06-24-13 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING JUNE 24, 2013 over one hundred grave markers pushed over and damaged resulting in significantly hurting our rich City’s history; and Whereas, since March, spirited discussions have taken place with regard to developing a collaborative approach and partnerships to making the preservation and maintenance of historic City Cemetery a top priority so that its rich history and the thousands buried there is continued for future generations. It was noted that in 2011, there was a Veterans Day Tour of City Cemetery led by the Resolution Establishing a 5-Year Action Plan for Historic City Cemetery Center for History and that in 2008 the DAR Schuyler Colfax Chapter and volunteers from the DuComb Center raked leaves, trimmed bushes, scraped, primed and painted the rod iron fence which surrounds City Cemetery; and Whereas, the Council recognizes that the City Cemetery Trust Fund # 730 has a modest balance with one item noted in the budget detail that cemetery records have begun to be digitized; yet so much more that needs to be addressed so that City Cemetery can again become a place of peace and learning about the countless number of persons who are buried there, the magnificent tombstones, the veterans section, the potter’s field which provide an opportunity to appreciate and renew our interest in our City’s history, its former residents; and a cemetery uniquely located in a developing urban setting; and Whereas, creative and innovative methods such as those used to renovate and re-dedicate the gravesites of Charles Curtis, who served as a U.S. Vice-President from 1929-1933, and his wife, Anna Baird Curtis, who are buried in Topeka Cemetery in Kansas. The project went from gravesites which “looked terrible and embarrassing” to upgrading cemetery roads, curbing, replacement of flag poles, and upgrading the gravesites to include engraving the Vice- Presidential Seal into the granite headstone and “Son of the Kanza Nation” to honor the Vice- President’s Native American heritage. The first donation received for the cemetery renovation project came from the Potawatomi Nation, which triggered donations from the Sac and Fox Nations, the John Haupt Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, local historians and other interested groups and citizens; with a public celebration and rededication taking place in 2002. , Now, Therefore, be it resolved by the Common Council of the City of South Bend, Indiana, as follows: Section I. The Common Council believes that the City of South Bend’s oldest cemetery, City Cemetery, has been neglected for far too long. With the eye-opening experience which took st place at the 1 annual “Schuyler Colfax Day in South Bend, Indiana” in March of this year, the Council sees an opportunity to collaborate together with the City Administration, the Historic Preservation Commission, the Colfax Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the many individuals and groups who have expressed an interest in preserving, sustaining and taking positive actions to revitalize City Cemetery. The State of Indiana is known as the “Mother of U.S. Vice-Presidents” - namely Schuyler Colfax, Thomas A. Hendricks, Charles W. Fairbanks, Thomas Marshall and Dan Quayle; The Council believes that South Bend should be a leader in preserving more of our rich history by making City Cemetery another destination point which enriches our present and future by remembering and preserving our past. Section II. The Common Council therefore recommends the establishment of a 5-year Action Plan for the revitalization and preservation of City Cemetery, which shall be overseen and monitored by the Community Relations Committee of the South Bend Common Council. Specific objectives shall include but not be limited to the following: 1.Proposing that such Action Plan reflect and identify goals and objectives, specific action items, timelines, measureable outcomes and potential funding sources which the Common Council in conjunction with the City Administration and interested stakeholders including but not limited to representatives from the Colfax Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Historic Preservation Commission, and all other persons and organizations interested in preserving and restoring the City 12