Chesterton Town
Council Member Jim Ton’s invitation two weeks ago to the public to donate
toward the installation and maintenance of an infant rescue box at the Fire
Department is bearing fruit.
At the Town
Council’s meeting Monday night, members gratefully received, and passed on
to Clerk-Treasurer Stephanie Kuziela, three such donations:
* $500 from the
Chesterton First United Methodist Church.
* $200 from Council
5929 of the Knights of Columbus, St. Patrick Catholic Church.
* And $100 from Ken
and Zelba Miller.
The one-time cost
of installing the system is $10,000, plus an annual fee of $200 to cover any
upgrades to the device and a $40 monthly fee for alarm monitoring.
Meanwhile, Fire
Chief John Jarka announced that the infant rescue box has been delivered and
that he is currently arranging for its installation.
“It’s really moving
forward,” noted Member Lloyd Kittredge, R-2nd.
“We can thank Chief
Jarka for that,” added Ton.
The infant rescue
box will work much like a depository at a bank: once it has been opened and
then closed, it cannot be re-opened until the CFD has re-set it from inside.
Boxes come equipped with three different alarms: the first is activated
automatically when the box is opened; the second, when a baby is placed on
the pad (which is either heated or cooled depending on the season); and the
third time, when--if--the person leaving the baby elects to activate it.
Anyone who wishes
to discuss the box further or to make a donation may contact Ton at jton@chestertonin.org
or Jarka at 926-7162.
2019 Budget
In other business,
the council held a public hearing on the advertised 2019 budget, which must
still be reviewed and certified by the Indiana Department of Local
Government Finance.
No one spoke in
favor of the budget and no one in opposition to it.
The advertised tax
rate for 2019 is $0.9963 per $100 of assessed valuation.
The total 2019
budget: $10,928,490, with $5,517,968 in the General Fund; $1,330,788 in
Motor Vehicle Highway and $224,000 in Local Road & Street (the Street
Department’s chief operating budgets); $499,300 in Park & Recreation; and
$820,934 earmarked for debt service and bond repayment.
Bulletproof Vests
Meanwhile, Police
Chief Dave Cincoski announced that the CPD has received a grant in the
amount of $3,009.50 from the U.S. Department of Justice, to be used for the
purchase of bulletproof vests for officers.
Half of the cost of
new vests will be reimbursed, up to the amount of the grant, Cincoski said.
Law enforcement
agencies in the State of Indiana are required to provide their officers with
bulletproof vests, which have a lifetime of five years.
Flu Shots
By consensus
members approved a flu shot program for town employees and their spouses.
Cost of the
program: $28 per shot.
CFD Open House
Jarka reported that
this year’s Fire Safety Open House on Saturday--coinciding with the
beginning of National Fire Prevention Week--went extremely well.
“It was very well
attended by the public,” Jarka said. “It was a great day.”
Spark in the Park
Another event from
the weekend, Sunday’s Spark in the Park at Thomas Centennial Park in
Downtown Chesterton, also got rave reviews from the council.
The
event--featuring fire breathers, fire spinners, hula hoops, and neon
lights--was “really good,” said Ton. “They had it all laid out
spectacularly. It was a first-class act. And it was packed. The number of
families and kids and dogs. It was a great event. And they had it all
cleaned up that night.”
Park Superintendent
Bruce Mathias concurred. “It was flawless, basically,” he said, then noted
that Spark in the Park was really a trial run for an even bigger event under
development for next fall at Thomas Park.
Thank You,
Department Heads
Member Emerson
DeLaney, R-5th, took a moment at the end of the meeting to express his
appreciation to department heads and their employees for the great job they
do. “A shout-out to the department heads, the group that makes things happen
every day, and to the people who work with them,” he said.
“Just what you do
on a daily basis, it shows Downtown,” he added, pointing specifically to the
CFD Open House and the European Market on Saturday and to Spark in the Park
on Sunday. “There wasn’t a parking spot available.”
“Thank you for
everything you do, to give the community a quality of life,” DeLaney said.