By David Slone
Times-Union
WARSAW — Warsaw City meetings will move to the Police Department Training Center in December and January while work is being done in the council chambers at City Hall.
At Monday night’s Warsaw Common Council meeting, Council President Jack Wilhite asked about the work that will be going on at the City Hall building.
Mayor Jeff Grose explained they’ve met with Core Mechanical several times on the HVAC system in City Hall.
“It’s going to happen very soon. In days, or the next week, they’re going to take care of a major unit. They’re not going to put it up on the roof. It’s going to just be outside, basically taking (Human Resource Director) Denny Harlan’s (parking) spot,” he said.
“They’ll take care of that for several weeks, and then Dec. 15 to Jan. 30, phase II they call it, they’re going to fix the council chambers. So we’ll be working with the council and other boards, along with the clerk-treasurer’s office, to move all public meetings that are normally held in this council chambers to the Warsaw Police Department,” he said.
Grose said WPD Chief Scott Whitaker and his department were gracious enough to let the city take over three-quarters of that training room.
“It sounds easy, but all these laptops have to go. State law now wants everything on video record,” Grose said, noting he’s the one that is going to be running the video equipment for the six weeks.
“That’s going to be a good faith effort. There’s plenty of parking. The training room is really nice. You guys were gracious enough to approve restrooms, and so those are in there and it’s really good. But that will be for about six weeks,” he said.
After the council chambers, Core will then move to the wastewater collections and clerk-treasurer’s offices. That will be about another six weeks, and then they’ll move upstairs to Building & Planning for six to seven weeks; then in July or August, transition over to working in the HR and mayor’s offices.
“A huge project that’s needed to be done for a long time,” Grose said. “… We’re going to make it right.”
If it doesn’t get done now, quoting Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen, it’ll be worse in the future, he said. Christiansen has been very creative in finding funds for the project in 2025 and 2026.
He expected the council to meet in the council chambers for their Dec. 15 meeting, but would have their January meetings at the WPD Training Center.
Wilhite said, “This is sort of been in the works for, even from the previous administration. Like you said, it’s a long time coming, and finally we’re going to get it done.
Funding for the approximate $1.7 million project will come from the American Rescue Plan Act, a supplemental distribution and the lawsuit settlement.
On Dec. 16, 2011, the city entered into an AIA contract for the remodeling of City Hall.
In October 2020, the city filed a civil suit against multiple defendants after poor installation of the HVAC systems at City Hall. The performance of the contract resulted in the HVAC being improperly installed, installed out of conformity to the contract documents or being negligently installed. The systems resulted in malfunctions, degradation of other parts of the HVAC system and building installations, which are all ongoing, according to previous news articles on the lawsuit.
