When we met with the Mayor of South Bend last summer, they gave us a tenative deadline of having something going by June of 2003. According to their scheduling, the clean-up should be complete by that time and then they will start the push to sell the lots in the new light industrial park. They already have a buyer for the boiler house, and I am told that there is much interest in the reclaimed land.
When they gave us this &#039;deadline&#039; of June 2003, they also realized that this is going to take time. What they wanted from us by that time is a definite commitment to create the museum in those buildings at the site. As long as they can tell potential buyers of the other lots that the building is going to be a museum in the future, they should be happy. But they do not want to tell potential buyers that their neighbor is an old building that is just going to sit there and be an eyesore that detracts from the new businesses there.

The city is starting to ask the question &amp;quot;how are things going?&amp;quot; The main thing they are looking for is a commitment, and we need to have a good answer for them soon. We have been working in that direction, but our main stumbling block at this time is we need a budget for costs of building the museum and also costs for running the museum. Anybody that gives us money is going to want to know where it is going. 
Anybody that is qualified to come up with a budget for a project like this is going to want to be compensated for their time, so we are planning on asking the HPOCA board for funds to get a good budget in place. We will be doing this in Wentzville. 

There has been another proposal to locate a museum next door to the Northern Indiana Center for History. This is where Copshaholm, the Oliver Mansion, is. At this time, this option doesn&#039;t look too likely. The City would have to move about 2 city blocks worth of people out of their homes and demolish these houses to make room. Support from the City Council for this idea has been low, with I am told, one council member definitely against the idea. In my opinion, it will also be harder to raise money to build a new building, as opposed to saving an old one. We would have to pursue different avenues to fund this, and so far, they aren&#039;t panning out. But, time will tell.