Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer and city councilman Ron Shoemaker are on Tuesday’s primary election ballot, seeking the Republican nomination for mayor in the November general election. Each candidate was asked to respond to the following: “Identify the three most urgent issues the city of Warsaw will face following the next election and explain how you will address these issues.” Candidates were limited to a total of 1,000 words. Published here are their responses.

Mayor Joe Thallemer

Prioritizing the three most urgent issues facing our community is a tricky assignment. Serving now my eighth year as mayor of the city of Warsaw, I have learned that all issues are urgent to those who are affected. That being said, I will discuss those concerns that have a major impact on our citizens, our resources and the quality of life in Warsaw.

While some may regard responsible fiscal management as a single critical issue, I feel it is a foundational principle to almost every issue we address. Careful spending, leveraging assets and sound fundamental financial practices account for our low stable tax rate, significant expansion of our tax base and maintenance of our AA minus credit rating.

The increased traffic and truck congestion on U.S. 30 is having a major impact on travel safety in our community. There are upwards of 30,000 cars a day with at times, 20% of that being truck traffic. Accident rates are high.

A large part of the prosperity we have enjoyed in our community is from the retail, manufacturing and residential growth along U.S. 30 that has developed since 1974 when the road was opened. But that has also led to the current issue. Our studies indicate that at certain times of the day, local traffic accounts for almost 50% of the total traffic volumes. We must come up with a local solution.

I will continue to lead the seven county U.S. 30 Coalition to seek funding for a long-term solution of a limited access freeway (similar to US 31). The seven-county unified coalition gives great strength to that effort. This type of project could take up to 20 years to complete. Getting the funding commitment for the preliminary engineering work is a high priority to move the process along.

Working alongside our county commissioner and our respective planning departments, we will continue to convene meetings with community stakeholders and the public to develop a community vision for the future of U.S. 30. Local community input will be a critical part of INDOT’s final decision to determine the most appropriate route.

In the meantime, I will continue to work with INDOT to construct safety improvements (Parker St. and Anchorage Road widening this summer) all throughout the county to provide some short-term relief for this critical safety concern.

Another critical issue is meeting the workforce demands of our local employers.

With a low unemployment rate and the high demand for skilled workers that our local industry requires, we are facing a shortage of workforce.

We are blessed with a mix of educational and industry resources that have worked very well together to develop industry specific training programs. These training programs put high school graduates on the road to meaningful career paths. But training slots and jobs remain unfilled. As a result, we rely on a regional workforce to help meet our local job demand. We are fortunate that we have the quality jobs in our community that can draw from surrounding counties to help meet our needs. But the shortage still exists. One report found that over 30% of our local orthopedic employees come in from out of the county every day.

That shortage also impacts jobs that indirectly support the industry as well as retail and service jobs in our city.

The requirements to attract and retain a viable workforce are a good quality of life, a safe community and good schools. The first two are fundamental responsibilities of my office that we have and will continue to prioritize. We also collaborate with local school administration to support their mission of quality education.

Housing is a critical workforce issue in our community. We need housing choices that meet the needs and budgets of our working families. Shortages exist.

We are currently assessing our local housing inventory (single-family, multi-family and rental versus owner-occupied). That will allow us to identify specific areas of need. Armed with that information, we will consider incentives to stimulate construction to meet those data driven needs.

While some state programs (residential TIF, down payment assistance, etc.) are evolving, there must be local solutions to the housing issue.  We must formulate solutions that will address specific home parameters identified in the study as high in demand and low in supply. Those parameters will be annually evaluated. Incentives could include infrastructure assistance, development incentives, density bonuses, mitigating land costs, infill housing incentives, revaluation of current standards, and expedited permitting.

Affordable childcare is also a critical component in meeting the needs of the working family. Understanding that high child care costs can reduce the incentive to work, there needs to be an affordable option. We have partnered with a collaboration of community stakeholders to not only address the need but also find solutions that will work for our community.

Finally, aggressively addressing our aging infrastructure will be critical to neighborhood revitalization. Two examples of that are the road reconstruction project on East Market Street and storm and sanitary system failures on Buffalo Street. Both have been the catalyst of revitalization in those neighborhoods.

As it ages, failure along our aging sewage pipe collection system is affecting every neighborhood in the city. Sinkholes result and their danger is becoming more common. Just last week there was a failure in the middle of State Road 15 and Winona Avenue! It’s hard to appreciate the need when its underground and you can’t see it but the threat is real!

In 2018, a $10 million dollar relining and replacement project gave us a good head start. I will continue to commit funds annually to play catch up. We have no choice.

Road maintenance and reconstruction will continue to be a very high priority. With more state funds available, we will aggressively be playing catch-up to extend road life for over one hundred miles of roads we are responsible for.

The experience that comes with being awarded four federal road projects in seven years is testimony to our success in leveraging local taxpayer funds into 80:20 match. We are already looking at future projects as the opportunity for federal dollars comes available.