09-08-08 Common Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETING SEPTEMBER 8, 2008 Is it true that it cost more than $116,000 for police overtime to provide traffic control on home football weekends and that Notre Dame does not pay for this service? Mayor Luecke responded that his records show that last year the City spend $116,407.17 for game day overtime. Officers are stationed at key intersections in the city to ensure that traffic flows safely. This is a benefit to our residents and businesses as well as fans who are attending the games. Notre Dame does not pay for this service. The University does pay for officers that it hires to work on campus and in the stadium on game days. The second question: Was $1,000,000 donated to the Kroc Center? Mayor Luecke responded that the City of South Bend has qualified to be a site for a Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center. This designation makes us eligible to receive a $40,000,000 grant through the Salvation Army to create a world class youth and family center on the West Side. This facility will help our children to develop their talents and leadership skills to achieve their full potential. (One half of the grant is to construct the building, the other half is for an endowment to help pay for operations of the center.) In order to obtain the grant, we need to raise a local match of $10,000,000. The Mayor stated that at his request, the Council has appropriated $1,000,000 as part of that match. It has been an important step in raising other matching dollars and helping to make the Kroc Center a reality. The third question: Are taxpayers spending $1.7 million to clean up coal ash at Notre Dame. Mayor Luecke stated that at the Eddy Street Commons site, the City is investing in infrastructure to support over $200,000,000 in private investment. The $1.7 million is a total for earthwork at that location. It includes leveling the site and excavating the underground portion of the parking structure and removing coal ash from the property so that there are stable soils to build on. Mayor Luecke stated that it was fine to leave the coal ash “as is” if one did not want to support a building structure on that site. However, the City wanted to support dense, mixed use high quality development for jobs and tax base and housing improvements in the City. The bid for removing the coal ash was $770,000. Mayor Luecke stated that the City had provided similar site assistance at Erskine Commons Shopping Center to enable new construction at a former landfill, as well as years ago at the ethanol plant to remove muck soils prior to construction. It is common for communities to support economic development by removing such impediments to development when the return on investment to the taxpayers is high such as in these projects. Mayor Luecke stated that these costs and other public costs at the site are being funded through a bond that be paid by Tax Increment Financing (TIF), property taxes generated by new buildings in the development will pay for these costs. He noted that the improvements will be paid for by the properties that benefit from the work, not by other tax payers in the city. He stated that these TIF funds can only be used for infrastructure in the designated area and are not available for personnel or operating costs. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the President Timothy Rouse adjourned the meeting at 7:50 p.m. ATTEST: ATTEST: ____________________________ ____________________________ John Voorde, City Clerk Timothy Rouse, President 18