Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Kosciusko County Northern District Commissioner Sue Ann Mitchell announced at Monday’s meeting the commissioners will be looking at appointing board members for the Webster and Backwater Lakes Dam Conservancy District Board as soon as it’s passed through the courts.
“So we would like to ask if anybody that lives in that area that would be affected by it and that could serve because they own property in that area to contact some of us and let us know that they might be interested, and that we will be making those appointments rather rapidly after that decision is made,” she said. “We have 20 days to fill those appointments.”
There will be six districts and one at-large board member. Mitchell said eventually they’ll have those districts figured out once the court’s decision is made.
“So we would be interested in people coming forward that are interested in serving on that board,” she said.
On Oct. 21, Kosciusko Circuit Court Judge Matthew J. Buehler found sufficient evidence to support establishing the Webster and Backwater Lakes Dam Conservancy District, according to an InkFreeNews story. A board needs to be selected and a detailed plan developed with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources after the board’s establishment. A previous amendment filed earlier this year narrowed the district’s purposes to dam-related work.
The district will provide a governing body and funding mechanism for maintaining and making repairs to the aging Webster Lake dam, its gated structure and earthen embankment.
The DNR in July recommended approval. The plan has divided some property owners over potential taxes, costs and the need for a new governmental entity, the story indicated.
On Monday, county attorney Ed Ormsby said, “Those appointments we will probably be interviewing within next week or so, so those that are interested should contact County Administrator Marsha (McSherry). There are seven positions for those directors. One in each of the six districts, and then one at-large. The commissioners are charged to make those appointments within 20 days, so that’s going to move, as Sue Ann said, pretty rapidly.”
He said if anyone is interested in serving on that board, that is for taking care of the dam and flooding issues there at Webster Lake.
“So it’s going to be an important position, all seven of those directors, and really encourage those that are interested to contact Marsha so she can have a list and then the commissioners can then interview those directors after that list is combined,” Ormsby stated.
As of Monday morning, Ormsby said after the commissioners meeting, the court had not yet entered the final order but it could happen at any moment.
“The final order has been submitted to Judge Buehler for signature. Under statute, there’s only 20 days that the commissioners have to appoint all seven directors. And, attached to that final order is a map showing each of those six districts, as well as the memorandum of understanding that the proposed district entered into with the commissioners to limit the scope of that district to the dam and flooding issues,” he said. “So, we will need to move pretty quickly on this and so those that are interested, we really want them to contact Marsha so the commissioners can then interview those potential directors and make a selection on Nov. 17.”
North Webster Trail
In another matter related to North Webster, representatives of North Webster’s trails committee went before the commissioners at their Oct. 6 meeting for the second phase of their trail project, which would extend 3.2 miles along Ind. 13 north of the town through the county to eventually connect to a trailhead at Wawasee Middle School. The approximate total cost would be $6-$7 million with a potential Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) reimbursable grant covering 80% of that. The county would have to cover about $1.4 million of that cost.
The commissioners requested that the committee meet with the Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board, which the committee did at the board’s next meeting.
On Monday, Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board member Rob Bishop said, “There was an INDOT grant that you would have to make an application for at the end of this month. We looked at it, and, obviously, that’s a very compressed timeframe to do it. We are not making a request from the commissioners today, so this is more putting a bow on the whole event.”
He said they are very much in favor of the project the trails committee is looking at, but the problem is that the county would have to do an 80/20 match and the county would essentially have had to agree Tuesday to fund $1.2-$1.4 million and there was none of that raised at this point in time.
Bishop said the Parks and Recreation Board did their due diligence and looked to see if there was some money left from other grants that could be used for the North Webster trail, but weren’t able to find any and the Parks and Recreation Board was not willing to request $1.2-$1.4 million from the commissioners.
“We understand the burden you’ve placed on us to try to raise all the money that we need, so this is just a matter of coming back to you, following up on what’s happened so far and giving you the status of that,” Bishop said. “Hopefully, we’ll see another grant request a littler farther down the line and a little bit more planning for. Their project is well within our master plan, so I don’t think this should be taken at all of any of the good work they’ve done to be able to bring that plan to us. It’s just a matter of we don’t have sufficient time to raise our match at this time.”
Mitchell said she had spoken to Dan Thystrup and Garet Becker in the last week or so and they were understanding “that this isn’t a flat no. This is a no because the funding isn’t available at this point, and they will both continue to work, they’re both excited about trying to make it happen.”
