A view of the future roundabout area along Winona Avenue, Argonne Road, Park Avenue and Kings Highway. InkFreeNews photo by Dan Spalding.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — The roundabout project at the intersection of Winona Avenue, Argonne Road, Kings Highway and Park Avenue in Winona Lake will affect traffic patterns in Warsaw and Winona Lake.

At the Warsaw Traffic Safety Commission meeting Wednesday, Nov. 3, Warsaw City Council President Jack Wilhite said he had a constituent ask him when the roundabout project was going to happen. Wilhite said he kept hearing it was going to be close to the beginning of 2022 but wanted to know what the Traffic Safety Commission’s plans were to take care of the traffic flow. He learned that city engineer James Emans knew a bit about it so he asked Emans to talk to the Commission about what he knew.

Emans said there actually are two projects slated for that area. The roundabout project is the town of Winona Lake’s while the city of Warsaw will be doing a stormwater project.

While the roundabout project is not Warsaw’s, Emans said Winona Lake has kept them “very informed” on what their plans are.

Construction bids for the work are expected to be opened in January.

“It’s doubtful that anybody will be seeing anything happening on that roundabout before a mid-March to mid-April timeframe,” Emans said. “I am aware that the town’s requirement is that, Winona, Argonne, Park, all that area, maintain traffic flow throughout their project. That was a condition that they put into it. That doesn’t mean that you’re not going to have some flag men out or some delays, but the intent is that the roadway section will not be shut down as a part of roundabout work.”

The city of Warsaw has a storm sewer project that is slated to begin within the next month between McKinley Street and the Argonne Road area, Emans said. The city is relocating a pipe that currently outfalls at Winona west of McKinley, and the pipe is going to be rerouted easterly because of the roundabout project. He said now is the time to do it.

“Our contractor will be in there starting within the month and will be done by mid-March of next year. That is a condition of our contract. We want our work done before the roundabout starts,” Emans said. “Our work will be mostly on the north side of the road and we should be able to keep Winona open. We don’t have any plans for any sustained shutdown of Winona as a part of our work.”

He said there may be a one-day closure to cross the pipe across the road.

There is no plan to impact Argonne Road with the city of Warsaw’s project.

Emans found out Wednesday from Warsaw’s contractor that they would like to close Winona down between McKinley and Argonne next Tuesday (Nov. 9) so they can do a process of verifying elevations of some of the utilities that are out there. Their traffic plan would take traffic going eastbound on Winona, send it north on McKinley to Durbin and back over to Argonne and then back down. Emans said the contractor will have signage out.

“So, Winona Avenue, short of next Tuesday, won’t be shut down as part of either one of these projects for any length of time. But there could be short periods of time – a day – where it is shut down. And, certainly, there will be flagmen out there on both of these projects,” he said.

When Warsaw’s project finishes in mid-March, he said Winona’s roundabout project will start about the same time. It was his understanding that the roundabout project will continue into 2023, but he didn’t know the exact schedule. He will keep the Traffic Safety Commission informed and said Winona Lake and their engineer have done an excellent job of keeping the city of Warsaw informed.

The final matter Wednesday before the Traffic Safety Commission came from City Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins. She said one of the Council members had received an emailed letter from a downtown business employee who expressed concerns about not finding an available place to park downtown in any of the unrestricted lots.

Dobbins said the letter writer felt that perhaps some people parked indiscriminately and didn’t get ticketed, but Dobbins said she knows when Mason Sumner, parking enforcement officer, is on duty, he’s very fair in how he approaches it. No special consideration is given to anyone.

The letter writer also expressed concerns about closing the downtown streets for events like First Friday and/or closing the streets early and not having anything on the streets a lot of the times, but Dobbins said that was a separate issue.

“The only thing that I came up with after reading through (the email) – normally, we have been doing a downtown parking overview every spring. We kind of lost sight of that with COVID because in 2020 we were just allowing parking everywhere and we didn’t pick it back up in 2021. Now is not the best time to do that,” she said, and suggested having a subcommittee to review downtown parking in the spring.

Sumner reported that as of Wednesday, the city lot behind Lakeland Financial Corporation has about 25 spots available to rent. If anyone is interested in renting a spot, they can give him a call. They’re leased for six-month terms. There’s also five spots in the 200 block of North Buffalo Street where the Harris law office is located, he said. Dobbins said that was good information to know.

She then asked if the parking diagram for downtown Warsaw was up to date. City Planner Justin Taylor said it was updated about two to three years ago, but they could look at it again and revise it if needed.

The downtown parking map can be found on the city’s website at www.warsaw.in.gov/DocumentCenter/View/300/Downtown-Parking-Map-PDF?bidId=

The Traffic Safety Commission decided a subcommittee of Taylor, Sumner and representatives of the street department and Warsaw Community Development Corporation and Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce would look at the parking in the spring.

The next Traffic Safety Commission meeting, if needed, will be Dec. 1.