Rusty Holt, with engineering company WSP, responsible for helping the state conduct the ProPEL US 30 study planning for the future of the roadway, speaks at the Kosciusko County Commissioners’ meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 29. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — During the last five years, “there have been more than 2,700 crashes” in the eastern section of US 30.

US 30 Study Manager Rusty Holt quoted this number to Kosciusko County Commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 29.

Holt, with engineering company WSP, presented to commissioners regarding the ProPEL US 30 study where WSP is helping the state conduct a plan for the next 20 years of the roadway.

Holt serves as the study manager for the eastern section of US 30, which includes Kosciusko, Whitley and Allen Counties.

He noted both the public and data have shown how important safety is for future planning.

Of information gathered thus far, “37% of the comments so far have been about safety along the corridor,” he said. “Another 36% have involved access to the corridor and another 25% is mobility along the corridor.”

Holt mentioned efficiency as another important factor tied to safety and thus the US 30 planning, as crashes slow traffic down and “you don’t know how long it’s going to take you to get from one point to another.”

Study leaders have also taken into consideration speed along the road, access points, “failing operations” to get onto US 30 and “the regional use of the roadway,” said Holt.

He referred that the two-year process, which is “about halfway through,” has included public input at formal meetings as well as the study team having local office hours at area libraries and community events.

“We’ve also had smaller meetings with business owners, with farmers, the Farm Bureau, also with economic development folks, your planners in the community, other transportation professionals in the area,” said Holt.

He said leaders have thus shrunk the list of important concerns to look at in planning to “roadway safety, mobility for local users and (the enhancement) of the efficiency and reliability for US 30 as a regional and statewide corridor.”

The study now moves into “looking at solutions,” said Holt, with there being around 50 of those, also known as alternatives.

Holt said those alternatives will be listed in the future on the study’s website, propelus30.com, for people to give input on. People should click on the US 30 East study section.

“We’re planning to have (the alternatives) published to our website this fall … hopefully … by the end of September,” he said. “Then (we’ll) have that 30-day comment period.”

He said two more rounds of narrowing down the alternatives will be listed on the above website in winter and spring.

To learn more about the study, people may visit the above website.

KCSO Vehicle

Commissioners also approved the purchase of a jail transport vehicle for the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office.

Kosciusko County Sheriff Jim Smith explained the office had already purchased the vehicle, a 2023 Dodge Durango, which cost $41,801.

“With the recent death of an Indiana sheriff’s transport officer in Marion County earlier this year, it had become apparent to our department that our security measures for the transporting of prisoners was insufficient or deficient,” said Smith.

He referred to the death of John Durm in July who was allegedly assaulted by inmate Orlando Mitchell after Durm had brought Mitchell back from a hospital visit.

“The current vehicle that we’re using is a Chevy Traverse, with 40,000 miles on it,” said Smith, adding the vehicle isn’t specially designed for police safety, meaning the KCSO would have to spend extra money outfitting it versus the Durango.

Smith noted vehicles take awhile to come in anymore and the office was able to get the Durango at a lower cost than the same vehicles the KCSO had purchased earlier this year for regular officers. That’s why the KCSO purchased the vehicle before commissioners could OK it.

“The purchase was made out of the commissary account, which is not going to require any (special) appropriations,” said Smith.

He said the Traverse would be “repurpose(d) to one of our administrative positions.”

Commissioners retroactively approved the purchase.

Redeveloping Land

Commissioners also heard from Lori Shipman with the Kosciusko Economic Development Corp. about working with leaders to get some properties around the county “into productive reuse, hopefully as housing as we have a housing shortage that we’re trying to address throughout the county.”

She noted use of a method known as “land banking,” whereby an entity acquires property and later sells it “to a responsible person in order to develop the property.”

Shipman said KEDCO’s Kosciusko Development Land Trust might be used in the process, with its nonprofit status beneficial as projects could qualify for Environmental Protection Agency grants and other like funds. She also said KEDCo would like to work with leaders to create a steering committee for the process.

The commissioners made no decisions on the matter Tuesday.

In other business, commissioners:

• Approved signing a document with VS Engineering related to work on Bridge 161, which runs over CR 200S by SR 15, south of Warsaw. Kosciusko County Highway Department Superintendent Steve Moriarty said bids for work should be let this winter.
• Approved sending out two requests for proposal on behalf of the Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Department for planning and engineering to extend the Chinworth Bridge trail westward and complete a master county greenways and blueways plan. County leaders had already agreed to complete those projects using American Rescue Plan Act money the county had set aside through its participation in the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs’ Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program.
• Approved a request from Kosciusko County Emergency Management Agency Director Kip Shuter to apply for a $20,000 reimbursable Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness Grant managed through the Indiana Department of Homeland Security.
• Approved appointing Cullen Reece to the Lakeland Regional Sewer District Board to finish out Bob Marcuccilli’s term through April 2027. Marcuccilli resigned from the board “due to personal reasons,” said LRSD Board President Jim Haney.
• Approved a $12,350 quote from eGov/CORE Business Technologies to update the county government website. The company should make the website ADA accessible as well as give it “a translation option and … a smart search,” said Kosciusko County Auditor Rhonda Helser.

Commissioners’ next meeting is 9 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12, in the Kosciusko County Courthouse’s Old Courtroom.