The new Addison Pointe nursing home on Dickinson Road—which opened last week for business—appears to be exceeding expectations, at least so far as employment projections go.

At the Chesterton Town Council’s meeting Tuesday night, Town Manager Bernie Doyle reported that instead of the 90-plus employees which an Addison Pointe principal, Dr. Ralph Inabnit, pledged to hire as part of the 10-year tax abatement, as many as 130 folks could get jobs there.

“These are sustainable jobs,” Doyle added, “pretty well paying professional and semi-professional jobs.”

Many of the hires are from Chesterton too, Doyle said, but the exact employee ratio will be known once Inabnit files it with the Tax Abatement Advisory Committee.

“We’re very excited to have that new business in town,” Doyle said.

Later in the meeting, Member Jeff Trout, R-2nd, took a moment to discuss his findings, after talking to some of Addison Pointe’s new employees. One is a Chesterton mother who had been commuting to a job in Munster. “Now she has two more hours every day with her family,” Trout said.

Another is a resident who had been out of work for a year, Trout noted, and a third a resident who recently decided she wanted to re-enter the job market.

Trout did observe that one of the reasons for the tax abatement in the first place is that, under regulatory guidelines, Addison Pointe like all nursing homes must be fully staffed when it opens its doors, long before its beds are booked. The abatement, he said, makes it easier for the business to absorb the up-front costs of fully staffing an essentially empty facility.

In other business, Fire Chief Mike Orlich reported that Assistant Fire Chief John Jarka is right now tasked to Long Island, N.Y., as part of Northwest Indiana’s contribution to the relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

“John Jarka has been deployed and is in charge of procuring and distributing donations,” Orlich said.

Jarka has been in communication with the CFD, Orlich added, and has voiced his impressions of the scene. “It’s hard to imagine what you see on TV and what you see in person. And no matter what you see on the news, it’s not the same. Everybody there is very receptive.”

Jarka is expected to return to Chesterton on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Clerk-Treasurer Gayle Polakowski took a moment to thank the firefighters for replacing some worn ceiling tiles and rails in the town hall last weekend.

They did a great job and “we really appreciate it,” she said.

By consensus, members agreed to authorize the Chesterton Pop Warner Pee Wee Cheer Squad to hold a fundraiser from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, at the intersections of 1100N and 11th Street and Broadway and Eighth, to fund a trip to Florida for a competition.

Police Chief Dave Cincoski said that he has no problem with either the time or the locations but did say that he’s under the impression that the Cheer Squad has held more than one such fundraiser this year.

Posted 11/16/2012