From left, Kosciusko County Area Plan Director Dan Richard, County Attorney Ed Ormsby, County Commissioner Brad Jackson, Commissioner President Bob Conley, Commissioner Vice President Cary Groninger. InkFreeNews photo by Lasca Randels

By Lasca Randels
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Kosciusko County Commissioners upheld recommendations from the Area Plan Commission on three separate matters on Tuesday, Aug. 17.

In the first matter, petitioners Morris and Cynthia Jones were denied a request to vacate a public way in the Lake View Acres Subdivision off of SR 15, north of Silver Lake.  Kosciusko County Area Planning Commission denied the request earlier this month when the couple asked that a stub road in front of their house be vacated.

Dan Richard, planning director, said the overall planning process typically includes stub roads being left open for possible future development.

During the APC meeting Aug. 4, Morris Jones said he would be willing to donate the vacated land back if the area develops with more housing. A motion was made to include that as a deed restriction, but the motion failed. A second motion was made to deny the petition, which was ultimately approved by the APC.

At the commissioners’ meeting Tuesday, Attorney Steve Snyder, representing Tori Fehr, said Fehr owns the large piece of property immediately to the west of the proposed vacated road. This serves as a potential access to the Fehr property.

Morris Jones said he’s been mowing the area for 35 years and doesn’t want people driving through there. Jones said Fehr always uses the north entrance to get to her property.

“I just didn’t want to see anybody driving through there when it’s wet and cutting grooves in it and then I’d have to fix them to keep mowing it without tearing up my lawn mower,” Morris Jones said. “That’s the only reason I wanted to vacate it.”

Commissioner Brad Jackson asked for clarification.

“You don’t care so much if that was ever improved to a road and people drove through there as a road, you just don’t want people driving though it now,” Jackson summarized.

“Yeah, it’s all grass right now and I don’t want it getting all tore up,” Morris Jones said. “But if they go through and stone it or pave it or whatever … if they develop that into housing later on, that’s fine, but I just don’t want anybody driving through the grass there and tearing it up.”

“There’s got to be some means to get what everybody’s after here,” Jackson said. 

Snyder suggested putting a ‘road closed/no access’ sign at the stub road to solve the problem.

After some discussion, commissioners agreed to accept the recommendation of the APC and denied the request but added that if there are issues in the future they will look into having the county highway department place signage in the area.

In the second matter, the APC recommended approval to rezone a lot from industrial II to commercial at 970 N. Lake St. in Warsaw. This is the former location of Video World. Petitioner Mike Vest purchased the building and plans to renovate the parking lot and building within the budget limitations attached due to the property being in a flood zone.

Richard said that since the building is in a flood zone, there are limitations on how much money can be spent for renovations without moving the building higher off the ground. The amount allowed is based on the assessed value of the building.

Vest owns a tattoo business and bought the building with the intent of moving that business there.

Richard said Vest has been working with Assistant Planning Director Matt Sandy to ensure that renovations are within the budget.

Commissioners approved the request.

The last matter involved a request by William Bowmen to rezone land from residential to agricultural in the area of CR 850S and CR 600W in Seward Township, between Yellow and Diamond lakes.

The APC recommended approval for Bowmen to rezone. Much of the property is swampy and not suited for residential development.

This request was approved by commissioners.

On another topic, County Administrator Marsha McSherry said the Indiana General Assembly adopted Indiana House Bill 1169 related to cyber incident reporting.

The bill requires the office of technology to maintain a repository of cybersecurity incidents and provides that a state agency and a political subdivision shall: (1) report any cybersecurity incident to the office without unreasonable delay and not later than two business days after discovery of the cybersecurity incident in a format prescribed by the chief information officer; and (2) provide the office with the name and contact information of any individual who will act as the primary reporter of a cybersecurity incident before Sept. 1, 2021, and before Sept. 1 of every year thereafter. 

This means that prior to Sept. 1, 2021, the county is required to appoint a person to be responsible for reporting cyber security incidents to the state. McSherry recommended Kosciusko County Systems Administrator Bob Momeyer. This was approved by commissioners. 

In other news:

• A letter of support for an OCRA grant that would be used to improve the exterior of a historic Warsaw structure, the old post office building, was approved.
• A right of way agreement between the county and INDOT, related to Bridge 227 on the west side of Warsaw, was approved. 
• County Attorney Ed Ormsby presented two agreements between the county and Creative Benefits Solutions LLC. Both were approved.
• A quarterly contract invoice presented by Kosciusko Area Bus Service (KABS) General Manager Tony Peterson was approved.
• The next regular meeting will be 9 a.m. Aug. 31.