City of Warsaw will be able to get fuel in 2024 for a few cents less than it’s paying for in 2023.
Friday morning during the Board of Public Works and Safety meeting, bids were opened for on-road and off-road diesel, ethanol-free gasoline and 87 octane unleaded gasoline.
The only bidder for the on-road and off-road diesel and ethanol-free gasoline was Ceres Solutions. Their proposal for on-road diesel fuel was $3.168 per gallon; off-road, $3.321; and ethanol-free, $3.263. However, those prices did not include the excise taxes paid by the city, which will add $0.57 to the on-road diesel per gallon for a total of $3.738; $0.34 to the ethanol-free for a total of $3.603 per gallon; and no additional tax for the off-road diesel.
Public Works and Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon recommended the board accepted the bids from Ceres Solutions, which are still less than what they’re paying now. The board approved the bids.
Two bids were received for 2024 fuel bids. The bids were for up to 80,000 gallons of 87 octane unleaded gasoline.
Ceres Solutions submitted a bid of $2.739 per gallon, and Lassus provided a bid of $2.97. However, it was realized that the bid amount initially read by Mayor Joe Thallemer from Ceres Solutions did not include the $0.34 per gallon excise tax, which would make their bid $3.079 per gallon. Lassus did include all taxes in their bid.
Warsaw Police Chief Scott Whitaker recommended the board accept the Lassus bid of $2.97 per gallon. He said Lassus does meet the specifications and it’s the company they have been using.
Thallemer mentioned the price for the gasoline this year from Lassus is $2.99 per gallon.
“We have the option of not accepting this and ... we could later this year redo this again,” he said. “These prices are only good for today, right now. So that’s how volatile the market is. I think with the chief’s recommendation, again, it’s a fixed cost. It’s still, obviously, very competitive. It’s down below 2 cents what it was this year. I feel good about it, but there’s some options. I just want to give the board a chance to weigh in on it.”
Board member George Clemens said the price of gas is volatile and one never knows which way gas prices will go. He said it appeared that gas prices were currently trending upward and there’s tension in the Persian Gulf area so all of that could drive gas prices further up.
“I think I’d rather lock the price in,” Clemens stated.
Board member and Councilman Jeff Grose agreed with Clemens and made a motion to approve the price of $2.97 per gallon from Lassus, which was approved.
A request for a street closure by the Kosciusko County Historical Society (KCHS) was tabled until the Board of Work’s Aug. 18 meeting.
KCHS is planning to have a Native American gathering as part of Main Street’s Third Fridays on Sept. 15. KCHS wants to close North Indiana Street from Main Street to the alley from 2 to 9 p.m., with the event going from 5 to 9 p.m.
No one from the KCHS was present at Friday’s Board of Works meeting.
Thallemer asked if it would make more sense to close North Indiana all the way from Main to Center Street instead of just to the alley. If someone turned north on Indiana from Center Street, they would find they wouldn’t be able to get very far. Center Street beginning at Indiana to Lake Street will be blocked because of Third Friday.
Dillon agreed that Indiana should be closed at Center to Main streets instead of just the alley to Main. Thallemer said KCHS should amend their request so the board tabled the matter until their next meeting.
In other business, the board approved:
• A pay application for $5,488 to Structurepoint for ongoing engineering work on the Anchorage Road project, as requested by Community Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner. It is an 80/20 Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) project, so INDOT will reimburse 80% of the cost to the city.
• A pay application for $17,850 to Lynn Douglas Inc. for their cleanup efforts with the Warsaw Chemical ground water cleanup, as requested by Skinner.
“This is part of the refinancing of the wastewater bonds to receive some additional funding for our cleanup efforts on the Warsaw Chemical site. This pay application in the amount of $17,850 is from Lynn Douglas and we submit it to that SRF funding,” he said.
Thallemer asked how far along were they on the cleanup as far as the amount they have to spend.
Skinner said there’s still $554,011 to be dispersed. A little over $2.9 million has already been dispersed.
“And you’ll remember, with the refinancing of our SRF loan, we were allowed to continue to pay the same amount. With the difference then, we were able to use (it) for any environmental cleanup of our choice and this one rose to the top. So that’s what this is about,” Thallemer said.
Skinner noted it had to be groundwater related.
• The contract with USI Consultants Inc. for $55,200 for engineering fees and construction documents for the traffic signal modernization at the intersection of Lake and Main streets.
Dillon said hopefully it will be designed this year for a 2024 construction project. It will look just like what was completed at the intersections of Center and Indiana, Center and Buffalo and Center and Lake streets.
• A pay application for $250,900.29 to G & G Hauling & Excavating for the CR 200S sewer expansion project for the housing addition that will be built down in that area, as requested by Utility Superintendent Brian Davison.
He said it was expected to be completed by the end of October.
• The annual software license with Boyce/Keystone for the city’s key assets, funds and payroll for $9,130, as requested by Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen.
• The maintenance agreement with Cummins Sales and Service for the generators at the three Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory stations and the Warsaw Police Department. The fire territory’s portion is $1,953.19 and the WPD’s portion is $625.27, totaling $2,578.46. The fire territory board approved the agreement at their meeting Tuesday.
• The new hire and change in payroll report, as presented by Human Resource Director Denny Harlan. It includes the hiring of Jackson Longenbaugh as the assistant city planner for the building and planning department. Longenbaugh will start Aug. 14 and his full-time pay will be $27.50 per hour.
• The travel requests, as presented by Harlan. They included three wastewater utility employees going to a rebranding sustainability conference with Partners for Pollution Prevention in Indianapolis at $537.67 each from Sept. 19-20; and nine wastewater utility employees going to the annual Indiana Water Environment Association conference in Fort Wayne From Aug. 22-25. Cost for the IWEA conference ranges from $567 to $960.43 per employee as not all employees are attending all four days of the conference.
Davison said the IWEA was a great conference and they cover about every topic in the industry and there will be vendors there.
Additionally, a fire territory lieutenant will be attending dive training in Nashville.