{"id":110013,"date":"2026-06-17T11:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/110013\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T11:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:30:13","slug":"countys-decision-on-city-county-parking-garage-in-warsaw-not-expected-any-time-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/110013\/","title":{"rendered":"County’s decision on city-county parking garage in Warsaw not expected any time soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A view of the proposed site is seen from the corner of Fort Wayne and Lake streets. News Now Warsaw photo by Dan Spalding.<\/p>\n

By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw<\/p>\n

WARSAW \u2014 Kosciusko County officials appear to be pumping the brakes on plans for a city-county parking garage in downtown Warsaw.\u00a0<\/p>\n

County Commissioner Cary Groninger, who has been the only firm supporter of the plan among the three commissioners, was asked Tuesday where the proposal stands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still in the process of trying to come up with what type of project or if we\u2019re even going to build a project,\u201d Goninger said.<\/p>\n

His comments came just days after a \u201cvisioning\u201d group with the Orthopedic Industry Retention Initiative was lobbying in support of the $15 million proposal by distributing brochures to downtown merchants.<\/p>\n

County officials have said in the past that they need more parking for downtown employees as well as the public, but concerns about property tax impact have clouded the issue, as well as two other unrelated library spending plans that have faced votes in recent weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

News Now Warsaw spoke with Groninger after Tuesday\u2019s meeting of the commissioners and was asked if there is a timeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot yet,\u201d Groninger said. \u201cI think we\u2019ll have a decision in the next six months, whether or not we\u2019re moving forward or \u2026 to hold.\u201d<\/p>\n

City and county officials have been discussing the construction of a parking garage for two years, with both sides saying the need for more parking is necessary to shore up the lack of convenient parking for county employees and the public who visit the county justice building.<\/p>\n

The city says a parking garage would boost economic development, and county officials say it would free up more space for the long-term need for jail expansion.<\/p>\n

Hanging in the balance is $5 million from the OIRI fund, but access to that money provided by state lawmakers is set to expire in 2027.<\/p>\n

Conley and Mitchell have both acknowledged the need for more parking but have been reserved in their comments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conley\u2019s primary election opponent, Don Wiesehan, announced his opposition to the parking garage earlier this year and ended up winning the primary. <\/p>\n

Groninger contends the county\u2019s share of money for the project is already set aside with money from its EDIT fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The county has already acquired land for the property on Fort Wayne Street through eminent domain.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A view of the proposed site is seen from the corner of Fort Wayne and Lake streets. News…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[95],"tags":[55585,55586,55587,55588,55589,21359,55590,55591,182,55592,181],"class_list":["post-110013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-warsaw","tag-bob-conley","tag-cary-groninger","tag-city-county-parking-garage","tag-county-commissioner","tag-don-wiesehan","tag-downtown-warsaw","tag-oiri","tag-orthopedic-industry-retention-initiative","tag-poland","tag-sue-ann-mitchell","tag-warsaw"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116765224491836249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}