All that remains of the Center Lake pier are the memories.
City engineer Aaron Ott brought before the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety on Friday the first pay application from Milestone Contractors LP for the Center Lake pier demolition. The payment request was in the amount of $199,908.50, after the city withheld a 5% retainage until all the work is complete. The original contract sum, once all the work is completed, is $397,838.
“So they’ve made great progress out there. The pier is removed,” Ott said. “So, now it’s the cleanup effort. We will, in two weeks, be able to, I think, call that all the way done and I think that will excite lots of people to see that done. Then maybe we can start working on the new piers.”
He explained the pier removal is being paid for out of Public Works Department funds and from the Redevelopment Commission. The payment on Friday came completely from the Public Works appropriation.
Mayor Jeff Grose said he appreciated everyone’s team effort to get to this point. The board approved the payment.
Public Works Department Superintendent Dustin Dillon told the board next week the street department will be “going full force with getting the street sweepers and stuff out to try to clean up some of the winter sludge that’s all over our community.”
He encouraged residents to keep their trash and recycle cans behind the curb.
“Keep your yard waste and yard waste bags as that starts to come about. Come Earth Week, the third week of April, we will be doing our annual bag giveaway, shredding day, the whole ball of wax there. So that will be coming up soon,” Dillon said. “And, also, some roadwork is actually going to start. The weather looks promising. I met with a couple vendors. We’re going to start crack sealing and get an early jump on some of our road program because we’ve got a lot going on this year. It’ll be a very busy year.”
If anyone has any large brush piles remaining, Dillon said they can still put them out on their normal trash day. The city will work with residents as much as they can.
Brush piles can be picked up in alleys.
Yard waste bags are ordered, but will be given away during Earth Week. Councilwoman Diane Quance encouraged people to take advantage of the yard waste bags because they’re “excellent” and taxpayers paid for them.
Dillon additionally told the board the state’s Community Crossings Matching Grant program is a 50/50 match grant for the city of Warsaw. He said it’s been a vital asset to “our ability to get as much accomplished as we possibly can. But we applied for two different projects that we ended up combining into one, as far as the grant acceptance that will go before you at the next Board of Works, but of the two projects, the 50% match, the city of Warsaw has been awarded, is $929,526. So, again, we’re going to get very, very busy, but a little over $1.8 million worth of projects was the engineering estimate, but coming through there at 50% of cost.”
In other business, the board:
• Accepted the two bids for asphalt and the three bids for concrete for the street department, as requested by Dillon. Bidders for asphalt were Brooks Construction and Phend & Brown, while concrete bidders were JW Ready Mix, Kuert Concrete and Ozinga.
Dillon had asked the board to accept all the bids as presented so they can use them as needed for the best price possible.
• Approved pay application #43 from American Structurepoint for $720 for ongoing engineering for the Anchorage Road Project, as requested by Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner. As it is an Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT)-funded project, INDOT will reimburse the city up to 80% of the project’s costs.
“Obviously, we have about 1-1/2 years of utilities that need to be moved, and there’s going to be more headache coming for sure,” Skinner stated. “But, the end product will be worth the headache.”
• Approved a payment request from Lynn-Douglas Inc., Carmel, in the amount of $7,839 for Warsaw Chemical groundwater cleanup efforts. Skinner said it’ll get paid out of “that SRF funding that we received a few years back. So we’ll submit this to the state to pay.”
• Approved a one-year agreement with Flow-Tech Plumbing & Heating Inc. for routine maintenance for all heating and cooling equipment at all three of the fire stations, as requested by Warsaw-Wayne Fire Protection Territory Fire Chief Joel Shilling. The base cost for the one-year contract is $2,014.50. The WWFT Board approved the contract at its meeting Tuesday.
• Approved a $3,500 donation to the Winona Lake-Warsaw Independence Day Celebration at 10 p.m. June 28 over Winona Lake, as requested by Grose. Instead of the funds coming from the Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department’s budget as in previous years, the money now will come from the Warsaw Common Council’s budget in the mayor’s public relations fund.
•Approved $1,811.33 for event cancellation insurance from Affinity Nonprofits, Washington, D.C., for the Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department’s rock and country concerts, as requested by Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer, who said it’s $11.27 less than last year but they also have $500 less in coverage.
“This will cover $37,000 for our rock concert and $40,000 for our country concert in case we have inclement weather or cancellation, emergency cancellation,” Plummer said, noting it happened before around 2012. “We got all of our entertainment money back, so we didn’t lose anything, so I think it’s a very good thing to do for just a little bit of money.”
The concert headliners will be announced April 1.
• Approved for the Warsaw Police Department to accept a $5,000 Stop Arm Violation Enforcement grant and an $8,000 Comprehensive Hoosier Highways Injury Reduction Program grant, as requested by Capt. Joel Beam. Both grants are through the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.
• Approved for the Street Department to purchase two Exmark Lazer Z X-Series 60-inch lawn mowers from Bobcat of Warsaw, as requested by Dillon. The cost for both mowers is $19,038, including trade-ins of two 2022 Exmark Lazer mowers.
• Approved for the Public Works Department to join the state bid for the 2025-26 salt bid, as requested by Dillon. Estimated quantities are due no later than March 21 to participate in the statewide bid. Dillon wants to commit to 2,000 tons of untreated road salt, with the minimum commitment of 80% (1,600 tons) and maximum of 120% (2,400 tons).
• Approved for the street department to purchase a Bobcat T770 T4 compact track loader from Bobcat of Warsaw, as requested by Dillon. The cost for the loader is $49,083.19, after a discount to the city and the trade-in of a 2018 Kubota SLV95-2SHFC track loader.
• Approved change order 1 from G & G Hauling & Excavating for a deduction of $13,199.46 for shoreline restoration at Kiwanis Park and Pike Lake, as requested by Wastewater and Stormwater Utility Superintendent Brian Davison.
The Board of Works also approved the one and only pay application for the project, for $107,820.64.