By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Even the county is having to move money around to pay for the increasing gas and electric prices.

During the Kosciusko County Council meeting on Thursday, Nov. 10, County Administrator Marsha McSherry presented six transfers from various funds to the maintenance – gas and electric fund.

The first was for $9,911.59 from light bulbs and basalts to gas and electric.

“So that is to cover the October bill,” McSherry said.

Council President Sue Ann Mitchell explained, “So, there was not enough money to pay the October bill timely because the October bill was due today (Nov. 10)” with the holidays and closings. Mitchell said she went ahead and gave her verbal approval for the bill to be paid because “we cannot pay penalties. Somebody was going to have to pay that out of pocket. So I went ahead and gave the Council’s verbal approval, so hopefully you’ll agree that we agree to spend this $9,911.59.”

McSherry said that just means the county can continue to keep the lights on.

The transfer to pay the October bill was approved unanimously.

“And we have several that are due at different times, but we try to pay them all at the same time to keep it timely,” McSherry said.

Councilwoman Kimberly Cates asked McSherry if someone could make a call and get the gas and electric bill on the same cycle with the county. McSherry said they have tried that but “they bill when they bill.”

The other transfers to gas and electric were $8,000 from dumpster recycling, $10,000 from inspection, $25,000 from repairs and labor, $5,000 from pest control and $20,000 from building repairs.

“What that does is gives us transfers of at least $68,088.41 and that will cover all of November’s bill and part of December’s bill,” McSherry said.

She said she will come back in December for an additional appropriation, but they did as many transfers as they could “squeeze out” to cover the bills.

“So, as a side note, we have increased the budget next year $84,000 to hopefully cover these increases that we’re seeing with NIPSCO. We have demand charges, we have delivery charges,” she said.

The county’s lowest therm charges the first of the year was around $0.2376/therm, and the county now is paying $0.6767/therm, McSherry stated. She said with all the charges the county is billed for, and the increase in costs, the need for transfers is self-explanatory.

“On the other side of that is, we’re doing a lot of things with maintenance right now. I think I told you last month that I had Core Mechanical come in and Johnson Controls and you’ll be seeing a grant request out of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) next month for … what came out of that weeklong visit with them with maintenance. Identifying issues with the system, there’s a lot of controls that need to be replaced with our air handler units at (the) Justice Building and we had a lot of VAV issues that need repairs. So I think that was just over $67,000 for that grant,” McSherry said.

With all the things the county is doing, she said they should see some energy savings as well. All the transfers were unanimously approved by the Council.

McSherry then updated the Council on the Public Safety Communications Project. She said they are going “live” with all the police departments throughout the county at 9 a.m. Nov. 28.

“We’ll switch over to the 700 (mHz) system. And if there are no major issues found that week with the police, then the fire will all come up the following Monday and we will be live on the new system. That is the plan as of today. It is very exciting,” she said.

Mitchell said all the departments in the county have been outfitted with new equipment. McSherry said they all should be able to communicate on 700 and there should be no reason for them to be on VHF.

In other business, the Council:

• Tabled the tax abatement for iDNA until the December meeting. Mitchell said there was “a little bit of a snafu” with their legal description. She said the Council will take action on the abatement request in December.

Marc Roth, general manager of iDNA Series LLC, better known as You The Fan, presented a declaratory resolution designating the property at 2666 S. Country Club Road, Warsaw, as an economic revitalization area for personal property at the October council meeting. The company sells officially licensed sports products.

• Approved $140,000 from the Economic Development Projects account in the County Economic Development Income Tax budget for three initiatives as presented by Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation CEO Alan Tio.

The Commissioners approved the request at their Sept. 27 meeting. The funding will go toward an entrepreneurship initiative, a housing initiative and a talent initiative.

• Approved the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) additional appropriations as presented by McSherry.

“These items have all been through the process and approved. This is just to appropriate the dollars,” she said.

The amounts include $20,548 for coroner equipment; $200,000 for Cardinal Ability Campaign; $22,445 for Kosciusko County Historical Society HVAC and building repairs; $100,000 for Combined Community Services HVAC and box truck; and $48,251 for Central Dispatch hardware.

• Approved an additional appropriation for $7,318 out of the county cumulative capital development fund, as presented by McSherry. She said it was for computer maintenance and software and was just for bookkeeping purposes.

• Heard an update from Ken Jones, CEO of Jones Petrie Rafinski Corp., on the Tippecanoe and Chapman Regional Sewer District, similar to the one Jones presented to the County Commissioners in October.

He said a groundbreaking ceremony is coming soon and the Council will receive invitations to that.

“Overall, the capital costs, including the non-construction costs, topped out at $51 million. We were able to procure some pretty attractive funding for the project. Ultimately, we were able to pull in $14 million in grants; part of that was from the federal government, part of that was from the Indiana Finance Authority through the State Revolving Loan,” Jones said.

He said the customer sewer rate landed at $88, which he thought was a “pretty good” accomplishment.

There’s three contracts altogether for the project. After the groundbreaking, which Jones said should be in the next couple weeks, contractors will be free to start on the construction, though he guessed a lot of it won’t start until after the first of the year.

Mitchell asked when billing would start for the customers. Jones replied partial billing would start as construction begins to avoid capitalized interest. Construction will take about 24 months. Customers won’t see a full bill until they’re asked to connect to the sewer.

• Approved the Kosciusko County Coalition on Drug Education budget, as presented by Prosecuting Attorney Dan Hampton. Funding comes from the Governor’s Office through specialized court fees.

“That’s applied through the KCODE group, of which I’m a member and I’m also on the grant review, which we went through a couple weeks ago,” Hampton said.

He said KCODE is budgeting $76,000 to distribute.

Awards under prevention and education include Kosciusko Cares, $6,800; Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office DARE, $3,000; Warsaw Police Department DARE, $4,000; Tippecanoe Valley High School, $3,000; and Winona Lake PD DARE, $2,200.

Under intervention and treatment, awards include Serenity House, $3,000; LITE, $4,600; Fellowship Missions, $4,600; Kosciusko JCAP, $3,800; and Rose Garden Recovery Community, $3,000.

Under law enforcement and justice, the awards will go to Claypool PD, $1,220; Winona Lake PD, $4,000; Silver Lake PD, $5,360; KCSO, $2,680; and Teen Court, $5,740.

It is required that a quarter of the funding go to the KCODE coordinator, which totals $19,000 in the budget. Hampton said the $19,000 is not solely for the coordinator’s salary as it also includes other expenses.

KCODE is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Hampton also told the Council. An event is from 1 to 3 p.m. Monday, Nov. 14, in the Justice Building basement and the public is invited to attend.

• Approved for Superior Court I and the Probation Department to apply for a $70,000 Juvenile Detention Alternatives grant for 2023, with funds to be used for implementation and programming.

• Approved for Circuit and Superior Court I to apply for a $50,000 technology innovation grant. It will pay for program and equipment for docket displays in the Justice Building.

An additional appropriation for $44,000 also was approved to help support that grant. In December, another additional appropriation will be requested for the remaining $6,000 of the $50,000 grant.

• Approved Superior Court IV to apply for a $72,000 Family Court project grant.

• Approved the appointment of Rosa Ritchie to the Lakeland Regional Sewer District to fill out the remainder of Frank Kurth’s term, which expires April 18, 2025. Kurth resigned in August for personal reasons.