Warsaw Public Works and Street Department Superintendent Dustin Dillon requests on Friday the Board of Public Works and Safety approve the bid from Phend & Brown for the reconstruction of Airport Road and paving of Zimmer Road, Provident Drive, CR 150 and Old 30 East. Photo by David Slone.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — A total of four bids were awarded by the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety on Friday, May 2.

Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon presented the first request for the board to award a bid.

Sealed bids were received and opened on April 17 for the reconstruction of Airport Road and the paving of various streets as part of the Community Crossings Matching Grant the city received from the state. The various streets include Zimmer Road, Provident Drive, CR 150 and Old 30 East.

Brooks Construction Co. Inc. bid $1,075,544.23, while Phend & Brown Inc. bid $908,606.40. Dillon asked the board Friday to accept the bid from Phend & Brown, which they did. The city’s portion will be half of that bid amount as the CCMG will cover the other half.

Dillon stated the bids came in “extremely lower” than what was anticipated and the engineer’s estimate.

“I’m happy to have very competitive bids, especially going into the early end of the construction season, so thank you to both bidders,” he said.

The owner-contract agreement with Phend & Brown for the reconstruction of Airport Road and the various streets’ paving was approved later in the meeting.

Also later in the meeting, Dillon presented an addendum to the contract with VS Engineering Inc. for the design and creation of construction documents for Airport Road. The addendum is for $13,300, which increases the contract amount to $93,800.

“Originally, we had this split into two separate projects. Engineering by Emans Engineering, with James Emans, for four of the roads and then Airport Road was done by VS. After talking with our reps from INDOT (Indiana Department of Transportation), we decided to go ahead and join them as one bid package that, hopefully, we would get a better price instead of two separate packages,” Dillon said, noting it also was easier to have one engineering firm handle all the bid documents.

VS Engineering agreed to take on the additional document work for the $13,300. The Board of Works approved the addendum.

Bids were opened for in-place pavement markings, which included a number of various road marking items.

Bidders were Traffic Control Specialists and C.E. Hughes Milling Inc. and, based on Dillon’s recommendation, the board accepted all the bids.

For the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory, a single bid was opened for 45 3M Scott Air-Pak X3 Pro SCBAs (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus), 50 3M Scott Vision C5 Facepieces and 75 3M Scott Cylinder and Valve Assemblies.

The sole bid was from Hoosier Fire Equipment Inc. for a total of $393,618.75.

After reviewing the bid during the meeting with Capt. Brian Zehring, Fire Chief Joel Shilling said the bid does meet their specifications and recommended that the Board of Works approve it. He said the Air-Paks will replace the 13-year-old Air-Paks that the department has now. The purchase of the firefighting equipment was a planned purchase.

The board approved the bid.

In other business, the board approved:

• An agreement between the city and the Michiana Area Council of Governments for MACOG to administer the Community Development Block Grant Blight Clearance grant award the city received for the demolition of the former Jomac Products building on Winona Avenue, on behalf of Fellowship Missions. The fee of $50,000 will come out of the $500,000 grant the city was awarded earlier this year, according to City Planner Justin Taylor.
He said the demolition of the Jomac buildings “should occur” later this year or early spring 2026.

• Taylor’s request for the Ride+Walk Advisory Committee to submit a $100,000 grant application to the K21 Health Foundation. The funds will provide the local match for a $400,000 Safe Streets For All Grant application to the state.

All the funds will be used for a study of routes through or adjacent to downtown Warsaw for a multi-modal trail. Taylor said the preferred route would be engineered and hopefully implemented as a temporary pilot project to see how that would work through the downtown.

In a related matter, the board approved Taylor’s request for Ride+Walk to apply for the Safe Streets For All Grant.

• A contract with USI Consultants Inc. for $33,000 for engineering design services for the reconstruction of Clark Street between Cook Street and Maple Avenue, as requested by Dillon. He said the project was “very much warranted,” and they may apply for a Community Crossings Matching Grant for the project or use local dollars.

• An agreement amendment between the city and Wessler Engineering Inc. for Prairie and Lake streets stormwater improvements for an amount not to exceed $34,200, as requested by Utility Superintendent Brian Davison.

“This is as we move into the construction phase for the oversight assistance through the construction phase of the project. So they’ll do some construction oversight along with in-house construction oversight, and then if any questions come up, if any problems come up, they’re there to assist us,” he said.

• A five-year maintenance agreement renewal for $28,750 with Xylem Dewatering Solution for three of the Godwin pumps the wastewater utility has, as requested by Davison.

• The 2025 rain garden maintenance contract for $3,271 with Anderson Property Management Solutions, as requested by Davison. Anderson helps maintain three rain gardens throughout the city during the year. The rain gardens are at the Warsaw Water Treatment Plant, Lincoln Elementary School and Redeemer Lutheran Church.

• The 2024 annual traffic report as presented by Warsaw Police Department Chief Scott Whitaker. The report also will be provided to the Warsaw Common Council and the Traffic Commission.

• An annual agreement with ASG, Fort Wayne, for $552 for security and fire monitoring of City Hall, as presented by the city’s IT Governance Committee. ASG is replacing the city’s current provider.

An annual agreement with Havel for $1,428 for Cloud Access Control subscription, starting in January, also was approved, as recommended by the IT Governance Committee.

“This is licensing for the software that we use to control our door access,” Staci Young, assistant to the mayor, said.

• Kansas City Barbecue Society’s request to close Buffalo Street between Center and Market streets on Aug. 9 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for a Smokin’ Downtown event. The event itself will be 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. No one representing the organization or event was present at the meeting.

• The travel requests and the new hire/change in payroll report as presented by Montana Gardner, human resource department. The bulk of the hire report was seasonal hires for the parks department.

The board also heard from city attorney Scott Reust that the Kosciusko County Recycling Depot is offering tire recycling. “You can bring up four tires to the Kosciusko County Recycling Depot,” he said, adding that they’ll be accepted May 12-16.