Winona Lake Police Department K9 Retires

WINONA LAKE – Winona Lake Town Council celebrated the retirement of Winona Lake Police Department K9 Grim.
Town Marshal Joe Hawn said Grim was with the police department from June 5, 2020, until his retirement Jan. 1, 2026.
Of Grim’s 440 deployments, he had 306 positive detections. Illegal items Grim has taken off the street include 345.23 grams of methamphetamine, 285.16 grams of marijuana, 15.89 grams of heroin, 7.71 grams of fentanyl, 6 grams of cocaine, 205 paraphernalia items and 114 prescription pills. Grim assisted in 167 felony arrests and 34 misdemeanor arrests.
The council passed a resolution giving Grim to Winona Lake Police Department Sgt. John Leeper.
A plaque was presented to Leeper and Grim.
Later in the meeting, the council approved using VS Engineering as the town engineer.
During December’s meeting, the council approved to put out bids for a new town engineer.
Town Manager Pam Howard said she heard the town kind of inherited T-E Inc. and engineering services never really went out to bid, so she said she’d like to find an engineering company that would be on-call for the town for wastewater, streets, stormwater and the town’s 12 lift stations.
Tuesday, Howard said six engineering firms placed statements of qualifications. The firms were scored based on a formula and the top three were interviewed by Howard, Street Superintendent Shane Parrett and Building Commissioner Mike Wilson. VS Engineering came on top for all three people, she said, noting they would like to enter a two-year contract with the company.
According to the contract, VS will provide on-call professional consulting services including scoping reports, feasibility reports, grant applications, bidding assistance, general engineering, construction inspection, permitting, engineering design and plan reviews. Labor rates for work vary.
In other business, the council:
• Approved allowing Winona Lake Farmers Market Manager Brittany Denney to apply for a $500 grant for advertising through the Kosciusko County Convention, Recreation and Visitors Commission with the money housed at the Kosciusko County Community Foundation.
Denney plans on using the grant for putting an ad in Edible Michiana, a quarterly magazine.
• Approved adding a fee for vendors at the farmers market if they use electricity. The fee is $125 for the whole season for the regular electrical hookup and $175 for a higher-voltage hookup.
• Approved having Ashley McGinnis serve as council president and Austin Reynolds as vice president for 2026.
• Approved Joe Collins to the Winona Lake Parks Board, replacing Megan Carr.
• Approved the reappointments of Rick Swaim, Terry White, Al Disbro, Retha Hicks and Janet Ludvig to the Winona Lake Art Commission for four-year terms.
• Signed forms the council won’t engage in nepotism.
• Approved using services from financial consultant firm Baker Tilly as needed.