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With no one present to speak against it Monday, the Warsaw Common Council approved on second reading an ordinance amending the chapter of the city code regarding bicycles, electric bicycles and micromobility devices.
The first reading was at the end of the May 18 council meeting that went past midnight due to the long hearing on the Warsaw Community Public Library’s request for over $17 million in bonds for repairs and some renovations, which the council denied 4-3.
In re-presenting the ordinance amendment, City Planner Justin Taylor said Monday the ordinance came with a favorable recommendation from the Warsaw Traffic Commission and the Ride+Walk Advisory Commission.
“As electronic bikes and micromobility devices become more popular, it’s important for the city to evaluate them and keep up with regulations that are needed for these devices. Our current ordinance doesn’t currently address these devices, so we just wanted to put together a document that reflected what’s currently going on with the popularity of these devices,” he said.
The ordinance allows a framework for the safe operations of the “vehicles,” he said, “so we didn’t want to outright prohibit them or have some knee-jerk reaction in the future, but we wanted to get ahead of this thing as they become more popular.”
The six-page amendment modifies the city’s existing chapter 74, article 7, (bicycle) ordinance to include e-bikes.
“What it did is basically prohibit bicycles on the downtown sidewalks, but it was very specific to just bicycles, so we wanted to expand that umbrella again to cover all these types of e-mobility devices,” Taylor said.
Fines for ordinance violations are $25 for the first offense, $50 for second offense and $150 for the third or any subsequent violation within a 365-day time period.
The ordinance also requires lighting, with front headlights and rear reflectors, on the devices.
Taylor said the focus was on safety.
After some questions from the city council, a public hearing was held on the ordinance, with only Fred Helfrich speaking in favor of the ordinance.
Council President Jack Wilhite made the motion to approve the ordinance amendment, Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins seconded the motion and it passed 7-0.
Also during the meeting, Lucas Fonseca, chief executive officer of Language Matters, updated the council on his company’s work with the city of Warsaw.
“We’re actually really excited. We have all good news, so we’re going to be looking at what we’ve been doing in the last few years with the city of Warsaw,” he said.
Back in 2022, Fonseca said they conducted a study for the city to identify the needs of its non-English-speaking community and the city departments, which led to the implementation of many different services.
“Those services that we’ve implemented since 2022 are the services that we’re going to give the update about,” he said.
“So, the number one service that we realized was going to move the needle for communication for city residents and for city departments was to implement a multi-lingual navigational call and text center, with emphasize in navigation,” Fonseca said. “We realized that a lot of people that are facing communication issues in our community, it’s not just a language barrier, it’s people that need the help getting exactly the resources they need.”
A navigational call and text center was founded to help people get the help they need.
There were 1,040 calls registered for the Spanish line for all of 2025. In May 2026 alone, there were 222 phone calls.
“We believed that we had plateaued in terms of the need and the engagement that we were getting through the call center. We were wrong. We were happy that we were wrong because that just means we’re filling a need that is bigger than we had anticipated,” he said. “We feel comfortable with the system we’ve done in terms of the need and the general resources that we feel Warsaw needs, but we wanted to show you that our numbers continue to increase and we continue to help people in our community. We continue to make the city efficient and utilize their resources in the best way possible.”
Fonseca said they’re not just a call center, but also a text center and can help people with Spanish and over 200 other languages. It is supplemental to the call center.
He reviewed the various organizations Language Matters has worked with, including CARES, Crisis Intervention Team training and Warsaw Community Public Library’s Story Walk.
Councilwoman Diane Quance asked how many of the city forms have already been translated. Fonseca said they are all translated and can be found on the city’s website.
The Spanish line in Warsaw is 260-222-5131. More information can be found on languagemattersprograms.com/ciudad-de-warsaw.
Earlier in the meeting, Mike Loher, ML Community Impact Alliance, reminded the council of Kosciusko County Freedom Fest this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Kosciusko Community Fairgrounds to celebrate America’s 250th birthday.
A list of all the events can be found at kcfreedomfest.org
