By KEVIN NEVERS

At the beginning of the year, the Chesterton Town Council earmarked $50,000 in CEDIT funds for long-needed repairs to the old New York Central passenger depot at 220 Broadway, currently leased by the Chesterton/Duneland Chamber of Commerce.

Eleven months later the council is ready to spend some of that money.

At their meeting Monday night, members voted 5-0 to award a tuck-pointing contract to Ken’s Masonry, which submitted a quote of $7,700. R & R Masonry Services had submitted a quote of $6,604.50, Building Commissioner Mike Orlich noted, but the two quotes weren’t apple-to-apple, as the former is to tuck-point the entire building and the latter only a portion of it. The award of the contract to Ken’s Masonry is contingent on Orlich’s review of the contractor’s bondafides.

Then members voted 5-0 to award a contract for the installation of all new windows to Trout Glass & Mirror, which submitted a quote of $11,485. Glass Doctor of Northwest Indiana had submitted a quote of $19,285. Again, Orlich noted, the two quotes weren’t apple-to-apple, as Trout Glass & Mirror’s quote did not include the replacement of a door with a fixed window unit and Glass Doctor’s did, but members awarded the contract to Trout Glass & Mirror—pending receipt of a quote on the door replacement—under the assumption that the total price would still be less than Glass Doctor’s.

Member Mike Bannon, R-5th, did have one question: where in the heck is the town’s second draw of its share of CEDIT revenues? “It’s due and overdue,” he said.

Public Hearing on Parking Study

In other business, members voted 5-0 to confirm a resolution passed at their last meeting, namely, to adopt the recommendation of a parking study prepared by Economic Development Coordinator Dwayne Williams and acquire the graveled parcel of land immediately across the street from town hall, owned by the Tonner family, for use as a “municipal parking facility.”

At a public hearing prior to the vote, no one spoke in favor of the parking study and no one in opposition to it.

“It is important to identify town hall as a designated government center and its location is viewed as a terminal point and location of concentrated traffic,” Williams notes in the study. “The Town of Chesterton does not own enough land to meet the demand of present and future public parking needs.”

Williams estimates in the study that the parcel has space for 32 lined parking spaces, and he projected the total cost, including land acquisition and improvement, at $72,000. Williams also recommends the use of CEDIT funds to defray that cost.

While they were at it, members also voted 5-0 to authorize Town Attorney Chuck Lukmann to proceed with the acquisition of the land.

Settlement and Release

Meanwhile, members voted 5-0 to approve and sign the “Mutual Settlement and Release Agreement” with The Duneland Group (DG), the town’s former contracted engineering consultant and the designer of the wastewater treatment plant expansion.

That agreement settles forever the lawsuit filed against DG by the Utility and the town in which they asserted claims, related to the design of the expansion, for breach of contract and negligence, among other things.

Under the terms of the agreement—of which the Chesterton Tribune obtained a copy after filing a formal public records request with the Office of Clerk-Treasurer Gayle Polakowski—DG will pay the Town of Chesterton, $275,000 within 14 days of receiving the approved and signed document, “as full settlement and resolution of all disputes, claims, costs, and expenses arising out of or relating in any way to litigation.”

The agreement is explicitly clear on one point: by signing the document no party is admitting liability of any kind.

Re: Dickinson Road Lift Station

Members also voted 5-0 to offer to purchase a sliver of property, located at the southeast corner of East Porter Ave. and Dickinson Road, for a price not to exceed $43,250, the average of two appraisals of the land in question.

That property is needed for the upgrade of the Dickinson Road lift station, which the Lake Erie Land Company is obligated to perform at its own expense. But the land on which the lift station is located—and the land on which it will be expanded—must be owned by the Utility.

Springdale Continued

By consensus members agreed to continue to their next meeting, December 10, consideration of the planned unit development ordinance which would govern construction of a mixed-use development dubbed Springdale, located on C.R. 1050N in Crocker, immediately east of Abercrombie Woods.

Developer Don Coker’s attorney, Greg Babcock, had requested the continuance.

Posted 11/27/2007