The Town of Chesterton should know, sometime between April and June, whether U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-1st, is going to go to bat for the town in what Utility Service Board President Larry Brandt is calling “absolutely the most critical project we’ll do in the next 20 years.”

The project in question: the so-called Ind. 49 Economic Development Utility Corridor, which would extend sanitary sewer service and other utilities across the Indiana Toll Road and as potentially far south as U.S. Highway 6 into what is currently unincorporated Liberty Township.

The town has submitted that project and five others to Visclosky’s office for consideration of earmark funding. The other five: a portion of the proposed Dunes-Kankakee Trail; an engineering study for the Dickinson Road extension; a stormwater lift station behind Val’s at Broadway and 11th Street; Phase II of the Westchester Liberty Trail; and a sanitary sewer re-lining.

But for Brandt’s money—actually for the town’s, since the municipal match for the $4.107 million being sought for the Ind. 49 utility corridor would total around $1.369 million—it’s the corridor which is “the very critical project for the long-term economic development of the Town of Chesterton.”

Should Visclosky agree to sponsor the earmark—and the earmark eventually finds its way into legislation signed by President Obama—the funding could be released sometime in the first quarter of 2011, Brandt said.

In other business, members took a moment at the end of the meeting to give newly hired Superintendent Pay Geisendorfer a pat on the back for getting up to speed as quickly as he has. “Pat had done an excellent job for the first couple of weeks,” Member John Schnadenberg said. “Everything is going well.”

“You definitely hit the ground running,” Member Jim Raffin told Geisendorfer.

“He’s only been here a short time but I’m impressed by how fast he’s acquainted himself with the Utility and its issues,” Member Andy Michel added.

In his report, Geisendorfer noted that he’s met with all plant employees and will soon meet with the collections crew; has discussed the ongoing bond projects with Town Engineer Mark O’Dell; has met with Town Attorney Chuck Lukmann; and has provided information to H.J. Umbaugh & Associates for the biennial rate study.

In February Chesterton used 42.49 percent of its 3,752,000 gallon per day (gpd) allotment at the wastewater treatment plant; Porter; 57.48 percent of its 767,000 gpd allotment; the Indian Boundary Conservancy District, 73.24 percent of its 81,000 gpd allotment; and the plant as a whole, 46.7 percent of its capacity. There were no bypasses recorded last month, with a total of 2.10 inches of rain. In February the Utility ran a deficit of $164,747 and in the year-to-date is running a deficit of $65,112.

Member Scot McCord thanked Tri Kappa at the end of the meeting for providing lunch to the collections crew recently. He also congratulated Dave Cincoski on his appointment to police chief.