The first full week
of January was, one might say, weather-rich.
There were the
multiple snow events, a few inches here, a few there, not a lot but enough
to force folks to shovel driveways and sidewalks.
Then there were the
frigid temperatures and sub-zero wind-chills, which prompted Duneland
Schools to cancel classes two days running.
“But here’s the
good news,” Chesterton Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg told the Town
Council at its meeting Monday night: so far this season, Duneland’s wracked
up 13.5 inches of snow, more than one might think but not even close to the
35 inches which had already fallen by this time last year, when we were up
to our midriffs in drifts.
The bad news, for
Schnadenberg at least: there’s not a huge difference between a two-inch
snowfall and a ten-inch. In either case, the plow drivers have to travel the
same route and spend about the same amount of time--or overtime--doing it.
To date this
season, the Street Department’s plows have traveled a total of 5,200 miles,
spreading 635 tons of road salt and 1,675 gallons of salt brine,
Schnadenberg said.
Schnadenberg did
take a moment to address one question which more than one person has asked
him: why, when plows are being driven across town, do they travel with their
blades up? why not clear snow from engine-on to engine-off?
For two reasons,
Schnadenberg said: first, each plow driver has a designated, carefully
calculated, time-tested route; second, one driver plowing another driver’s
route would in all likelihood scrape up and scrape off a previously applied
layer of road salt.
Extra Signage
Okayed
In other business,
members voted 4-0 to approve on final reading an amendment to a Coffee Creek
Center planned unit development ordinance.
The amendment in
question permits the installation of additional signage at 3100 Village
Point Drive, the Duneland Dialysis building on whose second floor Lakeside
Wealth Management and its 40 employees are now doing business.
The amendment
specifically allows Lakeside Wealth Management to install two extra
single-sided signs, each 62.4 square feet in area, on the building’s
northeast and southeast corners.
The Advisory Plan
Commission unanimously endorsed the amendment at its December meeting.
The council
previously approved the amendment on first reading at its final meeting of
2014. Member Nick Walding, R-3rd, an employee of Lakeside Wealth Management,
abstained both from that vote and from Monday’s.
Unused Vacation
Time
Meanwhile, members
voted 5-0 to pay five department heads for vacation time not used in 2014:
Police Chief Dave Cincoski, 80 hours; Town Engineer Mark O’Dell, 80 hours;
Schnadenberg, 80 hours; Park Superintendent Bruce Mathias, 32 hours;
Clerk-Treasurer Stephanie Kuziela, 26 hours.
Under the Personnel
Policy, department heads may paid for up to 80 hours of vacation time not
used in the previous year.
Knights of Columbus
Members agreed by
consensus to authorize the Knights of Columbus to hold its annual Tootsie
Roll fundraiser on June 5-6.