Nobody’s forgotten about the proposed public restroom facility in Thomas Centennial Park in Downtown Chesterton.

But progress has slowed a bit, since Park Superintendent Bruce Mathias first suggested— last summer—that students in the CHS Building Trades program actually build the thing.

At the Town Council’s meeting Monday night, Town Engineer Mark O’Dell reported that, early next year, the local architecture firm of Gerometta & Kinel will submit an estimate of the cost of designing the facility.

In fact, Gerometta & Kinel would actually be tweaking a restroom design which the firm already did for a facility in the City of Hobart.

The idea is for Building Trades teacher Jeff Larson’s students to then construct the restroom as a class project, on a site in Thomas Centennial Park already cleared for the facility.

Mathias has estimated that the cost of the restroom will probably be significantly less than the $150,000 to $175,000 which the council was prepared to pay, in CEDIT funds.

In other business, Fire Chief Mike Orlich reported the good news that the town’s ISO rating—the fire protection grade given by the Insurance Service Organization—has been upgraded, from Class V to Class IV.

Orlich attributed the improved rating to the CFD’s work with Indiana-American Water Company to better distribute water on the south and southeast sides of town, as well as to refinements in internal training and coordination with other automatic-aid agencies.

Orlich was unable to say how the improved ISO rating would impact folks’ insurance premiums but he did say that a good rating can work as an economic development incentive, since both large and small companies looking to locate do consider how the local ISO rating will affect their bottom line.

Meanwhile, by 5-0 votes, members agreed to transfer surplus funds from two accounts into the General Fund: $44,954 from Cumulative Capital Improvement; and $30,290.17 from the Levy Fund.

Posted 12/11/2013