(Tribune photo by Kevin Nevers)

Here’s some more bad news for the already hard-hit Pinney’s Court folks.

As last week’s tornado was bearing down on their neighborhood--north of Woodlawn Ave. and west of North Calumet Road--it jumped Coffee Creek and in the process filled it with a jungle of felled trees and limbs. Now that lumber is blocking the creek’s natural flow and creating a grave risk of flooding in the event of a heavy rain.

Those trees need to be removed from Coffee Creek, they need to be removed soon--before the next big rain--and they need to be removed at the expense of the owners of the property from which they tumbled.

“In the next storm event Coffee Creek is likely to block up and flood,” Chesterton Town Engineer Mark O’Dell told the Town Council at its meeting Monday night. “Property owners are responsible for the trees’ removal.”

Coffee Creek is classified neither as a county regulated drain nor as a navigable waterway, O’Dell added, just to be clear.

“So it can’t be the town’s responsibility to remove the trees blocking Coffee Creek?” pressed President Emerson DeLaney, R-5th.

It isn’t the town’s responsibility, O’Dell confirmed.

O’Dell noted that MS4 Operator Jennifer Gadzala is right now compiling a list of property owners in the area. Those property owners will be notified of their obligation in the matter, he said.

“If we have a pretty serious rain event, that’s going to be a problem,” remarked Member Jeff Trout, R-2nd.

In related news, Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg reminded residents of a few things things they absolutely need to know as they go about clearing and cleaning their property:

*Do not mix construction materials with brush and limbs: Limbs and brush are destined for a chipper, Schnadenberg said. Nails and other construction materials will damage the chipper and jeopardize the safety of the worker operating a chipper. “We won’t remove brush if it’s got construction materials in it.”

*The Street Department will not collect and remove construction materials: “We’re not equipped to dispose of construction materials,” Schnadenberg said. Typically, however, homeowner’s insurance policies do cover the cost of such removal in the case of home repairs. Check your policy.

*Tree service contractors are obligated to dispose of trees removed from private property. “We’re not going to deal with private trees,” Schnadenberg said. “They must be removed at the owner’s expense by the tree service. It’s a long-standing town policy.”

*Property owners must dispose of stumps at their own expense. “There are so many big trees down with stumps, we don’t have the means or resources to get rid of them,” Schnadenberg said. “They need to be loaded on trucks and hauled out of town. Local companies have the equipment necessary to do that. The Street Department itself will probably end up paying a contractor to haul the town’s stumps.”

Meanwhile, the Building Department is getting an “influx” of permit requests--more than 25 already--as property owners begin repairs.

Building Commissioner Dave Novak is expediting the process by using general repair permits even in the cases of new framing, which usually fall under the rubric of remodeling permits and require the submission of drawings.

“We’re telling people, if it’s going back as it was, use the general repair permit but arrange for an inspection,” Novak said. “We’re putting that on the permit itself. That way we get the best of both worlds. We get the speed of the one permit but the inspection of the other.”

General repair permits may be obtained at a fee equal to 2 percent of the job’s total cost, with a minimum of $50 and a maximum of $750.

Novak did urge property owners to secure some guarantee of a time line and completion date from their contractor.