County officials decided they could save close to half a million dollars by foregoing a bond issue to fund road improvements near Mentone. Kosciusko County Council voted Thursday for an additional appropriation of up to $750,000 in Economic Development Income Tax funds to pay for reconstruction of CR 900W near North Central Cooperative in Mentone. The money will be paid back through the tax increment finance district surrounding North Central, which is undergoing a $8.26 million expansion. County Commissioners accepted a bid of just under $300,000 for the road reconstruction Tuesday. Other improvements planned for the benefit of North Central include the installation of fiber optic lines. The county had originally planned to fund the road work with a bond issue, which they moved toward in August. But county attorney Chad Miner observed during the Redevelopment Commission meeting earlier Thursday that the county could save about $513,000 in interest on the 25-year $815,000 bond by using EDIT funds instead. The commission approved a resolution pledging the EDIT money during its meeting. It also passed a declaratory resolution for a new TIF district between Warsaw and Etna Green to fund improvements of CRs 350W and 875W between U.S. 30 and Old 30. During the council meeting, members also heard a request for a tax abatement for Torrent Engineering and Equipment, a manufacturer of snow-making and irrigation machinery planning an expansion in Milford. The company plans to buy a piece of light industrial property with an existing 5,500-square-foot building and invest $555,000 in renovating it as well as constructing a new 11,000-square-foot building and making other infrastructure improvements, according to attorney Randy Morgan, who presented the request. He said the expansion will more than double the number of employees, from nine to 21, with a payroll increase from $500,000 to $1.5 million. Council passed a declaratory resolution and will hold a hearing on the abatement next month. In other business, council approved: • The $560,000 proposed 2016 budget for the Kosciusko County Convention, Recreation and Visitor Commission, which is funded by the county innkeeper’s tax and is used for grants for town and nonprofit projects. President Jo Paczkowski said the increase over the current budget of $527,000 is due largely to a new commitment of $30,000 to the Center of Lakes and Streams at Grace College. • Additional appropriations including $133,491 for bituminous material for the highway department, another wheel tax disbursement that Highway Superintendent Scott Tilden said has let them chip and seal almost seven times more miles of roads than they otherwise could; $41,395 for the health department, which will reimburse the money with an emergency preparedness grant it expects to receive; and $20,000 for X-ray and lab expenses for the county coroner’s office. New coroner Tony Ciriello said expenses for toxicology tests for drug overdose deaths has exceeded what they planned for the year.
