By KEVIN NEVERS

Chesterton Town Council Member Jim Ton, R-1st, gave it his best shot but he was unable to prevail upon his colleagues not to close the intersection of South Calumet Road and C.R. 1100N.

At a special meeting Thursday night, the council voted 3-2 to proceed with the so-called Alternative Four-A, a package of improvements proposed for the South Calumet Triangle previously endorsed by the Redevelopment Commission and including, among other things, the permanent closure of that intersection.

Ton and Member Frank Sessa, D-2nd, voted against the motion to proceed. President Dave Cincoski, R-3rd, and members Sharon Darnell, D-4th, and Mike Bannon, R-5th—who all sit on the Redevelopment Commission and had formally endorsed Alternative Four-A on three separate occasions—voted in favor of it.

At the council’s last meeting of 2006, Ton—responding to the objections raised by business owners and operators in the Triangle, who are fearful of losing trade should the intersection be closed—asked his colleagues for a little more time to consider some alternative to Alternative Four-A. On Thursday he presented it: access to C.R. 1100N from southbound South Calumet would be denied but motorists westbound on C.R. 1100N would be able to turn right onto northbound South Calumet.

“Access is as important to a business as is location,” Ton said. “By keeping northbound South Calumet Road open to westbound traffic from Ind. 49, citizens would have continued access to the businesses located there. There should be no access to C.R. 1100N from South Calumet Road. This would eliminate concerns regarding traffic flow onto C.R. 1100N.”

In offering the right-in only option, Ton noted the following:

•DLZ of South Bend, the Redevelopment Commission’s contracted traffic engineering consultant, made its recommendation against the right-in only option only after the Redevelopment Commission had expressed its preference for closing the intersection.

•A crash history for C.R. 1100N reveals more accidents at the intersection of C.R. 100E than at the intersection of South Calumet.

•DLZ did indicate that a right-in turn lane sufficiently wide for semi traffic could be constructed without the necessity of acquiring additional right-of-way.

•The right-in only option would reduce traffic volume on westbound C.R. 1100N.

•“Permanent plantings and a visual barrier would clearly” deny access to C.R. 1100 from southbound South Calumet, whose center lane would be striped double yellow as far south as the entrance to the First National Bank of Valparaiso.

Sessa agreed with Ton and called the closure of the intersection “a tragedy.” Those with businesses in the Triangle, he said, “should be visibly concerned, very upset.”

Only one person spoke from the floor on Thursday, attorney David Appel representing the ‘Round the Clock restaurant, who voiced his support for Ton’s right-in only option and added that the “clear determination” of a 32-month crash history for the intersection of South Calumet and C.R. 1100N is that no accidents there at all were related to right turns from westbound C.R. 1100N onto northbound South Calumet.

Cincoski, Darnell, and Bannon, however, declined to entertain Ton’s alternative. Bannon observed that the Redevelopment Commission considered the right-in only option and duly rejected it. “In the last six months we’ve had those discussions,” he said.

For the record, DLZ opposed a right-in only option on the grounds that a right turn lane wide enough to allow semis westbound on C.R. 1100N to access South Calumet would also be wide enough to allow scofflaw motorists southbound on South Calumet to cross the center line and access C.R. 1100N.

The council then split-voted on the motion made by Bannon and seconded by Darnell. As part of that motion Clerk-Treasurer Gayle Polakowski was instructed to review tax increment financing revenues, unencumbered CEDIT moneys, and any other possible funding sources “to get an idea,” as Bannon put it, “how we might proceed with the project.”

After the vote Associate Town Attorney Chuck Parkinson said that it will be a very long time indeed before ground is ever broken. The Triangle needs to be mapped, bids for the actual engineering of the project advertised and awarded, bids for the contractor advertised and awarded, and meetings with property owners in the Triangle conducted.

In the meantime, Parkinson said, Alternative Four-A will now return to the Redevelopment Commission, which for a couple of reasons could not proceed any further with the project until the council had authorized it to do so. For one thing, only the council has the statutory authority to close a public right-of-way. For another, the estimated cost of the project is in excess of $3 million and only the council may approve a bond issue of that amount.

The general idea of Alternative Four-A is to turn the South Calumet Triangle into the South Calumet Trapezoid: its western base C.R. 100E between Beverly Drive and C.R. 1100N; its eastern base South Calumet, which at its extreme southern terminus would become a private drive turning west into the First National Bank of Valparaiso; its southern base a new east/west connector road linking C.R. 100E and South Calumet and aligned with the ‘Round the Clock driveway; and its northern base a second east/west connector road linking C.R. 100E and South Calumet and aligned with Beverly Drive.

Among other things, the intersection of C.R. 100E and C.R. 1100N would be improved and signalized; a third lane would be added to C.R. 100E between Venturi Drive and C.R. 1100N; a number of private driveways on South Calumet could be closed and access to the businesses there consolidated; and access to and from St. Paul Lutheran Church on C.R. 1100N would become right-in/right-out only, with a pledge from the Redevelopment Commission to help the church construct a new driveway accessible from C.R. 100E.

Posted 1/5/2007