Five city employees were recognized Friday at the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety for their service anniversaries in May. Pictured (L to R) with Mayor Jeff Grose are Warsaw Police Department officer Mason Metzinger, five years; Lynne Lafollette, WPD, 15 years; Greg Weber, Warsaw Wastewater Treatment Utility, 15 years; and Leigh Ann Denlinger, Oakwood Cemetery, 15 years. Not pictured is Paige Wood, WPD, five years. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — City of Warsaw’s regular fuel prices in 2026 will be lower than they have been over the last few years.

At Friday’s Board of Public Works and Safety meeting, May 16, the sole bid for the city’s 2026 fuel came from Lassus Brothers, the city’s current fuel provider. For 85,000 gallons of 87 Octane unleaded gasoline in 2026, the bid was $2.489 per gallon. The price is for Jan. 1, 2026, to Dec. 31, 2026.

After reviewing the bid document, Warsaw Police Department Chief Scott Whitaker asked the Board of Works to accept the bid.

Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen asked him what the price is for this year, and Whitaker said $2.75 per gallon. He believed in the previous year it was $2.98 and $2.99 the year before that.

Mayor Jeff Grose asked Whitaker to explain to the board and to the community why they like bidding out the fuel price.

“Using Lassus Brothers as we have, in the years past, they afford us the opportunity to have multiple fueling stations, so the south side of Warsaw, north, west and … east,” Whitaker said. “Each car is assigned a card, so when … the officer, whoever is in that car, uses that card, uses their pin number, so we’re able to attach the city employee with the fuel purchase and with the car. And it just makes it easier to monitor for the department heads to see the fuel usage per vehicle. It’s worked out really well for us.”

Grose said it also provides a steady price on the fuel. Whitaker agreed, saying the idea was to do the bid letting around budget season so the city department heads knew how much to budget for the next year for fuel.

City engineer Aaron Ott said, “We do, each year, give opportunities to other vendors to compete for this contract, but Lassus continues to (bid). The others may have chosen to not even compete, but we always offer the opportunity to other companies to compete with that.”

Whitaker said that may be because of the specifications “that are on that sheet that no one else can actually meet. I think this is roughly eight years that we’ve been using (Lassus).” He said they used to have fuel stored at the police department for the city to use, but they took those fuel tanks out many years ago. The Board of Works unanimously accepted the bid from Lassus.

On behalf of Building Corporation, and filling in for Warsaw Community Economic and Development Director Jeremy Skinner, administrative assistant Whitney Shilling presented a $216,522.39 pay application for construction of Union Station Lofts on the former Gatke Corp. site.

Rebar Warsaw LLC, the developer of the lofts, submitted the disbursement request, and this is the fourth disbursement request for the project.

A construction celebration for the 80-unit apartment development took place Thursday afternoon as Rebar has started construction at the site and expect it to be completed in about 14 months.

Grose said, “I think there’s over $3 million that has been committed, if you look at the paperwork. This is for $216,522.39. So exciting to see it. (Board of Works member) George (Clemens) and I were talking about it … developing that property, providing housing. A lot of work.  The council. redevelopment commission. Dr. (Joe) Thallemer and Jeremy. It’s just exciting.”

Clemens said just the pilings and foundation are in, “but with the old structures being gone, the site already looks a lot better. With the drawings they had, it’s exciting.”

Grose said, “$20 million project, or around that, and public dollars supporting it as well. It’s going to be a neat thing, not only for Warsaw, but thinking Warsaw-Winona Lake and where it sits.”

Councilwoman Diane Quance suggested they talk about where the money is coming from. Grose said he didn’t want to get into the details, but Shilling said the disbursement was being paid by the bond proceeds.  Grose didn’t want to talk about it further though because he didn’t have the specifics. He did point out that according to the paperwork, city of Warsaw bond proceeds for the project totaled $3.3 million.

“Again, I would trust Jeremy to talk about how all that played out, the specifics and even from mayor Dr. Thallemer,” Grose said. “A reminder … countless stakeholders involved to make it happen. This is a part of that.” Shilling said Skinner would be better at explaining where all the money was coming from. The disbursement request was unanimously approved by the board.

Human Resource Director Denny Harlan recognized five city employees for their service anniversaries in May. WPD officers Mason Metzinger and Paige Wood have been with the city for five years each. Wood was unable to attend Friday’s meeting.

For 15 years of service, Greg Weber, wastewater treatment utility; Leigh Ann Denlinger, Oakwood Cemetery; and Lynne Lafollette, WPD, were recognized. Harlan said they were recognizing Lafollette for 15 years of full-time service, but she has a total of over 21 years with the city including her years as a part-time employee.