This post was provided by News Now Warsaw

By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw

WARSAW — Kosciusko County officials used a special meeting on Tuesday to call for more progress toward reconstructing U.S. 30 into a limited access highway, saying it’s a matter of public safety. 

The U.S. 30 Coalition made up of representatives from across northern Indiana have been working with the Indiana Department of Transportation for nearly a decade in developing a plan, but very little movement has been made during Indiana Governor Mike Braun’s first three years in office.

The issue came up Tuesday night when county officials were asked what the biggest challenges would be in coming years. 

US 30 was a top one for County Commissioner Sue Ann Mitchell.

“We have got to get the legislators’ attention. We’ve got to get somebody in Indianapolis to understand that U.S. 30 has got to be reckoned with,” Mitchell said.

“ I just know that if that was …  abutting the circle in Indianapolis, that would have been done 30 years ago and we’d be moving on by now,” she said.

Fellow commissioners Cary Groninger and Bob Conley also expressed support for the notion.

The first ever State of the County meeting was hosted at Lincoln Elementary and the public was encouraged to submit questions ahead of time.

Matt Deuel, a Warsaw School Board member and formerly with Dream On Studios, served as the moderator during the discussion.  He posed questions to the panelist, which also included County Council President Tony Ciriello.

Officials were also asked if they would support a moratorium on data centers.

The county overwhelmingly rejected a proposed data center for a site near Leesburg in 2025, but officials sounded open to the idea of considering new plans in the future. 

Conley weighed in on the issue and seemed to distinguish between large social media firms like Meta and Twitter and the needs of local companies.

“I’m in favor of data centers, say, if Zimmer had an issue and they needed that kind of energy and that kind of capability, let them build it,” Conley said. “That’s great. We’ll give them incentives to help them do that.”

“Let the individual corporations or companies that want to do that fund it, build it, use it. I don’t think someone lives in Sydney or Silver Lake really cares about a data center in Atwood,” Conley said.

No county officials spoke in favor of a moratorium, but Groninger said he thinks local ordinances would be beneficial.

“I think we need to be very strategic in how we would look at the data centers, and I think that there’s a way for us to really create some local ordinances which would specifically spell out, you know, where and how,” Groninger said.

Much of the hour-long conversation focused on many of the aspects of the county have have left the county in a strong financial situation, even ahead of possible revenue losses as a result of ongoing property tax reform legislation by state lawmakers.

Officials highlighted the county’s strong financial condition, noting that the county is debt-free and in a good position to weather the storm of any impact related to property tax changes. Existing reserve funds also serve as a good back-up in case of emergencies such as the ongoing Justice Building repairs.

Ciriello tipped his hat to the conservative approach by Republican leaders at different levels of government and pointed to the recent attraction of Slate Auto and Autocam Medical, which combined, are expected to add as many as 2,500 jobs in the near future. 

Slate expects to hire upward of 1,900 people by early 2027 while Autocam officials have said their employment numbers will rise over time.

“I think the stability of our county government, whether it be at the commissioner level, council level, township level, and so on, has been a stable driving force in this community to keep us where we’re at financially, economically, and allows us the opportunity to face challenges without bankrupting our county,” Ciriello said.

“I’m very proud of the stability we have in this community, and I think it shows with the new businesses we’re bringing in,” he said.

Officials also set up a series of booths highlight county services and programs and invited the public to mingle with representatives afterward.