The Chesterton Street Department had been planning to collect leaves and brush last week as part of the annual Spring Cleanup program.

Only it pretty much rained the whole time.

So Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg will be dispatching his leaf vacs this week. “We’ll continue with that as weather permits,” he told the Town Council at its meeting Monday night.

Brush collection, on the other hand, is more or less an ongoing effort throughout the summer.

Residents are asked to separate leaf piles from brush piles and leave both at curbside.

In other business—and at the request of the Chesterton/Duneland Chamber of Commerce—members voted 5-0 to rent a portable public restroom facility for this season’s run of the European Market.

The price of a single portable facility: $112 every 28 days.

Tiffany Bley, the European Market’s marketing director, said that the Parks and Recreation Department has already agreed to rent a second facility, while the Chamber itself will rent a third starting Memorial Day weekend.

Members also voted 5-0 to make a contribution of $500 toward the cost of a demographic study of homelessness in Porter County, to be conducted by Housing Opportunities.

The total cost of the study: $35,000, contributions to which have already been made by the Porter County Community Foundation, the cities of Portage and Valparaiso, Housing Opportunities, and Porter-Starke Services.

Earlier this year, Caroline Shook of Housing Opportunities told the council that, on any given night, some 218 persons and families have nowhere to sleep, while over 1,000 “barely housed” are “couch surfing,” moving from one friend’s or relative’s residence to another’s.

Meanwhile, Fire Chief Mike Orlich invited folks to a child car-seat clinic from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 21, at the Chesterton Fire station, hosted by the CFD and the Chesterton Police Department.

Firefighters and police officer certified in car-seat installation will install the seats for you or ensure that they’ve already been properly installed.

Orlich reported as well that the CFD has completed this year’s Chesterton Middle School CPR training program, in which 423 eight-graders were taught how to perform the procedure.

“It went really well,” Orlich said. “The students did a very good job.”

This was either the 15th or 16th year of the CMS CPR program.

Orlich reported too that 78 of 94 full-time municipal employees have also received CPR training.

Utility Superintendent Rob Lovell told the council that interviews for all open positions should be done by Wednesday. Lovell said that he’s hopeful that the hires can be made by May 9.

Posted 4/26/2011