The Porter Town
Council took bids for improvements at Hawthorne Park under advisement at its
meeting Tuesday night.
Parks Director
Brian Bugajski had previously told the Council that the Community Center at
Hawthorne needs new HVAC systems and the basketball court needs to be
torn-out and redone. The Council has so far allocated $75,000 from its
$830,000 General Obligation (GO) bond for parks projects.
Bugajski reported
he got four quotes for the HVAC work, and the low quote came from Tin Man’s
HVAC, out of Porter, for $17,000. That covers the removal of three defunct
HVAC systems and installation of two new ones, using brand name, warrantied
equipment.
For the basketball
court, one company doesn’t handle all the work needed, so Bugajski broke the
project down into sections. For removal of old asphalt, site prep, and
installation of new 4-inch thick asphalt, Town and Country came back with
the low quote of $37,000, which was the sum of $6,000 for removal, $4,500
for site prep, and $26,500 for just under 11,000 square feet of asphalt. For
servicing and striping the court lines with a dual color coat, the low
bidder was ARS Sportmaster, out of South Bend, for $11,500. For removal of
equipment and installation of four new poles and hoops with acrylic
backboards, the low bidder was Supreme Sports, out of St. Charles, Ill., for
$9,320.
The total cost of
rehabbing the basketball courts, based on those quotes, comes to $57,820.
The basketball court and HVAC project come to a total of $74,820.
The Council opted
not to take action on the quotes Tuesday. Council member Brian Finley and
Council Vice-president Bill Lopez said they wanted more time to consider the
proposals. The Council will take up the issue again at the April 23 meeting.
In other Parks
business, Bugajski made a reminder that the Easter Egg Hunt at Hawthorne is
this Saturday, April 13 at 11 a.m. Bugajski said he’s looking for volunteers
to help at the event, and thanked the Duneland seniors for helping fill
5,000 eggs with candy.
The Council
approved Bugajski to use $1,000 from LIT to help offset the cost of $2,500
in new supplies for Rebuilding Together Duneland.
Ordinances
The Council passed
an amendment to the Porter zoning map to reflect the recently approved
rezone of 6 Franklin Street.
The Council then
passed on first reading an ordinance creating a fund for receiving and
spending the proceeds of a Lake Michigan Coastal Grant Bugajski secured for
the Parks Department. A second reading will take place at the April 23
Council meeting.
The Council
conducted a second reading of, and adopted, ordinance 2019-05. The returned
checks ordinance stipulates that if residents trying to pay Town fees bounce
two checks or have credit or debit cards rejected twice, they will have to
pay by cash or money order going forward.
Fire Department
Fire Chief Jay
Craig reminded residents that almost all open burning is illegal, despite
the Town’s ordinance on open burning, which is more lenient than Porter
County’s and the State’s
“If you read our
Town ordinance, it may give you a false sense that its okay,” Craig said.
Craig noted the Lake Michigan shore area has different state environmental
regulations on things like open burning than other areas of the state might
have.
Council President
Greg Stinson said the Council will have to amend that ordinance as soon as
possible to get Porter’s rules in line with State code.
Police Department
Police Chief Jamie
Spanier reported it was a good thing the Town ordered their new police
vehicles early, because there’s been a hitch in the building process.
Spanier said the Town may end up waiting just as long as it did last year,
despite ordering early, because there’s an issue with the company that
supplies transmissions for the vehicles.
Building Department
Building
Commissioner Michael Barry reported the Town’s contract with Haas &
Associates for engineering has been modified following their discovery that
one of the Town’s sewers going south toward Chesterton has a flaw. Haas has
also recommended taking the opportunity to increase the sewer’s capacity in
case of potential future development.
Fixing the sewer
will involve adding a bypass in the line going down Waverly Road. Barry said
this option is the least damaging way to make the improvements because it
won’t involve bringing a new line under the Amtrak railroad line or the
Little Calumet River, both of which would require costly permits and fees.
The original
contract with Haas & Associates was $23,400, and the addition for the sewer
work is $27,400, bringing the new contract total to $50,800.