Warsaw Board of Works met Friday with Mayor Joe Thallemer, George Clemens and Jeff Grose present, along with Clerk-Treasurer Lynn Christiansen and city attorney Scott Reust.
City Planner Justin Taylor presented a complete streets ordinance. Assistant Planner Jonny Latsko introduced the policy at the last Board of Works meeting. Latsko has since moved back to Ohio, to be nearer his family, and taken a job with the city of Toledo.
Thallemer said he neglected to thank Latsko for all the work he’d done for Warsaw at the Feb. 19 meeting.
The complete streets policy outlines goals to provide safe and accessible multimodal options for people traveling between home, work, school, recreation and retail; to provide mobility options for persons of limited abilities and income; to encourage and facilitate a community focused on healthy living, beautification, and economic development which attracts new people and businesses; and to ensure contiguous pathways for everyone.
The policy will guide and direct decision-makers to design, construct, maintain and improve the transportation network in a manner that provides safe access.
Taylor noted there had been no public comment on the ordinance and the guidelines have been followed for the last 10 years. The ordinance formalizes the design process to provide accessibility regardless of where people live in the city.
The new policy was approved.
The Board next considered the request of Greg Steffe, of the Kosciusko County Historical Society, for a two-day road closure on North Indiana Street between Main and Center Streets Sept. 11 and 12 from 6 a.m. on Saturday to 5 p.m. on Sunday for the Dillinger Raid event. The request was tabled pending the appearance of someone representing the event.
The Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory request to reestablish the ride-along firefighter program was approved. This allows people from other agencies to work side-by-side with WWFT staff.
“They’ll ride our engines and learn from us,” said Fire Chief Mike Wilson, in a virtual connection. “We’ll be mentoring young officers from other stations locally and throughout the region.” The program was approved.
Administrative assistant Whitney Olson presented the following employees and their wages, which were approved – Ellen Hoffer, administrative assistant for the wastewater treatment plant, $20 per hour, full time; Kimberly Arnold, administrative assistant for the street department, $20.55 per hour, full-time; Russell Cripps, part-time maintenance tech at the wastewater treatment plant, $15 per hour for the summer; and other summer help, also making $15 per hour for the summer: Kyle Harter, Alexander Cook, Noah Pequignot, Nathan Freeman, Alexis Bradley, Trey Stouder and Thaddeus West for the park department and Dan Gause, Nolan Perry, Austin Meads and Linken Silveus for the cemetery department.
The following travel requests also were approved: for Lynne Christiansen, clerk, to travel to the annual IIMC conference in Michigan; for police office Brad Kellar to attend a Smugglers Inc. event in Michigan City and a defensive tactics instructor course in Lawrence; police officer Megan Bortner to attend the Western Regional Counter Drug training in Kokomo; and Jennifer Whitaker to attend the annual SHRM Indiana conference in Indianapolis.
Thallemer said out-of-state travel requests are still being considered on a case-by-case basis, referring to Christiansen’s item on the travel docket.
She said attendance allows her to obtain master municipal clerk status and she would certainly keep her eye on the COVID-19 reports in that area.
Sheila Wieringa, Parks Department events planner, presented following Parks contracts, which were approved:
• Big Daddy Dupree and the Broke and Hungry Blues Band, represented by Donn May, to entertain during the July 23 blues concert for $800.
• Zach Day to entertain during the blues concert series June 11 for $1,500.
• Heather Widner to design and teach painting classes May 14, July 15, Sept. 17 and Nov. 19 for $150 per class.
• Wysong Ballroom Dance instructor Michelle Wysong to teach four dance styles May 11 to July 27, for $60 per couple, not to exceed $600.
Taylor also presented a lease contract with OrthoWorks for three offices, a reception area and shared use of the third-floor common space of city hall for $2,250 per month through Aug. 1, which was approved.
Thallemer said the rent payment was reduced a bit because the company is using fewer offices.
Taylor also presented two Troyer Group pay applications for the Lincoln sidewalk project: No. 3, for right-of-way services, for $18,196.25, and a second pay application, No. 23, for preliminary engineering services on the project for $5,360, which were approved.
The Board approved the purchase of materials to build the roof system of the police department’s 10-bay garage for $58,224.87, as presented by Chief Scott Whitaker.
Whitaker reminded the Board the labor to build the roof was approved in December and the materials list meets the requirements of the state.
Brian Davison, wastewater treatment plant superintendent, presented a contract with G&G Hauling and Excavating to begin and complete the Pike Lake shoreline restoration project at a cost of $157,998. The bid was approved at the Board’s last meeting.
Also approved for the Pike Lake project was a change order from Cardno engineers for 32 hours of oversight services for $5,000, bringing their total fees up to $29,450.
Davison continued with bills for the wastewater treatment plant expansion project: NV Grant Service’s pay application No. 93 with charges of $1,090 for payroll oversight on the project and pay application No. 93. along with pay application No. 96 for $1,170 for the same type of work; and Wessler Engineering’s pay application No. 94 for an asset management plan for $2,209; and pay application No. 94 for $49,896.
