WARSAW — The majority of the Warsaw Board of Works meeting held today, Oct. 19, was spent discussing wastewater business.

The board approved to tentatively award the wastewater plant expansion bid to Kokosing Industrial, Westerville, Ohio. Kokosing presented the lowest bid at $25,710,750. It was noted that this bid was responsive to the bid specifications and came within 1 percent of the engineer’s estimation for the project.

The board tentatively awarded the bid based on financing. The award is contingent on securing the State Revolving Fund bonds, which is currently going through the Warsaw Common Council. This allows Kokosing to start the construction process if they wish.

Based on this bid, Warsaw Mayor Joseph Thallemer noted that the current wastewater rate study should remain very close to what the council was presented with on Monday.

The board approved a resolution regarding the issuance of bonds. The resolution sets the bonds at a do-not-exceed amount of $35,000,000.

A travel request was then approved for Brian Davison, utility manager. The request was for a fact-finding trip to Denmark. Davison informed the board that Denmark will be paying for the whole trip except for the airfare, which he estimated around $900. During his trip, he will learn about the technology they incorporate into their wastewater treatment plants.

Davison said that currently, Warsaw’s treatment plant is the largest user of energy in Kosciusko County. Technology in Denmark has allowed their treatment plants to create almost 100 percent of the energy they use. The hope is that Davison can study their practices and technology and bring energy-saving methods to the future plant.

In other news:

• The Warsaw Parks Department was approved to attend training for Safe Sitter, a babysitting training class that will allow the department to offer babysitting classes in the future. The department was also approved for its annual contract with Kensington Media for the concert series. The board approved the parks department to apply for two grants, one through the Kosciusko County Community Foundation and one through KREMC Operation Round-Up.
• The Warsaw Police Department was approved to purchase bulletproof vests after receiving a 50 percent match through the Bureau of Justice Assistance.
• The board approved a disaster recovery cloud service through Keystone for the collections office and the city of Warsaw.
• The wastewater department was approved for three pay applications. One pay application was for the sewer replacement project and the other two applications were for the sewer rehabilitation project.
• A change order was approved for work on the Lawson Fisher Osborn Pump Station.
• A contract with Scott Reust for city attorney duties starting in 2019 was approved.