02-11-13 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 11, 2013 make sure that when he comes before the Council his facts are factual. He stated that is his goal for 2013. Jesse Davis, P. O. Box 10205, South Bend, Indiana, thanked the Council for looking out for the people over in the Rum Village area. He stated that he attended a meeting and has been following it in the news. He stated that he saw some statements made that there were some issues with spending public money on private issues. He stated that the Mayor himself whether it being Luecke or Buttigieg have been up here on numerous occasions talking about taking our tax dollars and investing our tax dollars in public and private partnerships. He stated that if we have ever needed a partnership that needs to be formed and our public dollars to be spent on private issues, this is a major issue that needs to be solved. He stated that last year he has brought up issues on building code and the Councilmember Oliver Davis has looked into that. He stated that he installs septic systems for a living and one of their key factors whenever they excavate is water tables. He said it at the meeting that there are maps that are hundreds of years old that will tell you that is a flood plain. So when this builder went to the building department and said that they needed permits, and they looked over these designs and realized that this guy wanted to dig nine foot, full size basements, someone at that building department should have thrown a red flag up, somebody dropped the ball, that’s part of the city. The City needs to make sure that they stay involved here and help as much as they can and stop pointing their fingers at New Energy and Garden Homes who are both out of business. He stated that he understands that they can look into suing the insurance company for Garden Homes, but do a little bit of research and found out if anybody from Garden Homes was sitting on any committees within the city when those permits were issued. Linda Cole, 2108 S. Meade, South Bend, Indiana, invited everyone to come to house for dinner, and come stay with her for approximately 3 hours and come and tell her that you would live like this. She pleaded to the Council to care about what is going on out there. Christopher Tomkiewicz, 2801 W. Calvert, South Bend, Indiana, stated that homeowners near the New Energy (Ethanol Plant) have been having flooding problems ever since they have shut down. He stated that homeowners who have sump pumps have had to keep them running every minute just to try and keep up with the huge amount of water due to the well points that the ethanol plant used to supply the water to the plant. He stated that they have asked city representatives, Mike Schmuhl, Eric Horvath and Gary Gilot to help find a solution to the problem to no avail. He stated that the City of South Bend has a TIF Fund that has been slated to be to demo abandoned homes. He stated that they would like to use these funds instead of being used to demolish homes. Ms. Shirley Rice, 2239 Prospect, South Bend, Indiana, stated that she used to live at 1521 Kemble. She stated that the City came to her and wanted to buy her property for future development. She stated that in researching trying to find a new home, she asked the city about this area in question and was never told that it was a swamp area or that they were having problems with the water table. She stated that it is the city’s responsibility to tell the potential home buyer if there is a problem in a certain area. Ms. Carrie Piechocki, 56321 Oak Road, South Bend, Indiana, stated that she does not live in the neighborhood, but it is her Aunt’s neighborhood. She asked the City to continue to monitor the water throughout the Spring, to see how high that water table will rise and continue to keep in communication with residents in the area, so that they can keep the lines open and try and come up with a solution to this issue. Mr. Bryan Kirkendoll, 2905 W. Calvert St., South Bend, Indiana, offered a quick fix or a solution to help those residents with flooding problems. He stated that is the area in which he lives at. He stated that he works for the City of South Bend Bureau of Sewer and proposes that the city get a pumping station out there. He suggested using TIF funds. He also stated that the city could tap into the line that is going into the Ethanol Plant and tap into it and run it into our main lines and the water would be dispersed into three (3) different ways. He stated that he had done sewer work and he knows how we can solve this problem and make the water flow and keep the levels down and solve the problem. He urged the Council to take a look into these 6