A public hearing on the city’s 2025 budget ordinance, a resolution determining the existence of deer nuisance areas within the city and a report from the Warsaw Community Public Library were the three big items before the Warsaw Common Council Monday.
On the 2025 proposed budget, Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen said when they were “figuring everything out, we only went with 90% of our AV (assessed valuation). So on the civil side, we’re over the max levy by a little over $300,000, and the fire territory is under about $600,000 due to their new max levy.”
She said Monday was the public hearing on the budget, and the second reading of it will be at the council’s Oct. 7 meeting.
“(Warsaw Mayor) Jeff (Grose) has asked for reductions in this year’s budget to help us get our reserves up before we start chiseling away and fine-tuning,” she said.
Grose said department heads are starting to communicate with him. “The goal is, we can finalize those things and then report to Lynne and then eventually you,” he said.
Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins asked if the figures that the council were seeing now will be adjusted down, and Christiansen agreed they would be.

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According to the budget ordinance, the total of the proposed 2025 budget is $37,864,856, with an adopted tax levy of $18,922,627 and an adopted tax rate of $1.3311 per $100 of AV. The total home-ruled funds, not reviewed by the Department of Local Government Finance, is $11,557,177.
Christiansen said the $1.3311 will go down because they didn’t use the whole AV. Grose said he believed the city was at around $1.40 at about this time in the budget process last year and they got it down to around $1.22. At this point in the process, the city can reduce the budget but it can not increase it.
No one from the audience spoke for or against the budget during the public hearing. Councilwoman Diane Quance made a motion to approve the ordinance, Councilman Jerry Frush seconded it and it was approved 6-0, with Councilman Mike Klondaris absent.
With Grose now mayor, Todd Braddock is the chairman of the city’s Deer Task Force. In presenting a brief overview of the program, Braddock said, “This has been a community service that’s been working with the community of Warsaw for nearly 18 years. I will tell you that the model we have established here in the city of Warsaw has been a model that other cities in the state of Indiana have also wanted to learn more about.”
He asked for approval for a resolution that would allow the formal declaration of deer nuisance zones within the city of Warsaw. If approved, it would allow the Deer Task Force to declare reduction zones within the city.
Braddock said this is the 18th year for the program, which has harvested over 800 deer during that time and it’s expected to get to 900 this year. Of the deer harvested, 98% are antlerless. Many of those deer go on to be donated to local food pantries, churches or others in the community who may need deer as a source of food.
“I will say that I believe we are in a management phase now, meaning that we are just managing that deer herd within the city limits of Warsaw. Over the last four to five years we’ve averaged around 50 harvested over that time,” he said.
This year, close to 50 archers are participating in the program. Those archers go through a training program at the police department, Braddock explained. They apply online and are vetted by the management team and have to pass a proficiency test.
The reduction zones are the same that have been approved for the last 18 years, he said. Right now, there are 25 private properties that have been submitted to the Warsaw Police Department. The landowners who sign off on those permission forms have given the archers permission to hunt those areas. There’s also three public zones available to all the archers - Lutheran Kosciusko Hospital, Ivy Tech and Lakeview Island.
“The state of Indiana has actually identified the city limits of Warsaw to be within what they’ve declared a reduction zone, so there are several reduction zones that the Indiana Department of Natural Resources have identified throughout the state of Indiana - the city limits of Warsaw falls within a reduction zone radius that extends a little bit outside the city limits of Warsaw, but our reduction efforts for this program are aimed within the city limits itself,” Braddock said.
After some further discussion, the council approved the resolution 6-0.
Heather Barron, executive director of the WCPL, said part of why she was at the council meeting was to share a little about the library.
The Warsaw Library has over 15,000 cardholders. In 2023, over 94,000 came through the library’s doors, and circulation was over 500,000 items. Barron said the library also helps serve the need of WiFi and computer access for those who still don’t have them. Over 7,000 people have attended some of the library’s programs.
Right now, the library has a feasibility study going on. Barron said a big part of the feasibility study is for the library to listen and gather feedback because it wants to hear from the community. There’s a community survey out there for people to provide their thoughts.
The last renovation to the library was nearly 30 years ago, Barron said, “so you can imagine the world has changed a lot in 30 years and library service has had to evolve with that.”