Kosciusko County Administrator Marsha McSherry, left, gives a project up date to the County Council Thursday. Shown seated from the right are Council members Dave Wolkins, Sue Ann Mitchell, Kathleen Groninger, Mike Long and Kimberly Cates. Councilwoman Joni Truex is seen on the screen above, attending the meeting virtually. Councilman Tony Ciriello is not pictured. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — County Administrator Marsha McSherry gave the Kosciusko County Council updates Thursday, May 9, on three projects the county is doing using American Rescue Plan Act Funds.

On the Justice Building renovation, she said by the end of the month they’ll be closing out phase 2 of the project. Phase 2 includes Superior I, juvenile courtroom, judges staff, lobby and hallways.

“It looks like we probably will stay on target for the timeframe as far as phase 2. All the carpeting is done. The painting is all done. They’re working on the three restrooms, laying tile down. I was over there late this afternoon, two restrooms have the tiles down and there’s one more to lay tiles. Hopefully, by the end of next week those will be finished up and then it’ll just be a lot of little things that we’ll have to clean up in that area,” she said.

Two staff members have been able to move back to their office. Court Appointed Special Advocates will have their panels reinstalled and furniture next Tuesday, so McSherry hopes CASA will be able to move back into their space by the end of next week.

The second project is the new fire alarm system in the courthouse. It will mimic the Justice Building fire alarm system that was installed last year with ARPA funds.

“This will be an audible system, unlike we’ve had in the courthouse before. We’ve always had to resort to the air horns, someone standing in the hallway, relying on weather radios … so it’ll be nice to have something like. So when that’s completed, they say it will take a month, then we’ll have a test for the courthouse employees so they know and understand how that works,” McSherry said.

The third project, partially funded by ARPA dollars, is the Sidney tower site, a public safety communications project. It is the last of four towers to go up.

The tower is up and the shelter was set last week. She said they’re starting to put the equipment together at the vendor, who will test it.

“Once we have electric and the ice bridge and cabling is done and the dish is set and aligned with Claypool, then hopefully that system will be functional for that area as well, which will be a great thing for the people out in that area,” she said.

It is hoped the tower project will be wrapped up by the middle of June.

Going through their regular meeting agenda Thursday, the county council basically approved everything they heard about at their informational meeting on May 2.

They approved:

• A request by Community Corrections Director Barry Andrew for a $27,000 additional appropriation out of the Community Corrections user fees fund. The funds will purchase three tasers and four body cameras.

• County Assessor Gail Chapman’s request for an additional appropriation of up to $36,000 out of the assessor education and sales disclosure fund for the purchase of a vehicle.

• County Health Administrator Bob Weaver’s requests for an additional appropriation of $22,402 from Health First Indiana for employee Social Security/Medicare; a $162,094 additional appropriation from HFI for part-time payroll; and four transfers in the HFI fund for $31,674, from part-time payroll HFI to part-time pool inspector; $30,564, from part-time payroll HFI to full-time HFI administrative secretary; $4,523 from part-time payroll HFI to insurance for full-time HFI administrative secretary; and $3,180 from part-time payroll HFI to retirement for full-time HFI administrative secretary.

There were also two salary ordinance amendments – one for an annual $40,872 salary for an HFI secretary full-time and the other for $29.72 hourly for an HFI part-time pool inspector.

• Emergency Management Agency Director Kip Shuter’s request for a $20,304 additional appropriation from the Multi-Hazard Mitigation Grant. The match for the grant will come from the salaries from the community stakeholders who will be a part of the planning process to get the plan together.

• Shuter’s request to apply for a $149,481 grant from the State Homeland Security Program for 12 security cameras to be placed around the exterior of the courthouse and the courthouse square where there are none now. They will tie into the county’s current system. There is no match to the reimburseable grant.

He said they applied for the grant last year but got denied, as did about 90% of those who applied.

• County Administrator Marsha McSherry’s request for three transfers of $6,000 each from maintenance building and equipment repairs, light bulbs and ballasts and repair parts/labor to maintenance of grounds.

“This will pay for the mowing contract that we wanted to enter into. We’re having trouble hiring a maintenance person, and we feel like our maintenance people with their skill sets is better served with them working in the buildings on the HVAC, those type of things that come up, instead of mowing the grass,” she said.

• County Auditor Rhonda Helser’s request on the sheriff’s office behalf a vehicle replacement insurance reimbursement for $19,881.68.

• The wage committee recommendations as Human Resource Director Cathy Reed presented them, along with the salary ordinance amendments that go along with those recommendations.

For the sheriff’s office, a captain’s position will be changed to a deputy and a sergeant deputy will be changed to a training/special operations lieutenant. Reed said no extra money will be required for the changes. The annual salary for the deputy position, previously a captain position, will be $60,428. The annual salary for the training/special operations lieutenant will be $71,537.

For the Title IV-D office, a case manager team lead will change to caseworker. The annual salary will be $39,910.

The County Council also re-heard the first quarter report for 2024 for Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation from interim co-CEO Suzie Light. As part of her report, she said KEDCO’s new CEO — Margaret “Peggy” Friday — will be coming onboard June 10.

“We’re really excited about the skills that Peggy is bringing to the table,” Light said. “We can’t lose momentum. I wish I had realized 15 years ago how critical economic development is to our community, and looking at what do we want our community to be in 50 years. The decisions that you make today impact our community for 50 years, and the growth that we’re going to experience and we will experience it. We’re going to grow or we’re going to die.”