Redevelopment Commission Talks Infrastructure
WARSAW — During the regular meeting for the Kosciusko County Redevelopment Commision, held Thursday, Aug. 11, George Robertson, Kosciusko Economic Development Corp. president, gave a detailed infrastructure report to the commission.
Part of his report was a corporate survey that addressed infrastructure. The survey listed available skilled labor, highway access and quality of life as the most important infrastructure site selection factors. Robertson noted that quality of life has never appeared in the top section of this survey before.
“As we become more techy, the place that people live becomes more important,” said Robertson. “Baby boomers and millennials have very different opinions on where they want to live and what they want to do.”
Robertson went on to discuss that Warsaw has seen many new prospects when it comes to infrastructure sites. He stated that in the last six months he has had more calls asking about retail sites in Warsaw than in the last 6 years.
“Evidently Warsaw has hit some magic number and all of the sudden we have a lot of retailers calling us,” said Robertson.
Robertson believes that of the reasons that retailers may be interested in relocating to Warsaw is because of the amount of people who commute into the town.
In other news:
- The commission discussed the status of roads. Robertson mentioned that U.S. 30 and S.R. 15 are the county’s most frequent challenges. The county is currently looking into solution options for both of the roads.
- The commission discussed the specifics of a letter they want to send to the senator about riverfront and lakefront districts. More on the subject will be discussed during the September meeting.
- Jon Garber gave an update on the direction of the redevelopment commission. It was discussed that the commission originally began to look specifically at TIFs but has expanded to other topics. The commission members believed that the expansion was a good thing.
- Paperwork was distributed pertaining to the counties TIFs, their funding and current status.
- The next meeting is set for 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, at the county courthouse.