Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Before explaining his “ask” to the Kosciusko County Commissioners Tuesday, Tom Kavanaugh, Northern Indiana Workforce Board president and CEO, explained who the board is.
“The Northern Indiana Workforce Board (NIWB), I’m going to simplify it, we sell talent. Our job is to help our residents get the jobs because they need to get back into the workforce. We are a federally-funded program - several federally-funded and state-funded programs that are designed to work with individuals as they are out of work and help them get back to work,” he said.
That help could include job skills, resumes or tuition assistance so a person can get needed certification.
“And, ultimately, our customers are the employers, and our job is to make that connection with employable folks with the employers,” Kavanaugh said.
Last year, the board served about 350 Kosciusko County residents and invested about $272,000 in skill upgrades for those residents. He said when they started with the program, they had an average hourly rate of about $14.62. After they went through the board’s programs, he said, they increased to $19.47 per hour, or about a 33% increase for individuals who went through NIWB’s program.
Kavanaugh said he took over about 18 months ago. As he started with the Workforce Board, which is represented by Elkhart, St. Joseph, Kosciusko, Marshall and Fulton counties, he said it need some fiscal integrity and to be compliant “to things that we had to work through as an organization. If we did that, then we could be responsive to the needs and demands of our employers, but we also could be innovative in the work and how we get that done.”
From a compliance standpoint, he said that took them about a year to get into compliance with the things they needed to do with the state of Indiana and their requirements on the NIWB.
“From a fiscal perspective, we were not out of compliance, but we needed to continue to increase our fiscal integrity. So we’ve done that,” Kavanaugh said.
Each of the commissioners had copies of the NIWB’s budget.
“One of the things that we implemented this year was some Northern Indiana Workforce Board WorkOne Awards to celebrate some of our successes,” he said, pointing out their 2025 Organization of the Year was Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation (KEDCO).
Kavanaugh then talked about what is going to happen going forward.
“Some of you have probably heard that we have a realignment that DWD has proposed for the Workforce regions,” Kavanaugh said.
Currently, there are 12 Workforce regions in Indiana. Part of the proposal is to reduce that number down to eight regions, with Kosciusko County moving from the five-county Region 2 to the Northeast Indiana Workforce Board, Region 3. The reason for the realignment is to have the Workforce regions in a similar pattern to the READI (Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative) regions. The tentative timeline is for the realignment to occur by July 2027.
One of the Workforce Board’s requirements is the elected officials agreement, which is mandated by the state of Indiana that all counties sign off on it, as well as any city that has a population of over 50,000.
“Essentially, what this is, is this agrees that - there’s a couple of things that we as a Workforce Board have a responsibility to you as our elected officials and county commissioners, that we have to share our budget with you, keep you updated on the work that we’re doing and we also just need to make sure we’re engaging with you,” Kavanaugh said.
He asked the commissioners review the elected officials agreement, as well as their attorney, and then approve and sign it.
County attorney Ed Ormsby suggested the commissioners go ahead and approve signing the agreement, pending legal review, which the commissioners did.
Tippecanoe-Chapman RSD
Before presenting a Webster Lake area petition for inclusion of territory to the Tippecanoe and Chapman Lake Regional Sewer District (TCRSD), Jones, Petrie & Rafinski Chief Engineering Manager Steve Henschen updated the commissioners Tuesday on the original Tippecanoe-Chapman project.
He said it’s been in operation for over a year, going fully operational in December. Of the 1,800 customers, 90% are connected with about 100 or so left to connect.
“Things have been running incredibly well with that whole process. The district's been working well with your county planning department, your plan commission. They’re routing any projects that are in our service area through the district for comment in regards to potential impact on the district’s facility, so that’s been a good effort,” Henschen said.
“Primarily, where we are here today is for the Webster Lake project. That has advanced very quickly. Of course, initially with some seed money from the commissioners several years ago. That project received funding from the State Revolving Fund in August of 2025.”
Henschen said they committed to that $5 million grant and the balance of $2 million in low-interest loan. Since that award was made, the commissioners in 2025 approved a petition to bring in the Webster Lake service area, which is the east shore primarily running from Backwater Road to Epworth Forest Road. The petition was accepted by the TCRSD and sent on to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) so the Webster Lake area is officially part of the TCRSD territory.
“The project has moved quickly along. There’s approximately going to be 200 customers in that area. There’s been a lot of cooperative effort with the Knapp Lake Conservancy District, just across the line in Noble County, and the town of North Webster. Both have entered into interlocal agreements to allow these connections to take place. But to make this project economical is the fact that we’re able to connect to the Knapp Lake force main that was built about 10-12 years, running from Knapp Lake to the town of North Webster on the north end,” Henschen explained.
The district knows what its fixed costs are going to be to build the project. Monday night, the proposed rate structure for the project was passed as an ordinance. Henschen said the proposed rate for those 200 customers will be $110 per month for a single-family dwelling.
He said they are on target to do the final closing in March with the State Revolving Fund, which means the project will be able to be under contract in April. Construction will take 12-13 months. It’ll then go fully operational and customers will then be notified it’s time to connect to the sewer system. It’s hoped that by the end of 2027, most customers in the area will be connected to the sewer system.
Finally, Henschen presented an additional inclusion of territory to the Webster Lake service area. It’s a small parcel at the corner of EMS W16 and W16A Lane, and the property owner wants to have it incorporated into the territory, as well as the project.
At the TCRSD board meeting Monday, the board of trustees said if the commissioners approved the inclusion, they would accept the property into the service territory.
The commissioners unanimously approved the inclusion.
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