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Kosciusko County Commissioners unanimously voted Tuesday to use the eminent domain process to acquire the Ameriprise property for the site of a future downtown Warsaw parking garage.
County attorney Ed Ormsby reported to the commissioners, “We have a property that we’ve been interested in purchasing so that we can locate that parking garage. That is the Ameriprise building at 225 N. Buffalo St. It’s owned by Snapping Turtle LLC.”
He reminded them two meetings ago, the county authorized negotiations with Snapping Turtle, as the owner of the property, to see if the county could purchase it for the average of two appraisals or less. Jonathan Kingston is the owner of Snapping Turtle and his wife, Jennifer Kingston, operates Ameriprise out of the building.
“The owner has not wanted to proceed with the average of the two appraisals for the purchase of the property. That necessitates us proceeding under the eminent domain statute to initiate that process,” Ormsby stated. “We need to do a uniform land acquisition offer. That is a letter that is specified by the statute that requires us to give a good-faith offer to the owner, and that will start the negotiation process.”
He asked the commissioners to approve the initiation of the eminent domain procedure for the property, via the issuance of a uniform acquisition offer by self.
“I believe we’re in a position where that’s our only recourse, so I would move that we approve moving forward with it,” Commissioner Sue Ann Mitchell said.
Commissioner Bob Conley seconded her motion, which passed 3-0.
Of the $30 million in Orthopedic Industry Retention Initiative (OIRI) funds that OrthoWorx received from the state a couple years ago, $5 million has been earmarked for a city-county parking garage in downtown Warsaw. In December 2024, the city and county approved a memorandum of understanding related to an infrastructure being built in downtown Warsaw for parking. The parking garage project is estimated to cost approximately $15 million.
In other business, the commissioners:
• Approved an LPA (Local Planning Agencies) consulting contract between USI and the county for right-of-way services for bridge 139, as requested by Kosciusko County Highway Department Superintendent Steve Moriarty.
The bridge, over Eel River down at CR 700 East, is the largest in the county.
• Approved a fiber agreement between the county and Warsaw Community Schools, as presented by Kosciusko County Director of Technology Eric Sorensen.
“Basically, it’s just an updated agreement that we’ve had in the past for a good long time,” he said.
• Were presented with the commissary report for January through June from Kosciusko County Sheriff Jim Smith. He presented it to the county council at their meeting Thursday night.
“Now, in pursuant to new legislation, we will be doing this every quarter moving forward, which the sheriff’s office has no problem in doing that,” he said.
The commissary fund comes from the sale of items to jail inmates, like additional food, hygiene products, etc.
• Announced their next meeting will be at 9 a.m. July 29 in the old courtroom of the county courthouse.
