By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW – The third pay application from Core Mechanical Services for Warsaw City Hall HVAC improvements was approved by the Board of Public Works and Safety Friday, Jan. 9.

City Engineer Aaron Ott said Core Mechanical was requesting payment in the amount of $178,837.50, which is the amount left after the 5% retainer, for materials stored mostly in the City Hall basement. He said Core Mechanical also has a whole bunch of other units stored at their plant. He recommended the board approve the payment to Core Mechanical, which they did.

Mayor Jeff Grose said it was another sign to the board the massive project is coming, and it will have an impact on city meetings in February. All of the city meetings heading into February will tentatively be at the Warsaw Police Department training center while Core Mechanical works in the area of the council chambers.

“We’re a day closer to seeing the mayhem start,” Ott said.

Total cost of the HVAC project is over $1.6 million.

Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Chief Joel Shilling presented four items to the Board of Works, which were approved by the WWFT Board at their meeting Tuesday, Jan. 6. Those items included the 2026 contract with Zoll ExpertCare for preventative maintenance services for the WWFT’s Zoll monitors for $1,360; the 2026 contract with Adam D. Turner for Turner to serve as the fire territory’s legal representation, including a $3,000 retainer fee and hourly rate of $250; the fall/winter preventative maintenance agreement for station 15 with Flow Tech for $385.75, with the services focused primarily on the furnace; and a change order totaling $18,847 related to the new Smeal/Spartan ladder truck.

Shilling noted the ladder truck was roughly $1.8 million and the change order represented about 1.04% of the total price. The fire department received the truck Wednesday, Jan. 7, and Shilling hopes to have it in service by the end of February, if not sooner. There is some training that has to be conducted by Smeal for all the fire territory members, and some equipment needs to be transferred over from the old truck to the new one. The new truck is at the fire station on East Center Street. The WWFT’s current ladder truck is out of service and probably will be for a while, Shilling said. The Street Department is working on it. The Board of Works approved all four items as presented by Shilling.

In other business, the board approved:

• The annual contract between the Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department and Wayne Township for $81,000, made in two payments, for 2026, as requested by Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer. The funds will help offset the cost for Wayne Township residents’ use of the Parks Department’s programs and facilities.

• The contract with Derek Tenney to serve as the DJ for Daddy’s Little Sweetheart Dance on Feb. 6-7 for $300, as requested by Plummer.

• The biannual financial management reports for the wastewater and stormwater utilities by Baker Tilly Municipal Advisors for $9,600 each, for a total of $19,200, as requested by Utilities Manager Brian Davison.

• Change order number three for the Prairie and Lake Streets stormwater improvements for $7,709.60 from G & G Hauling & Excavating, as requested by Davison. “When they got down there and started performing the work, there was some conflicts with some of the other underground utilities and this was just the additional cost to work around those conflicts,” he said. The change order changes the total cost of the contract to $415,167.47. Davison said the project is “basically finished” down there and it’s being finished this week.

• The travel requests as presented by Human Resources Director Denny Harlan.

The next Board of Public Works and Safety meeting is at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 23.