Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Over the last couple years, the county had building assessments completed on its properties.
Kosciusko County Administrator Marsha McSherry told the county commissioners at their meeting Tuesday one of the items that was identified was replacing the Justice Building roof.
“In most recent months, we’ve been working on getting a proposal for that,” she said.
Commissioner Cary Groninger said, “Just talking about our Justice Building, the renovation, or the updates, over at the Justice Building have been a multi-step process over the last couple years. We started with some of interior renovations - carpet and ceiling tile and painting and wallpapering that needed to be redone.”
At the commissioners’ July 14 meeting, they approved the low bid of $698,000 from Structural Waterproofing and Restoration LLC, Memphis, Tenn., to do the repair of the facade and soffit that was damaged and collapsed in August 2025.
“And now we’re going to engage Design Collaborative in the roof study. Part of that was kind of the next step that has to happen because the roof can’t be completed until the facade work is done. But, to start that process and get the plans out so that can be put out for bid later this year, it’s a multi-step process,” Groninger said. “So, just kind of information only today. Hopefully, at our next meeting we’ll have a contract ready to approve for the start of that work over at the Justice Building.”
Kosciusko County Highway Department (KCHD) Superintendent Steve Moriarty brought three things before the commissioners.
One was an agreement between the county and Butler, Fairman & Seufert Inc. not to exceed $20,000 for right-of-way clarification.
“So they go back through our old commissioner minutes, they find the right-of-way, they document those things so that we can apply for the HSIP (Highway Safety Improvement Program) grant, which will be for guardrail replacement. This is one of the steps that we have to have to be able to apply for that grant,” Moriarty explained.
After the commissioners approved that agreement, Moriarty presented another agreement between the county and USI Consultants not to exceed $22,000 for a study of the intersection of CR 350W and Old 30 and the corridor going east toward the next roundabout.
The commissioners approved that agreement as well.
Finally, Moriarty said they are getting ready to put the painting of the Chinworth Bridge out for bid, but they have to approve the drawings first that have been sent out. He asked the commissioners for their approval for the drawings for the painting of the Chinworth Bridge, which they did.
In other business, the commissioners approved:
• Renewing the inventory tracking software from Eptura Inc. for the KCHD for $10,752, as requested by Director of Technology Eric Sorenson. He said the money was in his budget to help the KCHD out.
• Kosciusko County Child Support Director Rob Bishop’s request to enter into a contract for $60 per month with SelectPath Inc., doing business as Contact Wireless.
“We have demoed this program. It’s pretty slick. It allows us to text our participants. It allows you to save letters to send them. It allows you to schedule texts like ‘Your hearing is tomorrow.’ I don’t know of any other prosecutor’s offices in the state that’s doing this in the Child Support Division. We want to try it,” Bishop said. “We’re seeing more and more people who don’t even have emails, they just have their phones. I think we all know the Postal Service is more delivering Amazon than they are letters today. So, I think this is the next step for us to try this, so I request your permission to enter this contract.”
