From left, are Warsaw Redevelopment Commission Members Jeff Grose, Tim Meyer, and Jeremy Mullins. The three were sworn in during the Jan. 21 Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety meeting, as the commission did not meet in January. InkFreeNews photo by Liz Shepherd.

By Liz Shepherd
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — The Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety on Friday, Jan. 21, approved plans for the city to enter into a contract with a language and cultural consulting company.

According to Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer, the city of Warsaw will be working with Language Matters, an organization that will provide professional, cultural coaching and consulting services to allow for effective communication with Spanish-speaking individuals. The contract totals $3,300.

“Last year, when we approved the budget, we put money in for translation services,” said Thallemer. “We’re talking documents, potentially website…there’s a lot of translation that we are behind on.”

Thallemer said the city is prioritizing the translation of documents that are the most useful and necessary for the Hispanic community.

“We want to be smart about our dollars because these are expensive services and we don’t want to do wholesale documents or documents that in two weeks will change and have to be redone,” said Thallemer.

“This is basically a study that gives us priority for the most appropriate documents to be translated. It’s very important to get this done. This preliminary service is going to sit down and talk with department heads, dig deeper and find the highest priority documents that need done first.”

Lincoln Sidewalk Project

Justin Taylor, city planner, submitted for approval a construction inspection contract between the City of Warsaw and Troyer Group; the contract is for the Lincoln Elementary School sidewalk project. Construction is currently set to take place through the summer and fall of this year.

The contract, with the amount not to exceed $156,800, is part of a $1.6 million pedestrian infrastructure project that will improve walkability for students and residents to the west of Lincoln Elementary School.

The board approved the contract.

In other business:

• Oaths of office were administered to Redevelopment Commission Members Jeff Grose, Tim Meyer and Jeremy Mullins. Since the redevelopment commission did not meet in January, the members were sworn in at the Jan. 21 Board of Works meeting by Thallemer.
• Warsaw Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Schaefer informed the board the Kosciusko County Community Foundation awarded the parks department $5,000 for its 2022 Summer Concert Series. The amount is from the Richard, Evelyn and Jane Glover Charitable Endowment.
• The board entered an agreement with Baker Tilly for an information technology policy and procedure development project. Information technology policies and procedures developed during the project would include, but not be limited to, purchasing, hardware, and software maintenance, Internet use, device management, virtual private network management, and cybersecurity protections.

The board’s next meeting is at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 4, at Warsaw City Hall.