From left, Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen, Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer and Board member George Clemens. InkFreeNews photo by Lasca Randels.

WARSAW — Warsaw Street Superintendent Jeff Beeler and City Councilman Jeff Grose plan to meet next week with homeowners who will be affected by the first phase of the reconstruction of Hodges Addition.

The project is anticipated to begin June 1, Beeler told council members at the City of Warsaw Board of Public Works & Safety meeting Friday, May 15.

“We have a large photo board and individual property pictures and we’re going to go to each homeowner and talk to them about what’s going to happen and kind of give them a scope of the project,” Beeler said. “We hope to be able to be out and in the streets next week as long as the weather is good and try to meet with everybody and show them sort of the same idea as what we did around Lincoln School, what it looked like before and what it looks like now and that way they’ll get representation of the quality project Warsaw is going to be giving to the residents out there.”

Bids for the first phase of the project, which involves Lincoln Drive and North Johnson Street, were opened and reviewed earlier this month. 

Two companies furnished sealed bids. Niblock Excavating, Inc. submitted a bid in the amount of $987,761. Phend & Brown submitted a bid for $752,123.60. 

Beeler recommended that the bid from Phend & Brown be accepted. Funds for the project will come from the Wheel Tax, Restricted MVH and a Community Crossings grant. 

The bid from Phend & Brown was approved.

In other matters, the board approved signing and submitting a relief fund acceptance certification to the Indiana Finance Authority.

Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said the certification acknowledges the city’s participation in the Coronavirus Relief Fund. This is money that was made available from the CARES Act and is distributed and managed through the State of Indiana, Thallemer said.

According to Thallemer, all cities, towns and counties will be allocated per capita share.

“It’s not a competitive grant,” Thallemer said. “This is money that is put in a bucket for the city to use between now and the end of the year.”

The grant money is specifically for any type of expenses that were directly related to the COVID pandemic, Thallemer said.

“We’ve asked all of our department heads to keep track of any costs, extra costs that they’ve had so we’ll be compiling that,” Thallemer said. “This is the first step that’s required before we can take part in the program.”

According to Thallemer, the city has been granted $484,000. 

“The program is frankly open, there’s no hurry to compete if you will, it’s not a grant writing process, it’s just making sure that these expenses meet the guidelines and that’s the little bit trickier part so we’re working through that right now,” Thallemer said.

The board also approved continuing a grant from the Indiana State Department of Health for Naloxone (Narcan) for 2020. 

“This is a continuation of a grant we started with the health department a few years ago,” Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Chief Mike Wilson said.

WWFT acts as the host department to administer Narcan kits to all fire services, law enforcement agencies and emergency medical services in the county. 

Other news:

• Warsaw Police Chief Scott Whitaker participated in the meeting remotely. Whitaker announced that Warsaw Police Department Sergeant Greg Oberlin will be retiring this month after 23 years of service with the department. 
• A new hire/change payroll report was approved. The changes included a new hire/replacement, summer help, a promotion and a change in status from full-time to part-time.
• In March, the K21 Health Foundation awarded a grant in the amount of $236,130 to Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory for the purchase of 17 cardiopulmonary resuscitation appliances for the placement of the appliances with all of the Kosciusko County fire departments. The board gave approval today for K21 Health Foundation to pay Zoll Medical Corporation directly for the appliances, once they are received.