Warsaw Applies For Opioid Grant For CARES Expansion
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
In hopes of expanding its CARES program, the city of Warsaw applied for the State of Indiana Opioid Match Grant for $137,816.95.
Since there was a short turnaround time for the grant application, and it was due by 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory EMS Chief and CARES Director Chris Fancil asked the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety for permission to apply after the fact on Friday.
“I felt it was important to go ahead and apply,” Mayor Joe Thallemer said.
The amount requested in the grant application is a match to what the city received in 2022 from the national opioid settlement. The grant funds were made available to local government entities by the Indiana Family & Social Services Administration.
Fancil said, “What we plan to do - we actually worked with Warsaw PD’s leadership, talked to (Deputy Chief) Bryan (Sherwin) and (Chief) Scott (Whitaker) and those guys and kind of figured out what we could use this money for. They’re for using it for the CARES (Community Assistance, Resources and Emergency Services) program to really extend what that is. Put more money in that. We are getting ready to start the process of hopefully hiring another person using the RCORP grant that we got to really start pivoting to the substance abuse area. We thought this grant was a great way to make that work a little more seamlessly by pursuing this money.”
Warsaw Police Department is looking at some testing equipment, while CARES is just looking at extending its reach and education. Fancil said that, usually, the process for applying for grants is to go the territory board first for permission and then the Board of Works before application is made. However, with the short turnaround time, “we’re doing it a little backwards.”
Thallemer asked him if he got the application signed and sent off, and Fancil said yes.
“The CARES program started as a mental health initiative, and we quickly learned that you can’t really separate the mental health issues from the addiction issues,” Thallemer explained. “And as the opioid settlements come down, it gives us a great opportunity to expand the services that we want to try to provide with CARES.”
He said they’ve taken their time with rolling the program out and Fancil has done a “fabulous” job with it.
“There’s a ton of work to do. Certainly, if we’re given this grant, it will help quite a bit,” Thallemer said.
One part of the grant required letters of support or collaboration for the program. Fancil said they received letters from KCODE (Kosciusko Coalition On Drug Education), Fellowship Missions and WPD who are all on board with moving CARES forward as a group.
“This is going to have to be a collaborative effort and I think that’s where we’re at. I’m pretty proud of that, that we’ve developed those great relationships,” Fancil said.
The Board of Works approved the grant application. Recipients of the match grant will be notified May 1.
Later in the meeting, Fancil presented a contract with 1Eighty Digital to begin the design and execution of the CARES resource website and phone app. The Kosciusko County Community Foundation awarded a $7,500 grant toward the website and app. With the cost of the contract being $7,800, WWFT will only have a cost of $300 and a monthly maintenance fee of $50 for hosting.
“It’s a very important goal of the CARES program to provide resources for those ... folks that are having concerns. A resource for them, and it’s been a real community effort to put this together,” Thallemer said.
The website will put all available resources on one website.
The board approved the contract.
In other business, the board:
• Approved a pay application from Structurepoint for $1,230 for right-of-way services for the Anchorage Road Project, as presented by Community Economic and Development Director Jeremy Skinner. The project is an 80/20 Indiana Department of Transportation-funded project. The city pays 20% throughout the project and is reimbursed 80% for each phase over the year.
Skinner said they’ve acquired all the right-of-way now.
He also presented another pay application from Structurepoint for $3,974.85 for engineering for the project.
“We’re getting real close to getting the project for letting,” Skinner said, adding that it could be ready for letting later this year. “It’s scheduled for a 2024 letting, but if INDOT has time and space, we have it ready for” later this year.
Thallemer asked if there was a chance the construction could start this year, and Skinner said no. At best, it will be in 2024, he said.
“This is actually a really complicated project,” Skinner said. “If you’ve ever been down that road you would see all the utilities - double utilities - poles on each side. So, a lot of utility relocation. No storm infrastructure is out there now. This project includes storm infrastructure.”
Thallemer said there’s been some right-of-way challenges as well.
The project began in 2018.
• Opened and approved one sealed quote for a 2023 Ford 350 XL 4x4 Supercab for the wastewater utility from City Ford, Columbia City. The cost is $63,360.25.
• Approved another three-year service agreement with Wildman Uniform & Linen for the city departments. In the first year of the new three-year agreement, there will be a price freeze, but in years two and three there will be a 3% price increase each year. Wildman will continue to offer the city its free insurance program for uniforms.
• Approved the new hire and change in payroll report as presented by Human Resource Director Denny Harlan. It includes a biweekly salary of $3,216.83 for the new fire chief, Brian Mayo, who begins April 2; $2,216.73 biweekly for probationary firefighters Bryce Good and Kevin Terazas; $19.57 per hour for Warsaw Parks Department laborer Ronald Moyer; $20 per hour for Building & Planning Department administrative assistant Marie Sarber; and $38.46 per hour for WPD senior systems administrator Angela Howard.
• Approved a supplemental engineering agreement between the city and A & Z Engineering for construction engineering and bid documents for the Center Lake Recreational Trail Project, as requested by City Planner Justin Taylor. The total of the change order is $17,350, which will bring the total engineering contract cost to $156,850.
• Approved a contract for exterminator services at the Public Works Department with Ace Pest Control Inc. The treatment is for the office, main shop and the mechanics’ garage, according to Superintendent Dustin Dillon. The contract amount is $67 monthly, as well as spring and fall exterior treatments for $116 each.
• Approved a contract between the city’s Stormwater Utility and Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams for the Lilly Center to provide educational programs. The amount shall not exceed $17,600. Utility Superintendent Brian Davison said the agreement between the city and Lilly Center has been ongoing for a number of years. The educational programming is required as part of the city’s MS4 permit.
• Approved a pay application for $47,947 to Kokosing Industrial Inc. for work Kokosing has done on the city’s sewer collection system getting all the lift stations online with the monitoring system, as presented by Davison.
