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.