Burns Harbor officials will consider a request Tuesday to expand CR England’s trucking operations in town, which may require a new stop light at Indiana 149 and Tech Drive south of U.S. 20. A public hearing will take place at the town hall, 1240 N. Boo Rd.

The Board of Zoning Appeals will convene at 7 p.m. to hear England’s petition; it seeks a special exception for a freight terminal in the light industrial SD-6 zoning district as well as two variances: one for construction of a 7 foot-tall fence including a barbed-wire top, and construction of two security guard shacks as accessory structures without a main building.

England, which currently operates a midwest regional truck terminal in Burns Harbor on Tech Drive west of Indiana 149, wants to expand with a new parking lot on 12 acres south of Tech Drive. The lot would have room for 208 tractor/trailer stalls, 42 tractor-only stalls and 28 automotive stalls. England also operates a truck-driving school at the Tech Drive complex.

Prior to England’s public hearing a preliminary hearing will be conducted for Salvador Velez-Vera of 359 Melton Rd. (U.S. 20). He seeks to build a 24-foot by 40-foot pole barn at that location and requires a developmental standard variance. If the petition is in order, a future public hearing will be set.

Earlier Tuesday at 8 a.m. at the town hall the Burns Harbor Redevelopment Commission will convene for the purposes of reviewing proposals submitted from financial advisors for professional services, creating a new tax-increment financing or TIF district, and refinancing outstanding sewer bonds.

Following the RDC, at 9 a.m. Tuesday the Town Council will meet to discuss the 2011 budget, which was the subject of a workshop last week with Jim McGee, Toni Biancardi and Mike Perrine attending; Cliff Fleming and Louis Bain were absent. At that meeting members agreed to eliminate call-out pay in the employee personnel manual, and all time over 40 hours will be paid at time and a half with minimum pay of one hour for emergency call-outs, primarily experienced by the Sanitation Department.

It also was agreed that vacation time will be calculated as part of overtime. Both the RDC and Town Council meetings are open to the public.

Posted 8/23/2010