Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board member Mike Cusick, right, makes a comment to the other present board members, including from the left are Aggie Sweeney, Vice President Troy Turley and Secretary Matt Metzger. President Rob Bishop called in to the meeting. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Request for proposals were the main topic of discussion by the Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board Thursday.

The RFPs are for the Chinworth Trail extension, which is still a work in progress, and the blueways and greenways trails master plan, which the board previously approved.

“We’ve done a lot of work in the past in a short order of time and we’ve made a lot of progress,” Board Vice President Troy Turley said.

Board member Mike Cusick said three projects were presented to the Kosciusko County Commissioners and Council on Aug. 1. Of the three projects presented — the Chinworth Trail extension, trails master plan and James Lake boat launch – two were approved, which were the trail extension and master plan. While the boat launch was not approved, Cusick said there was a lot of interest in it from the commissioners and council.

Parks Board President Rob Bishop — who phoned in for the meeting — has been drafting the RFP for the Chinworth Trail extension, Cusick said, with work yet to be completed on it. He also said he and Board member Aggie Sweeney met with Kosciusko County Highway Department Superintendent Steve Moriarty, who has a lot of experience creating RFPs that the Parks Board may want to utilize. Cusick said Moriarty volunteered to help with any of their RFPs.

Bishop told the Board members he was still working on the RFP and would get the rest of the Board a draft of it in the next week or so.

The board decided to have a special meeting at 9 a.m. Aug. 28 to approve the Chinworth Trail extension RFP so it could be presented to the county commissioners at their 9 a.m. Aug. 29 meeting.

Sweeney suggested that once the Chinworth Trail extension project gets further along, maybe the Parks Board could ask the K21 Health Foundation for funding to make the extension longer than what money is already allocated for it. She also suggested looking into if tax increment financing money from the Old 30 TIF district could be set aside for the trail project.

Bishop suggested the design phase should get further out before more funding is pursued.

On the trails master plan RFP, Turley said that RFP is out right now for feedback and it should be completed in a reasonable amount of time. There is no formal deadline for it, but it’s in the process, he said.

The next regular meeting of the board is at 1 p.m. Sept. 21.