There’s going to be a lot of re-paving in the Town of Chesterton this year.

At its meeting Monday night, the Redevelopment Commission voted 4-0 to release a maximum of $200,000 for a Downtown paving project requested by Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg.

Member Mark Singer was not in attendance.

Under Schnadenberg’s recommendation, the following roadways will be re-paved:

•Broadway from South Calumet Road to Fourth Street.

•Second Street from Broadway to West Indiana Ave.

•Third Street from Broadway to West Indiana Ave.

•And all portions of South Calumet Road which will not be re-paved as part of the sanitary sewer replacement and separation project.

“With all the sewer work, instead of leaving half of Calumet Road unpaved, it would look a lot cleaner to have the whole Downtown re-paved at one time,” Schnadenberg said.

Schnadenberg estimated the cost of the package at $198,870, based on a likely cost of $62 per ton for asphalt and $2 per square yard for milling.

Meanwhile, three other roadways in Chesterton are also going to be re-paved this season with $345,891 in federal moneys made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds:

•West Porter Ave. between 15th and 23rd streets.

•11th Street between West Porter Ave. and 1100N.

•And Wabash Ave. from Fourth Street to Waverly Road.

In addition, the Town Council earlier this year authorized an earmark of $200,000 for re-paving and sidewalk work, although Schnadenberg has not yet finalized a list of the roadways which will get new surfaces with this funding.

Member Jim Ton did have a question about South Calumet Road. Has Schnadenberg happened to notice the conspicuous dip in the road surface on the east side of South Cal in the neighborhood of Hopkins Small Engines?

Schnadenberg said that he has indeed noticed the dip and that it appears to be becoming more pronounced since it first developed a couple of years ago. But no one at this point can explain it without a bit of “exploratory excavation.”

Town Engineer Mark O’Dell said that videotaping of the 12-inch sanitary gravity main which runs down the middle of South Cal shows that this bit of sewer is “fine.” Possibly some old abandoned lateral has collapsed there, he noted. “It could be anything.”

Meanwhile, not a whole lot is happening right now in the South Calumet District, O’Dell told the commission, as general contractor G.E. Marshall waits for spring to and a break in the weather to complete work there.

O’Dell did say that he is coordinating with the Indiana Department of Transportation to transfer the overhead traffic signals at the intersection of Ind. 49 and 1100N from INDOT strain poles to the town’s.

Members voted 4-0 to approve the following claims: $6,184.50 from DLZ, the contracted engineer for the South Calumet District project; $16,333.92 from G.E. Marshall; $250 from Harris Welsh & Lukmann; and $167 from Anton Insurance Agency.

Chesterton Town Council Member Jim Ton, R-1st, wants everyone to stand up and be counted.

At the council’s meeting Monday night, Ton took a moment to urge all residents to faithfully and carefully complete the U.S. Census forms when they receive them later in the year.

“We need to record ourselves to get as much tax money back as possible,” Ton said. “That’s how we get our hard-earning tax money back into the community.”

It’s been estimated that for each resident not counted by the Census, a community stands to lose $4,000 in federal funds.

Meanwhile, Member Dave Cincoski, R-3rd, had his own plea to make to businesses and residents: please shovel your sidewalk after a snow. Not only does shoveling make people’s lives easier, it makes children’s lives safer by not forcing them to walk in the street.

In other business, members voted 5-0 to approve on first reading an amendment to the 2010 Salary Ordinance, 5-0 to suspend the rules, then 5-0 to approve that ordinance on final reading.

The ordinance does two things. First, it establishes two pay grades for the Utility Superintendent: the first at $66,000; the second, at $68,000.

Newly hired Superintendent Paul Geisendorfer will start at the first grade and then be promoted to the second when he receives his Indiana Class IV certification.

The ordinance also makes Town Manager Bernie Doyle’s administrative assistant Stephanie Kuziela a full-time employee.

Members also voted 5-0 to approve Doyle’s request to be reimbursed—per the town’s personnel policy—for 54 hours of unused vacation time remaining from last year.

Finally, members voted 5-0 to place the spouse of a Chesterton firefighter on the town’s health insurance plan after she lost the coverage which had been provided through her employer.

Member Emerson DeLaney, R-5th, called doing so a “moral obligation.”

Late last year the council approved a so-called “spousal carve-out,” under which the spouses of covered municipal employees must enroll in their employers’ health insurance plans if permitted to do so. Under that carve-out, if a spouse is not employed or if the spouse’s employer does not offer health insurance, then that spouse will be covered as before under the Town of Chesterton plan.

Posted 2/24/2010