By VICKI URBANIK

Consultants working on the Marquette Plan in Porter County will try to come up with a proposal that strikes a balance between shoreline communities wishing to maintain their autonomy with the desire to promote more tourism, all while focusing on more open space and other conservation efforts.

In a report to the Porter County Commissioners on Tuesday, two consultants working on phase II of the Marquette Plan announced that they will unveil a draft action plan at two upcoming public meetings: Nov. 27 at the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center in Porter and Nov. 28 at the Michigan City Senior Center. Both meetings will be from 7 to 9 p.m.

Gregg Calpino, with the JJR architectural firm, said that a major focus in the first phase of the Marquette Plan was on redeveloping the shoreline areas in ways to boost more tourism. That phase was largely in Lake County and extending to Portage. But farther east into Porter County, he said, a different concern has emerged: Communities like Chesterton, Portage and Michigan City embrace the thought of having more tourists, while the smaller shoreline communities say they want to maintain their privacy and way of life.

Several planning meetings have already been held in Porter County to discuss the plan, including 14 or so meetings with town council representatives from the various communities involved.

In addition to developing a broad land use plan for the northern Porter County and LaPorte county communities, the project also includes a transportation study for U.S. 12 and U.S. 20. Many of the participants at the meetings that have been held have called for aesthetic improvements along the two highways to better reflect this area.

Consultant Kerry Keith with SEH said there is a need to coordinate the local ordinances on ingress and egress. Installing bike paths, either on the shoulder or off road and burying overhead utility lines are also possibilities, he said.

Fuel Changes in Store

Two separate but very related issues handled by the commissioners Tuesday dealt with the county government’s method of fueling its police, highway, animal control and other county vehicles.

The commissioners approved a bid from Super Fleet for a new program in which all county employees will fuel up at Speedway, Marathon and other participating stations by using a credit card issued to them. The Porter County Auditor’s office will be able to track all gas purchases, including who made the purchase and for which county vehicle.

Super Fleet, which is the same program in use in Valparaiso and Indianapolis for their city vehicles, is guaranteeing that the county will not pay more than 7-cents per gallon of what the gas costs the company, regardless of what the mark-up is to all other customers.

County Auditor James Kopp said he believes the new program can get in place in about two weeks.

North Porter County Commissioner John Evans cited recent media coverage questioning how much taxpayers pay to fuel government vehicles. But he said that no other government unit in the area tracks its fuel usage more closely than in Porter County government. “It is watched in Porter County. It is watched very closely,” he said, attributing efforts by former county commissioner Dave Burrus to clamp down on the fuel usage in the wake of the Bethlehem Steel bankruptcy.

In another matter, the commissioners approved a bid of $6,847 with the Thompson Environmental for continued groundwater monitoring of underground storage tanks that were removed in 1991 at the County Highway Department.

County Environmental Coordinator Russ Shirley said the Indiana Department of Environmental Management recently asked for a site review of the removed tanks. Previous remediation efforts after the tanks were originally removed were stalled twice. The plans call for groundwater monitoring, including the placement of down-gradient wells to see if any contamination has resulted.

Flint Lake drainage

A number of Flint Lake-area residents attended the commissioners’ meeting Tuesday, following a meeting last month at which they relayed horror stories about extreme flooding, siltation and pollution in the lake. Several residents lay the blame on the Valparaiso Lakes Area Conservancy District for not doing more to control the stormwater and runoff.

County Commissioner President Robert Harper said the conservancy district has agreed to obtain prices on a re-engineering study and will report back in a several weeks. He said that one problem that has to be resolved deals with a property owners’ refusal to grant a required easement. He told the residents that the commissioners will likely be able to take definite action by the end of January. “We’re not going to let it go away,” he said.

Posted 11/7/2007