If the city of Warsaw is awarded a Blight Clearance Grant through the Office of Community and Rural Affairs, the former Jomac Products building, 1624 E. Winona Ave., will be demolished to make way for Fellowship Missions’ future plans. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — If the city is awarded a Blight Clearance Grant through the Office of Community and Rural Affairs, the former Jomac Products building will be demolished to make way for Fellowship Missions’ future plans.

Friday, March 15, Warsaw City Planner Justin Taylor requested permission from the Board of Public Works and Safety to apply for the grant for the property at 1624 E. Winona Ave., which is owned by Fellowship Missions. The maximum grant amount that the city could be awarded is $500,000.

He said there is a 10% match, but that would be covered by Fellowship Missions.

“OCRA requires the applicant to meet certain requirements, and it makes sense for the city to partner with Fellowship Missions to seek this funding,” Taylor said. “We’re also partnering with MACOG (Michiana Area Council of Governments) to do the grant administration and application process.”

He said it was a “very exciting opportunity for us to help demolish some blighted buildings and develop that new use for the site.”

The board approved the grant application.

After the meeting, Fellowship Missions Executive Director Eric Lane said they’ve been talking about the Jomac building “forever” but now they’re starting to make headway on it. The current plan is to “demolish it, greenspace it and then we’ve already got some design work to build a new shelter there.”

The new shelter, which will offer increased capacity, will eventually replace the current shelter. Once the new shelter is built, the old one will be shut down, everyone will move over to the new shelter and the old shelter will be demolished and become a parking lot.

“We’ve reached capacity, not only for people, but also services,” Lane stated.

The submission deadline for the grant proposal is April 26.

Taylor also presented to the Board of Works a contract with Dogwood Hills Tree Farm for the removal and replacement of eight street trees in downtown Warsaw. Cost estimate of all the work and material is $11,105.

“This is part of the multiyear effort to improve the trees downtown and create more biodiversity with our trees in the downtown,” he said.

After the board approved the contract, Taylor then presented a $1,500 proposal to hire a certified arborist from Dogwood Hills for the pruning and maintenance of the trees that the city has.

“They’ve also said that if we move forward with their proposal, over the years the $1,500 would come back to us in the form of a $500 credit each year,” Taylor stated.

Board member and Councilwoman Diane Quance asked if the $1,500 was a one-time consulting fee or for what. Taylor said it was a one-time consulting fee, but then Dogwood Hills would develop a plan for the city’s downtown trees going forward.

Quance asked who then would be responsible for following the plan, Taylor’s department or the parks department.

“Like the previous contract we just approved, we would find a consultant, either Dogwood Hills or another consultant that this board would approve to do the work that they advise us (on),” Taylor stated.

The board approved the $1,500 contract with Dogwood Hills