On Sept. 14, 2008, John Thanos, 74, and Mark Thanos, 48, father and son,
jumped into a raging drainage ditch in the Westchester South subdivision to
save the life of a boy who had been swept away in its rain-swollen waters.
The boy survived. The Thanoses drowned.
At its meeting Monday night, the Chesterton Town Council honored the Thanos
family and paid tribute to the heroism and selflessness of John and Mark, by
voting unanimously to give the name of Thanos Road to the connector street
being built to link South Calumet Road and 100E as part of the South Calumet
District project.
Member Sharon Darnell, D-4th, said that the family has been contacted and
approved the name of Thanos Road, and that at its meeting earlier in the
evening the Redevelopment Commission--which is administering the South
Calumet District project--unanimously endorsed the name.
Re: 1050N
In other business, Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg, in response to a
Voice of the People published in Friday’s edition of the Chesterton
Tribune, told the council that it’s uncertain at this point what exactly
the Street Department is going to do this season about the crumbling 1050N
between 100E and the entrance to the Tamarack subdivision. The problem is
that the Duneland Trails subdivision is currently under construction at the
northwest corner of 1050N and South Fifth Street, and that the heavy vehicle
traffic there is bound to play havoc with any work done to the road. “I’d
hate to repair the road and then have to go back again after the subdivision
is done,” Schnadenberg said.
Complicating matters, he added, is a jurisdictional issue, namely, that 1050N
from the Tamarack entrance to Fifth Street is a county road.
“We’re obviously going to have to do something from 100E to the Tamarack
entrance,” Schnadenberg said. “But right now I don’t know the answer.”
More from the
Street
Schnadenberg had two other points to make, just for the record. To date
Chesterton has received 72 inches of snow this season, roughly double the 37
to 39 inches it normally gets. “The good news,” he said, “is March is just
around the corner.”
And, Schnadenberg told the council, the decision to re-new the town’s asphalt
prices with Walsh & Kelly Inc. at last year’s price was probably a good one.
The bids are in for a major project in the City of Valparaiso, he remarked,
and the low bid for asphalt was $58 per ton. The Town of Chesterton will pay
$54 per ton this season, and is located further from the asphalt plant than
Valparaiso is.
Pope O’Conner
Meanwhile, Town Engineer Mark O’Dell told the council that the owners of
property abutting the Pope O’Conner Ditch should beÊ receiving notification
letters any day, to the effect that the contractor awarded the bid by the
Porter County Drainage Board to clean the ditch will be starting the work
immediately.
The specs of the contract call for trees and brush to be removed from the
Pope O’Conner from South Calumet Road west, through the Venturi Business
Center, to the far edge of Westchester South. The low bid was $18,300, O’Dell
said, and the completion date is May 31.
Building
Commissioner
O’Dell also told the council that he is working with Interim Fire Chief Mike
Orlich and LeAnn McCrum of the Northwest Indiana Small Business Development
Center to develop a set of competencies for the position of building
commissioner. Orlich, named interim fire chief by the council after the
resignation on Dec. 31 of the late Warren “Skip” Highwood, presently remains
on duty as building commissioner. “It’s not an issue now, as slow as we are,”
Orlich told the Chesterton Tribune after the meeting. But when the
weather breaks in the spring, he said, the position will have to be filled.
From the CPD
The Chesterton Police Department has responded to 661 calls so far in
February and to 1,496 in the year-to-date, Police Chief George Nelson said.
From the CFD
The Chesterton Fire Department has responded to 88 calls so far in February
and to 171 in the year-to-date, Orlich said. He added that Engine 512 is back
in service but that the aerial is out of service, “hopefully just briefly.”