City Eyes Gatke Property Demolition Fund Allocation
Posted
Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
Warsaw City Council approved the city moving forward with discussing how to appropriate funds for the possible demolition of the Gatke property in Warsaw during its meeting Monday night. City Councilman and Redevelopment Commission member Charlie Smith said the commission previously voted unanimously in favor of demolishing the building and asked the city to consider moving forward with demolishing the Gatke building. City Planner Jeremy Skinner said the city obtained quotes a year ago for the demolition of the Gatke property that range from $173,000 to $500,000. Skinner said there was not enough money in the general redevelopment fund budget to pay to have the Gatke building removed, and said the city would need to come up with additional funds to take the building down. Skinner said the project would need to go through a common wage hearing and public bidding process. “These are numbers and the redevelopment commission is asking if the city is willing to put fourth the dollars for this demolition,” Skinner said. Skinner said the next step is for Warsaw Mayor Ernie Wiggins and clerk treasurer Lynn Christiansen to find out how the appropriations could be distributed for the demolition and come back to the city council to discuss their findings. Skinner said the city had $45,000 budgeted last year for the demolition, but it has not been budgeted for this year. “The city currently has $45,000 that could be allocated from the redevelopment district for the demolition project and the remainder of the money the city council would have to come up with from other budgets,” Skinner said. Warsaw Police Chief Scott Whitaker said he supported if the city decided to demolish the building. “Any time you have a building that is not occupied it will always be a concern and I think this building has been an issue multiple times and we would greatly appreciate if it was no longer in its current conditions,” Whitaker said. Skinner said there have been numerous issues at the property with fires set there, and a meth lab found, and homeless staying in the building. He said there is a large risk with openings in the floor where people could fall through. At-large city councilman Kyle Babcock said he supports the demolition of the Gatke building. “I think we have neglected this for a long time. We ask our residents to clean up their neighborhoods and I think we need to move forward and look at the quotes and see if the demolition is possible if the money is there,” Babcock said. Wiggins said the money could be found, but the city would need to do an additional appropriation for the demolition. “We don’t want to get the cart before the horse because if the city is not going to appropriate the money then there is no use going through the process of bidding for the demolition,” Wiggins said. Wiggins said he will work with Christiansen to see how money can be allocated for the demolition. At-large councilman Joe Thallemer said he also agreed it is time to look at the demolition of the property, and asked if there were grants that could be sought to demolish the property. “I don’t think the city has been negligent. The city inherited this property because it was a hazardous site that needed to have remediation and the owners left the city to take the property, the city tried to redevelop the property as is and there were no takers,” Thallemer said. Wiggins said the grants would be competitive and the city has already remediated the environmental issues on the property and other cities competing for the grants will be using the grant money to solve environmental issues. Thallemer suggested if the demolition would cost a lot of money to phase in the project costs. Councilman Jeff Grose said it will not be cheap for the demolition. Council woman Diane Quance said the city needs to decide where the money is being taken from and the costs to make a wise decision. In other business the council approved extending a 10 tax abatement on personal property request from Caleb France and Clifford and Carol Wieland for 100 W. Market St. Echelon Group filed for a tax abatement in 2005 for the improvement of the downtown structure which remodeled the second floor to include two condominiums. The council approved the tax abatement extension on real property for the 100 W. Market street building. Also during the meeting the council approved WPD using insurance reimbursement funds to purchase equipment items for the department that were not included in the 2011 police budget. The department is in the process of equipping each patrol officer with an M4 semi-automatic rifle. There have been 16 rifles that have been purchased to date. The department requested purchasing an additional 10 Rock River semi automatics for a total of $7,400. The department also requested to purchase an additional 12 patrol rifle racks at a total of $3,900. The total request is $11,300 which would be an addition to the $6,000 budgeted in the 2011 Police Budget for police machinery and equipment. WPD received an insurance reimbursement check for $11,475.55 for damages sustained to police equipment.
