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While the bid for the demolition of the Jomac buildings was awarded at Friday’s Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety meeting, the asbestos abatement work on the buildings will have to be rebid.
City engineer Aaron Ott reminded the board at their Aug. 1 meeting, bids for the demolition of the Jomac building were opened and five were received.
“The project is related to an OCRA (Office of Community and Rural Affairs) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) that the city is working with Fellowship Missions on,” he said.
The five bids ranged from $322,896 to $512,175.
“I reviewed all the bids for conformity to the requirements of the bid, and found them to be all responsive bids and all the contractors that submitted were responsible demolition contractors. So it was a good result with the bids, very competitive bids, and the low bid of $322,896 came from G & G Hauling & Excavating Inc. and I would recommend that the board give a positive award of that contract to G & G Hauling & Excavating,” Ott stated.
The board approved awarding the bid as Ott recommended.
Moving on to the two asbestos abatement bids that were opened Aug. 1, Ott said one was $45,200, from Environmental Management Specialists, and the other was $171,601.98 from ProTechs Inc.
In reviewing ProTechs’ bid, Ott said it was found to be “unresponsive due to some of the submittal requirements that were prescribed to be required, as well as lack of a bid bond. So that bid is an invalid bid.”
In reviewing the low bid from Environmental Management Specialists, Ott said he found they “misunderstood and missed some of the scope of work that needed to be included in that bid. Therefore, they aren’t able to perform the project for that bid and we deemed that bid to be also unresponsive to the request because it didn’t meet the specifications.”
He recommended the board reject both of the bids and the project be rebid, which the board approved. Ott said they’ll proceed right away with the rebidding process.
The physical addresses of the buildings are 1624 and 1600 E. Winona Ave. and Smith Street, Warsaw. They are owned by Fellowship Missions, but the city applied for and received an OCRA CDBG on Fellowship Missions’ behalf in 2024 for the demolition and asbestos abatement.
Fellowship Missions’ plan for the property is to demolish it, make it into greenspace and then eventually build a new shelter there to replace the current shelter. Once the new shelter is built, the old one will be shut down, demolished and become a parking lot for the new shelter.
Looking over the claims at the end of Friday’s meeting, Board member George Clemens asked about grapple truck repairs by Truck Centers Inc. from a June 5 accident for $16,216.20. He asked if insurance covered that.
Public Works/Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon said that amount will be reimbursed by insurance.
“Our new grapple truck went into service and within a 24-hour period, they were cleaning up a tree on the south side of a road when a tree randomly from the north side of the road fell on the brand new truck,” he explained.
Luckily, no one was hurt, but it was a close call.
Also during the meeting, five city employees were recognized for their service anniversaries by Human Resource Director Denny Harlan.
Michael Howard has five years with the city, starting at the street department, then Oakwood Cemetery and then back to the street department. Justin Ousley, supervisor at the street department, also has five years.
Travis Thomas, Warsaw Parks Department, has 10 years, and Damian Pass, public works maintenance director, has 15 years. Joe Fretz has 30 years, first with the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory and now with aviation.
Three street closure requests were approved by the board, with the first two presented by Kosciusko Chamber Events Coordinator Nora Christiansen and the third by Main Street Warsaw Director of Development Terry Sweeney.
Kettleheads will have their Homebrew Fest from 5 to 9 p.m. Sept. 13, with the closure of Buffalo Street, from Main to Center streets, being from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. All proceeds from the event benefit Combined Community Services.
Slate Automotive will have a Welcome Block Party from 5 to 7 p.m. Aug. 29, with Center Street between Lake and Buffalo streets being closed from 3:30 to 8 p.m.
For Main Street Warsaw’s Fashion Weekend, the 100 block of North Buffalo Street will be closed from 3 to 11 p.m., with the event scheduled for 7 to 10 p.m. Oct. 4.
In other business, the board approved:
• Disbursement request #6 for $38,465 from the Residential Infrastructure Financing (RIF) loan for the Belle Augusta subdivision project, as requested by Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner.
“It will get submitted to the state for disbursement of those bond funds as this project continues to be constructed,” he said. “... Just excited to see it getting done and more houses being built.”
• An amendment to the lease agreement for Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory’s ladder truck purchase that former Chief Brian Mayo took care of, as presented by current Chief Joel Shilling.
Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen explained, “So we (did) the lease through Community Leasing Partners for the new rear-mounted aerial fire apparatus. And I think that the escrow agreement expired at the end of this year. So since we don’t have the fire truck yet, and we don’t know when we’re going to have it, they’re extending when the escrow starts to the end of next year.”
City attorney Scott Reust said they anticipated they expected the fire truck to be built sooner but it was not, so more time is needed under the agreement.
• A pay application of $42,517.07 to G & G Hauling & Excavating Inc. for Timber Ridge phase 1 stormwater improvements, as requested by Warsaw Waste Utility Superintendent Brian Davison. He said the project is completed, but there will be a change order and final payment coming.
• A change order on sanitary sewer and stormwater rehabilitation work for $49,982 from Insight Pipe Contracting LLC for pipes that ended up being a size larger than what was thought they were, as requested by Davison.
A pay application of $5,755.01 to Insight Pipe Contracting LLC for the rehabilitation work also was approved.
• The travel requests and new hire/change in payroll report, as presented by Harlan.
On the new hire/change in payroll report, Harlan pointed out four individuals in the report are high school students as part of the co-op program, with two at the fire department (Noah Nethaway and Drake Shilling) and two at the airport (Max Stone and Bentley Skipper).
“Every year we get a couple from the high school that come in and do good things with the departments, and are setting themselves up for a career after high school,” he stated.
Another new hire to the fire territory is Will Kornrumph, who is an assistant fire chief at $3,592.31 biweekly, effective Aug. 8.
• The release of mortgage from Warsaw Housing Authority for Jeremy W. and Donna S. Hassell, 1014 E. Clark St., Warsaw.
