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There were only three claims before the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission on Monday, but one of them provided Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner an opportunity to give an update on the Anchorage Road reconstruction project.
The claims included $4,005 from Engineering Resources Inc. for on-call engineering services with former city engineer Aaron Ott; $6,727.27 from Warsaw Community Development Corporation for the monthly service agreement with Main Street Warsaw; and $56,682.98 from American Structurepoint for Anchorage Road construction inspection of the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) project.
“If you haven’t been out there, I think they’re planning on opening Anchorage Road completely. The section from (U.S.) 30 to (Ind.) 15 is already open. The section on the other side of U.S. 30 should be open by Wednesday or afterwards,” Skinner said.
He said they have some signal work still but that’s the only thing left to do and then that project will be complete.
Commission member and former Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer asked Skinner when the city applied for the funding from INDOT. Skinner said he believed the city applied in late 2018 and the funding was awarded in 2019.
“It’s taken a few years,” Skinner said.
Thallemer asked if INDOT kept up with the obvious increase in costs.
“No. No, they do not,” Skinner stated. “This was supposed to be an 80/20 project, but it’s more like a 60/40 project.”
Councilman Mike Klondaris, commission member, said, “And you can’t make it go any faster.”
Skinner said the Anchorage Road project was a challenge, but it was mainly a challenge because of the 18 months of utility relocation.
“So this was supposed to let the construction last year, but given the amount of utilities we had out there, they had asked us if we were willing to move it back a year to give the utilities another 12 months, and yet on day one we still had utilities in the way,” he stated. “A very complicated project in that regard.”
He said there were fiber, power poles, gas, electric and on top of that was AT&T’s fiber that connects to Chicago.
“So a lot of utilities in that corridor, but we got them all moved and it’ll be done here in a couple days,” Skinner said.
The claims were then unanimously approved.
The Redevelopment Commission also approved their 2027 meeting schedule. Skinner said they will have two per month, with the second one being as needed, depending on how much business there is.
The meetings are the first and third Monday of each month at 4 p.m. If there’s a holiday on a Monday, the meeting will be on the Tuesday.
Dates are Jan. 4 and 19, Feb. 1 and 16, March 1 and 15, April 5 and 19, May 3 and 17, June 7 and 21, July 6 and 19, Aug. 2 and 16, Sept. 7 and 20, Oct. 4 and 18, Nov. 1 and 15 and Dec. 6 and 20.
