Kosciusko County Commissioners had their first meeting of 2022 on Tuesday and dealt with only a handful of items, including hearing an update on reprecincting.
After the Commissioners approved the claims and minutes, County Clerk Ann Torpy told them, “I provided each of you a letter that I tried to explain what we went through with this reprecincting.” The letter previously appeared in a Dec. 30 Times-Union story titled “Candidate Filings Begin Wednesday; Some Precincts Changed.”
The letter stated, in part, that “in 2018, the County Commissioners filed an order establishing precincts with the Indiana Election Division to update the boundaries of certain precincts located in the city of Warsaw. This order was to correct the precinct boundary lines to follow the City Common Council Districts. The Indiana Election Division and the Office of Census data approved the order in 2018. The county made corrections to their precinct maps and voter registration data to reflect the approved order.”
During the 2021 redistricting process, the Office of Census Data presented the Indiana legislators with maps so they can do their redistricting, Torpy said. They were provided with a map from 2018, so all the changes the county did for 2019 and 2020 went back to what they were in 2018.
“To correct it, we had to go through a process like we did in 2018. And this letter explains that,” Torpy said.
State law changed. Based on Indiana code, newly established precincts cannot have less than 600 active voters, according to Torpy’s letter. Since the corrections change the boundary lines to the precincts, state law interprets that as “newly established precincts”; therefore, several precincts in the city of Warsaw are well under 600 active voters. The clerk had to consolidate several precincts to accommodate Indiana code.
“Whenever any time a precinct boundary line changes, it’s considered a new precinct, even though these precincts have been around even before I was doing this job. They were considered new precincts so we had to consolidate a lot of Warsaw precincts into one precinct because of the size,” Torpy told the Commissioners.
Her office worked with the Indiana Election Division, she talked with Warsaw Community Schools and she met with Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer on the changes.
No action was required by the Commissioners Tuesday. Torpy said she just wanted to inform and update the Commissioners.
“Pretty much the problem down at the state they had the 2018 map instead of our updated one?” Commissioner Cary Groninger asked.
“Yes. They presented the wrong maps to the state legislators, and once they signed that into law, there was no changing it unless we went through a redistricting process,” Torpy said. “So that was our only option.”
Thallemer told the Commissioners, “I really appreciate the work Ann’s done. The letter was great, it explained it well. We understand what needs to be done. We’ll be going through the redistricting process this year, and we’ll have to have that done by Nov. 8, but she’s provided a great resource for us and you can be proud of the work she’s doing.”
Prosecuting Attorney Dan Hampton appeared before the Commissioners to present the Senior HUB Grant agreement renewal.
“It’s that time of year where we renew the Senior HUB Grant. As you recall, the Senior HUB Grant deals with the service that the local prosecutor’s office is providing to the state of Indiana, allowing case worker service for the senior prosecutors, for those child support cases that have conflicts through the northern part of Indiana,” Hampton explained.
Groninger asked if this was something they’ve been doing for years, and Hampton said yes.
The grant agreement renewal was approved 3-0.
Superior Court I Judge Karin McGrath requested permission to apply for the fifth year of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiatives (JDAI) grant.
“We have been approved for a Tier 2 programming, which amounts to $55,000 in programming alternatives to detention funding, and $15,000 for implementation,” she said. “This program, we’ve done this for four years already.”
She said the grant is the only juvenile funding in the county for programs that keep youth out of detention facilities.
“It’s been enormously successful. They coordinate a lot, probably 20 different activities that help enforce positive things for our kids instead of detention,” McGrath said.
Commissioner Bob Conley made a motion to allow McGrath to apply for the grant. He said he looked through the material that was provided to the Commissioners and he was “utterly amazed at the number of things that you put together to try to mitigate and help these kids before they get themselves in so deep they can’t get out.”
His motion was unanimously approved.
Finally, Groninger presented the AIA agreement for the county’s public safety communications project.
“This is an agreement with Ransbottom Excavating for the site work on our tower locations. Pretty much we’re looking for approval to be able to sign that agreement,” he said, adding that work will start this week once the agreement is signed.
Conley made a motion for Groninger, who is the Commissioners president for 2022, to sign the agreement on behalf of the Board of Commissioners. The motion was approved 3-0.
The next Commissioners meeting is at 9 a.m. Jan. 18 in the old courtroom of the old county courthouse.
