Chesterton Tribune

 

 

Scheduled leaf pickup to begin October 26

Back To Front Page

 

By KEVIN NEVERS

The Chesterton Street Department’s annual five-week leaf program will begin in earnest on Monday, Oct. 26, Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg reported to the Town Council at its meeting Monday night.

Call the Street Department at 926-2222 to determine what day of the week collection is scheduled in your neighborhood; or visit the municipal website at www.chestertonin.org 

Crews will conduct an unscheduled leaf operation one week earlier, Monday through Friday, Oct. 19-23, in some of the tree-rich neighborhoods, like Morgan Park and Western Acres, more to test the equipment, however, than to get a jump on the leaves, which haven’t yet begun to fall in volume, Schnadenberg noted.

In related business, Schnadenberg asked the council to consider raising the hourly wage for part-time leaf labor from $12 to $15. The Street Department historically has had difficulty recruiting extra hands for the five-week program, and Schnadenberg is hoping a bump of $3 may make the job more appealing.

“We try to get three part-timers every fall,” Schnadenberg said. “We usually get one or two.”

Members took Schnadenberg’s request under advisement.

Waiver Petition

In other business, members voted unanimously to refer Brian Lewandowski’s petition for a waiver from Town Standards to staff for review. Lewandowski is building a home at 2302 Dakota St., at the northwest corner of Dakota and 23rd streets in the Western Acres subdivision, and is asking the council to waive the Town Standard requiring a sidewalk in front of all new construction.

Lewandowski told members that there are no sidewalks in Western Acres, that the Town of Porter has no intention of pouring a sidewalk on its own municipal property immediately north of the house under construction, and that indeed a sidewalk in front of that house could impede drainage.

Lewandowski added that directly opposite the house, on the east side of 23rd Street, is a sidewalk connecting the Prairie Duneland Trail to Dogwood Park.

Vacation Petition

Meanwhile, members voted unanimously to hold a public hearing at its next meeting, Oct. 26, on Kurt and Diane Schmiegel’s petition for the vacation of two easements on their property at 1685 Sand Creek Drive: one a utility easement, the other a drainage easement.

The Schmiegels’ attorney, Todd Leeth, told the council that in fact both easements were “hard to discover,” as the title company had no records of either one on the lot. But the plats themselves do show two easements, serving NIPSCO, GTE, and the Town of Chesterton.

An 811 locate request identified no utilities or infrastructure under either one, Leeth noted.

Vacation Petition

Removed from Agenda

Members also voted unanimously to remove from the agenda Kelly Foster’s petition for a vacation of a portion of Lincoln Ave., north of her residence at 401 S. 10th St. Foster built a fence on the established public right-of-way there and was asking the council to vacate that portion of Lincoln Ave. to accommodate the fence.

Members urged Foster at their last meeting to remove the fence and suggested that, should she wish to go ahead with a public hearing on the vacation, they were unlikely to grant it as doing so would set a bad precedent.

Foster was not in attendance at Monday’s meeting, and at Town Attorney Chuck Lukmann’s suggestion the petition was removed from the agenda for lack of prosecution.

 

 

Posted 10/13/2020

 
 
 
 

 

 

Search This Site:

Custom Search