The restrooms at
Dogwood Park should open sometime next week.
That, from
Chesterton Park Superintendent Bruce Mathias, who told the Park Board at its
meeting Tuesday night that the water will be turned on to the restroom on
Monday.
Mathias noted that
the Park Department has fielded a number of calls from residents wanting to
know when the restrooms will be usable, but said that--despite last week’s
warm spell--there is still a threat to the pipes from frost.
Member Wendy
Marciniak did take a moment at the end of the meeting to say that she was
gladdened last week to see so many families enjoying the new playground
equipment at Dogwood Park. “It was just teeming with families and that made
me feel really good.”
Meanwhile, the
boxcar restroom at Thomas Centennial Park is now open for the season, from 9
a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.
Members did approve
a $13,283 payment to Larson-Danielson Construction of LaPorte--general
contractor on the restroom--to repair a pipe which froze during the Polar
Vortex earlier this winter. Town Engineer Mark O’Dell told the Chesterton
Tribune after the meeting that, though the water had been shut off in
the restroom, the pipes had not been bled.
Waskom/Kipper
In other business,
O’Dell reported--in response to another query from residents--that both
Waskom and Kipper parks remain closed behind snow fencing.
Work has not been
completed on either yet and both rehab projects have been dormant this
winter. At Waskom the basketball and tennis courts still need to be
asphalted, while at Kipper brick work, landscaping, and mulching are on the
punch list.
Evidently some
folks have been climbing over the snow fencing, however, and there’s not
much the Park Department can do about that, O’Dell said. Anyone particularly
concerned should call the Police Department.
Coffee Creek Park
Meanwhile, Member
Paul Shinn reported that grant applications have been submitted to Indiana
American Water Company and NIPSCO for funding to remove invasive plant
species--especially phragmites--at Coffee Creek Park.
Cutting or simply
uprooting phragmites won’t do the trick. Instead, an herbicide must be
hand-applied to each individual reed by someone specifically certified to do
the job.
Whether the grants
are awarded or not, though, a clean-up day for Coffee Creek Park will be
scheduled sometime in June, Shinn said.
Shinn did add that
Coffee Creek Park “looks pretty good now,” although “the beavers are back,
looking for Bruce.”
Superintendent’s
Report
Mathias, for his
part, reported that 396 feet of drain tile have been laid at the soccer
fields at Dogwood Park, with another 600 feet to go. When completed, the
drainage project should go a long way to remediating a long-standing pooling
problem down the center of the fields.
Two softball fields
at Dogwood Park have also been put in order for the season, while the Park
Department is working on installing water lines in Thomas Centennial Park to
serve a drinking fountain and a new fountain yet to be built there.