Three of the five members of the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission present at the Monday, Nov. 3, meeting were, from left, Commission Vice Chair and Common Councilman Mike Klondaris, Member Bill Curl and Council President Jack Wilhite. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW – The Anchorage Road improvement and widening project will cost the city of Warsaw a larger share of the costs than anticipated.

Instead of the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission paying 20% and the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) paying 80%, the city’s share will be around 43%.

Those figures were discussed when Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner presented the annual spending plan of the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission for 2026 to the commission on Monday, Nov. 3.

“So as per the state requirement, every year sometime in November, I need to upload a spending plan for 2026 for the Redevelopment Commission. This framework was provided by the state. It’s not something I put together,” he said, before briefly going through the plan that lays out the potential funds that are available and could be spent in 2026.

“If we don’t list every dollar in here, we spend one penny over that, I have to go back and redo this plan. So, you’ll see every dollar is in there, but whether or not we spend it all is neither here nor there,” Skinner said.

Debt payments total $1,374,830. Any money that was budgeted in any of the commission’s budgets for capital expenditures totals $6,345,000. There are zero dollars for a list of categories, such as local economic development contributions or organizations. Professional expenses total $985,000. Payment of operating expenses totals $204,380. Expenditures from bond proceeds total $13 million. That’s for the new Warsaw Public Works building. Expenditures from the property tax levy total $404,280. Skinner said that’s the Redevelopment general fund budget, which is their only budget based on tax dollars.

Adding up all the expenses totals $22,313,490. Skinner said that obviously doesn’t mean they’re going to spend the whole $22 million-plus, “but it does mean that is the potential money that’s in the budget for 2026. Some of that is in there twice. Like I said, I didn’t create this form, if I did it would be better, but this is what gets uploaded to the state. I’m filling it out as they have requested, even though it’s wrong.”

Council President Jack Wilhite asked for a rundown on some of the bigger areas, like capital expenditures.

“Capital expenditures, most of that money comes out of the Northern TIF District, but we do have some money from both of the Residential TIF Districts for capital expenditures,” Skinner replied. “That would be concrete projects like Millworks or Anchorage Road, any utility projects. Petro Drive extension. Anything in that category, we’re building something somewhere.”

Capital expenditures and professional services are the two big categories, he said.

“Professional services have been a little bloated the last couple years because of the Anchorage Road project,” Skinner said. “Whenever we deal with INDOT projects, they have a requirement that you have a contractor on site to inspect, and that is a reimbursable, but we have to pay it out, out of pocket, so we do get reimbursed a percentage of it, but that comes in after we’ve already paid it out of those contracts. They’re usually 15% of the contracts.”

For example, he said, the Anchorage Road project bid was $4.1 million, with about $600,000 of that for construction inspection that the city has to pay out and then get reimbursed 80% back. Skinner said it’s almost 80% because INDOT didn’t contribute toward the rising cost of the project that was started about four years ago.

“We’ll still get 65% or something like that back,” he said. “Well, less than 80. We’re actually contributing about 43% to the Anchorage Road project, not the 20%.”

Wilhite asked that while the state agreed to reimburse 80% of the project, “we’re only really going to get 65?”

Skinner replied, “It’s changed pretty dramatically over the last three to four years, five years. It used to be you get awarded a project and they would never set the dollar amount. They would set dollar amounts, but they wouldn’t set specific ‘oh, this is all you’re going to get.’ Then three or four years ago, INDOT would have fund recipients, like the city, sign a letter acknowledging ‘this is it, don’t ask for any more money.'”

Skinner said a lot of the project costs are unknown because they’re designed four years or so before they’re built.

“So, I think they need to change the name from 80/20 to just Project Grant Money,” he said. “… But the whole 80/20 is garbage now. It’s not 80/20.”

Wilhite said it could make communities pad their project costs when they seek state funding.

“They’re going to find out the hard way that communities are going to have to really try to overvalue these projects, because otherwise you get four years down the road with a project” that’s more expensive than initial estimates, Skinner said.

He said the city was supposed to contribute $800,000 as its match toward the Anchorage Road project. The city is now contributing $1.8 million as its match. The Redevelopment Commission approved a motion signifying they reviewed the plan, and it was good to be sent down to the state.

The annual spending plan also went before the Warsaw Common Council Friday night.

In other business, the Redevelopment Commission approved a declaratory resolution to add the Shirley Polk Trust property to the acquisition list.

The property, also known as the Polk parking lot, is at the corner of Indiana and Main Streets across from the Kosciusko County Old Jail Museum.

Skinner explained, “As we’ve discussed in the past, we did the appraisals, we will be entering into an agreement to purchase the property … which has to be added to the acquisition list. And to do that, you have to amend the Economic Development Plan for the Northern Economic Development Area, so we’re starting that process.”

With the commission’s approval of the resolution Monday, it’ll go before the Warsaw Plan Commission next Monday, Nov. 10; before the Warsaw Common Council at their next meeting; and then back to the Redevelopment Commission for their final approval.

“If all that gets approved, it’ll be added to the acquisition list and then we’ll move forward with the acquisition,” Skinner said.

Claims approved by the commission included: $399.73, Indiana American Water; $10, Kosciusko County auditor; $25, Kosciusko County Recorder; $6,690, A & Z Engineering; $300,000, Bank of New York; $6,850.38, Barnes & Thornburg LLP; $179.40, Fort Wayne newspaper; $3,387.14, BIT Computers; $2,342.50, Baker Tilly; $1,792,277.71, INDOT, for the Anchorage Road project; $42,000, Westhill Development; and $12,456, NIPSCO, for the relocation of three poles at 302 W. Market St. for the Millworks project.