council seems to imply (page 2 of its June 29, 2012 report to the Common Council, Ms. Hostetler states: "At the very least the terra cotta fagade should be mothballed and stored away for future use in other new construction."). At the Historic Preservation Commission's July 16, 2012 meeting I presented in writing during the Hearing of Visitors a proposal that indicated clearly that I was in agreement with this part of Ms. Hostetler's statement. That written proposal was presented to the Historic Preservation Commission Board on July 16, 2012, with a copy distributed to each Board member. The proposal indicates the Library Director's willingness to work toward the salvaging of the terra cotta pieces of the present fagade using Library gift funds that are available right now and later having those pieces remounted on one of newly constructed walls inside the new Main Library. In that written proposal, I also made it clear to both the Historic Preservation Commission Board at its July 16th meeting and later to the Library Board at its July 23, 2012 meeting that I would not be asking the Library Board to use any Library taxpayer funds for this preservation and restoration project, but would instead use part of the Library's available bequest funds (uncommitted gift funds) to remove and store the terra cotta tiles. The July 16t proposal went on to say that the Library would not assume the entire costs for the restoration of the terra cotta fagade inside the new Main Library. The funds needed to remount the terra cotta pieces to a suitable wall inside the new Main Library would have to come from a joint fundraising effort conducted by the Library, the Historic Preservation Commission, and the City of South Bend over the next 7 years prior the new Main Library's construction. The enclosed engineering inspections and evaluation reports commissioned recently by the St. Joseph County Public Library and conducted by Frost Engineering and Consulting (FEC) of Mishawaka, IN, by Grunwell-Cashero Co. of Detroit, MI, and by Ziolkowski Construction, Inc. are, we believe, the most comprehensive and professional evaluations of the Avon's fagade and the wall that supports it that the Library has seen to date. As stated earlier, the evaluation report of the structural engineers states that the Avon's fagade has Recipient of the 2009 Leighton Award for Nonprofit Excellence www.libra_ryforlife.org