Chesterton Tribune

What next for TIF funds? Board eyes South Calumet Road north of Post Office

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By KEVIN NEVERS

The South Calumet District project is drawing to a slow close.

A great deal of work remains, of course: the reconstruction and re-grading of 1100N between Ind. 49 and 100E as well as all of Phase III, the street- and landscaping, projected to be completed by early this summer.

But the bulk of the work is nevertheless done and now the Chesterton Redevelopment Commission—whose municipal charge is the administration of tax increment financing funds and the use of those funds for capital projects—is mulling a next project.

At a special meeting Monday night, Member Sharon Darnell urged her colleagues to begin thinking about the next leg of South Calumet Road: from the bridge just south of the Chesterton Post Office to Morgan Ave. “What would you like to see done?” she asked. “That’s what the moneys are for.”

Town Engineer Mark O’Dell did note that the scope of such a project would be a much more limited than that of the ongoing one: decorative street lighting, for instance, and sidewalk, curb, and gutter improvements.

Member Jim Ton, on the other hand, broached the feasibility of re-reconstructing the unaligned intersection of South Calumet Road and Porter Ave., or at least of adding left turn lanes where possible: for south- and westbound traffic. “That intersection has always been one of those splinters you can’t quite get at,” he said.

Could we acquire land for additional right-of-way at the intersection? Darnell asked.

“We’d have to look at that,” O’Dell said.

Darnell is hopeful of receiving input from her colleagues at the commission’s next regularly scheduled meeting, 6:30 p.m. Jan. 25.

TIF Draw

In other business, Clerk-Treasurer Gayle Polakowski informed the commission that she has received the 2009 TIF draw, totaling $1,247,484.69.

As far as she knows, Polakowski told the Chesterton Tribune after the meeting, that check represents the entirety of the draw.

2010 Officers

By votes of 5-0 the commission elected Member Ed Schoenfelt to the presidency for 2010, Darnell to the vice-presidency, and Polakowski to the secretary-treasureship.

 

 

Posted 1/5/2010

 

 

 

 

 

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