At the Winona Lake Town Council meeting Tuesday evening, Town Coordinator Craig Allebach said, “We had done an analysis of our rate and, based on the current circumstances that we’re under, we feel that a rate increase is not warranted at this time, at least for the year 2019. We always evaluate it every year, and after we ran the numbers, what we have in the current fund, as well as the projections of the cost that will be assessed to us from Warsaw for 2019, we still have enough capacity to handle that. So at this point, we’re recommending that there be no increase for 2019.”
He said bills will go out in the first part of January or sooner, with the rate for residents the same in 2019 as in 2018.
“That’s great,” said Council President Bruce Shaffner. “Same thing with the trash?”
Allebach responded with a yes, adding, “There’s a $5 surcharge for the trash and that remains the same, too.”
“OK. Wonderful. Great news,” Shaffner said.
Next, the council approved a 2019 agreement with town engineer Aaron Carl for his services and two 2019 town attorney agreements. The first town attorney agreement was with current town attorney Jim Walmer, and the second was with Adam Turner.
Allebach explained, “In 2019, the town is going to transition to a new attorney, Adam Turner, effective Jan. 1, 2019. So as we go through this transition into the new year, there’s still items Jim has to follow up on and so the two attorneys will kind of be coordinating things as we move into the new year. And Adam Turner will be with us at the next meeting, and so we will also have a contract with Adam Turner for 2019.”
After the meeting, Walmer said he’s served as Winona’s town attorney since 1976. He said the biggest changes he’s noticed over the years was the growth of the town. “When I started it only had about 1,000 people roughly. The treasurer was in his office in his home, and I was only two years here, and I had one year of practice in Oklahoma.”
