By VICKI URBANIK

The Porter County Commissioners moved forward Tuesday with the acquisition of 4.42 acres off Porter Avenue as the site of the new North County Highway Garage.

The county will pay $160,000 for the land, which is set back from the road with access directly across from the current highway garage on Friday Road.

The new garage is expected to be very similar to the county’s highway garage on Ind. 8 and is projected to cost $800,000. The entire project will be paid for with county income tax funds.

North Porter County Commissioner John Evans has long sought to replace the current north county garage, which he and others have said is an unsafe building to work in and lacks the space needed. After an attempt to buy adjacent land failed, the commissioners got the property across the road appraised.

Evans said the property is part of a 15-acre parcel, but that the property owner was willing to revert to the original plat of the land and sell off only the back portion of the overall parcel.

The commissioners must still get the land properly zoned and will need to go before the Porter County Plan Commission for the institutional zoning.

Evans said once the acquisition details are final, the county will go “full speed ahead” to build the garage.

In other matters Tuesday, the commissioners:

•Endorsed a plan by the Porter County Parks Department for the county highway department to do the excavation needed for a new gravel road at Sunset Hill Farm County Park. The new road should alleviate a problem encountered last year after tractors at a park festival left ruts in the grassy area due to heavy rainfall.

•Approved a bid with Johnson Controls to install a new chiller at the North County Government Complex, with the installation to cost $89,850.

•Agreed to seek County Council approval for two projects to be funded through the county income tax. One is for $100,000 for consulting work to draw up development standards that will supplement the newly adopted Unified Development Ordinance. The other project is a corridor study, for $250,000, that will be done in conjunction with the Marquette Plan’s second phase and the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission.

Commissioner President Robert Harper said the Marquette Plan will focus on planning along the U.S. 12 and 20 corridor and that the expanded study will address the county’s other major corridors.

•Agreed to purchase video surveillance equipment for use at the County Jail for $77,279, paid for through the funding the county gets for housing federal and state prisoners.

Posted 6/6/2007