Chesterton Tribune

 

 

Surveying underway for Westchester/Liberty Trail

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By KEVIN NEVERS

Construction of Phase III of the Westchester-Liberty Trail--which will extend the eight-foot sidewalk along 1100N from South Fifth Street to 100E--may not actually begin for another four or five years, but surveyors are now at work.

Chesterton Town Engineer Mark O’Dell, questioned by Town Council Member Jim Ton, R-1st, at the council’s meeting Monday night, said that the only thing anyone knows with certainty right now about the route is that a branch of Phase III will be built on Park Department property leading into the Tamarack subdivision, which will give bicyclists and pedestrians access to Coffee Creek Center via Rail Road.

Otherwise, O’Dell said, no decision has yet been made about the main route of Phase III. “There may be options. On the north side of 1100N or the south side.”

Ton told O’Dell that he was wondering about the route because a Chesterton resident suggested to him that the plan was already a done deal and being concealed from the public. “So there’s no design we’re keeping under the table?” Ton pressed.

Not at all, O’Dell replied. Preliminary design of Phase III hasn’t even begun yet, he said, and “we’re still four or five years out” from building it. Possibly in six months, once the surveyors have wrapped their heads around the wetlands and the nuts and bolts of right-of-way acquisition, the engineers will start their design.

“It’s a tough route between 100E and South Fifth Street,” Ton noted. “A tough route.”

Acceptance of Roadways

In other business, and at Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg’s recommendation, members voted unanimously to accept the following public roads in Easton Park: Easton Park Drive, Redwood Lane (public portion), Sequoia Court, Sequoia Lane, Spruce Lane, Timberwood Lane, and Tanglewood Lane.

These roads have all been built to Town Standards and are now open to motorists, Schnadenberg said. Their formal acceptance by the council will enable Schnadenberg to submit them to the state for addition to the town’s inventory.

Redevelopment Commission

Earlier in the evening, the Redevelopment Commission held a very brief monthly meeting, at which Schnadenberg reported that nearly all this season’s tax increment financing projects have been completed, most recently the replacement of the sidewalk on the east side South Calumet Road between Porter Ave. and Jefferson Ave.

A joint paving project with the Porter County Highway Department is currently being discussed, Schnadenberg added: the re-surfacing of North Calumet Ave. from Ind. 49 to U.S. Highway 6. The town’s portion of the project would extend as far south as the North Porter County Conservation Club.

 

Posted 8/25/2020

 
 
 
 

 

 

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