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Toward the beginning of the Kosciusko County Commissioners meeting Tuesday, an update on the Justice Building facade repairs was provided.
At the end of the meeting, the commissioners spoke about the potential parking garage at the southwest corner of North Buffalo and East Fort Wayne streets.
Repair work to the Justice Building facade will be bid out in the next week or so, County Commissioner Cary Groninger indicated.
On Aug. 29, exterior limestone panels on the east side (facing Lake Street) of the Justice Building fell suddenly and unexpectedly, but luckily no one was hurt.
“We’ve been working with our engineers, architects - WE and WJE (Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc.) out of Indianapolis - which they were the engineers that did our forensic engineering after the collapse happened to confirm what actually took place and what needed to be done to them to remedy that situation,” Groninger said.
The county has a full set of drawings and plans to put the repairs out for bid real soon, he said. He asked the other two commissioners for their approval to move forward with the bid packet that was put together for the repairs.
Commissioner Bob Conley made the motion to move forward with the bid packet, Commissioner Sue Ann Mitchell seconded the motion.
Conley stated, “I’d like to say, this is so comprehensive. Something we’ve been working on for quite a while, and it’s not only to deal with the damage that was caused when the vibration shook the ceiling down, but with any existing cracks or issues that we have now. The entire building’s been looked at comprehensively.”
The motion passed, then Groninger stated, “To Bob’s point, it’s not just the repair to where the facade actually fell, but it’s also reattaching other panels throughout the building with a new anchoring system to make sure that won’t happen again, as well as all mortar joints being recaulked and resealed, the whole plane of the exterior. It’s a pretty comprehensive scope over the whole facade, the limestone facade, of the building.”
Conley said out of an abundance of caution, those things will be done.
Parking Garage
Conley is seeking re-election this year as the southern district county commissioner. He’s responded a few times to questions in the past week about the potential parking garage downtown Warsaw.
The estimated $15 million parking garage is expected to be paid for by the county, city and $5 million from Orthopedic Industry Retention Initiative (OIRI) funds from the state.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Dan Spalding, from NewsNowWarsaw, asked for an update on where the county stands as far as the city/county parking garage proposal.
Conley said, “We are looking at that. We’ve had meetings, discussions with Zimmer Biomet and the city of Warsaw.”
Groninger said, “We’re in the conceptual design stage. We’re getting really close to finalizing that conceptual design and there will be a public meeting that we’ll be hosting. In fact, we’ll have a meeting after this to start talking about what meetings we need to have and when, as far as trying to get some information out to the public and help them be more aware of what the need is, what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Zimmer Biomet’s involvement stems from their parcel of land behind the Z Hotel at the corner of Buffalo and Main streets that is used as a parking lot for the hotel, but could be part of where a parking garage would sit.
Asked about their support for the parking garage, Groninger responded, “We’re still processing and gathering information, but this is a project we’ve been working on for quite some time. The numbers speak for themselves.”
He said the county has over 300 employees that work downtown Warsaw each day, but currently only has 204 parking spots that are off-street parking.
“So we’re almost 100 spots short just in our normal employees, as far as spots for them to park,” Groninger continued, adding that the number varies as there’s some overlapping of shifts.
“But then we also have almost between 7,000 and 10,000 people that visit our Justice Building every (month). So, that could be upwards of over 500 people (per day on peak days) that are visiting or doing business just at the Justice Building - not our employees, but just people coming in, that also need areas to park. So those are just a couple of things that are a real need that we see, and with the additional growth that is happening to the downtown, parking is going to become more and more of a premium, so we’re trying to get ahead of that curve,” Groninger said.
Justice Building security keeps track of the number of people who come into the building daily.
The parking garage would also be the first step to any improvement to the Justice Building or jail in the future “because we’re going to eat up that parking lot that would be north of the Justice Building. So, for any of those improvements to happen for our Justice Building and/or jail in the future, that parking is going to have to be available to be able to expand that building into that,” Groninger explained.
“We’re trying to be really pro-active and look at this from a perspective of how can the county not plan for just now, but how do we plan for the future and really prepare our county for a lot of prosperity,” he said.
From a finance perspective, he said the county has worked really hard over the last several years with its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money “that we worked hard and saved up money in our EDIT (Economic Development Income Tax) funds by using the ARPA funds to do some of the projects that we would have spent EDIT dollars on, so we have a nice, healthy balance in our EDIT fund that we’re able to do this with cash and wouldn’t have to borrow any money.”
The county did a parking study over two years ago that showed parking was a need that the county has.
“So we’re just trying to roll through and execute that well with the design that’s going to be good for the county, not only now to fit the needs, but then also the needs of the county in the future when we need to do something with the Justice Building and/or the jail,” Groninger concluded.
Commissioner Sue Ann Mitchell said there were lots of things to consider and they’ve done a lot of studying on it, which was started before she was elected commissioner.
“But there are lots of things yet to be considered. We’ve looked at design, we’ve looked at, obviously, acquiring of the ground. That’s a piece that we have to finish. That part of it is not done. If that ground does not come forward, we probably would have to back up, punt or figure out some other plan,” she said. “And the other part of it is financing and the funding. Obviously, we’re going into unknown waters with our funding because of Senate Bill 1 and any of the changes that have been made. So we have to be very careful. We have to know that if this moves forward, it has got to be paid for in full because there is no way that we could go into debt to support that.”
She stated all the facts are not in yet.
“Until we have everything on the table, we just can’t guarantee that we’re going to do or that we’re not going to do it at this point. But a lot of work has been put into it to try to do the research. And you can’t move forward on a project unless you know what you need to know. And that’s why it’s taken so long to get this figured out,” Mitchell said.
She welcomed anyone’s input with solid facts on why the county should or shouldn’t have a parking garage.
Conley said there was no timetable on the matter, if it happens.
