At the Kosciusko County Commissioners’ meeting on Tuesday, June 21, are from left: Commissioners’ Vice President Brad Jackson, President Cary Groninger and member Bob Conley and Kosciusko County Administrator Marsha McSherry. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — The Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office is seeking to acquire ballistic shields for officers.

At their meeting on Tuesday, June 21, Kosciusko County Commissioners approved plans for the department to apply for a $24,000 grant through the Indiana Department of Homeland Security for the shields.

KCSO Chief Deputy Shane Bucher discussed the request.

“These ballistic shields will allow our officers to rapidly deploy to active shooter events or any kind of terrorist events,” said Bucher.

He said the grant, for which the county doesn’t need to supply a match, should purchase 20-24 shields.

Parks Fund

Commissioners also approved an ordinance creating a fund for donations to the county parks department.

The ordinance can be found in full by clicking here. Commissioners approved plans to establish a county parks department and board at their May 10 meeting.

“We already have a foundation that’s looking to want to help to fund a master trail plan here in our community, so this is just another step forward that we’re making to be able to accept those funds and have those funds available when … the board would prepare to do a master trail plan,” said Commissioner Cary Groninger.

He noted the fund was only for monetary donations.

In other business, the commissioners:

• Approved using $203,880.13 in American Rescue Plan Act funds for county IT department requests, most of which will help with cybersecurity. The county’s ARPA committee recommended it, and the Kosciusko County Council also approved the funds at its June meeting.
• Approved allowing Kosciusko County Emergency Management Agency Director Ed Rock to apply for a $20,000 grant to be used for training.
• Approved requests from two landowners to have their properties included in the Tippecanoe & Chapman Lakes Regional Sewer District. Those properties are at 6207 N. 300E, Leesburg, and 6303 N. 300E, Leesburg.
• Approved purchasing a copier for $10,454 for the county assessor’s office from Adams Remco.
• Approved three rezoning requests that were previously approved by the Kosciusko County Area Plan Commission at its June meeting. Those are for: Rezoning two 10-acre parcels along CR 510N from agricultural to agricultural II; rezoning a 1.2 acre tract at CR 700S just west of County Farm Road from agricultural to agricultural II; and rezoning a 38.21 acre parcel along SR 13 from residential to commercial.

The commissioners’ next meeting is 9 a.m. Tuesday, July 5, at the Kosciusko County Courthouse’s Old Courtroom.