K21 Health Foundation Donating Toward Market Street Greenway Connection
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Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
Warsaw City Council heard Monday night that K21 Health Foundation has committed to donating to the Market Street Lake City Greenway connection project. K21 has agreed to provide a $375,000 matching grant for phase one of the East Market Street project that will be used to create a 10-foot-wide bike and pedestrian path along the south side of Market Street, connecting Krebs Trailhead Park and the Heritage Trail in Winona Lake to downtown Warsaw. The city will need to raise an additional $125,000 to receive the matching grant. Rich Haddad, K21 Health Foundation president, attended Monday night’s meeting to make the announcement. “K21 sees the Market Street project as a major step forward in the process of connecting the various trails in our community,” Haddad said. “We consider it a privilege to be part of this community and we are excited about this project and creating a culture of healthy living and lifestyles.” Mayor Joe Thallemer thanked K21 for its donation. “ I am grateful that K21 has stepped up to not only support the project, but also to provide an incentive for others in our community to help advance this enhancement for the long-term benefit of our entire community,” Thallemer said. The Indiana Department of Transportation awarded Warsaw $1.76 million of Federal Highway Administration funds for the East Market reconstruction. The entire East Market Street project, administered by IDOT, will run from Argonne Road to Hickory Street. The local phase of the project will be from Argonne Road to just east of Bronson Street. It will be funded by local shares of gasoline tax money and donations. The road will be widened five feet to accommodate on-street parking. Six-foot pedestrian sidewalks will be constructed along the entire route on the north side of Market Street. East Market Street will be completely resurfaced. Repairs will be made to stormwater lines as needed by the city Stormwater Utility. Jeremy Skinner, city planner, provided a presentation on the project. He said engineering for road work on Argonne Road to east of Bronson Street is being done now and expected to be completed the end of this month, and bidding on the rest of the project will be this year. The bulk of construction will be in 2015. Trees will need to be removed and the city intends to replace them. Plans are for the project to be completed in 2018, Skinner said. Elaine Call, councilwoman, thanked the city and K21 for its efforts. “Congrats on a job well done,” Call said. Contributions to the Market Street project can be made to the City of Warsaw-Lake City Greenway and mailed to the city clerk at 102 N. Buffalo St., Warsaw IN 46580. In other business, the council approved a declaratory resolution declaring Wildman Business Group, 800 S. Buffalo St., as an Economic Revitalization Area. The council at its July 21 meeting will have a public hearing and approve a confirming resolution and statement of benefits. The area being declared as an ERA will allow the business to apply for tax abatements on real and personal property. The property is zoned commercial and was not included in the 1997 ERA resolution requiring the city to declare the area as an ERA. Wildman will ask the city to grant a 10-year tax abatement on real and personal property. They will be remodeling their existing facility to add more office and manufacturing space. The business has estimated the value of the proposed project at $460,000 and that it will create an additional six jobs with total estimated salaries to be around $122,054. In addition to the real estate cost, there will be $2.1 million in industrial equipment purchased to increase efficiencies. In other business, the council approved a determination by the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission that there is no excess assessed value that may be allocated to overlapping taxing units. “TIF districts have been under fire because sometimes TIF districts may not be utilized the way they were intended to be,” Thallemer said. “If you look at the projects the city is undertaking with the use of TIF funds, I don’t think there is any question that this is a very responsible use of these TIF funds to try to keep us ahead with regards to economic development and other projects that benefit our community.” Charlie Smith, councilman and redevelopment commission president, said it is critical to make use of the TIF funds for economic development. The council set dates and times for reviewing the 2015 budget. A working budget session will be July 28 at 4:30 p.m. at city hall. Other meetings will be Aug. 4 at 6 p.m. for a presentation of non-profit budget requests; Aug. 18 at 6 p.m. for departmental budgets; and a special meeting Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. to adopt the 2015 budget.
