Board of Works Members George Clemens (L) and Jeff Goose (R).

By Lasca Randels
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — The Lincoln Sidewalk Project should be under construction in 2022 if all goes well, City Planner Justin Taylor told board members at the Warsaw Board of Public Works & Safety meeting Wednesday, Jan. 6.

Following approval of a pay application in the amount of $3,350 to Troyer Group, Taylor provided an update on the project and said they are looking at bidding the project in late 2021 or early 2022 

“There are still a lot of hurdles to jump over as far as some property acquisition. They’re working on acquiring the right of ways in order to have enough space to put the sidewalks in,” Taylor said. “We’re really excited to have the opportunity to enhance this neighborhood.”

Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer reminded board members that this is a federal project “that comes with all the hoops as Justin said — the things that have to be done, environmental reviews and property acquisitions.”

“It’s going to be a great project over in that neighborhood and certainly improve the safety for the kids heading to school and the parks and all the other amenities in that really great neighborhood,” Thallemer said.

In another matter, an agreement between the city of Warsaw and Cardinal Services Inc. in the amount of $11,900 was approved. Thallemer said this is essentially an agreement that was approved last month.

“The use of the funds changed this year and it was approved by the council, but unfortunately the agreement reflected the old use,” Thallemer said. “In other words, strict utilization for the KABS program. During the pandemic, there was a federal directive that all operational funding and even capital funding for transportation systems would be taken care of so there was no need for our funds to do that.”

Thallemer said Cardinal Services had “a very difficult demand for PPE” so the council approved the use of that money for PPE. The current agreement reflects that.

An agreement with Parkview Health Systems that was approved unanimously Tuesday at the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory board meeting was also unanimously approved by the Board of Works.

The agreement gives EMT trainees the ability to utilize the Parkview facilities for their required hours of training. 

The territory already has an agreement in place with Kosciusko Community Hospital and will continue with that agreement. 

“We felt like with our advanced EMT class that we’re doing, this gives our students another opportunity to go to another facility and see how they do things and most importantly lets us be a better community partner with Parkview as well as how we do things with KCH,” said Chris Fancil, Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory EMT coordinator.

“I think it’s probably wise that we work with both Lutheran and Parkview in different ways,” Board Member George Clemens said.

There’s no money involved and no real downside to it, Fancil said. The contractual agreement is for three years

In other news:

• A maintenance agreement with Anderson Property Management in the amount of $16,999.92 was approved. This is for maintenance of beds and urns at Central Park. Warsaw Parks & Recreation Department Superintendent Larry Plummer said the fee is the same as in previous years and recommended that the city use Anderson’s services again in 2021.
• The next regular meeting will be at 11:15 a.m. Jan. 15.