By PAULENE POPARAD

Ericka Brandstetter said she’s been sent from person to person trying to solve an erosion problem, and Tuesday the Porter Town Council sent her to a new committee which has yet to organize and meet.

The council asked the Porter Beach Overlay Committee to make a recommendation on Brandstetter’s request to connect two family-owned beach cottages near Glacier Trail with a deck/walkway that would span across an unimproved 14 foot-wide public alley.

Brandstetter was criticized by Councilman Dave Babcock for starting construction on the project without a town building permit. “I had no idea there was an alley there. It was a big, huge mistake,” she said. “I’m just trying to do what will protect the people who live there and our cottages and the area.”

She is working with Porter building commissioner Art Elwood, Brandstetter said, but she needs to know if more is required of her.

Brandstetter’s been before the town’s Technical Advisory Committee and the Town Council previously. Initially she was told, in addition to possibly other steps, she should ask the council for a license to use the alley. Town attorney Patrick Lyp was to have provided more information but he was absent Tuesday due to a death in the family.

Council president Bill Sexton said stairs at the beach built in a right-of-way at another location without permission recently were removed. He said such construction should be halted and it’s a dangerous precedent to continue to allow something that’s not right. Sexton and Councilman Micheal Genger suggested the Overlay Committee discuss Brandstetter’s request.

Babcock said, “The committee is not there to take care of her problem.” He recommended Brandstetter continue working with Elwood.

Councilman Jon Granat said, “You can’t just say go to the Overlay Committee. When? You’re not giving her any information.”

Babcock and Genger are members of the committee as well as other town officials and three citizen Porter Beach residents. It was formed earlier this year after a controversial Porter Beach zoning ruling highlighted the fact a similar town effort to propose additional overlay zoning protections for the beach area failed in 2005.

Genger said he would tell Brandstetter when the committee plans to meet.

In a somewhat related matter, Nancy Hiatt representing the Porter Cove Homeowners’ Association said, “We’re being shuttled around from board meeting to board meeting to board meeting” over a 18 to 24-month drainage problem for 10 to 15 subdivision homes near the Prairie Duneland Trail, which is under Chesterton’s jurisdiction, between Pearson Road and Porter’s Kids Cove Park.

After bringing the standing water to the attention of Chesterton officials and boards, said Hiatt, the association now has been advised to talk to the Porter Stormwater Management Board and is on its next agenda; stormwater board member Bill Cantrell has visited the sites.

Porter Park Board president Zathoe Sexton said they have brought the Kids Cove flooding to the stormwater board’s attention as well and Granat, a stormwater board member, said it’s on a master list of sites needing attention. Babcock said the problem appears to be that area is overgrown and not maintained.

Hiatt said she’s reassured that everyone in both towns agreed to work together in a neighborly fashion for a good solution for all involved.

Water made its way into the night’s discussion a third time as Elwood asked Hiatt to inform her association members that with a rash of large-size inflatable swimming pools popping up, residents should know that if the depth of water exceeds 24 inches the pool must be enclosed with a 4-foot fence. Without one, Elwood said the pools are not always supervised and give easy access to children, perhaps with tragic results.

Elwood also reminded the public that persons seeking to fill out applications for Porter town permits and licenses may download them at the town’s website www.townofporter.com

 then complete the forms and fax them to the town hall. When ready, they can be picked up there, the fee paid and the permit/license issued in one trip instead of two.

Posted 7/9/2008