Mark Strudas isn’t
the only Chesterton resident dismayed by the job which NIPSCO’s contracted
tree-trimmer, Asplundh Tree Expert Company, did on several evergreens
flanking the Duneland Diamond baseball field in Chesterton Park, along West
Porter Ave. just west of South Fifth Street.
He is, however, the
only one who’s taken his concerns to the Town Council. Strudas, speaking
from the floor at Monday night’s meeting, noted that--while he understands
not only the need to trim trees away from power lines but also the protocols
in place for doing so--“a lot of money has been spent to make the baseball
field look better” and the trees as trimmed have had something like the
opposite effect.
President Jim Ton,
R-1st, agreed with Strudas. Asplundh has been somewhat “aggressive,” Ton
suggested.
Street Commissioner
John Schnadenberg tended to agree as well. “There are a few I think they
went overboard on,” he said. Even so, Schnadenberg told the Chesterton
Tribune after the meeting, Asplundh “used proper techniques,” none of
the trees in question was killed by the trimming, and--because NIPSCO
undertakes a municipal tree-trimming program only once in every five to
eight years--it’s important to trim not just for today but for the future.
“Because they won’t be back for several years.”
That was Monday.
On Wednesday,
Schnadenberg told the Tribune that, prompted by Strudas’ comments, he
did make contact with NIPSCO the day after the meeting to discuss the
matter. And “NIPSCO was very willing to work with us,” Schnadenberg was
pleased to say.
Specifically,
although “under no obligation to do so,” NIPSCO has agreed to authorize
Asplundh to remove five of the lopsided evergreens and then--at a location
to be named later--the utility will replace them on the corporate dime,
Schnadenberg said.
Schnadenberg will
be consulting with Park Superintendent Bruce Mathias on an appropriate site
for the new trees.
NIPSCO, for its
part, said that it’s working hard to reduce the town’s high susceptibility
to blackouts. “Trees are the top cause of power outages,” NIPSCO spokesman
Nick Meyer told the Tribune on Wednesday. “We have been in contact
with the town in performing work to clear limbs near the Chesterton
substation, which was ranked the 10th worst in our entire system for
reliability. We are about 80 percent done with the work and we will follow
up with the town regarding any concerns being raised.”
Annexation Petition
In other business
at Monday’s meeting, members voted unanimously to set a public hearing at
its April 10 meeting on the Duneland School Corporation’s petition for the
annexation of the six-acre bus barn property on Old Ind. 49 in
unincorporated Liberty Township
Attorney Greg
Babcock told the council that the bus barn’s septic system is “not in good
repair” and that there simply isn’t room on the small property to build a
new one. So Duneland Schools has approached the Utility Service Board about
a sanitary-sewer connection, which would involve the installation of a
grinder pump at the bus barn itself and the boring of a force main beneath
Ind. 49 east to a manhole in Coffee Creek Center, either on Voyage Blvd. or
Sidewalk Road. The Service Board has expressed its willingness to pursue the
connection.
Duneland Schools,
for its part, is perfectly happy to see the bus barn property annexed by the
town, Babcock told the council, noting that the necessary 1/8 contiguity
with Chesterton’s corporate boundary has already been established.
CPD Fleet Order
Meanwhile, members
voted unanimously to approve Police Chief Dave Cincoski’s request to
purchase five new Ford SUV police interceptors, four of them for his
department, the fifth for use by the Fire Department.
Cincoski said that
he solicited three quotes for the purchase and received two. One of those
two, however--that of Currie Motors Ford of Valparaiso, as it happens the
lowest by $500 per unit--proved non-responsive to the CPD’s specs. For that
reason Cincoski asked the council to approve the lowest responsive quote,
that of Lakeshore Ford of Burns Harbor.
Total price for the
five vehicles: $137,500. Moneys for the purchase, Clerk-Treasurer Stephanie
Kuziela said, are available in Cumulative Capital Development, a fund with a
dedicated property-tax rate used exclusively for the acquisition of
emergency vehicles.
Piggybacking Poles
Later in the
meeting, Schnadenberg reported that he’s interested in consolidating a light
pole and a traffic signal at the northwest corner of Broadway and Fourth
Street into a single fixture, after discovering that the wooden pole to
which the flashing red lights at that intersection have been mounted is
rotten.
An electrical
contractor was scheduled to inspect both poles on Tuesday, Schnadenberg
said.