The two-month closure, beginning in July, of the CSX grade-crossing on Ind. 149, just south of U.S. Highway 20, isn’t simply going to inconvenience mill workers’ lives.

The heavy trucks which ply Ind. 149 will need to find a detour and it’s unlikely the official one—U.S. 20 to Ind. 49 to U.S. 6 and back to Ind. 149—will appeal to many truckers.

Chesterton Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg is apprehensive, accordingly, that the most logical unofficial detour will divert a steady stream of big rigs onto a couple of local roadways not built for that kind of traffic: 1050N and Babcock Road.

“We’ll be watching that closely,” Schnadenberg told the Town Council at its meeting Monday night. “We might need to put weight limits on those roads.”

“My concern is the number of heavy trucks,” Schnadenberg added.

Members told Schnadenberg to keep them apprised.

In other business, members voted 5-0 to release $20,049.63 in CEDIT funds to purchase decorative sleeves for street signs in the 11 blocks between Fourth and 15th streets.

Last year and this spring, the Street Department slip-covered all street signs in the Downtown: along Broadway from Fourth Street to South Calumet Road and along South Cal from the Norfolk Southern grade-crossing to Porter Ave.

Next year, Schnadenberg told the Chesterton Tribune after the meeting, the Street Department will consider slip-covering another batch of street signs elsewhere in town.

Members also voted 5-0 to release $22,000 in CEDIT funds to make the first of six lease-payments on a new grapple truck: a vehicle with the capability of lifting and moving heavy debris like trees.

Not, actually, a new grapple truck: a demo model with 1,500 to 2,000 miles on it, Schnadenberg told the council.

A grapple truck’s value was proved in August 2009 when the Valparaiso Street Department loaned its to the town during the tornado cleanup, noted Member Jim Ton, R-1st. “It’s not only a matter of efficiency,” he said. “It’s also about worker safety.”

Meanwhile, on Town Attorney Chuck Lukmann’s recommendation, members voted 5-0 to reject the bids for the Fifth Street sidewalk project, release the bid bonds, and advertise for new bids with slightly modified specifications.

At issue, Lukmann said: the lowest of the five bidders for the job, Chicago Concrete and Construction of Orland Park, Ill., did not submit with its bid the so-called State Form 96, in which bidders make certain financial disclosures intended to insure municipalities of their “ability to do the job,” Lukmann said.

In fact, Chicago Concrete and Construction did not need to submit the form, since the project price is less than $100,000. But Lukmann thinks it advisable to get such a form anyway, so he told the council that he would make it a requirement of the revised bid specs that all bidders must submit that form.

Chicago Concrete and Construction’s low bid: $66,145.75. The high bid, submitted by Walsh & Kelly Inc. of Griffith: $109,421.25.

The specs provide for the construction of a sidewalk on the west side of Fifth Street between 1100N and Hunters Court.

In addition, members voted 5-0 to hold a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 3, to award the contract for Phase I of the 15th Street municipal facility project, after architect Chester Inc. indicated that it needed more time to review the eight bids.

Low bid: $615,786, submitted by Tri-State Enterprises Inc. of Romeoville, Ill.

High bid: $912,230, submitted by LaPorte Construction Company of LaPorte.

In Phase I, a salt storage and cold storage building will be constructed on the grounds of the former United Tractor property at 116 N. 15th St. In Phase II, the actual municipal building—the future home of numerous town functions, like Engineering and Economic Development—will be constructed.

On the recommendation of department heads, members voted 5-0 to reject the petition of Joanne and Rich Knight for a right-of-way agreement under which they would have erected a six-foot fence on municipal property in the rear yard of their residence in the 800 block of Olde Towne Square.

“Our biggest concern is setting a precedent,” said Member Sharon Darnell, D-4th. “I don’t think we want to do that.”

President Jeff Trout, R-2nd, took a moment at the beginning of the meeting to welcome Member Nick Walding, R-3rd, elected at a caucus last week to fill the vacancy on the council left by the resignation of Dave Cincoski, recently appointed Chief of Police.

“I appreciate the opportunity to serve on the Town Council and to represent District 3,” Walding said. “It will be an experience for me. I’ll be taking some time to learn everything.”

Posted 4/27/2010