By KEVIN NEVERS

The Chesterton Stormwater Management Board is eager to get the attention of Chesterton Development Partners LLC (CDP).

CDP is the developer of the Village Green Townhomes at Coffee Creek Center and the formal holder of the Erosion and Sediment Control Permit, which was issued following the town’s approval of a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) submitted by CDP.

On Nov. 9 MS4 Operator Jennifer Gadzala issued a stop-work order at the site, after problems with stormwater inlets and silt fencing had gone unaddressed. As Gadzala told the board at its meeting Monday night, she lifted the order on Friday when the inlet issue had been largely resolved, yet a great deal of silt fencing remains in need of repair and a contractor retained to do the work will be unavailable until next week.

“They can’t find a staple gun and go out and fix it themselves?” Member Thomas Kopko said. “I find that awfully hard to believe.”

“Not being able to get somebody out there is no defense,” Associate Town Attorney Chuck Parkinson said.

At one point in the meeting the board appeared to be of a mind to issue another stop-work order on the spot. “Why don’t we just stop the work until somebody comes forward in front of this body,” President Larry Brandt ventured. “I don’t care if it takes a month.”

In the end, however, the board instructed Parkinson by consensus to discuss with staff the violations and the options available to address them, including another stop-work order, citations, an administrative hearing before the board, or some combination of those.

“Basically what we’re trying to do is not make idle threats,” MS4 Superintendent Steve Yagelski said.

CDP is the joint development partner of the Lake Erie Land Company. Its principal is James Gierczyk of Gierczyk Inc. Midwest, a long-time developer and builder of retail, office, medical, and industrial projects based in Homewood, Ill.

CDP is also the second holder of an Erosion and Sediment Control Permit to run afoul of the MS4 construction ordinance since it was enacted in February 2006. In July of this year Chester Inc., the contractor retained by St. Patrick’s Catholic Church to build some new facilities on the property, agreed to pay $5,000 to the town to settle a claim that, over a 21-day period in the spring, the firm was in violation of its SWPPP for failure to complete seeding at the site.

MS4—or the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System program—is a mandate of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administered here by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. Its goal: to monitor and enforce every aspect of stormwater runoff in a community, from the erosion at construction sites to the fertilizer used by homeowners to grow their lawns.

Drainage Projects

In other business, Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg told the board that a standing water problem in the 2200 block of West Morgan Ave. was resolved in-house by the installation of 70 feet of stormwater pipe to drain the area.

Schnadenberg also noted that a complaint about standing water in the area of 10th Street and Park Ave. may be fixable as well—at some cost—by installing a small-diameter stormwater sewer in an existing easement. The elevations, he said, should just barely allow for drainage.

Meanwhile, Town Engineer Mark O’Dell said that he is now reviewing the preliminary plans for the installation of a force main in the north-south alley just west of 11th Street and south of Broadway.

October in Review

In October the Stormwater Utility ran a surplus of $24,210 and in the year-to-date is running a surplus of $112,980.

Posted 11/20/2007