Warsaw Mayor Jeff Grose, right, gives Warsaw Police Department officer Cody Mangun, center, the ceremonial oath of office Monday as Mangun has completed his one-year probationary period with the department, with Police Chief Scott Whitaker looking on.

Text and Photos
By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — With his one-year probationary period completed, Warsaw Police Department officer Cody R. Mangun was given the ceremonial oath of office Monday morning, April 8, by Mayor Jeff Grose.

Mangun, 35, is the son of Geraldine Mangun and Paul Mangun. He served as a full-time Silver Lake officer from 2017 until 2023 when he joined the WPD.

His family joined him for the swearing-in ceremony at the Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.

Before giving Mangun the oath, Grose had Cody’s family and everyone involved in emergency services stand up.

“Like I’ve said before, you talk about service, you talk about giving up your life for others in this community, you guys are excellent role models and I greatly appreciate (you),” Grose stated.

His dad, having been a police officer for a few years, at the first swearing-in several months ago, told him, “Jeff, when you do that it’s a great privilege. Remember Cody today, this young man is signing up to run to trouble. The rest of us run away from it. We need to respect that, so thank you for your service, your continued service, and thank you to family today.”

In other business, the Board of Works approved:

• Pay application No. 40 from American Structurepoint Inc. for $5,262 for ongoing engineering on the Anchorage Road project, as requested by Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner.

“This project has been moved back to 2025 so the next 18 months will be utility relocation, and the project will be bid out in mid to late summer of 2025, probably look for construction in timeframe of 2026,” he said.

The project is an 80/20 Indiana Department of Transportation-funded project, which means the city will be reimbursed for 80% of the costs.

“There will be a lot of work going on this year because all the utility posts have to be relocated. There’s multiple fibers, including a continental fiber that runs through there, so a lot of utilities need to be relocated. So there will be work being done. The road will be closed in shifts and so forth, but the road construction itself won’t start this year,” Skinner stated.

• The expenditure of $30,000 from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for a contract with Novotx for a citizen connect request portal, as requested by Grose.

Warsaw Police Department officer Cody Mangun , third from right in front, poses with members of the Warsaw Police Department and Mayor Jeff Grose (front row, second from right) after being given the ceremonial oath of office by Grose.

He said it’s to improve communication with the community and the different city departments and the services that they provide.

“Right now, it can be somewhat clunky for residents or for those who have concerns. It can even be difficult for department heads and personnel,” Grose said. “The belief is that this program, which is a one-time purchase, will really assist in streamlining and making concerns and complaints with the city of Warsaw a lot better.”

• Pay application No. 8 from The Troyer Group for $1,261.77 for construction inspection services for the Lincoln neighborhood sidewalk project, as requested by City Planner Justin Taylor. He said all the construction contracts are handled by INDOT at this point. INDOT is paying for 80% of each pay application for the project.

Updating the board on the project, Taylor said, “It looks like the crew should be starting in the next week, so we put out a Facebook post to alert the neighborhood. We got a couple calls just asking questions, so feel free to call us if you have any questions about that project. It should be a pretty active month or so with the crews out there as they get through this project.”

The construction should go through about mid-June. All the trees that were to be removed have been removed, and sidewalks will be installed. Taylor said there may be some earth work happening. He asks that drivers be aware of the workers throughout the construction area.

• For the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory C.A.R.E.S. program to use $43,972 from a $376,231 two-year grant through the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration to purchase a new vehicle. The new vehicle was part of the grant budget.

The new vehicle will be a 2024 Dodge Durango.

• A request from WPD Capt. Joel Beam to accept a $15,925 non-matching grant awarded by the K21 Health Foundation to cover the cost of the Critical Incident Stress Management training through the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. The Board of Works approved for the WPD to apply for the grant at its Jan. 19 meeting.

Beam said officer Paige Wood did a fantastic job on presenting and documenting the grant application. The training will cover and start the peer-to-peer support program, not only in the city but throughout Kosciusko County.

“Every law enforcement agency in the county, and Warsaw Fire, which has several volunteers within that agency throughout the county,” Beam said.

• For Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Chief’s Assistant Heather Vogt to be allowed to sign claim vouchers that do not exceed $2,000. Vogts recently replaced Shirley Fetrow in the position as Fetrow retired after more than 23 years.

Warsaw Police Department officer Cody Mangun, back row, fourth from right, poses with his family, Chief Scott Whitaker, far left, and Mayor Jeff Grose, far right, after taking the oath of office Monday at the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.

Assistant Chief Aaron Bolinger was given the ability last year, after Chief Garrett Holderman resigned, to sign claims that are over $2,000. Chief Brian Mayo announced his resignation as chief earlier this year, effective May 1.

• The 10 travel requests as presented by Human Resource Director Denny Harlan.

Harlan also presented the new hires and change in payroll report, which also was approved.

The report includes three promotions for the fire territory – Brian Drobitsch to captain and Jeremy Williams and Jason Neher to lieutenants — and the end of the probationary period for Mangun. Their full-time biweekly salaries will be $3,224.65 for Drobitsch; $3,055.66 for Williams; $2,918.68 for Neher; and $2,610.63 for Mangun.

Dalis Owens, parking enforcement for WPD, will go from part-time to full-time at an hourly salary of $22.35. Summer labor for the various city departments also was greenlighted.