Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore superintendent Constantine Dillon addressed the Porter Town Council for a few minutes Tuesday; council members asked him no questions, had no comments and the meeting adjourned.

The controversial topic of IDNL having suspended live-farming operations at Chellburg Farm in Porter never came up.

After the meeting Charlotte Read of Save the Dunes Council, who had been in the audience with her husband Herb in case the subject was discussed, said she was disappointed Chellburg Farm wasn’t mentioned.

She also said Save the Dunes has been asking local jurisdictions to pass resolutions in support of restoring Chellburg farming and although Porter hasn’t been approached yet, it will be.

Dillon said the sprawling national park covers 15 cities and towns in three counties but Porter is its home base with IDNL headquarters there. The superintendent thanked town department heads for their continuing assistance and cooperation.

Porter has proposed a $30 million revamp of Indiana 49 at U.S. 20 as a gateway to the dunes; $19.7 million is being sought from the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority for the project. Dillon said IDNL would be happy to be a part of it and looks forward to what can be done.

IDNL also is awaiting Porter's construction of the Brickyard Trail, which will link to IDNL trails, Dillon added, and he said a request for federal money to build a water line into Camp Goodfellow would allow fire hydrants to be installed along local roads in its path.

The national park is working on a parking access study in cooperation with stakeholders to better handle overflow parking, possibly with limited shuttle busing, and a new comprehensive park sign plan could be ready for next year.

Council members reached agreement with developer Larry Gough over a number of problems at his 18-unit Mineral Springs Villas planned unit development at Beam Street and Mineral Springs Road.

No motion was made or vote taken. Member Jon Granat was absent.

Gough agreed to post a new letter of credit as a bond, the amount to be determined by town officials; to mow the now 6-foot weeds on his undeveloped lots; and to go before the Porter Plan Commission to modify the terms of Gough's previously approved PUD ordinance governing how --- and when --- the residential site will be developed.

Once the bond is posted, town building commissioner Art Elwood was authorized to issue occupancy permits for a third-party developer on a duplex already built.

Gough's original letter of credit posting money in case he didn't complete his required infrastructure improvements expired.

Left to be done are to put a final coat on the PUD's road, construct a passing lane on Beam Street, build a portion of the Brickyard Trail and install a privacy screen between it and the adjacent Woodlake Springs subdivision.

Gough did say he wants to expedite construction soon of his two blocks of the bike path along Mineral Springs and Beam. The town's portion of the trail won't be built until next year.

Gough said it was unintentional the original letter of credit lapsed. “It’s not like someone ran off with this money to finish the project because the money’s still there.”

Town director of engineering Matt Keiser said it was his opinion that Gough's PUD ordinance had expired because he defaulted on its terms so the parcel's special zoning would revert.

Town attorney Patrick Lyp said as long as Gough quickly gets a new bond in place the town can continue to work on the other problems.

Lyp also said having new timetables for Gough to get the work done is a major modification of the PUD so it must be approved by both the Plan Commission and Town Council, a nearly three-month process. Gough said he may ask for other changes, like eliminating the need for the passing lane on Beam although that amount will be included in the new bond.

Regarding the privacy screen between The Villas and Woodlake Springs, Gough said he’ll see what can be done to the existing landscape already installed. As for the weeds, “I get complaints about it every day,” said Public Works superintendent Brenda Brueck-heimer.

She reported that a 3 1/2-inch lateral was found to be broken at Hageman Library after video-scanning sanitary sewers in that area. The leak allowed water to pour into the sewer “like a garden hose running 24/7.”

Brueckheimer said capping the leak will prevent a significant amount of groundwater infiltration that otherwise would have to be processed at Porter's cost at the Chesterton sewage treatment plant. “That was a big, huge discovery for the Sewer Department.”

In a related matter, Keiser said he didn’t see any reason for the Porter Town Council to purchase additional sewage capacity from Chesterton by this year's Sept. 1 deadline to do so. Two years remain under the bi-town contract to make an annual capacity purchase.

Keiser said he will ask the Porter Redevelopment Commission to consider if it wants to buy more capacity to serve areas of town poised for development.

Posted 8/12/2009