Some of the city’s American Rescue Plan Act funds will be redirected after the Warsaw Common Council gave their approval Monday.
The council also approved two ARPA grants - one for Warsaw Little League and the other for Habitat for Humanity of Kosciusko County.
The city’s share of funds from the ARPA was $3,433,400.88.
The original plan for the ARPA spending included $725,000 for emergency street light replacement; $550,000 for neighborhood infrastructure; $25,000 for parks programming; $475,000 for wastewater and stormwater projects; $500,000 for emergency communications tower; $179,428 for mental health initiative/CARES director salary and Elements software; $180,000 for nonprofit and small business relief; $250,000 for LaunchPad initiative; and $231,473 for air quality in public spaces.
Additionally, there was $217,500 planned for three other areas but those funds were redirected in the new spending plan.
In the new plan, the emergency street light replacement, which is now completed, only totals $671,198 and the remaining funds were redirected; meanwhile, the air quality in public spaces increased by over $400,000 to $632,790.57. There’s also about $30,000 less in the mental health initiative category as grant funding has paid for some of the things that were to come out of that.
Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen explained, “In the mental health initiative, (it’s) the money we spent so far for the CARES coordinator and then there’s some money left over that (Warsaw Police Department) Capt. (Joel) Beam would like to use for a critical incident app, and he can talk to you more about that.”
Warsaw Mayor Jeff Grose said Public Works Superintendent Dustin Dillon was present at the meeting and he could talk to the council about the $550,000 for a neighborhood infrastructure project.
As for the “large amount of money” for air quality public spaces, Grose said that’s connected to the City Hall building and the issues it’s been having. “So some dollars have been redirected to there,” he said.
With no questions from the council, they unanimously approved the revised ARPA spending plan.
Later in the meeting, Beam and Dillon reported to the council what they would be using the ARPA funds on.
Beam said, “Critical incidents among first responders is a very big concern. Last year, 135 police officers died in the line of duty. In that same time frame, 135 officers took their own life. I have a bigger chance of killing myself than I do getting shot out on the street. We want to get out in front of the problem and not behind the problem.”
On average, in a city of Warsaw’s size, there will be 400 critical incidents that Beam will see, other officers will see and firefighters will see. He said the average number a civilian will see is four.
“You can’t give CPR on a baby, that’s just a month old, and it not affect you,” Beam said. “What we are concerned of is the accumulative effect of these calls.”
About $30,000 of the ARPA funds he is requesting will be used for an app to track critical incidents that law enforcement responds to.
“How we are doing this is through a peer support program. So it’s not their boss going to check on them. It’s another peer,” Beam said.
The other $5,000 will be used to send first responders to out-of-state therapy should the need arise.
Dillon, speaking on the neighborhood infrastructure project funds, said it will be used for sidewalks on South Union and Kincaid streets where a large number of children walk to school. Many of the sidewalks in those areas are 3 to 4 feet wide and not in compliance with the city’s standards.
“This project is still under engineering right now. Should be ready to go, hopefully, here in the next month or month and a half, for that to be put out to bid, but that would be full replacement, updating ADA standards, the full works on South Union Street from Eagle all the way down to Kincaid, and then on Kincaid from South Union back out to 15,” he said.
The first ARPA grant presented to the council for their approval by Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins was for Warsaw Little League to replace some scoreboards. The original quote was for $21,628.96, with the Council approving 80% of that at $17,303.17.
The second grant requested was from Habitat for Humanity of Kosciusko County to replace the roof on their ReSale Outlet building on Corridor Drive for $55,200, which is 80% of the total cost of the roof replacement.
Ben Logan, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Kosciusko County, explained the ReSale Outlet sells items that were donated from businesses and individuals at below the market rate. The money earned then goes to Habitat for Humanity’s operating expenses and to build homes in Warsaw and throughout the county.
“The roof is actually a metal roof over a 12,000-square-foot building that holds not just the ReSale Outlet, but also our corporate office and our construction warehouse space. We’re all-in-one,” he said. “And it would be to patch and repair the metal roof of this building, which we do own outright since about three or four years ago.”
The council approved the full $55,200.
Council President Jack Wilhite said now having approved grant funding for the City-County Athletic Complex, Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity and Warsaw Little League, there is $40,985 left of the original $180,000 in ARPA grant dollars to give to nonprofits. Applications for the remaining dollars are due by Oct. 31, 2024, and must be paid out by 2026.
The last two action items on the council’s agenda went together and were an amended written commitment from Taqueria El Comal for a liquor license, as well as an amended ordinance for the license.
City attorney Scott Reust explained, “If you can recall, back in November, we had the two liquor licenses that the state made us, extra licenses available in the city of Warsaw. We had two people who provided written commitments - it was Salvatori’s ... and Taqueria El Comal. I worked together with their attorney, Jack Birch, to write the formal written commitment and, when I was helping write the formal written commitment, we discussed that Hermila Mendoza and her husband operated a restaurant, it was a family business and they worked together for many years. I mistakenly thought that that meant they co-owned the business. As it turns out, Hermila is the sole owner of that business.”
The reason that makes a difference, he said, is that when a person applies for a liquor license, they have to put on the license whether they’re a sole owner, owned by a partnership or by a corporation.
On Mendoza’s liquor license application, it correctly stated that she is the sole owner. However, in the previously written commitment, Reust erroneously indicated it was owned by her and her husband and Birch did not catch the error. The errors has delayed the business from getting their liquor license by about five months.
The amended written commitment and ordinance corrects the errors so that it shows Mendoza is the sole owner.
The council approved the commitment letter and the ordinance on first and second reading.
As the April 1 council meeting was cancelled due to lack of business, the next meeting will be at 7 p.m. April 15.