Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SYRACUSE - A public hearing was held for the proposed 2027 budget at the Syracuse Council meeting Tuesday evening.
The proposed budget, according to the ordinance, is $7,213,400, with a total maximum levy of $3,168,166 and an advertised tax rate of $1.0057.
That information was not shared during the public hearing, it was mainly opened, the public was asked if they had any questions or comments and no one did and the public hearing was closed. No action was taken by the council .
Last year’s adopted budget amount was $9,196.24 and the tax rate was $0.7525 per $100 of assessed value.
Public Hearing
Right-of-Way Vacation
There was plenty of discussion about the second matter up for public hearing — the vacation of a right-of-way. The comments began before the public hearing when Councilman Bill Musser, who led the meeting in President Cindy Kaiser’s absence, asked for public comments on agenda items.
Matt Goodnight said he thought some vacations make sense, especially the Urban Oaks vacation they recently approved, but he said the one before the council that night was different in that it does limit access to a public area. Goodnight said in Indiana, lakes and streams are in the public’s hands and once it’s no longer a right-of-way, the public wouldn’t be able to fish over there anymore. He said the property is a strip of land on Harkless to the channel.
When the public hearing opened, attorney Stephen Snyder represented the petitioner, Kevin Unterbrink, who is the property owner abutting the right-of-way. The property owner on the other side is Musser. Snyder said the thought that the town or the public has the right to do anything with that property is incorrect.
“No one has the right to put a pier there except Kevin or Bill,” he said, adding, “If I wanted to go down there and fish, I can’t, it’s for right-of-way only — you can drive through it.”
He said the town doesn’t lose interest because the two property owners split the property and would pay taxes on additional footage.
Councilman Paul Stoelting said his personal opinion is not to vacate, whether it’s streets or alleys, but he doesn’t know if there’s a purpose in this.
Councilman Nate Scherer said because Kaiser and the town attorney were not there and Musser couldn’t vote; they shouldn’t vote on it. He said Musser lived there for 42 years and until last month he wasn’t concerned about obtaining the extra space, so he wondered why his new neighbor was so concerned about it and asked what he wanted to do.
Snyder said it’s a zoning violation, to which Councilman Larry Siegel said it would be grandfathered in.
Snyder replied, “It’s grandfathered until he wants to do something on his property and then he has to get a board of zoning special exception.”
Musser said the point Siegel tried to make about access in case of a fire was a moot point. “The city has no use for it, it’s a dead end, so when my neighbor wanted to do it, I said I’d go along with it,” he said. Musser said they’ve mowed and maintained it all along.
Snyder said, “If the town could give me a basis — some logical use for it, but I haven’t heard that.”
Scherer made a motion to table it to next month.
Commonwealth Water Project
Jeremy Hardy was present and asked the council to award the Huntington Street Water Project to the low bidder, KLS Underground Inc., Constantine, Mich. They bid $1,328,221.20 for Division A, which is Huntington Street, and for Division B $1,110, 370.62, which is a 12-foot loop from the plant to Huntington Street and Kern Road to the ballpark for $2,438,591.82.
Siegel asked if the State Revolving Fund loan was more than that and Hardy said it was for $3,092,000 and that covered the construction labor standards, bond council and construction engineering. He said their original estimate was around $5 million and now it’s $3 million. They were also awarded a $700,000 matching grant from the Office of Community Rural Affairs.
However, a representative from Michiana Area Council of Government (MACOG) was present and said since the bids were lower and it’s a local match, they can’t utilize the full $700,000 — he didn’t know the full amount they’d receive it.
Hardy told the council, since it was a really low bid, they did call the contractor and questioned him, and they were satisfied with the responses.
The council awarded the project to KLS Underground.
In a related matter, the council approved an agreement with MACOG for professional services at a cost of $16,000, which Hardy said after the meeting was to monitor their labor standards on the project.
Hardy also asked for and received approval of a task order for re-bidding the filter media project. They bid the project once and it came in too high, so they wanted to rebid it to get more competitive bids. They approved a task order at an hourly amount not to exceed $30,000.
Another matter is a recommendation regarding closing access roads for the boardwalk. They’ll consider the effect on closing four non-intersection access roads on the east side of Ind. 13, south of Chicago Street. Hardy said if they have to have someone else to help with traffic count it will be $20,000, if not it would be $15,000. He asked for not to exceed $20,000 and the council agreed.
Town Manager David Wilkinson told the council that the Indiana Department of Transportation needs an answer by Oct. 19th, which is why Commonwealth has already started working on it.
Company Petitions for City Services
Wilkinson brought up a request to petition the council to connect to city services from AAC (American Animal Critters). Wilkinson said they thought they were on city services as they’re located near the tech park. They want to expand and add $20,000 square feet.
Mike Beer, from Ace Builders, was present and explained they were working under the assumption that they were connected to city services and now the project is at a standstill until they can connect.
Siegel said, “We all support any kind of development, but we feel anyone that wants to connect to city service should be annexed. I don’t think it’s unfair to ask you to petition to annex like the Tech Park and RV Park did to be fair to the users in town.”
Beer said, “We based the whole project on being told we were on city services; the building is ordered and on the way. We’re against the clock, already lost two months and this is at no cost to the city.”
He said it wasn’t up to him to petition to annex, but he didn’t think the owner would be against it. Wilkinson said he’d call them tomorrow. Siegel questioned the capacity out there, but Utility Superintendent Mark Aurich said, “We have good capacity and excellent pressure out there. We did a few studies.”
Aurich said when he was approached by Judd Beer, “I mistakenly assumed they were already tied in — looking at the aerials it looked like they were part of the same complex.”
Siegel said he understood Beer’s position but said Wilkinson will get with the owners about annexing and said, “Our responsibility is 100% being responsible to the town of Syracuse.”
Beer responded, “This will be a great asset to the town. I’m disappointed this can’t be approved tonight so we can keep going. I was hoping a precedent had already been set.”
Wilkinson also followed up with security cameras and extra storage for 30 days. He said the additional redundant system cost $5,000 for a total cost of $316,493.42 for 25 cameras and the redundant system cost through Imperial Surveillance.
Wilkinson said with all the news about Flock cameras in the county, he wanted the council to know he hasn’t received any calls from concerned residents. Siegel pointed out that they’re not surveilling the public; these are security cameras on town properties.
Utilities Busy Labor Day
Aurich reported they dealt with three water leaks and two lift stations went down over Labor Day weekend.
“If anyone is missing a black T-shirt, we have it; it took out a whole lift station,” he said, “Please keep your clothes, we don’t need them.”
They also had sewer collapse. He said he was very proud of how the streets, water and wastewater employees all worked together and said, “Paul Hoffman is ingenious — a real talent.”
Aurich also received approval to apply for the Community Crossing matching Grant funds.
In other business, the council:
• Approved the interlocal agreement with Kosciusko County Terminal Services Data at a cost of $6,370.
• Heard the Parks Department will have a busy October with Harvest Fest on Oct. 3 from 11-2 at Lakeside Park, Inside garage sale on Oct. 10 and Trick or Treat on the Trail on Oct. 24.
• Approved paying $500 for annual siren repair in town.
• Voted to have Musser represent the town at an informational meeting regarding merging fire departments.
