10-22-01 Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING OCTOBER 22, 2001 Committee would like to see officially recognized by the DOJ as a designated Weed & Seed Target Area; and WHEREAS, the Weed and Seed Steering Committee, with staff support from the City of South Bend and the Prosecutor's office, has developed general goals and objectives as part of a community - based, five -year Implementation Plan; and WHEREAS, the application to the DOJ for Official Recognition represents the collaboration and commitment of many organizations from the public, private the nonprofit sectors, to work together to improve the quality of life for the residents of the designated area in particular, as well as the residents throughout the entire city; and WHEREAS, the Weed and Seed Steering Committee has approved the Weed and Seed application at a Steering Committee meeting held on October 22, 2001. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED by the Common Council of the City of South Bend, Indiana, as follows: Section I. That the request for the Common Council of the City of South Bend to support the application to the DOJ for Weed and Seed "Official Recognition" shall be and hereby is approved and accepted. Section II. That this Resolution shall be in full force and effect from and after its adoption by the Common Council and approval by the Mayor. s /Charlotte Pfeifer Member of the Common Council Councilmember Ujdak advised that the Health and Public Safety Committee met this afternoon and sends this Resolution to the Council with a favorable recommendation. Mr. Jon Hunt, Director, Department of Community-and Economic Development, 1200 County -City Building, South Bend, Indiana, made the presentation for this bill. Mr. Hunt stated that this Resolution authorizes the submission of an application for Official Recognition as a Weed and Seed Community. Additional money does not come with this official recognition but it is the first step in securing additional money and does open up other possibilities in terms of putting the City in a priority position for other federal programs. It is a community based and neighborhood driven effort to develop a strategy that is based on law enforcement, community policing, human and social service and neighborhood revitalization. He noted that the areas that they will be looking at will be the neighborhoods of St. Casimir's, St. Adalbert's, LaSalle Park and a portion of the Western Avenue Commercial Corridor. Mr. Hunt noted that the Steering Committee is composed of about forty -five (45) citizens and agency representatives and they look forward to having a strong application though there is no assurance the Official Recognition will be received. It is an effort to bring together a number of actors into one area to bring a set of tools together to improve neighborhoods by first focusing on public safety and crime issues on a neighborhood basis in a partnership fashion and then moving into the restoration and revitalization of the neighborhood by bringing in human social service and housing and economic development programs. They are excited about the possibilities and upon Council approval the application will be submitted at the end of the month with a two (2) or three (3) month review process on the application by the federal government. Mayor Stephen Luecke asked for the Council support for this Resolution. He stated that the staff and the citizen steering committee have been working hard on this mater. It has brought many different partners together to focus on issues, to use the assets of the community and to find -22-