Muncie officials say the city is cooperating with an FBI investigation that searched a Muncie Sanitary District property Thursday morning.  As IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports, this is the second FBI search of a city department in less than a year.

In a statement on Thursday afternoon, Muncie Mayor Dennis Tyler says the city had not been told why the property on Kilgore Avenue across from the former BorgWarner factory was searched Thursday morning.  Tyler says Muncie was only informed of it from media reports, when reporters from The Star Press newspaper were told to leave the property being searched.

FBI officials say there is an investigation happening in Muncie, but will not release more details.  The agency did not say whether this search is connected to a previous investigation that lead to the indictment of Muncie’s building commissioner on federal charges in February.

After a January FBI raid on the building commissioner’s office, Craig Nichols was charged with 33 counts of wire fraud, theft, and money laundering related to using his city position for private financial gain.  He is scheduled to stand trial this summer.