Here’s the bad news: the Indiana Department of Natural Resources has rejected the Town of Chesterton’s application for a matching grant for Phase II of the Westchester-Liberty Trail.

Here’s the good news: the $185,300 in CEDIT funds earmarked for a grant match could be used instead next year to build a much-discussed sidewalk along Fifth Street from 1100N south to Hunters Court in the Tanglewood subdivision.

At Monday night’s Town Council meeting, Town Engineer Mark O’Dell was authorized to begin work on the specs of the project. “We’ll hit it hard in the spring,” he said.

The sidewalk—with an estimated cost of $75,000 to $100,000—will extend along the west side of Fifth Street from Hunters Court to a point just north of 1100N, connecting to an existing sidewalk.

O’Dell said that the estimated cost of Phase II of the Westchester-Liberty Trail is $335,000 and that the town can apply for another DNR grant for that project in the 2011 cycle. When completed, the Westchester-Liberty Trail will link Dogwood Park to Coffee Creek Center via a sidewalk along the north side of 1100N.

In other business, Town Attorney Chuck Lukmann was authorized to complete a contract with the Duneland Business Initiative Group (DBIG) for the 2010 edition of the Wizard of Oz Festival, after Town Manager Bernie Doyle said that a review of the numbers indicates that the town’s departments were adequately reimbursed for their support of the festival.

“I don’t see the town really got hurt,” Doyle said. “If it did, it was to a small extent.”

Lukmann said that he would accordingly prepare for DBIG a 2010 contract essentially mirroring the 2009 one.

The dates for next year’s Oz Festival have already been approved. As always, it will be held during the third weekend of September, from Friday, Sept. 17, through Sunday, Sept. 19.

Meanwhile, Police Chief George Nelson reported that fully nine squad cars are now equipped with retrofitted two-way radios capable of activating the town’s tornado sirens.

Nelson noted that still to be installed is a desk unit for the dispatcher’s radio room.

Nelson investigated and pursued an independent siren activation capacity for the town after a malfunction at the Porter County 911 Dispatch Center prevented local tornado sirens from being sounded on the evening of Aug. 19, when an F-2 twister blasted through Chesterton.

Continued to the next meeting, Nov. 23, was a public hearing on the petition of Lorri Wells for the vacation of a portion of unimproved Park Ave. between 18th and 19th streets. Wells wants to build an addition to her home in the 700 block of South 18th Street but has only 15’ 6’’ of setback available while the Zoning Ordinance requires a setback of 25 feet from a platted roadway.

Wells needs to provide proof of notification to the neighbor who would come into possession of the other half of the vacated property.

No one spoke in favor of Wells’ petition and no one in opposition to it.

A public hearing was scheduled for Nov. 23 on two intra-departmental additional appropriations: one of $600,000 from the Redevelopment Commission’s Miscellaneous account to its Capital Outlay account; the other of $18,000 from the Motor Vehicle Highway Miscellaneous account to the Overtime account.