The Chesterton Town
Council has taken the first step in annexing the Duneland School
Corporation’s bus -barn property, located on C.R. 100E in unincorporated
Liberty Township.
At their meeting
Monday night, members voted unanimously to adopt a fiscal plan provided by
the Duneland Schools as well as to consider a formal annexation ordinance at
their next meeting, April 24.
The point of the
annexation: the Duneland Schools has asked the Utility to provide sanitary
service to the bus barn--its current septic system is old and failing--but
under a long-standing policy, a pre-condition of any tie-in for annexable
unincorporated property is annexation.
As attorney Greg
Babcock, representing the Duneland Schools, noted, the bus barn sits on 6.2
acres and is comprised of three buildings: two for bus storage, the other
for maintenance and administration.
The property in
question does possess the statutory 1/8 contiguity with the town’s corporate
limits, Babcock added, and annexing it would make it possible for the
property’s adjacent neighbors to seek annexation themselves, if they wished.
Sanitary service
would be provided via a line direction-bored under Ind. 49 and connecting to
a manhole in Coffee Creek Center, Babcock said.
At a public hearing
which preceded the vote, no one spoke in favor of the proposed annexation
and no one in opposition to it.
Abatement Renewed
In other business,
members voted unanimously to renew the Addison Pointe Health &
Rehabilitation’s 10-year tax abatement for another year, its seventh.
Last week the Tax
Abatement Advisory Committee unanimously recommended renewal, after hearing
from Town Attorney Chuck Lukmann that Addison Pointe--now owned by
Chesterton Health Care Properties LLC--is in substantial compliance with its
commitment to hire, when possible Chesterton residents.
As of last week,
Addison Pointe was employing a staff of 135, 15 more than the 120 which it
committed to when it originally filed for the abatement in 2007. Of its 141
hires in 2016, 28 were Chesterton residents.
The abatement is
scheduled at 40 percent in 2017.
Dump Truck Quotes
Meanwhile, members
voted unanimously to take under advisement the two quotes received for a new
light dump truck for the Street Department.
The quotes:
* $149,772,
TransChicago Truck Group of Gary.
* $162,895, LindoCo
Equipment Sales of Merrillville.
Squad Car
Equipment Quotes
Members also voted
unanimously to take under advisement the three quotes received for equipping
the Police Department’s four new squad cars. The equipment includes lights,
sirens, computer stands, and center consoles.
The quotes:
* $58,275, Waymire
Fleet Equipment of Indianapolis.
* $60,517,
Bartronics Inc. of Chesterton.
* $62,922,
Emergency Vehicle Technologies of Mokena, Ill.
Fee Waiver
for Rebuilding
Together
And members voted
unanimously to waive the building permit fees for the six residential
projects which Rebuilding Together Duneland will be pursuing in town on
Saturday, April 29.