Motorists should
take note to watch their speed the entire stretch of Ind. 149 between U.S.
20 and U.S. 12 through Burns Harbor.
The speed limit now
is 45 miles per hour the whole way through, a change recently made by the
Indiana Department of Transportation. The speed limit had previously been 55
miles per hour north of Interstate 94 passing by the Town Hall and Westport
Rd.
The change is a
step in making the area safer for pedestrians crossing over into the
developing downtown area where the Redevelopment Commission is hosting its
Food Truck Square which will be starting its 2017 season in June.
RDC President
Marcus Rogala said Wednesday he thought the limit wasn’t supposed to be
changed until the end of the month but was glad to see it was done. He said
he will have discussions with INDOT officials on potentially putting in a
crosswalk based on their traffic studies.
Meanwhile, Town
Marshal Mike Heckman said the reduction has raised the ire of drivers not
noticing it and receiving speeding tickets.
“They’re still
going the same speeds. Some 70 to 80 miles per hour,” he told the Town
Council later. Some have made accusations that the Town lowered the limit
“just to make a whole lot of money.”
In reality, Heckman
said, the Town only receives $4 per ticket. The rest of the money, about
$140, goes to other agencies, with the Indiana Attorney General’s Office
getting most of it.
“It cannot go back
into the Town’s general fund. It goes into a local law enforcement fund
which is for training or we can buy equipment with it and that’s it. You
can’t even use payroll on it. We don’t even get that money back to pay for
the paper we write the tickets,” Heckman said.
RDC Consultant Tina
Rongers said the speed limit will also provide safety when the Marquette
Greenway Trail is constructed. She and Rogala will also be speaking to INDOT
on that topic soon, and the needed environmental assessments.
Food trucks
For the Food Truck
Square at the corner of Haglund Rd. and Westport Rd., Rogala said that more
vendors have turned in paperwork to be part of the season and the calendar
is almost full.
There will be a
Northwest Indiana Festival this year in Portage on Saturday, June 17, Rogala
said, and he will be in attendance to see if any of the vendors there would
be interested in selling at the Burns Harbor square.
The RDC will host
its next Better Burns Harbor Night for businesses in Burns Harbor on
Wednesday, June 28 during a food truck event where a discussion will take
place about a vision for the town. Rogala added that the event will be open
to the public as well.
Helping to
coordinate the Food Truck Square will be resident Mellissa Graves who will
be paid as an independent contractor through Ronger’s company Karnerblue.
DEDC facade grant
In other business,
RDC member Toni Biancardi said that the Duneland Economic Development
Commission is making its facade grant available to businesses in the
community. It is a matching grant for exterior improvements.
The grant is up to
$5,000 and the application is due at the end of May, she said.
Rongers said the
Office of Community and Rural Affairs is offering a quick impact place-based
grant for a $2,500 to $5,000 match for communities like Burns Harbor. The
grant could bring some art pieces or a banner to the Food Truck Square that
could serve as signage.
Publicity
RDC Communications
Director Danielle Ziulkowski said the press release sent on Monday, March 10
that identified the economic and community goals for the Town garnered some
media attention.
Within minutes of
the release, Indiana 105 FM asked for Burns Harbor leaders to talk about its
developments on the radio, Ziulkowski said. The radio station gave an
interview with Rogala and Rongers on March 20 and the audio will be
available on the Burns Harbor Town website, she said.
“We got to talk
about some great things we want for the town,” she said.
Ziulkowski and the
RDC gave kudos to the Town’s sanitation clerk, Corinne Peffers, for “going
above and beyond her daily duties” by lending her design talents to create
the 50th anniversary banner.
“We now have this
historical and prideful image with this great collage,” said Ziulkowski.
“(Peffers) is an amazing designer.”
The banner is on
the Town’s website now and will be added to its Facebook and Twitter
accounts.
Rogala commended
Peffers for also designing the sponsor sheet.
Schools
superintendent
RDC non-voting
member and Duneland School Board Representative Brandon Kroft in his report
informed his colleagues that the school board has been busy holding
meetings, eight total, for this month on finding the next schools
superintendent to replace David Pruis when he retires on June 30.
“It’s an active
process and I hope people will recognize we are doing this in a dynamic
way,” said Kroft. “It’s probably the most important thing we do as a school
board, in my opinion.
Kroft said the
board received about 900 responses from the community survey seeking input
from the residents.