Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer listens as Warsaw Community Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner talks about the Lincoln Neighborhood Sidewalk project. Photo by David Slone, Times Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Reimbursement funds from a current ongoing project with the Indiana Department of Transportation may help pay for the city of Warsaw’s additional costs of the Lincoln Elementary School neighborhood sidewalk project.

Mayor Joe Thallemer told the Warsaw Common Council at their meeting Monday night, “When we do projects with INDOT, a lot of the work is reimburseable, which means we have to come up with the money. So we spend money off EDIT (Economic Development Income Tax) or the TIF (tax increment finance) districts to pay the bills – could be engineering, could be construction, could be right-of-way, whatever it is – and then we’re reimbursed 80% of that back. When that money comes back, it just goes into the grant fund, and then it has to be put back into the funds it came from.”

Jeremy Skinner, Warsaw community economic development director, said every couple of years, as the money piles up, he places those reimbursements back into the funds from which they were allocated.

The resolution he requested the council approve Monday was for the reimbursement of $396,021.78 from EDIT funds and $152,656 from Northern TIF funds for the Anchorage Road project since 2021 to be put back into the funds from which they were paid. They total $548,676.78.

The last time reimbursed funds were put back into the funds from which they came was 2020.

The council approved the resolution 6-0, with Councilman Josh Finch absent.

Later in the meeting, Skinner presented an ordinance for an additional appropriation of EDIT funds for the Lincoln neighborhood sidewalk project.

Thallemer said it was the first reading of the ordinance for the additional appropriation of EDIT.

“The short version is that this Lincoln School project has been bid three times. The first time, post-Covid, the bid came back so high the bid was thrown out. Second time, there was an error from one of the bidders that did not meet the Disadvantage Business Entity, so it was thrown out. They were the only ones that were bidding so we had to go back a third time. As a result, the cost of the project – our costs – doubled as far as construction,” Thallemer said.

Originally, the city set aside $300,000 for its 20% match for the construction.

Skinner said the project started in 2017 or 2018, and Thallemer said it’s taken this long to get it done.

Skinner said the city was awarded the money for the project through INDOT.

“It usually takes about four or five years to work through the engineering process and land acquisition,” Skinner said. “(City Planner) Justin (Taylor) has done a great job of keeping this project on task. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of money out there, a lot of work and not a lot of contractors. Every project that we bid, we’re lucky if we get one bidder on, so we’re not getting competitive bids because there’s too much work and not enough contractors, which inflates the price, which is what we’re dealing with. There’s no way to get around it.”

Skinner pointed out that the state’s price went up, too. The state is paying 80% of the project, so it’s paying 80% of the price increase.

Thallemer said the ordinance is for an additional appropriation of $500,000. Of that, $340,000 is for construction matching funds and $160,000 is for construction engineering for professional services during construction. About 80% of the $160,000 will be refunded as part of the 80/20 federal grant program.

“Be mindful that just a couple minutes ago you put $400,000 back in,” Thallemer told the council. “… So, again, at the end of the day we had to use the money we had reimbursed for and collected over the last three to four years to pay for the extra on this project. Plus the $300,000 that I already had earmarked in EDIT for this project.”

He said it’s a very worthwhile and fabulous project. The city was excited when it was awarded the money for the project, but never guessed it would take this long to get to this point.

The council approved the ordinance on first reading. The second reading and public hearing on the ordinance will take place at the council’s next meeting.

The total cost of the project is $3,276,784, with the federal aid providing $2,620,810.80 of the cost and the local match to be $665,973.20.

The project is for about 2 miles of sidewalk near Lincoln Elementary School, as well as a little bit of storm drain work at intersections.

In other business, the Council:

•  Heard from Thallemer that the applications for not-for-profit fundings for 2024 are online and have been online for about a week. The deadline is July 14.

He also said there’s a form on there for evaluation follow-up that will be due next year.

• Was made aware of the dates for the 2024 budget process.

The council will meet at 6 p.m. Aug. 7 for the presentation of department budgets plus  other business that may come before them. The Aug. 21 meeting will start at 5:30 p.m.

The 2024 budget has to be advertised on Gateway at https://gateway.ifionline.org no later than Sept. 6 or at least 10 days before the Sept. 18 public hearing.

The public hearing and first reading of the budget will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 18. The adoption hearing and final reading is at 7 p.m. Oct. 2.

The salary ordinance must be adopted by Nov. 1, with the elected salary ordinance by Dec. 31. The deadline to adopt the 2024 budget, rates and levies is Nov. 1.

• Approved a resolution for a transfer of $10,000 from the Oakwood Cemetery permanent account machinery and equipment into the permanent account contracted repair and maintenance. Cemetery sexton Hal Heagy made the transfer request for the replacement and repair of gutters on the shop, chapel and double garage in the cemetery.

Councilman Mike Klondaris said he took a bike cruise out the cemetery over Memorial Day weekend and it was “really beautiful. He did such a great job out there. So, thanks to our sexton. It was really nice.”

• Approved a uniform conflict of interest statement for Morgan Woodcock, who works in accounts payable. Her husband does welding.
• Heard that Monday was Council President Jack Wilhite’s 68th birthday.