Chesterton Tribune

 

 

Chesterton Police K9 partner Igor recovering at home

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By KEVIN NEVERS

Igor may yet be healthy enough to hit the bricks.

At the Chesterton Town Council’s meeting Monday night, Police Chief Dave Cincoski reported that Igor, Sgt. Dan Rocha’s K-9 partner since the fall of 2010, continues to recover at home following surgery for the broken leg which he sustained in a training accident in November.

“The doctors are very hopeful for a least a limited return to duty,” Cincoski said.

Igor, a 6-year-old German shepherd, was rushing a trainer in a padded bite-suit on Nov. 13 when he landed wrong and fractured his left foreleg.

The Town of Chesterton is paying for Igor’s medical bills.

Igor comes from Holland and take his commands in Dutch. He is trained both to detect narcotics and to conduct tracks and has been involved in scores of traffic stops, searches, and apprehensions over the last four years.

Re: Signage Replacement

In other business, Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg updated the council on the ongoing signage replacement program, mandated by the Federal Highway Administration.

That mandate requires municipalities to replace old traffic and street signage with more highly reflective signs, easier to see by motorists at night.

Schnadenberg said that the Street Department is doing the work in phases and has already swapped out traffic signage: stop and yield signs, for instance.

This year the Street Department purchased street-name signs for 47 intersections and replaced 94 actual street-name signs, dumping the old four-inch lettered signs with new six-inch lettered ones.

The council has approved the use of CEDIT funds to pay for the replacement program.

Westchester Fire Protection Contract

Meanwhile, Fire Chief John Jarka reported that he and Porter Fire Chief Lewis Craig are right now working on the numbers which they’ll submit to the Westchester Township Trustee, in advance of the new fire-protection service contracts which both towns will enter into with the township in 2015.

Jarka noted that the CFD’s calls in unincorporated Westchester Township increased by 29 percent: to 121 from 94 in 2013.

Health Insurance

Members did vote unanimously to renew the employee health insurance plan for 2015, with a few changes.

The first change, which is predicted to result in a hard saving of $58,000, is a move to the Cigna network. A representative of Anton Insurance Agency of Chesterton assured members that “employees will still be able to stay with their providers and won’t have to do any shopping around.”

The second change, required under the Affordable Healthcare Act: an increase in the qualified nursing stay to a minimum of 90 days.

The third change, also to stay in compliance with the Affordable Healthcare Act: an increase in the deductible of $100.

Jim Ton Recognized

President Sharon Darnell, D-4th, took a moment at the end of the meeting to note that her colleague, Member Jim Ton, R-1st--Treasurer of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission’s Executive Board--has been recognized for his perfect attendance this year: 36 meetings.

Ton plans to run in 2015 for the position of Vice-Chair on the Executive Board.

Redevelopment Commission

Earlier in the evening, the Redevelopment Commission held its regular monthly meeting, where they agreed to hold--as required by a “quirky state statute,” as Town Attorney Chuck Lukmann put it-- an organizational meeting as early as possible in the New Year.

That meeting, which should last all of five minutes, is scheduled for 12 p.m. Friday, Jan. 2, at the town hall.

The Redevelopment Commission also agreed unanimously to award a contract to Butler, Fairman & Seufert, to design a streetscape plan for the so-called Calumet Connection, that stretch of South Calumet Road between Porter Ave. and the South Calumet Business District just north of 1100N.

The contract is being funded with an 80/20 grant from NIRPC of $24,000. The commission’s portion: $6,000.

 

Posted 12/24/2014

 

 
 

 

 

 

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