By KEVIN NEVERS

In his more than 20 years of service with the Town of Chesterton, Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg has never seen anything like it: a dispute between a developer and a contractor which is holding a major piece of public infrastructure hostage.

At issue: the closure, for more than a month now, of C.R. 1050N between Dickinson Road and Kelle Drive in Coffee Creek Center, a road project currently in suspended animation as Chesterton Development Partners LLC (CDP)—a party in the 94-unit Village Green Townhomes project—refuses to settle a bill from its contractor, Rieth-Riley Construction Company.

Rieth-Riley apparently agreed to do the road project for a lump-sum price, Schnadenberg told the Town Council at its meeting Tuesday night. But curb elevations were subsequently changed, Rieth-Riley submitted a revised bill, and CDP has declined to pay it.

So C.R. 1050N remains closed. And gaps and drop-offs in the pavement, significant enough to pose a hazard to motorists, preclude Schnadenberg from simply re-opening the road on his own authority. “I don’t know what recourse we have at this point,” Schnadenberg said. “For numerous weeks we’ve been making calls every day. We’ve never had an issue like this.”

Judy Mervine, the owner of Glad Rags at 870 Sidewalk Road, doesn’t especially care about the reason for the closure. She’s worried about customer access and her bottom line. “Construction is slow and not consistent,” Mervine noted from the floor earlier in the meeting. “How many more weeks will it be closed? We’re about to enter the holiday season.”

As Member Sharon Darnell, D-4th, nutshelled the problem, “So the town’s being held hostage and these businesses can’t operate?” And, on the subject of CDP—whose principal is James Gierczyk of Gierczyk Inc. Midwest, a long-time developer and builder of retail, office, medical, and industrial projects based in Homewood, Ill.—she added, “The developer’s set up a history with the town to trust him and now that’s gone.”

“I’m sort of at a loss how that happened,” Town Attorney Chuck Lukmann said. “But I’ll get to the bottom of it.”

As it happens, Lukmann observed, on Friday a stop-work order was issued to CDP for an MS4 violation related to erosion. “We’ll start citing them for that,” he said. “We’ll get their attention.”

Just to make everything official, members voted 5-0 to authorize Lukmann to do whatever is needed to ensure the prompt re-opening of C.R. 1050N.

Bids Opened

In other business, members voted 5-0 to take under advisement two bids received for construction of Phase I of the Westchester-Liberty Trail: $269,693.10, submitted by Rieth-Riley; and $219,260, submitted by Walsh & Kelly Inc.

When completed, the Westchester-Liberty Trail will link Dogwood Park to Coffee Creek Center via C.R. 1100N. Phase I of the project will be built from the trailhead at the intersection of Texas and 23rd streets to Rose Hill Estates; Phase II, from Rose Hill to Fifth Street; and Phase III, from Fifth Street to the terminus at Rail Road. The total length of the multi-use trail: 2.5 miles. The total length of Phase I: 0.8 miles.

In 2004 the Indiana Department of Natural Resources awarded the Town of Chesterton a grant in the amount of $150,000 to partially fund Phase I of the project.

Re: Parking

Members also voted 5-0 to formally adopt the recommendation of a parking study prepared by Economic Development Coordinator Dwayne Williams, namely, that the Town of Chesterton should acquire the graveled parcel of land immediately across the street from town hall, owned by the Tonner family, for use as a “municipal parking facility.”

“It is important to identify town hall as a designated government center and its location is viewed as a terminal point and location of concentrated traffic,” Williams notes in the study. “The Town of Chesterton does not own enough land to meet the demand of present and future public parking needs.”

Williams estimates in the study that the parcel has space for 32 lined parking spaces, and he projected the total cost, including land acquisition and improvement, at $72,000. Williams also recommends the use of CEDIT funds to defray that cost.

The Leaf Season

Call it the leaf season that wasn’t. Or, rather, the leaf season that hasn’t yet been.

“It’s an unusual season,” Schnadenberg told the council. “Usually we’re working 10-hour days at this point. But nothing’s coming down.”

Schnadenberg said that leaf collection will probably be extended, “until the snow falls.”

The CPD

Police Chief George Nelson informed members that the Chesterton Police Department responded to 1,023 calls in October, to 445 so far in November, and to 11,668 in the year-to-date.

Posted 11/14/2007