SYRACUSE - It was standing room only at Tuesday’s Syracuse Council meeting with several people out in the hall for the 2½-hour meeting, and while there were two public hearings, most attending were there for non-agenda items (see related story).
The first public hearing was for the Office of Community Rural Affairs (OCRA) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) the town is applying for in order to make improvements to wastewater and drinking water projects in town. Donny Ritsema, with Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG) presented the information for the public hearing. He told those present they were in phase 2 of the application process — the final application phase, which is due to the state June 20.
“The goals and objectives of the project is to protect resident’s health and the environment, reduce utility rates for low-moderate income households and improve infrastructure,” he said.
He shared that at the beginning of the project they worked with a community liaison to determine, based on utility rates, what the area of impact would be, and they determined it would impact everyone inside the town limits. In order to qualify for the grant, they have to meet one of three national objectives, and their focus was on the low-moderate income impact. They would need to meet a 51% threshold, and the town of Syracuse has 55.7% low-moderate income households, so they’ve met that objective.
Ritsema said they are seeking to replace aging water mains, upgrade undersized fire suppression lines, help improve water quality and also remove any lead components, especially on Huntington Street, between the county line, Indiana Avenue and Ind. 13. The cost of the Huntington Street improvements is projected to be $3,127,500 and the maximum amount of the grant is $700,000 and they are seeking the full amount. The town needs to commit local funds match of 78%, which amounts to $2,427,500 and they have two sources for the local match. The first source is through a State Revolving Fund (SRF) loan, which will cover construction costs and some non-construction costs in the amount of $2,366,500. The other $61,000 in grant administration and engineering could come from economic development income tax.
He told those in attendance that the project would not result in any displacement of individuals or businesses. Ritsema said it would help with the competitive of the grant to show how the project impacts resident’s utility rates and/or water quality in their homes so if they could share any comments they could relate to the state and demonstrate a higher impact their application would be more competitive.
Commonwealth Engineers is the engineering firm for the project and Chris Harrison with Commonwealth explained they plan to update the old water mains that are 75-100 years old and are experiencing breaks. It will include replacing service coming into their homes that likely have lead goosenecks. He said there is currently insufficient water flow for fire protection, so it is a public safety issue. Harrison appealed to those present to write a letter if they weren’t comfortable speaking publicly or speak to him afterwards and he would help draft a letter based on what they told him.
No one spoke for or against the project.
Rabbit Ridge
The council approved ordinance 2025-06 declaring the Rabbit Ridge development part of an economic development area. Town Manager David Wilkinson said the council had been through this before, but the bank wanted there to be better language assuring that the condominiums will be captured with the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds.
In a related matter, they needed to name a street in the Rabbit Ridge development and while Clark Street was suggested to honor a longtime doctor in town, Clark Street was too popular of a name so the name Doctor Clark Street was suggested and the council unanimously voted 3-0 to name the street Doctor Clark Street. Councilmen Larry Siegel and Paul Stoelting were not present at the meeting.
Commonwealth
Engineer’s Report
Robin Matthews, of Commonwealth Engineers, brought their recommendation to award the Community Crossing Matching Grant project to Phend and Brown, the low bidder on the project with a bid of $524,000. The council awarded the bid as recommended.
Jeremy Hardy, of Commonwealth Engineers, received approval for the scope of service work on the Huntington Street Water Improvement project in the amount of $474,740 through the bidding phase.
Issue with Street
Wilkinson brought up an issue with Medusa Court, which runs behind the liquor store. Because of a recent real estate transaction, it was discovered that there’s only a small portion of the street that the town owns and the rest is not owned by the town or anyone, even though the town has paved and maintained it for at least 60 years. So, the town can either give up its rights to the street and stop maintaining it or assume ownership of it.
Town attorney Jay Rigdon said because the town has maintained it for so long, they can automatically assume ownership of the street, “Matching the reality of what’s been going on with the legality.”
Several residents who own property along that street were present, including Carol Elder, of 108 N. Huntington St., lot 4 or 5, who said she’s lived there for 47 years and was concerned if the town didn’t take ownership that she would lose access to her property. There is no parking allowed along Ind. 13, so all those residents use that street for access to their property and parking. She said that one day someone blocked the road.
Brian Wuthrich said he contracted the sale of the house and the bare lots beside it. The property was previously one lot and with the real estate transaction was split into two, that’s when it was discovered that the road stops at the house. He had asked the Board of Zoning Appeals for a variance, but they wanted the town to take action on it before they did anything.
Council President Nathan Scherer said a couple of property owners weren’t present and he didn’t want to take permanent action that would affect their property rights. After the meeting, he showed that each of those lots are one from the waterfront, crossing the access street out to Huntington Street, so if the town assumed ownership, it would bifurcate those lots.
Councilman Bill Musser said, “We can’t keep people from accessing their property, so I think we go ahead and continue maintaining it and claim it as a street.”
After much discussion, the council decided to hold a special meeting before the next council meeting and invite all interested parties to the meeting to try to resolve the issue.
Council Redistricting
Wilkinson reminded the council that they are required to redistrict the council districts and need to do so by June 30.
Rigdon suggested they hire a consultant to help with that process. A redistricting is required to ensure that each district is equally populated. Rigdon said he had concerns about Scherer’s plan to change the structure of the council from five districts to three districts and two at-large seats, in an attempt to encourage more people to run for council. Scherer suggested doing so at this time since they have to redistrict. He said he wanted to find out how other municipalities went about doing that.
Musser said he was fine with hiring someone to help with redistricting, but he wasn’t ready to vote in favor of Scherer’s idea to change the structure of the council, especially since Siegel and Stoelting, whose districts it would affect, were not present. Rigdon suggested since they were going to schedule a special meeting because of the Medusa Court issue they could also add this to the agenda as time was running short. The council agreed to bring it up at the special meeting.
In other business, the council:
• Held a public hearing on the North Trace RV Park tax abatement. No one from the public commented for or against the abatement. After the hearing, the council approved a confirmatory resolution giving North Trace a 10-year tax abatement.
• Approved an ordinance allowing for electronic signing of documents.
• Introduced an ordinance for officially annexation of North Trace RV Park — a public hearing will be scheduled.
• Approved hiring Currie Roofing, Syracuse to replace two roofs at the solid waste buildings at a cost of $10,995 for one and $12,495 for the second roof.
• Approved purchasing a Chevy Tahoe at a cost not to exceed $51,555 to replace a police car.
• Heard the farmer’s market opened to good crowds and that registration for the Mudtastic to be held next month is now open.