No one spoke in favor of the Town of Chesterton’s 2012 advertised budget at a public hearing at Monday’s meeting of the Town Council.

And no one spoke in opposition.

No one spoke at all.

The 2012 advertised budget provides for a total budget of $11,180,129, with the single largest line item the General Fund, at $5,119,700, which pays for salaries, wages, and day-to-day operations.

Of that $11,180,129, the town is estimating a total levy in property taxes next year of $5,536,596. The current levy is $5,087,633.

In other business, Police Chief Dave Cincoski announced that, with the $5,000 grant awarded to the CPD at the last meeting for the purchase of automated external defibrillators (AEDs), the department will be able to purchase five, with delivery expected by the end of the week.

Those AEDs—used by officers and other first responders to administer electrical shocks to persons who have undergone cardiac arrest—will be permanently placed in marked squad cars.

Cincoski thanked the Neale Family Foundation for its generosity.

The Neale Family Foundation is a not-for-profit which “supports programs that enhance the quality of life by responding to emergency community needs.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Fire Chief John Jarka invited the community to attend this year’s fire prevention open house at the CFD station, at 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15.

There will be exhibitions of equipment and vehicles, Smokey the Bear will be in attendance, and a jump house will be on hand for the kids.

Jarka also noted that, through the end of October, firefighters will be wearing pink tee-shirts Monday through Thursday in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. On Fridays, firefighters will be wearing tee-shirts in support of U.S. troops serving overseas.

Member Jeff Trout, R-2nd, took a moment at the end of the meeting to announce that ground will be broken for the Addison 100-bed nursing home facility on Dickinson Road—a development of Long Term Investments of Mishawaka—at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21.

That project—along with the Franciscan Alliance’s ER department on Indian Boundary Road—will create 200 new jobs in the next 18 months. “We’re looking forward to growth,” Trout said.

Posted 10/11/2011