Invasive species in Coffee Creek and Dogwood Parks will be removed by students and professors from Purdue North Central, with support from the Chesterton Park Board.

Town MS4 coordinator Jennifer Gadzala sought and received permission Tuesday evening from the park board to continue working with PNC professors and students in their efforts to identify and remove invasive species from the wetland areas in Dogwood and Coffee Creek parks.

Last summer, PNC students pulled “a good bit of phragmites,” an invasive plant, from the wetlands in Coffee Creek, Gadzala said.

Gadzala told the board she lacks the expertise to identify invasive species, but is willing to continue to coordinate the efforts, with the park board’s permission, to continue the pulling and monitoring and to include the constructed wetland in Dogwood Park in the PNC student’s projects.

The board was unanimous in their support.

Gadzala is to negotiate and coordinate wetland work with PNC professors and park superintendent Bruce Mathias.

In a sad note, the Men’s over 30 Soccer League sought and received permission to plant a memorial tree, remembering their team member Jack Philips who died suddenly while playing soccer. The group is to coordinate with Mathias to choose the species and locate the tree near Field Four, the furthest east field in Dogwood Park.

Junior Class president Kevin Potter thanked the board for the use of a park building to construct the Junior class Homecoming parade float.

“We didn’t win,” he said “but it was a lot of fun.” Potter requested the board allow the students to use the park facility again next year when they will be seniors. The board was unanimous in their agreement. “You did a great job cleaning up the facility,” said board president Vincent Emanuele.

Letters of thanks were received from Duneland Montessori students and their teacher. The children thoroughly enjoyed a recent visit to Coffee Creek Park where new playground equipment has been installed. “It was nice of them to send these,” Emanuele said.

The board agreed to place a letter of commendation into the personnel file of park employee Michael Billings. Billings’ efforts were instrumental in the park department’s compliance with all MS4 regulations.

The board took no action on a request from Mark Orciuch to consider Next Generation Solutions, which offers online registration services for park programs and shelter rentals, with the ability to accept credit card payments. The board decided to forward the information to Town Manager Bernie Doyle.

In his superintendent’s report, Mathias told the board he has been installing storm water signs at stormwater intakes in the parks and that the tornado debris is all finally removed from the staging area in Dogwood Park.

The town provided aid to the parks by removing some of the trees near the skate park where the bike trail is to be relocated and Mathias reported that fencing has been installed around the skate park.

Posted 10/7/2009