The 10.75 acres highlighted in yellow was donated to the city of Warsaw. The Board of Public Works and Safety on Friday accepted the donation. Map from Beacon.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Nearly 11 acres of a wetlands area south of the end of Detroit Street and Warsaw Cut Glass were donated to the city of Warsaw, with the Board of Public Works and Safety approving the donation Friday, Feb. 21.

City attorney Scott Reust explained, “There’s 10-plus acres that are kind of over by Warsaw Cut Glass, between there and the railroad tracks, and the business that owns that property is winding down its affairs, and they asked to be able to donate that parcel of land that they own to the city of Warsaw. And we spoke with (Mayor Jeff Grose) and (Community and Economic Development Director) Jeremy (Skinner) and (City Planner) Justin Taylor and everybody seems to think that’s fine.”

He said the 10.75 acres of industrial vacant land is currently owned by Relyt Inc., Indianapolis, and they would just simply sign a deed over to the city of Warsaw.

Grose asked Warsaw Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen if she had any questions or concerns about it. She said the parcel does have some property taxes that are outstanding, totaling about $107.19. Reust said he imagined the current owner will take care of that.

Councilwoman Diane Quance asked Taylor if there were any utilities to the property.

“I don’t know if we looked at that when the email went around,” he responded. “I do think long-term we could explore our options as far as putting it in someone’s hands, like Acres Land Trust where they look after the land but they also work with the city if we wanted to put a trail back there at some point in the future.”

He said he thinks there could be future uses for the property long-term. “It’s kind of a wetland,”

Quance said.Taylor agreed, saying, “It’s not really buildable or valuable for anybody in particular, so I think there could be some value from a city standpoint in the future if there was a boardwalk or something in conjunction with Acres Land Trust, water quality concerns. Things like that could be addressed in that parcel.”

Board member George Clemens said he didn’t see any reason not to accept the donation of the property. He made a motion to accept it, Quance seconded it and the motion passed 3-0.