With planning, engineering and right of way acquisition out of the way, the Husky Trail project will get underway this year. The project includes a roundabout and infrastructure improvements like street lights and sidewalks. During the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety meeting Monday, the board approved a pay application for $41,910 for right of way acquisitions. The Indiana Department of Transportation will reimburse 80 percent of those costs. The amount includes $8,500 for a parcel from Joseph and Carolyn Clingenpeel; $5,800 for a parcel from Chandler Williams and Erin Williams and $27,610 for a parcel from Mark Allen Snyder and Select Portfolio Servicing Inc. “These properties were purchased late last year,” City Planner Jeremy Skinner said. “As we were going through our records, and trying to get all of our invoices in, we had not submitted these for reimbursement from the LPA agreement with INDOT, so I’m just asking you to approve the attached LPA voucher so that we can get reimbursed for 80 percent of those purchases.” Mayor Joe Thallemer asked Skinner to give a brief timeline on the Husky Trail project. Skinner said all of the right of way was acquired in 2016. “The stage 3 documents were submitted. They were approved and ... last week our project was bid. So Husky Trail came in just over $2.5 million. We sent in our award certification letter, which bascially said we accepted that bid. That bid was from Phend & Brown,” he said. He expects to get the contract from INDOT within the next month or so. Once that contract arrives, the Board of Works will be asked to approve and sign it, then send it back to INDOT. Once INDOT signs it, the project will be approved and “ready to go to construction this year,” Skinner explained. He hopes that will begin in the spring. Thallemer said the bid was awarded for an amount “slightly under” the engineer’s estimate. Skinner agreed, saying Phend & Brown is a local company and the city got a “pretty good price on it.” He also said, “I think there were five bidders. Quite a few bidders on the project, which is kind of rare.” The board also approved a $5,584.90 pay application to VS Engineering Inc. for preliminary engineering services for the Market Street project, as requested by Skinner. INDOT will reimburse 80 percent of the costs. Thallemer asked Skinner to provide a quick timeline for this project, too. Skinner said the project has a 2018 bid letting. The environmental document is supposed to be done sometime this month, “which will allow us to move into the right of way acquisition,” he said. He said there won’t be a lot of right of way acquisition with the project. “Hopefully, in the next couple of months, we’ll start that right of way process and then be ready for a bid letting next spring or early summer next year,” Skinner stated. An amendment to the Buffalo Street engineering contract with American Structurepoint Inc. was approved for an additional $15,500 to finish the final road and infrastructure plans. “Structurepoint is requesting some additional funds. As we finalize the Buffalo Street project, the Regional Development Authority approved our project and will be submitting it to the (Indiana Economic Development Corp.) for their approval. As we finalize road design and take into consideration those plaza designs, there are a few adjustments we needed to make to make sure we can fit all those projects into that area. So we will be doing some final road and utility design work to finish that up and tie that into that plaza design that Structurepoint also will be working on,” Skinner explained. In the next month and a half, he hopes the Buffalo Street engineering finished and bid.
