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Taxpayers were notified at the Warsaw Common Council meeting Monday night of the upcoming hearing for Warsaw Community Public Library’s pursuit of an additional appropriation.
Mayor Jeff Grose read the notice to taxpayers, saying, “Notice is hereby given to the taxpayers of the library district known as Warsaw Community Public Library that the Common Council of the city of Warsaw, Indiana, will meet at the Police Department Training Center at the hour of 7 p.m. May 18, 2026, to consider the following additional appropriation of the bonds, which the board has determined to issue.”
The appropriation is in the amount of $17,090,000, plus premium and investment earnings. The funds will be used for the renovation and improvement of the library, including site improvements, and the purchase of equipment and technology, according to the notice.
“Taxpayers of the library district appearing at the meeting shall have the right to be heard in respect to the said additional appropriation,” Grose said, telling the Common Council no action was needed Monday night. The council will entertain the additional appropriation at their May 18 meeting.
The WPD Training Center is at 2225 E. Fort Wayne St.
Moving on to unfinished business, the council approved on second reading an ordinance regulating requests for law enforcement video recordings for the WPD. They approved the ordinance on first reading at their April 20 meeting.
Chief of Police Scott Whitaker reiterated to the council, “We’re simply requesting an ordinance to regulate the fees for the purpose of collecting those fees for providing FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) requests. Those videos are body cam videos, in-car videos that we retain at the police department.”
Grose pointed out the fees were listed in section 7 of the ordinance, which states, in part, “The fee for the agency providing a duplicate of a law enforcement recording must be paid in advance and shall be” $50 for videos up to 30 minutes, $100 for videos between 30 and 60 minutes and $150 for videos longer than 60 minutes.
Statutorily, Whitaker said, $150 is the maximum that can be charged.
The template for the ordinance was provided by city attorney Scott Reust and tweaked by Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen and himself, Whitaker said.
Councilman Josh Finch asked Whitaker how many requests he thinks they get in a given month.
Whitaker said it’s sporadic, but it’s been increasing.
“As of now, we have one (full-time) employee that’s spending a great deal of their time. Not only do you have to pull those videos, you have to redact them. That’s just very time-consuming because you have to go through and watch every video,” Whitaker said.
Finch said the fee then wasn’t just for the video, but it also was for all the time that goes into it. Whitaker said that was correct.
Finch made a motion to approve the ordinance on second reading, Council President Jack Wilhite seconded the motion and it was approved 7-0.
Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins reminded the public that there is still two free hours of parking downtown Warsaw.
“A lot of people are still not understanding that, that they can still come downtown, park free for two hours without having to sign in on the app or anything like that,” she said. “So, trying to get the word out as best as we can.”
Councilwoman Diane Quance said the parking rules are not enforced over the weekends.
“Right. After 5 p.m. and on the weekends, free parking,” Dobbins said.
Wilhite said nothing’s changed about the free two-hour parking.
Grose said the whole idea is for everyone to get familiar with the new parking system and it’s important that people remember that the first two hours are free. No one needs to engage with the parking app for the first two hours.
Whitaker then mentioned that the city auction is currently online and will end May 21. Along with fire trucks, there are squad cars in the auction. The auction can be found at Metzger Auction.
