Winona Lake Crafting Town’s Comprehensive Plan With Help From MACOG
February 21, 2018 at 7:41 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Tuesday evening, the town board approved MACOG’s proposal of an amount not to exceed $25,000 to help Winona Lake create the comprehensive plan.
Town Coordinator Craig Allebach said the town has been looking at developing a comprehensive plan for a while.
“Originally, it kind of came up a little bit with our Stellar designation when we applied with Warsaw a couple of years ago,” he said. Warsaw and Winona Lake did not win the state award which would have helped facilitate grant dollars to the communities faster for projects they highlighted in their application.
During the process, Winona Lake didn’t have a comprehensive plan for the application so “we decided that we would seek proposals for a comprehensive plan for the community.”
Allebach said he talked to a couple of consultants and ultimately found out that MACOG does comprehensive plans.
“They’re a little less expensive than others, and their proposal was to provide for a comprehensive plan not to exceed $25,000. The other figures I was getting from other consultants was up anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000,” he said.
MACOG has had a great relationship with Winona Lake in the past, he said, including helping the town get several grants. He recommended to the council that it go with MACOG for its comprehensive plan.
“It’ll be a rather lengthy process. I think it will probably take the better part of the next year or so. We’ll eventually get some stakeholders involved and be meeting with various boards and committees within the town as well as the public, and we’ll probably have some public input meetings and get-togethers and (look at) things the way the public envisions they would like to see it go. And then kind of put that all together and provide a road map for us going forward over the next few years,” Allebach said.
Councilman Rick Swaim made the motion to approve the MACOG, and Councilwoman Heather James seconded. The motion was approved 5-0.
Street Superintendent Tom Miller reported spring paving will be off and running as soon as the mills open up. The money was encumbered from 2017 Community Crossroads funds, and he said they will be doing about $210,000 worth of paving this spring.
He then asked that residents be careful of what they put in the sanitary sewer system.
“We’re having a lot of problems with folks putting sanitary napkins, T-shirts, plastic bags and other items that weren’t intended to go into the sanitary sewer. On the disposal of sanitary napkins it says flushable – they may be flushable, but they sure plug up my impellers on my pumps. And that costs us a lot of problems, and it never happens in the afternoons. It only happens at about 3 o’clock in the morning,” he said.
He requested for folks not to put those items into the sanitary sewer as they can cause the pumps to burn up and each pump is $6,000 to $7,000 each minimum.
Resident Jim LeMasters later asked about the sale of the street department building and property at 1631 Chestnut St. “As you sell that property, is that something you’ve thought about for a long time? … Or is that something that came up recently?” he asked.
Board President Bruce Shaffner said discussion on it has been going on for “some time” but he didn’t know exactly how long. Allebach said about seven months.
“At this point, we’re really not at liberty to say anything because we really don’t know anything as far as we’ve not been presented with anything that is factual at this moment. Once we do know more about that, we will be coming forward with that,” Shaffner said.
He said the town went ahead and did its due diligence on getting the property ready if it chooses to sell the property. “And even if we do put it out there, it doesn’t mean we have to sell it,” he said, but there are legal hurdles and a timeline that have to be done to follow state law.
Allebach said the town advertised in late fall that it was considering getting rid of the property, and then advertised it was soliciting for quotes for the property in December but has not received any offers from those advertisements yet.
“So we’re in a 60-day window. I’m not sure legally what happens at the end of the 60 days if we don’t get anything or if we’ll get anything by the end of the 60 days,” Allebach said.
In other business, the council:
• Approved Allebach’s request for a new copier from Sands Office Equipment, Warsaw, for $6,150.66. It was the lowest bid, with the other two quotes being $7,352 and $7,835.
• Heard upcoming events in Winona include: March 11, 9 a.m., 4-Leaf Clover 10K, starting at Green Earth Multisport; March 17, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Summer Camp Fair at YMCA; March 24, 10 a.m., World Compassion Network 5K at Winona Park; and March 31, Easter egg hunt at the park, 11 a.m. for those with special needs and 3 p.m. for different age groups.
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Tuesday evening, the town board approved MACOG’s proposal of an amount not to exceed $25,000 to help Winona Lake create the comprehensive plan.
Town Coordinator Craig Allebach said the town has been looking at developing a comprehensive plan for a while.
“Originally, it kind of came up a little bit with our Stellar designation when we applied with Warsaw a couple of years ago,” he said. Warsaw and Winona Lake did not win the state award which would have helped facilitate grant dollars to the communities faster for projects they highlighted in their application.
During the process, Winona Lake didn’t have a comprehensive plan for the application so “we decided that we would seek proposals for a comprehensive plan for the community.”
Allebach said he talked to a couple of consultants and ultimately found out that MACOG does comprehensive plans.
“They’re a little less expensive than others, and their proposal was to provide for a comprehensive plan not to exceed $25,000. The other figures I was getting from other consultants was up anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000,” he said.
MACOG has had a great relationship with Winona Lake in the past, he said, including helping the town get several grants. He recommended to the council that it go with MACOG for its comprehensive plan.
“It’ll be a rather lengthy process. I think it will probably take the better part of the next year or so. We’ll eventually get some stakeholders involved and be meeting with various boards and committees within the town as well as the public, and we’ll probably have some public input meetings and get-togethers and (look at) things the way the public envisions they would like to see it go. And then kind of put that all together and provide a road map for us going forward over the next few years,” Allebach said.
Councilman Rick Swaim made the motion to approve the MACOG, and Councilwoman Heather James seconded. The motion was approved 5-0.
Street Superintendent Tom Miller reported spring paving will be off and running as soon as the mills open up. The money was encumbered from 2017 Community Crossroads funds, and he said they will be doing about $210,000 worth of paving this spring.
He then asked that residents be careful of what they put in the sanitary sewer system.
“We’re having a lot of problems with folks putting sanitary napkins, T-shirts, plastic bags and other items that weren’t intended to go into the sanitary sewer. On the disposal of sanitary napkins it says flushable – they may be flushable, but they sure plug up my impellers on my pumps. And that costs us a lot of problems, and it never happens in the afternoons. It only happens at about 3 o’clock in the morning,” he said.
He requested for folks not to put those items into the sanitary sewer as they can cause the pumps to burn up and each pump is $6,000 to $7,000 each minimum.
Resident Jim LeMasters later asked about the sale of the street department building and property at 1631 Chestnut St. “As you sell that property, is that something you’ve thought about for a long time? … Or is that something that came up recently?” he asked.
Board President Bruce Shaffner said discussion on it has been going on for “some time” but he didn’t know exactly how long. Allebach said about seven months.
“At this point, we’re really not at liberty to say anything because we really don’t know anything as far as we’ve not been presented with anything that is factual at this moment. Once we do know more about that, we will be coming forward with that,” Shaffner said.
He said the town went ahead and did its due diligence on getting the property ready if it chooses to sell the property. “And even if we do put it out there, it doesn’t mean we have to sell it,” he said, but there are legal hurdles and a timeline that have to be done to follow state law.
Allebach said the town advertised in late fall that it was considering getting rid of the property, and then advertised it was soliciting for quotes for the property in December but has not received any offers from those advertisements yet.
“So we’re in a 60-day window. I’m not sure legally what happens at the end of the 60 days if we don’t get anything or if we’ll get anything by the end of the 60 days,” Allebach said.
In other business, the council:
• Approved Allebach’s request for a new copier from Sands Office Equipment, Warsaw, for $6,150.66. It was the lowest bid, with the other two quotes being $7,352 and $7,835.
• Heard upcoming events in Winona include: March 11, 9 a.m., 4-Leaf Clover 10K, starting at Green Earth Multisport; March 17, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Summer Camp Fair at YMCA; March 24, 10 a.m., World Compassion Network 5K at Winona Park; and March 31, Easter egg hunt at the park, 11 a.m. for those with special needs and 3 p.m. for different age groups.
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