The modern rebuild's money: what was bonded, and what the record does not price

1969–2026 · the financing, at the record's true size

The gap, named first because it is the finding: No bond amount for the 1969 Lincolnway building, and no bond amount for the 1998 downtown expansion, stands in any source reached for this build — not in the Carnegie nomination's paper course, not in the 2025 News-Times reconstruction of the 1969 move (which prices the plans, the site and the move, and no financing), not in the library's own published timeline of the 1998 expansion, and not in the State Board of Accounts' audit record pulled. The checklist's requirement — the bond, amount named — therefore closes as a named gap, not a figure: the settling sources are the library board's minutes and bond ordinances of 1964–69 and 1996–98 and the South Bend TribuneA history that printed an amount it could not source would be inventing the rebuild's central financial fact; this entry prints the want instead.

The bond course the record does carry: That the modern library is a bonded institution is documented in its own audit trail. The Indiana State Board of Accounts' audit of the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library for 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2022 carries the system's debt in its own fund names: a Bond and Interest fund, a Bond and Interest Reserve, and two construction funds kept by their bond years — Construction (2017 Bond) and Construction (2020 Bond), the 2020-bond construction fund standing at $4,095,672 at the opening of the audit period and drawn down across it for the building program of those years. The next bond in the course stands in the county council's hearing record: a public hearing on a proposed appropriation of $4,200,000, plus original issue premium and investment earnings, to be provided by the issuance and sale of bonds by the library, for renovations to the Mishawaka and Bittersweet buildings — roof improvements, lighting and HVAC upgrades, and purchases of equipment and technology across the district; no speaker appeared for or against, and the hearing closed with the appropriation vote still separate, as the council's chair stated. The Bittersweet mechanical work that closed that branch from 22 June to 2 November 2026, carried in the branches article of this section, belongs to this same renewal course. The rebuild's financing thus stands in the record in two strengths: the two historic campaigns unpriced in every source reached, and the present century's bonds documented fund by fund in the state's own audits.

Sources:

1. Indiana State Board of Accounts, Financial Statement Audit Report of Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library, January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022 (filed 20 September 2023) — the Bond and Interest and Bond and Interest Reserve funds; the Construction (2017 Bond) and Construction (2020 Bond) funds; the 2020-bond construction fund at $4,095,672.
2. St. Joseph County Council, public hearing on the proposed $4,200,000 library bond appropriation, as reported in the council's meeting record (Citizen Portal) — the amount, the premium and earnings, the Mishawaka and Bittersweet scope (roof, lighting, HVAC, equipment and technology), and the hearing's course.
3. Evans, "Pages in Transit," South Bend News-Times (2025), and Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library, "Heritage Room" timeline (mphpl.org) — the 1969 and 1998 building courses as published, carrying no financing figure; the absence is the gap's evidence.
4. Named as settling sources, not reached: the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library Board of Trustees' minutes and bond ordinances, 1964–69 and 1996–98, and the South Bend Tribune's building-campaign coverage of both years.