Chesterton Tribune

 

 

Newly laid sod in ditch-closing project on Porter Avenue going brown

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By KEVIN NEVERS

The ditch-closing project at the western terminus of West Porter Ave., between 23rd Street and 18th Street, is all done bar the shouting.

Folks, however, whose front-yard ditches were piped and then filled have probably noticed that the newly laid sod which rolled out so lush and green only a week ago has turned, in many places, dry and brown.

There’s a twofold reason for that, Chesterton Town Engineer Mark O’Dell told the Stormwater Management Board at its meeting Monday night: first, almost as soon as the sod was laid the temperatures began hitting 90 degrees; and second, the sub-contractor whose responsibility it was to water the new sod, per a set schedule, missed a day or two.

O’Dell’s been in touch with the general contractor, Grimmer Construction Inc., Grimmer’s been in touch with the sub, and indeed earlier in the day on Monday, around 12:30 p.m., a crew with a water truck was at work in the project area.

Should the sod not come back, O’Dell said, it’ll be replaced or--sometime this fall--hydroseeded. He did urge residents, though, to water the sod themselves to give it the best shot possible.

The browning of the sod hasn’t been the only problem, though. Last week a motorist left the roadway on 23rd Street, just north of West Porter Ave., and managed to get his vehicle sunk and stuck in a strip of the sod. And towing it out only made the damage worse.

Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg told the Chesterton Tribune after the meeting that he has the motorist’s insurance information and intends to go through channels to pursue compensation.

The ditch-closing--whose contract price is $179,286--is the final project financed by the $800,000 stormwater bond issued in 2011. Other bond projects included the installation of two stormwater lift stations, one in the alley behind Val’s, the other in an alley off 11th Street and just north of West Porter Ave.; the clearing of the detention basin just west of 23rd Street and south of the Prairie Duneland Trail; and various repairs on the 23rd Street stormsewer.

Storm Drain Failure

In other business, Schnadenberg reported that one of his crews just rebuilt a pair of storm drains on Crab Tree Lane in the Chestnut Hills subdivision, following the drains’ failure.

“It’s an ongoing thing with these old drains in the subdivisions,” he noted.

Easton Park

Meanwhile, MS4 Operator Jennifer Gadzala reported that ground has broken on infrastructure for the Easton Park project, what will become, on its full build-out, the single largest residential subdivision in Chesterton.

It’s located on the east side of 250E at the eastern terminus of East Porter Ave. and it’s platted for 362 homes.

It’s also, as Gadzala remarked, an “intimidatingly large project” with a wetland on site which must be protected from the silt and runoff generated by construction activities. “So we’ll be keeping an eye on that.”

The installation of Easton Park’s sanitary sewer infrastructure is set to begin this week or next.

Gadzala, Master Naturalist

Gadzala also reported that she has been asked, once again, to be a class instructor at the Indiana Master Naturalist Program to be hosted this fall by the Coffee Creek Watershed Conservancy.

Gadzala will teach a three-hour course in water-based education, including such topics as watersheds, water quality, land use, and wetlands.

Volunteerism in natural resource management is one of the requirements of the program, which gives participants a hands-on opportunity to learn about Indiana’s natural resources. For more information visit www.coffeecreekwc.org/indiana-master-naturalist.html

“We gotten a lot of great volunteerism out of that and I’m very happy to be asked back,” Gadzala said.

 

Posted 6/21/2016

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

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