County council OK's money to fix County-City Building, courthouse. Allows concrete site.

SOUTH BEND — The St. Joseph County Council on May 14 easily approved three measures that The Tribune has been tracking:

∎ $1 million from the county’s rainy day fund to replace the County-City Building’s aging, leaking boilers, along with another $404,976 to start looking into repairing roof leaks on the historic St. Joseph County Courthouse in downtown and the interior plaster that has been damaged as a result.

What committees said:Council mulls costly County-City Building fixes, tax abatements, concrete and data center

∎ A use variance so that Kuert Concrete can set up a temporary concrete mixing plant in a farm field at 56180 Larrison Blvd., just north of Indiana 2, to feed the construction of major projects west of New Carlisle, including the electric vehicle battery plant.

∎ A declaratory resolution supporting tax abatements for a nearly $39.3 million warehouse and distribution center that Holladay Properties would build at the northwest end of the county and that Lippert Components would lease for the first 10 years southwest of the U.S. 20/31 bypass and the Indiana Toll Road. Both are local companies. One abatement for 10 years would cover the buildings. Another five-year abatement would cover the contents and equipment that Lippert would own, which it would use to handle after-market parts for recreational vehicles, watercraft and other uses. The abatements won’t actually be approved until they come to the council in a confirming resolution.