By KEVIN NEVERS

The Chesterton Town Council has agreed to buy the Chesterton Fire Department a new aerial at a total estimated cost—including $133,865.40 in interest—of $893,815.40.

At their meeting Monday night, members voted 4-1 to award the contract for the aerial to low bidder Central States Fire Apparatus LLC, which submitted a bid of $759,950.

Member Sharon Darnell, D-4th, voted against the motion.

The town will pay for the aerial in this way. It will make a down payment of at least $150,000 from a combination of Cumulative Capital Development (CCD) moneys and a commitment of $100,000 from Westchester Township. Under a proposed 10-year financing provided by De Lage Landen Public Finance LLC—and a $150,000 down payment—the town will then make a yearly payment of $73,386.54 on the aerial: $25,000 from CCD and $48,396.54 from Rainy Day.

CCD is a fund with a dedicated tax rate used exclusive for the purchase of police and fire vehicles. Rainy Day was created under state statute for the purpose of depositing surplus CEDIT funds to which the town was entitled in the past but through various oversights did not receive.

A $25,000 annual earmark from CCD will leave the Chesterton Police Department between $80,000 and $85,000 every year to purchase its ration of new squads. A $48,396.54 annual earmark from Rainy Day will leave that fund with approximately $132,790.86 at the end of 10 years, if no more CEDIT moneys are deposited into it. Clerk-Treasurer Gayle Polakowski did say, however, that she expects more surplus CEDIT funds to make their way into Rainy Day in the future.

“I believe we’ve made the right decision,” Member Emerson DeLaney, R-5th, said later in the meeting.

“It was a proactive thing to do,” Member Jeff Trout, R-2nd, agreed.

Darnell, on the other hand, expressed her concerns about using Rainy Day moneys, which the previous council had thought to keep in reserve for emergencies as well as for the Downtown sanitary sewer replacement and separation project.

The current aerial is 30 years old, Fire Chief Warren “Skip” Highwood, has told the council and last year was out of service for at least 181 days. Its 85-foot ladder is 15 feet shorter than the industry standard of 100 feet, and Deputy Fire Chief Mike Orlich has said that it would be incapable of reaching the roofs of many new buildings in town.

The bid of Centrals State Fire Apparatus is set to expire on Wednesday, and as part of their vote members instructed Highwood to contact the manufacturer today with news of the bid award.

It will take around a year to build the aerial.

Westchester Township

Fire Protection Agreement

In other business, members voted 5-0 to approve its 2008 contract with Westchester Township to provide fire protection services to designated portions of the unincorporated township.

Under that contract the town will receive $29,862 of the $37,500 earmarked this year by Westchester Township for fire protection—a 4.2 increase over last year’s budget of $36,000—while the Town of Porter will receive $7,938.

Those figures are derived from the percentage of calls to which the CFD and the PFD responded in 2007: the former to 99 calls or 79.2 percent of the total, the latter to 26 calls or 20.8 percent.

CFD Calls

The CFD has responded to 80 calls so far in April and to 350 in the year-to-date, Highwood told the council.

He also advised members that one of the engines is currently out of service with an on-board computer problem.

Posted 4/29/2008