“The town has in the past issued bonds for Grace college on several occasions,” said Alan Feldbaum, an attorney with Barnes and Thornburg representing Grace College. “The college is simply refinancing three bonds that have been issued in the past.”

Feldbaum and several other representative of Grace College appeared before the Winona Lake Town Council at its March 17 meeting to request an ordinance for the bonds. He said the school would be issuing the tax-exempt bonds through a different financial with better interest rates.

The council introduced Ordinance 2015-3-1. Feldbaum explained that tax-exempt bonds must go through a government entity and the community must approve it. Feldbaum said the bonds would come at no expense to the town. The ordinance will be on the agenda next month for further consideration.

The council also addressed a setback on the town’s main lift station project. Josh Weaver of Jones Petrie Rafinski, the consulting firm assisting with the project, appeared before the board to explain.

“We turned the new pump station online several weeks ago, and everything seemed to be working fine,” Weaver said. “We didn’t really delve into the generator at that point because we weren’t changing motor sizes.” He went on to clarify that the old station had three pump systems, and the new station had three pumps with the same motor capacity.

Weaver reported that the back-up generator for the station was recently tested. When only one pump was powered the old generator worked fine. However, when the second pump was activated, the voltage from the generator dropped off causing a spike in the amperage.

“We brought in some gentleman from Cummins Crosspoint,” said Weaver. “They confirmed what we had expect, that the generator is slightly undersized.” He said that a 100 kW generator would suffice.

Quotes for a new generator were solicited. It was recommended that the council go with the low bid of $25,843 from Cummins Crosspoint and the installation bid from L.A. Electric of approximately $16,000. The cost of installation includes transport, installation and electrical.

The new generator would be powered by natural gas. Councilman Terry Howie raised some concern regarding additional costs from NIPSCO. The purchase of the new generator was approved contingent on NIPSCO findings.

Also at the meeting, Winona Lake Town Marshal Paul Schmitt made a couple of announcements. He said he has a full-time officer who will undergo surgery in the near future. Due to scheduled vacations and availability of reserve officers, Schmitt suspects that he will need assistance from other agencies to cover some hours.

“I will utilize those other officers as little as I possibly can,” said Schmitt. “I want to keep that money there too.”

Schmitt also reported that an opportunity to update the computer components in the police department’s vehicles arose. He requested that $15,000 that he had budgeted to hold over for a new police vehicle in 2016 be tapped to pay for the technological updates.

The equipment would put WLPD inline with the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department and Pierceton Police Department (reportedly the first agency in the county to utilize the tablet-based computer system). It would also eliminate several other peripheral devices, such as GPS, in the police vehicles. The council approved Schmitt’s request.