SYRACUSE - At Tuesday night’s Syracuse Town Council meeting, an election of officers was held.
Nathan Scherer was re-elected as president of the council and Cindy Kaiser was re-elected as vice president.
Clerk-Treasurer Virginia Cazier reported that Town Manager David Wilkinson said while the town was unable to get OCRA (Office of Community Rural Affairs) funds before, now they are able to and he asked the council whether he should pursue an OCRA grant of $5.08 million or a State Revolving Fund (SRF) for $6,203,400. The council reportedly approved moving forward on the SRF.
Cazier reported the money would be used to fund three to four projects, including upgrading Huntington Street and replacing lead service lines, installing water lines for the new RV park, upgrading water lines on Kern Road, etc.
Also in the town manager’s report, he received approval to work with Michiana Area Council Of Government (MACOG) to obtain an electric vehicle charging station, which would likely be installed at the Pearl Street parking lot. The grant through MACOG would be an 80/20 matching grant so the town’s portion would be between $10,000 to $15,000.
According to Cazier, Wilkinson reported MACOG would own the charging station for five years and then the town would take ownership.
Wilkinson also received approval to donate $15,000 of the town’s opioid grant funds to the Rose Garden Recovery Community in Syracuse.
Tax Abatement
The council approved the declaratory resolution for Aluminum Insights LLC. Aluminum Insights is building a 40,000-square-foot expansion at the existing location at 104 E. Innovation Blvd. The company’s plan is to invest $3.5 million in the addition and to purchase $3.5 million in automation/handling equipment. They plan to hire 15 full-time employees with an average wage of $25 per hour.
They’re asking for a 10-year tax abatement. They plan to start construction in March with completion expected by the end of 2025.
Urban Oaks Alley Vacation
An engineer from Wightman was present at the council meeting on behalf of the owners of Urban Oaks Apartment requesting to vacate two alleys at the corner of Acorn and Boston on the east side, in order to build more apartments.
Cazier reported that this was a preliminary request and the council “didn’t see a problem with it.” She said Scherer thanked Urban Oaks for what they’ve done to provide housing in Syracuse.
In other business, the council:
• Approved a task order for Commonwealth Engineers for on-call service up to $10,000.
• Heard from Police Chief Jim Layne that they received a $20,000 grant from Kosciusko County Community Foundation to update the mobile data terminals in their vehicles.
• Approved a request from Fire Chief Mickey Scott for emergency lights for their new Tahoe at a cost not to exceed $9,000.
• Approved Scott’s request for a new garage door for the new building not to exceed $5,000.
• Received an annual report from the town manager listing accomplishments including over $2.2 million in projects, paving about 1.2 miles of town streets and alleys, restarting the façade grant program and awarded $15,000 in grants to five businesses, among many other items.