The Porter County
Park Board discussed next steps for its grain bin education center in Sunset
Hill Farm Park at its meeting Thursday night.
The Parks
Department received a Land and Water Conservation grant to build the
restroom that will serve the center, but that grant money must be used
within a certain amount of time and cannot apply to the other parts of the
project. Member Drew Armstrong reported that the building committee met with
Chester Inc. about the project last month and came up with the idea to split
the project in two so that the grant funds can be used before construction
starts on the grain bin structure, for which funding has not been completely
secured.
The Parks
Foundation is working toward hitting the funding goal for the project and is
very close. “Personally, I feel that through all the conversations and all
the work that’s been done up to this point that we’re in a very comfortable
position,” Armstrong said, then added that breaking down the project “buys
the foundation just a little more time.”
Armstrong motioned
for the Board to sign a contract with Chester Inc. for $27,000, which will
be reimbursed from the $200,000 Land and Water grant. The contract is for
phase one of the project and includes the design and permit process for the
whole project. The Board approved the measure 5-0 with member Chris
Richardson absent.
NIHPA
In other business,
Armstrong reported that he recently spoke with members of the Northwest
Indiana Historical Power Association (NIHPA) who are concerned about their
utilities bill. Armstrong said that NIHPA paid more than $2,000 for NIPSCO
alone last year, and noted that he hopes to talk more with NIHPA’s treasurer
to assess the amount NIHPA has been paying based on monthly statements.
President Craig Kenworthy said that since the animal program began, NIHPA
has been paying for that electricity because the heaters for the animals and
NIHPA’s buildings are on the same meter.
Armstrong
volunteered to get a group together to discuss the problem and form a
proposal for a solution that can be incorporated into the budget. “Maybe we
can figure out a more equitable solution for everybody,” he said.
Member David
Canright said that NIHPA pays most of the utilities and the Park Board chips
in, and he’d be in favor of its being the other way around. “It’s kind of
the tail wagging the dog for NIHPA to pay the bill.”
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