SB Venues, Parks, and Arts looking for a Chief Development Officer, update to park projects
SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- South Bend Venues, Parks, and Arts is looking to hire a Chief Development Officer to help raise resources and fundraise for the department, according to the SBVPA executive director.
Aaron Perri said he wants to make sure the facilities receiving updates and renovations never find themselves in a state of neglect in the future.
“Right now we’re in a tremendous growth period redoing about $50 million worth of projects in just about every neighborhood in the city,” said Perri.
Currently, construction is underway at Howard Park near Jefferson Boulevard in South Bend. Perri said the park will have winding trails, community spaces, a café, and an ice rink.
“I keep telling people Thanksgiving weekend 2019, we’ll be ice skating,” he said. “That’s our goal, we’re on target right now, on schedule, on budget but there’s a lot of work to be done.”
And being assembled right now is the $600,000 VPA-in-motion vehicle, according to Perri. He said the vehicle is the first in the country that takes the fun of parks and recreation to any part of the city.
“What if we could have this mobile experience that when it showed up to your neighborhood park, that all the sudden was the coolest park in the city for that period of time,” Perri said.
The Charles Black Center is the latest finished product a part of the multimillion dollar SBVPA renovation. Khalid Swanson, who uses the center, said he has been there almost every day since it re-opened at the beginning of November.
“I play basketball, yell at everybody, all that,” he said. “I like that there’s a lot of people playing and doing extra activities.”
Many people said the center had been neglected by the city and Perri’s office after not receiving updates in years. Perri said the chief development officer will help continue to make sure the department is not resource constrained in the future.
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