|
By KEVIN NEVERS The work on Phase I of the South Calumet Business District project has been underway since July, and progress is being made on the installation of a stormsewer along Beverly Drive. But the excavation is raising dust and dirt along the roadway and residents aren’t pleased. So fellow resident and Chesterton Town Council President Jim Ton, R-1st, noted from the floor at Monday’s meeting of the Redevelopment Commission. When exactly will this part of Phase I be completed? Ton wanted to know. Residents have gotten to the point of using garden hoses to wet down the dust in the roadway. Town Engineer Mark O’Dell said in response that restoration will be done as soon as possible. Until then the Street Department, as it has already done once, will get a street sweeper to the site. Snafu In other business, O’Dell reported a glitch in Phase I of the South Cal project: the contractor installing the stormsewer down Beverly Drive has found an unlocated and unexpected Verizon fiber-optic duct bank directly in the path of the sewer line. O’Dell told the commission that he and Verizon are trying to find a quick and relatively easy in-house solution to the problem. The alternative would be for Verizon to move the duct bank itself, but the process of engineering, specing, and bidding the job could delay Phase I by months, O’Dell said. President Sharon Darnell expressed her disappointment in the delay as well as the hope that DLZ, the contracted project engineer, keeps all change orders, design flaws, and unanticipated expenditures to a minimum going forward. Phase II Meanwhile, members voted 5-0 to endorse a resolution, to be forwarded to the Town Council, authorizing Town Attorney Chuck Lukmann to begin making offers to owners of property needed for right-of-way in Phase II of the South Cal project. Later in the evening, at its own meeting, the council unanimously adopted that resolution. Lukmann has said that he would like to go to bid for Phase II by Nov. 1. Phase I—to be completed this year—consists chiefly of the construction of a connector road between 100E and South Calumet Road, to be aligned with the entrance to Round the Clock; the construction of a portion of the intersection of 100E and Beverly Drive Extended; and the installation of a stormsewer link to an existing detention basin on Beverly Drive. Phase II—to be completed in 2009—consists of the completion of the intersection of 100E and Beverly Drive Extended; the improvement of the intersection of 100E and 1100N; the widening and flattening of 1100N; and street- and landscaping. The intersection of South Calumet Road and 1100N could be closed to traffic anytime after the completion of Phase I, although that closure has not yet been scheduled. School Rep Members took a moment at the beginning of the meeting to welcome their newest colleague: Duneland School Board Member Janice Custer, who will serve as a non-voting advisor to the commission. Under a new state law, the local school corporation must be represented on any redevelopment commission in a non-voting capacity. Claims Members voted 5-0 to approve the following claims: $1,447 from Harris Welsh & Lukmann; $10,732.50 from DLZ; and $32,656.25 from Walsh & Kelly Inc. All were for work done in Phase I of the South Cal project.
|
