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As all tax abatements in the county are in compliance, the Kosciusko County Council on Thursday approved their continuance with the approval of their CF-1s (compliance forms).
Council Vice President Kathy Groninger, who sits on the county’s tax abatement committee with Councilwoman Rachael Rhoades and Councilman Will Stockdale, said they met and “basically, the point of our meeting was to look at the CF-1s that they filed to make sure that they are in compliance with the requirements of their abatements. So we’re not actually approving new abatements or anything like that. We’re just looking to make sure that what they said in their original abatement that was approved, that they actually met their obligations.”
She reminded the council the county just recently adopted a new abatement policy, which she said is a great tool for the council and the community at large.
“So, anyway, part of that was to use KEDCO (Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation) to help us to sort out some of this stuff, so they also helped us also,” Groninger said.
The first on the list was for Louis Dreyfus. Groninger said they are in good standing with the county and all of their taxes are paid and all their forms are filed.
“I just want to make a note that all current abatements will end at 2029, so all of their taxes after that point will flow directly into the TIF (tax increment financing). If they desire a new abatement, they must have a new project and they must follow our new procedure as adopted by the council last year,” Groninger stated.
She said it was the committee’s recommendation the council approve the Louis Dreyfus’ CF-1s for real and personal property, and they did.
On the next one, for iDNA Series LLC, Groninger said they also are in good standing with the county, all their taxes are paid and all their forms are filed.
“This abatement will expire in 2029, so our recommendation is that we approve their CF-1 filing,” Groninger said, which the council did.
The last one was for Slate Auto LLC/Phoenix Warsaw Industrial.
“With the Slate Auto, we really don’t have anything to consider or approve for Slate. No personal property abatement was filed because they were under the $2 million threshold exemption, and they don’t have any real property yet improvements at this time, so that wasn’t one we needed to consider,” Groninger explained.
Stockdale said, “Likely next year that will start. This year, they didn’t have anything that qualified for an abatement.”
Council President Tony Ciriello said since they didn’t have anything, there was no reason to take a vote on that one.
Moving on, County Auditor Alyssa Schmucker gave her annual report on the TIF balances.
In the 30 West TIF, there’s $313,969.30; and in the Dreyfus TIF, $511,199.04.
In the Dreyfus TIF, she said there is no longer a bond as it’s been taken care of by Dreyfus, so there’s no longer a bond fund associated with the TIF.
In the Van Buren-Maple Leaf TIF, there’s $322,717.61; Co-op Mentone TIF, $352,817.65; the Leesburg TIF, $446,171.83; and the Trupointe TIF, which still does have debt, has a cash balance of $128,137.45 and there’s still $913,000 owed for the bank bond.
The nonprofits then presented their budget requests for 2027, similarly to what they presented to the county commissioners previously.
Those requests were $111,373 for Cardinal Services; $23,230 for Kosciusko County Historical Society; $40,000 for The Beaman Home; $46,590 for Kosciusko County 4-H Council; and $33,425 for Kosciusko Community Senior Services.
The commissioners will consider the requests, decide on an amount in their 2027 budget and present it at budget time for the county council to have final say on.
In other business, the council:
• Tabled the reappointment of Jennifer Hicks to the Warsaw Community Public Library Board of Trustees to the July 9 meeting.
In making the motion to table the reappointment, Councilwoman Kimberly Cates said it was because “I believe that we still have some applicants.” Ciriello said if anyone lives within that jurisdiction wants to be considered for the board position, they can submit a resume and a letter of intent to serve.
The term goes from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2030.
• Approved a salary ordinance amendment for a jailer at $28.05 per hour, and a transfer of $250, as requested by Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Matron Michelle Hyden.
She explained, “A couple weeks ago, reviewing the finalization for the 2027 budget we are submitting, I found that I had inadvertently missed a step placement change for this December for one of our employees. They’ll be going from a 7-2 to a 7-3, so I’m asking you to approve the salary ordinance amendment, and then we transfer $250 from” one payroll account to another.
• Approved an additional appropriation from a user fee account totaling $11,000 for the Reentry Court, as requested by Kosciusko Superior Court I Judge Karin McGrath. The user fee dollars will be used by the Reentry Court for the remainder of 2026 for participant needs ($5,000), incentives ($1,000) and drug testing contracts ($5,000).
• Approved the transfer of $9,000 from electronic monitoring to Community Corrections’ fuel budget, as requested by Community Corrections Director James Henry. The money comes out of a Community Corrections user fee account. He said he didn’t know if they would end up using the whole $9,000 or not due to factors like the price of gasoline.
• Approved County Clerk Melissa Boggs’ request for an additional appropriation of $10,000 out of her office’s document storage fund - which is funded by court fees - to go toward supplies and printing.
• Approved a salary ordinance amendment for a lead deputy clerk at $23.65 per hour, as requested by Boggs.
She explained, “We are wanting to add (an employee) as the lead deputy out of the IV-D Incentive account. We had an employee that left and went to work for the courts, so we offered our deputy that is currently doing our child support stuff to be lead deputy. So we’re just switching those spots around, and ... 25% of her salary gets paid out of the Child Support Incentive Fund, so we’re asking to ... switch around their numbers and move around the $7,300 to cover the increase of salary.”
A transfer of $7,300 also was approved by the council for Boggs’ request.
• Approved County Recorder Deb Wright’s request for a salary ordinance amendment for a part-time recorder deputy at $19.83 per hour.
She explained, “We’re actually reducing a full-time position to a part-time position, so instead of having myself plus three deputies, it’s going to be myself plus two full-time deputies and then the part-time.”
The council also approved transferring $15,300 from full-time recorder deputy to part-time recorder deputy.
Wright also presented, and the council approved, her annual ordinance and affidavit for using the recorder’s perpetuation fund to fund the recorder’s office.
