03-06-2007A contract for engineering services for the intersection of Ind. 15N and CR 300N was approved during Monday’s Warsaw Redevelopment Commission meeting.
The commission approved the $33,684 contract between the city and Ken Herceg & Associates Inc. The original contract price was $31,000, and increased to $33,684 for additional work.
The city has requested Ken Herceg & Associates Inc. prepare additional plans and cost estimates for the northbound right turn lane on Ind. 15 at the CR 300N intersection.
City Planner Jeremy Skinner said Indiana Department of Transportation did not approve a passing blister for the project, but the contract increase will cover work on widening the road and installing a right turn lane.
Skinner said the state has plans of widening Ind. 15N in the next two to three years.
Herceg will prepare roadway plans and estimates. They also will provide sketches indicating roadway cross-section improvements at 50-foot centers with cut and fill volumes and construction cost estimates for the proposed work.
The commission also approved two redevelopment claims for IFA-Brownfields for Gatke Project Renovations for 2007 including $4,840.69 and $1,273.24.
The city has requested Herceg to prepare additional plans and cost estimates for the northbound right turn lane at the Ind 15 and CR 300N intersection, meet with Indiana Department of Transportation to discuss alternate pavement widening in lieu of the passing blister at Da-Lite’s north driveway, and provide the meeting minutes to the city.
Also during the meeting, commission member Kyle Babcock gave an update on research he conducted looking into turning the Gatke property into a small business incubator.
“A small business incubator in Warsaw has been something I have been looking into since the summer and I would like the commission to consider looking into making the Gatke site a viable use for such a thing,” Babcock said.
He said he, Mayor Ernie Wiggins and Skinner toured the property by McKinley and Durbin streets in Warsaw this summer.
Babcock suggested at the commission’s September meeting the city have a structural engineer look at the building to determine how the building could be used for a small business incubator.
Skinner said the area has been cleared for commercial and business uses.
Babcock said he has been speaking with Rick D. Keller, an engineer with Keller Engineering Inc., South Bend, about the idea of turning the Gatke property into a small business incubator. Babcock presented Keller’s resume to commission members during Monday’s meeting.
Babcock also presented handouts about business incubator information from the National Business Incubation Association.
The information defined a business incubator and reported as of October 2006, there were 1,400 incubators in North America. Of those, 1,115 were in the United States, 191 were in Mexico and 120 were in Canada.
Skinner suggested the commission could look to organizations in Kosciusko County for grants for the building project.
Commission president Charles Smith suggested the commission speak with Kosciusko Development Inc. and the Kosciusko County Chamber of Commerce about listing the area on their Web sites, and consider the city putting signage at the property notifying people it is for sale.
The commission will again discuss the issue at its April 2 meeting.
Redevelopment members are Savina Kralis, Smith, Tammy Rockey, Neal Carlson and Babcock.