By David Slone
Times-Union

KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — The bid for the county employee parking lot expansion and redevelopment was awarded to Brooks Construction by the county commissioners on Tuesday, March 12.

The three bids for the project were opened at the commissioners’ Feb. 27 meeting and then taken under advisement.

The parking lot is north of the Justice Building and been around since the 1980s, according to Commissioner Cary Groninger on Tuesday. It’s in need of some updating and redevelopment.

He said they received a letter from Engineering Resources, an engineering company, on their recommendation for the bids. Groninger said the low bid was from Brooks Construction and Engineering Resources recommended the county go with Brooks.

Brooks’ base bid is $696,124.79, with the alternative bid being $25,215.21, for a total of $721,340.

“Pretty much, this would include all the concrete work, all the asphalt, landscaping, some fencing. The only thing that it doesn’t include is the lighting, which we’re putting out for bid here in the next few weeks,” Groninger said. “This will update our existing parking lot, as well as incorporating the area in and around the soon-to-be-former Enterprise Car Rental. This will gain us about another 40 parking spots — 30-40 parking spots, as well as it adds a safety marked-out crossing lane for employees from the parking lot over to the Justice Building and some other things to improve safety for our employees as well.”

With the recommendation from the engineering firm, Groninger made the motion to award the bid to Brooks Construction.

Commissioner Brad Jackson seconded it, and it was approved 3-0.

The other bids were from NiBlock Excavating for a base bid of $866,055 with an alternate No. 1 for a total of $899,831; and Phend & Brown with a base bid of $946,048.25 with an alternate of $16,773.

County attorney Ed Ormsby presented an ordinance “that is updated and in accord with a recent Indiana statute change.”

Reading parts of the ordinance, he said Indiana Code 36-1-8.5 “requires that the county establish a process to prevent a member of the general public from gaining access to the home address of certain covered persons (as defined in Indiana Code …) by means of the county’s public property data base website.”

In 2015, in order for the county to be in compliance then with Indiana code, the commissioners approved an ordinance restricting home addresses on the database website managed by the Kosciusko County GIS Department. Since then, Indiana code has been amended to add persons to the definition of covered persons.

The new ordinance before the commissioners Tuesday, preventing a member of the general public from gaining access to the home address of certain covered persons by means of the county’s public property data base website, lists “covered persons” as a judge, a law enforcement officer, an address confidential program participant (formerly defined as a victim of domestic violence), a public official, the surviving spouse of a law enforcement officer if that officer was killed in the line of duty, an employee of the Department of Child Services, a current or former probation officer, a current or former community corrections officer, a regular paid firefighter or a volunteer firefighter and any person who resides in the same household as a person described above.

Ormsby said the first four of the 10 covered persons were already in place in 2015 and the last six were those being added.

After making the motion to approve the ordinance, Commissioner Brad Jackson told Ormsby that it was his understanding that “this basically is making us comply with the state statute and it’s not something we have a lot of latitude to change or add to. Is that correct?”

Ormsby said that was correct and it was dictated by Indiana code and the Indiana General Assembly.

Jackson’s motion was approved unanimously.

In other business, the commissioners:

• Approved the purchase of four Ford Explorers from Kerlin Ford, Silver Lake, for $44,735 per 2024 vehicle, as requested by Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Mike Mulligan.

Kerlin had the lowest of three bids received by the KCSO. The other two bids were $45,000 per 2024 vehicle from Statewide Ford Lincoln, Van Wert, Ohio; and $48,490 for 2025 vehicles from McCandless Ford, Mercer, Pa. Mulligan said McCandless advised them that the 2025 vehicles were about $2,000 more than the 2024 vehicles.

The funds will come out of the KCSO vehicle budget.

• Approved the final stage 3 drawing for bridge 30, as requested by County Administrator Marsha McSherry on behalf of Kosciusko County Highway Department Superintendent Steve Moriarty.
The bridge spans over 20 feet on Beer Road in Turkey Creek Township.

• Heard a presentation from Bowen Center on the Bowen Center.

• Announced that their next meeting will be at 9 a.m. March 26.