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The Warsaw Board of Public Works authorized Police Chief Craig Allebach to apply for a grant to fund a new victim service center.
The $85,024 grant, if approved by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, would be used to open and staff a new 1,000-square-foot center in the 600 block of Winona Avenue. The city would be obligated to provide $21,556 in matching funds should the grant be approved.
The victim's assistance office is currently housed in City Hall.
"While space is currently a problem, I really hope that this could be the start of something to improve the services we offer to victims," Allebach said. "Eventually, I'd like to see the program expand to include both the county and prosecutor's victim assistance programs, as well."
Such an expansion would formalize an already cooperative arrangement the WPD has with both the sheriff's department and the county prosecutor, he said.
"A lot of the time, we take people in from outside of Warsaw. We don't focus on lines of jurisdiction when a woman who has been assaulted comes to us for help," Allebach said.
The board, while expressing support for the concept of the service center, was concerned about how it would be funded in succeeding years.
"My biggest concern is starting a program where I don't see how it's going to be funded down the road," said Mayor Ernie Wiggins, a sentiment shared by councilman Jerry Patterson.
"That's my concern as well," he said. "I don't want to start a program where we're providing 70 percent of the assistance for the county," he said. "I appreciate what you're doing and support what you're doing. I'm just not sure we want to commit ourselves to an open-ended obligation."
According to domestic violence figures for the county, there were 557 reported cases of domestic violence in 1997. Of that total, 425 were logged by the sheriff's department, 92 by Warsaw police and 42 by North Webster.
Citing those figures, Allebach said he was confident that state and federal funding will be available on a continual basis.
"I just don't see us running out of grant funding opportunities," he said.
The board gave Allebach authorization to apply for the ICJI grant, with the provision that it would not be brought under the city's budget and that additional support can be obtained by other sources - either the county or agencies such as the Beaman Home.
"I'll second the motion to apply for the grant, on the condition that the city doesn't have to bring this program into the city budget," Wiggins said.
