Parks Dept. Building Construction To Start This Summer
May 6, 2022 at 11:22 p.m.
By David [email protected]
The building will house the department’s maintenance facilities and park offices on East Fort Wayne Street.
Mayor Joe Thallemer explained, “This is a financial agreement and project delivery method that the city has worked with. Greg Martz, who this contract is with, his contract has been reviewed. We hired an attorney who has specialized in these build-operate-transfer agreements. He has gone through this contract and given the OK. They made the changes he suggested so this allows things to get started.”
In some good news, he said the steel is coming a bit sooner than they thought it would “so this project ought to take off.”
Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer said all the equipment will be brought in around June.
Thallemer said the Council’s already approved the project so Friday’s action was just a formality. Councilman and Board of Works member Jeff Grose made a motion to approve the 31-page agreement and his motion was approved.
City engineer Aaron Ott said he thought the agreement was very thorough and covers anything that might arise during construction.
The maximum cost of the project is $3.65 million. The substantial completion date for the project is June 15, 2023.
Another agreement approved by the Board was between Language Matters LLC and the city for $20,094.80.
Thallemer said, “We spent quite a bit of time working with the departments, department heads about types of services that we want to pursue. Lucas (Fonseca, founder and CEO of Language Matters) actually did a community outreach to find out what the community needs were and come up with a list of projects that we’re going to start out with.”
Those will include translation documents for some city departments, on-site interpreters for Safety Day and other events, ID program research and Spanish copyrighting for the city’s Facebook account.
“We’re starting a six-month call center, which will be bilingual, to allow citizens that are Spanish-speaking to call in and inquire about specific city services, concerns. I’m really excited about that. Lucas has done a great job meeting the needs of the city and I think his call center is going to be really well received,” Thallemer said.
Fonseca thanked all the city departments. “We were able to do the study side of this really, really fast because every department was really quick to get the information to me, to meet with me and so we were able to accelerate that part of that process,” he said.
“It’s really important for us, as we work to make this more accessible, to learn more about our Hispanic community and that’s why we wanted to do all of these on pilot. We wanted to have data from the (test) pilot we could look at and know how to move forward,” Fonseca said.
The call center will be a great opportunity for gathering of data “to know how we can move forward” to make city services more accessible to Hispanic community members, he said.
“This is really good. I appreciate everyone’s efforts,” Grose said before making the motion to approve the agreement, which was approved.
In other business, the Board of Works approved:
• Pay application No. 7 for $6,653.06 from Structurepoint for the Anchorage Road Project, which is an 80/20 Indiana Department of Transportation-funded project. The city will pay 20% throughout the project and be reimbursed 80% by INDOT for each phase over the year. Community Economic and Development Director Jeremy Skinner said the money will come out of the Economic Development Income Tax (EDIT).
• Pay application No. 28 from Structurepoint for $11,565.35 from Structurepoint for the Anchorage Road Project. The funds will come out of EDIT.
Skinner said hopefully the engineering for the Anchorage Road Project will get submitted this fall and it will be bid out by mid-2023.
• The purchase of a right-of-way parcel for the Anchorage Road Project from Jian Zhen for $92,580. It will be paid for out of the Northern TIF (Tax Increment Finance) District. It will be submitted for an 80% reimbursement from INDOT.
Skinner estimated they had five or six more parcels to acquire for all of the right-of-way needed. The right-of-way acquisitions are necessary for the utilities being moved to put in a third lane on Anchorage Road.
• All the travel requests and new hires/promotions as presented by retiring Human Resource Director Jennifer Whitaker. Her last day is May 13 and Thallemer later thanked her for everything she’s done for the city.
• A contract for the Parks and Recreation Department for Penguinnes for $800 for the Family Carnival July 29.
• A contract with Kevin Bean for $250 to be an opening act June 10 for the Summer Concert Series. Bean performs country and ’70s rock. The Summer Concert Series on Fridays begins May 27.
• A $7,250 contract with Brian Fraval, doing business as Pro Audio Service, to provide sound, audio and backline for the Jefferson Airplane rock concert June 17 at Glover Pavilion. Backline includes the instruments.
• A $1,200 contract with Fraval to provide the lights and audio for the July 9 Lakes Festival at Glover Pavilion that includes the blues concert.
• A $4,700 contract with Fraval to provide sound and lights at the July 22 country concert at the Glover Pavilion.
• An agreement between the Warsaw Police Department and ERAD Group. Det. Paul Heaton said, “It’s basically a way for us to detect clone cards, card skimmers, a different way to seize money. People don’t necessarily carry bulk cash anymore and you can seize those assets on site before they’re transferred out.”
ERAD will not charge a seizure fee for seizures up to $10,000 per year. The only fee associated with the service is the yearly license of $1,500 unless seizures exceed the $10,000 per year.
• Public Works Superintendent Dustin Dillon’s request to purchase two 2023 F650s dump trucks from Viking-Cives Midwest, through Sourcewell, for $159,413 each for a total of $318,826.
• Accepting a preliminary Community Crossings Matching 50/50 Grant of $443,658. The funds will be used for the second phase of the road project on Lindberg Drive in Hodges Addition, Dillon said.
• Pay application No. 1 for $89,210.70 to G & G Hauling & Excavating for material for the Country Club reconstruction and extension project, as requested by the Stormwater Utility.
• The Stormwater Utility donating $5,000 toward the 2022 Lakes Festival. Utility Superintendent Brian Davison said it will help the utility meet some of its community education and outreach that is required to maintain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit for its Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4).
• Pay application No. 5 for $73,799.17 to HRP Construction Inc. for the McKinley Street storm sewer improvements.
• Pay application No. 3 for $38,516.49 to Insight Pipe Contracting LLC for sanitary sewer rehabilitation. Davison estimated 7,000 to 8,000 lineal feet of pipe were lined.
• A contract between Wastewater Solutions Inc. and the Wastewater Treatment Utility for annual wastewater training for $14,940.
The building will house the department’s maintenance facilities and park offices on East Fort Wayne Street.
Mayor Joe Thallemer explained, “This is a financial agreement and project delivery method that the city has worked with. Greg Martz, who this contract is with, his contract has been reviewed. We hired an attorney who has specialized in these build-operate-transfer agreements. He has gone through this contract and given the OK. They made the changes he suggested so this allows things to get started.”
In some good news, he said the steel is coming a bit sooner than they thought it would “so this project ought to take off.”
Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer said all the equipment will be brought in around June.
Thallemer said the Council’s already approved the project so Friday’s action was just a formality. Councilman and Board of Works member Jeff Grose made a motion to approve the 31-page agreement and his motion was approved.
City engineer Aaron Ott said he thought the agreement was very thorough and covers anything that might arise during construction.
The maximum cost of the project is $3.65 million. The substantial completion date for the project is June 15, 2023.
Another agreement approved by the Board was between Language Matters LLC and the city for $20,094.80.
Thallemer said, “We spent quite a bit of time working with the departments, department heads about types of services that we want to pursue. Lucas (Fonseca, founder and CEO of Language Matters) actually did a community outreach to find out what the community needs were and come up with a list of projects that we’re going to start out with.”
Those will include translation documents for some city departments, on-site interpreters for Safety Day and other events, ID program research and Spanish copyrighting for the city’s Facebook account.
“We’re starting a six-month call center, which will be bilingual, to allow citizens that are Spanish-speaking to call in and inquire about specific city services, concerns. I’m really excited about that. Lucas has done a great job meeting the needs of the city and I think his call center is going to be really well received,” Thallemer said.
Fonseca thanked all the city departments. “We were able to do the study side of this really, really fast because every department was really quick to get the information to me, to meet with me and so we were able to accelerate that part of that process,” he said.
“It’s really important for us, as we work to make this more accessible, to learn more about our Hispanic community and that’s why we wanted to do all of these on pilot. We wanted to have data from the (test) pilot we could look at and know how to move forward,” Fonseca said.
The call center will be a great opportunity for gathering of data “to know how we can move forward” to make city services more accessible to Hispanic community members, he said.
“This is really good. I appreciate everyone’s efforts,” Grose said before making the motion to approve the agreement, which was approved.
In other business, the Board of Works approved:
• Pay application No. 7 for $6,653.06 from Structurepoint for the Anchorage Road Project, which is an 80/20 Indiana Department of Transportation-funded project. The city will pay 20% throughout the project and be reimbursed 80% by INDOT for each phase over the year. Community Economic and Development Director Jeremy Skinner said the money will come out of the Economic Development Income Tax (EDIT).
• Pay application No. 28 from Structurepoint for $11,565.35 from Structurepoint for the Anchorage Road Project. The funds will come out of EDIT.
Skinner said hopefully the engineering for the Anchorage Road Project will get submitted this fall and it will be bid out by mid-2023.
• The purchase of a right-of-way parcel for the Anchorage Road Project from Jian Zhen for $92,580. It will be paid for out of the Northern TIF (Tax Increment Finance) District. It will be submitted for an 80% reimbursement from INDOT.
Skinner estimated they had five or six more parcels to acquire for all of the right-of-way needed. The right-of-way acquisitions are necessary for the utilities being moved to put in a third lane on Anchorage Road.
• All the travel requests and new hires/promotions as presented by retiring Human Resource Director Jennifer Whitaker. Her last day is May 13 and Thallemer later thanked her for everything she’s done for the city.
• A contract for the Parks and Recreation Department for Penguinnes for $800 for the Family Carnival July 29.
• A contract with Kevin Bean for $250 to be an opening act June 10 for the Summer Concert Series. Bean performs country and ’70s rock. The Summer Concert Series on Fridays begins May 27.
• A $7,250 contract with Brian Fraval, doing business as Pro Audio Service, to provide sound, audio and backline for the Jefferson Airplane rock concert June 17 at Glover Pavilion. Backline includes the instruments.
• A $1,200 contract with Fraval to provide the lights and audio for the July 9 Lakes Festival at Glover Pavilion that includes the blues concert.
• A $4,700 contract with Fraval to provide sound and lights at the July 22 country concert at the Glover Pavilion.
• An agreement between the Warsaw Police Department and ERAD Group. Det. Paul Heaton said, “It’s basically a way for us to detect clone cards, card skimmers, a different way to seize money. People don’t necessarily carry bulk cash anymore and you can seize those assets on site before they’re transferred out.”
ERAD will not charge a seizure fee for seizures up to $10,000 per year. The only fee associated with the service is the yearly license of $1,500 unless seizures exceed the $10,000 per year.
• Public Works Superintendent Dustin Dillon’s request to purchase two 2023 F650s dump trucks from Viking-Cives Midwest, through Sourcewell, for $159,413 each for a total of $318,826.
• Accepting a preliminary Community Crossings Matching 50/50 Grant of $443,658. The funds will be used for the second phase of the road project on Lindberg Drive in Hodges Addition, Dillon said.
• Pay application No. 1 for $89,210.70 to G & G Hauling & Excavating for material for the Country Club reconstruction and extension project, as requested by the Stormwater Utility.
• The Stormwater Utility donating $5,000 toward the 2022 Lakes Festival. Utility Superintendent Brian Davison said it will help the utility meet some of its community education and outreach that is required to maintain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit for its Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4).
• Pay application No. 5 for $73,799.17 to HRP Construction Inc. for the McKinley Street storm sewer improvements.
• Pay application No. 3 for $38,516.49 to Insight Pipe Contracting LLC for sanitary sewer rehabilitation. Davison estimated 7,000 to 8,000 lineal feet of pipe were lined.
• A contract between Wastewater Solutions Inc. and the Wastewater Treatment Utility for annual wastewater training for $14,940.
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