Warsaw Common Council took three actions Monday as part of the process of applying for a construction grant for the demolition and remediation of the former Jomac Products buildings on East Winona Avenue.
This is the second time the city has sought the grant as lead applicant on behalf of Fellowship Missions, the subrecipient of the grant and property owner. The first grant application was not approved earlier this year.
The first action by the council Monday was having a second public hearing on this time’s application for the grant funded by the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Blight Clearance Program, administered by the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA).
Donny Ritsema, senior community development planner with Michiana Area Council of Government, said two public hearings are required for the grant application, with the first one held Oct. 7.
“Our need for this grant is we’d like to fund for demolition those blighted buildings (at 1600 and 1624 E. Winona Ave.), remove the asbestos, abate that. And then, using local funds, we’ll seek to remove the storage tanks that are above and/or underground,” he said, adding that the buildings are deteriorating and are not safe.
If the grant is approved, the city will administer the grant funds and oversee any construction work that will take place.
The total project cost to demolish the buildings, abate the asbestos and remove the storage tanks is estimated at $694,943.
The removal of the storage tanks is being included as part of the local match. The city has submitted an application to the Indiana Brownfields Petroleum Orphan Site Initiative (POSI) for a grant. The alternative to that is that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded the MACOG region with a Regional Brownfields Assessment Award in 2024, and the city may be able to use some of that award funding.
The CDBG grant maximum is $500,000, with the local match required being $194,943. Fellowship Missions is committing $77,896 of that; the city received OCRA’s approval to use the city engineer’s force accounts services for professional engineering work as an in-kind contribution totaling $22,247.10; and the city is seeking to use funds from Indiana Brownfields POSI or funds from the EPA grant to MACOG.
Councilman Mike Klondaris asked what the timeline for the project is. Ritsema said the grant application is due Friday. The state will review it through the end of January or beginning of February. About mid-February, an announcement of awards will be made. If the city is awarded the grant, Ritsema said there are a number of administrative procedures that will need to take place before bids can even be issued for the demolition.
The only person who spoke on the grant application was Fellowship Missions Executive Director and founder Eric Lane, who spoke in favor of the grant and praised Ritsema for his work.
The next step the council took was approving a memorandum of understanding between the city and Fellowship Missions on the grant.
The third and final step by the council was approval of a resolution authorizing Ritsema to send the grant application on or by Friday and the resolution outlines the three local match sources tied to the project.
In other business:
• Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen said the city’s 1782 Notice from the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, which highlights all the taxing entities’ funds that are subject to a tax rate and what that rate ended up being for the upcoming year, came in. No action was needed or taken by the council.
The overall rate will be $1.2060 per $100 of assessed valuation for 2025. Mayor Jeff Grose said that rate is a little bit less than last year and is at or just below where the city was in 2014.
Christiansen said the fire territory was under their maximum levy by $596,000, and the city was under the maximum levy by $234,000-$235,000. “What that means is we could have collected that much more, which would have made, obviously, our rate higher,” she said.
• Christiansen requested, and the council approved, to transfer $600,000 from general fund to the Rainy Day Fund. With the transfer, the fund will have a total of $2.3 million.
• The council gave their approval to the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) final spending plan. Funds from ARPA have to be finalized by the end of this year and spent by the end of 2026. The city’s ARPA spending totals $3,433,400.88, with $806,604.57 of that for air quality in public spaces.
Christiansen said the city has contracts for everything except for the air quality in public spaces, which will be discussed Friday at the Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.
Grose said the air quality in public spaces related to the issues in the City Hall building.
“It looks Friday we’ll be taking another step toward remediation and trying to make this building right. It’s nice to know that we have just over $800,000 for starters to work on a very, very expensive project,” he said.
• The council approved Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Chief Joel Shilling’s request to transfer $10,035.09 from medical, dental, life/LTD to RCORP/CARES to balance the RCORP account.
They also approved Shilling’s request to transfer $6,898.06 from FSSA grant/CARES to miscellaneous revenue - operating.
• Retired Judge Duane Huffer will replace Dan Smith on the Warsaw Board of Zoning Appeals, the council approved Monday.