Chesterton Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg has a message for residents who shovel or blow snow into the roadway after the plow’s been through.

Don’t.

“The town spends a lot of time and money clearing the streets,” Schnadenberg said at Monday’s meeting of the Town Council. “I don’t understand it. We clear the roads to make them safe. It doesn’t make any sense to put the snow back. And there’s a $100 fine if we catch you.”

Since the council’s last regularly scheduled meeting, Dec. 14, “There’ve been quite a few snow events,” Schnadenberg noted. During last week’s prolonged event, he said by way of example, plow drivers got “the first call at 3 a.m. Thursday and the last truck went home at 8 p.m. Saturday.”

“It takes its toll,” Schnadenberg said. So it’s good that the Street Department gets a hand from the Utility and Parks and Recreation Department, whose employees use plow-equipped pickups. “Those trucks come in handy when you need them.”

Schnadenberg did say that the Street Department should take delivery by the end of the month of a new salt brine machine plus storage tank and truck pump. Typically the liquid brine will be applied to dry roadways in advance of a snow event to get a headstart on the melting process. In three years, he added, the $22,000 equipment should pay for itself in salt savings. “A 23-percent solution is better than 100 percent salt.”

In heavy snows, Schnadenberg said, the plows will still spread salt.

Meanwhile, Town Engineer Mark O’Dell reported on two ongoing projects: the replacement of the Coffee Creek Park bridge, damaged by the floods of September 2008; and the construction of the Fifth Street sidewalk on the west side of the road between 1100N and Hunters Court.

At the moment, O’Dell said, he is waiting for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to issue a permit for construction in a floodplain. The hitch: the DNR has no record of the bridge. The Federal Emergency Management Administration will reimburse the town up to 75 percent of the cost of the project.

O’Dell also said that he is currently working on the specs for the Fifth Street sidewalk, to be built during this year’s construction season at an estimated cost $75,000 in CEDIT funds.

Contractor CHS Construction and Restoration of Michigan City is waiting for favorable weather to demolish the fire-damaged house at 1500 Maximilian Drive in the Rose Hill Estates subdivision, Building Commissioner Dave Novak reported.

CHS Construction and Restoration’s bid of $9,385 was the lowest of the five received. The council awarded the contract in December.

Sofianos Hasapis is the owner of the home in question and failed to comply with a demolition order in August. That order gave him 10 days to demolish the house, essentially destroyed by a fire on Jan. 30, 2009, which the Chesterton Fire Department determined to be incendiary in origin. Police said that Hasapis was in Illinois at the time of the fire.

The search for a new Utility superintendent continues, Interim Superintendent O’Dell reported, as Utility Service Board President Larry Brandt has just received a number of resumes from the headhunting firm retained last year.

The Chesterton Police Department responded to a total of 11,358 calls in 2009 and in the year-to-date has responded to 199, Police Chief George Nelson reported.

Fire Chief Mike Orlich thanked those who attended the badge ceremony on Jan. 3 for the five new recruits and those firefighters receiving promotions.

“Thanks for all your support last year and we’re looking forward to this year,” Orlich told the council.

Posted 1/12/2010