WARSAW — While this week’s Regional Cities grant announcement has several area counties jumping for joy, according to Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer, it is still too early to know what affect the funding will have on local projects.

Indiana Govenor Mike Pence announced yesterday, Tuesday, Dec. 15, that the Northeastern Regional Partnership was one of three regional partnerships chosen to receive $42 million in grant money to put toward proposed projects.

In all, seven partnerships applied, each submitting hundreds of millions of dollars worth of dream projects. Kosciusko County is one of 11 counties making up the Northeastern Regional Partnership. Among the numerous proposed projects, Warsaw submitted two. However, Thallemer warned, it may be a while before a decision is made as far as distribution of the funds.

Our community has several strong projects to be considered but there’s nothing in the bank yet,” Thallemer said.

The decision is up to a five-member Regional Development Authority that the coalition selected in June to make the final decision. While there are numerous projects on the list, Thallemer noted that some of Warsaw’s may stand a good chance.

“Some of the projects we have listed are ready to go,” Thallemer said. “Those projects aren’t early-stage projects, so I think theres’ an advantage to those projects.”

Thallemer also gave a reminder that Warsaw is not part of the North Central Partnership, which includes St. Joseph, Marshall and Elkhart Counties and was also a recipient.

“While we do a lot of things in North Central Indiana, our alignment is with the Northeast Partnership,” he said.

The third region selected was the Southwest region, which includes the Evansville area.

The original plan was to select two regions and each would receive $42 million. Thallemer pointed out that, because of the decision to choose three, the additional funds will need to be allocated for that third area. This may not happen until spring or even summer.