Community Coordinator Amy Roe talks to the Kosciusko County Council Thursday about the Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program Strategic Investment Plan. Photo by David Slone, Times Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — With the Kosciusko County Council’s approval of the Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program Strategic Investment Plan on Thursday, April 13, the process is getting nearer to the determination of where grant dollars will be awarded.

Thursday, Community Coordinator Amy Roe presented the SIP to the county council for their approval. The county commissioners approved it at their meeting Tuesday, April 11.

“So I am here today for a very exciting moment in this project program process,” she said before reviewing the process so far. “We went through all four of the phases of the H.E.L.P., starting with the team building, moving into community engagement and then the project review, and now taking all of that information and the specific projects and programs that the community members had approved by the town boards (and) are now in this document called the Strategic Investment Plan.”

With the council’s approval of the SIP, Roe said that will complete and tie up the formal program and that will open up the funding side of the process.

Roe said the SIP has been extensively reviewed.

Kosciusko County’s H.E..L.P.SIP was the first time that Purdue had done a document such as this, she believed, because five local units of government were involved in the process versus just one. Roe said each of the communities involved got what they wanted to have in the document.

“The purpose of the document is to provide an opportunity to pursue additional investment after we determine what the investment the projects will have based on the American Rescue Plan Act funds that each of the local units of government put toward the process and who will qualify for CDBG (Community Development Block Grants). If there’s a gap in that, then this document can be used to speak to different granting agencies to get the additional funds to complete the projects,” Roe said.

The next step will be April 26 when Roe, Commissioner Cary Groninger and representatives of the Office of Community and Rural Affairs and Michiana Area Council of Governments will sit down to discuss the CDBG restrictions. There may be communities that will have to do income surveys. Any survey that needs to be done will be done, she said, and then once they are complete, “we will know the full picture of which projects and communities are fully eligible to use the match dollars from CDBG.”

Hopefully, at the end of June, Roe said both the county council and commissioners, along with the ARPA Committee, will be brought together in one meeting to review all the financial information and decide how the money is spent for the projects.

Councilwoman Sue Ann Mitchell said, “This is a great program to bring people together and provide a great deal of collaboration. People have had to join to speak to each other and to understand other sides of what is happening in our community. I think this has really been a blessing.”

She said looking at the document, there’s enough projects in there that can keep the county and communities going for quite some time.

“It’s a long-range plan that can change at any moment as things develop. So this isn’t something that we were working on to put on a shelf. This is something that we need to work on to keep current, because if you’re going to put it on a shelf, there’s no point in doing it. And we all don’t want to be a shelf-sitter,” Mitchell said.

In another point related to the Forward Kosciusko plan the county also adopted, Roe said the Kosciusko County Community Foundation “actually put a funding source out to, not only provide for projects that were part of that, but also could provide seed money for projects that were in the H.E.L.P. SIP.” Each of the communities that have been a part of H.E.L.P. “actually have some of those projects having a bit of seed money already, moving toward the projects that they would like as their capstone.”

K21 Health Foundation already provided $200,000 to each of the communities in the county for health and wellness projects. “Many of those $200,000 pieces are being a part of this process as well,” Roe said. “So, capital stacking is going to be the name of the game and I think we’ll get there and have some pretty neat projects.”

The council approved the SIP 7-0.

The county council also:

• Approved the additional appropriation of $2,236,550 for the Kosciusko County Highway Department for bridge 123 over Wyland Ditch on Packerton Road. The money was awarded from a federal 80/20 grant program.
• Approved ARPA grants as presented, which were approved by the county commissioners on March 14 and by the ARPA Committee.

The grants included $44,000 for The Beaman Home for upgrades to Mary Ann’s Place; $5,836 to Kosciusko County Work Release for a walk-thru metal detector; $32,000 to Milford Volunteer Fire Department for additional portable radios; $23,898 to the Animal Welfare League for maintenance to the cat house; $10,952 to Warsaw Police Department for mobile radios; $86,322 to the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office for body-worn cameras; $252,800 to the North Webster Community Center for building updates, with the majority of that money for roof repair; and $19,100 to Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for fingerprinting of volunteers, staff and board members as well as an update to manuals and video.

Later in the meeting, the council approved the additional appropriations for those grants so the money could be spent, as requested by County Administrator Marsha McSherry.

• Heard a quarterly update from Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation CEO Alan Tio.
• Heard a department update from county coroner Tyler Huffer, who also introduced his chief deputy coroner, Paul Schmitt. From Jan. 1 to March 31, Huffer said his department has had 38 calls, and 47 year-to-date. Twelve of those were accidents, including overdoses, accidents and falls. They’ve had eight overdoses, with five testing positive for fentanyl. The coroner’s office has had eight autopsies so far in 2023.
• Approved for the health department to apply for a $41,595.14 Health Issues & Challenges grant to offer lead testing for children at the health clinic. The commissioners approved the grant application Tuesday.
• Approved a $4,000 additional appropriation, as requested by Superior Court I Judge Karin McGrath, for court interpreters.
• Approved a salary ordinance amendment  for the Purdue Extension Office for a 4-H program assistant at $13.19 per hour. It’s not a new position, but a reduction of $6 per hour from a STEM assistant to the program assistant.
• Approved a $20,500 grant application to the CHIRP Hoosier Highways Injury Reduction grant program and a $500,000 grant application for the Integrated Reentry & Correctional Support program, as requested by the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department. The grants were approved by the commissioners Tuesday.
• Approved 18 salary ordinance amendments for the KCSD and the transfers to support those salary changes, as requested by the sheriff.