The Chesterton Stormwater Utility is proceeding methodically with this year’s $880,000 stormwater bond issue.

At its meeting Monday night, the Stormwater Management Board voted 3-0 to accept R.V. Sutton Inc.’s low quote of $23,562.50 for the replacement of 110 feet of failed HDPE pipe along 23rd Street—just north of Texas Street—with concrete pipe.

The next lowest quote was $31,273.79, submitted by Woodruff & Sons.

This project will be the third funded by the bond issue. The first two, both of them also completed by R.V. Sutton:

•The cleaning of the Lincoln Ave. stormwater basin north of 23rd Street and south of the Prairie Duneland Trail, at a cost of $51,200, considerably lower than the estimated cost of $75,000.

•And the emergency repair of a different stretch of the 23rd Street line, at a cost of $8,293.11.

In related business, the board voted 3-0 to approve two bond claims: $412.50 from Harris Welsh & Lukmann; and $678.43 from Ozinga Ready Mix Concrete.

In other business, MS4 Operator Jennifer Gadzala reported that a new project has been permitted: the construction of a self-contained pond on the property of Bennett’s Storage Inc. on Harrison Road off U.S. Highway 20.

Turns out, the clay on the property is precisely the right consistency needed by ArcelorMittal USA to build its landfill at the Burns Harbor facility, O’Dell said. ArcelorMittal, accordingly, will be purchasing 80,000 cubic yards of it and the resulting hole will become a pond with no outlet.

Gadzala also reported that on May 8-10 at Chesterton Middle School, a stormwater quality unit was held in conjunction with the Engineering Department and the Utility Collections. Seventh-graders got a gander—via a video camera—of a vac truck’s jetting a line and learned a lot about the difference between stormwater and sanitary sewer systems, Gadzala said.

Meanwhile, she added, stormwater quality units were scheduled today for seventh-graders at the Discovery Charter School and on Friday, May 25, for eighth-graders at CMS.

Gadzala reported as well that the Chesterton Fire Department will be assisting the Stormwater Utility in conducting good housekeeping and pollution prevention training for all municipal employees on June 4 and June 6.

The special topic: fire extinguisher use.

In April the Stormwater Utility ran a surplus of $11,423 and in the year-to-date is running a surplus of $2,327.

Posted 5/23/2012