The developer of a
proposed mid-sized residential subdivision off Meridian Road and north of
U.S. Highway 6 in Liberty Township has broached the possibility of seeking
sanitary sewer service from the Town of Chesterton.
So Utility
Superintendent Dave Ryan reported to the Utility Service Board at its
meeting Monday night.
Nothing has been
decided, nothing has even been seriously discussed yet, Ryan emphasized. At
this point the developer is merely casting about for another option,
after--Ryan said--becoming “disgruntled” with the direction and progress of
talks with the Damon Run Conservancy District, which provides sewer service
to a number of subdivisions off Meridian Road.
“There’s nothing
specific right now,” Ryan said. “We have no idea if we have the capacity.”
Member John
Schnadenberg, for his part, counseled heedfulness. “We still have a lot of
areas in town that could still be developed,” he said. “So we’ve got to be
cautious.”
Several years ago,
the Utility installed a sanitary sewer main down Meridian Road to service
the Fox Chase Farms subdivision, following the failure of its septic system.
Grinder pumps in each of the Fox Chase Farms residences flow sewage to the
main, which runs to a lift station built as part of the Ind. 49 utility
corridor project. Much of the cost of that project was paid through grants
and none of it was borne by the Utility or by its rate-payers.
Ryan told members
that he doesn’t know exactly where the proposed subdivision would be built
but it would be close to Fox Chase Farms.
Missing Force Main
In other business,
Ryan reported that a portion of the six-inch force main discharging from the
Barrington Bridge lift station still hasn’t been located.
That’s a problem,
because that force main would serve the 64-unit residential planned unit
development which John Nekus is seeking to build on a heavily wooded 11-acre
property located immediately behind--west of--the Chesterton Post Office.
Ruan has been
consulting with several locating services and the possibility has been
discussed of using ground-penetrating radar. On Oct. 22, he added, he and
Nekus met on the property, with Nekus agreeing to arrange for a contractor
to clear “a big portion of the brush in the woods.”
“Hopefully,” Ryan
said, “that will provide us with easier access.”
The force main was
installed in 1978.
Hotel Sewer
Allocation
Meanwhile, members
voted unanimously to grant a sanitary sewer allocation for a proposed
double-hotel project at Coffee Creek Center, located immediately north of
the Speedway gas station and Culver’s restaurant.
Amerilodge of
Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is proposing to build a Holiday Inn Express and a
Fairfield Inn & Suites. The Holiday Inn would feature 90 rooms in four
stories; the Fairfield, 87 rooms in three stories. The complex would be
accessed via Matson Street and Blackwell Lane.
Making the request
for the allocation was Amerilodge’s local attorney, Greg Babcock. Ryan told
the Service Board that the wastewater treatment plant has sufficient
capacity to treat the hotel sewage. He added that the two lift stations
which will be flowing the sewage--the KAT and the Dickinson Road
facilities--were specifically “built to handle that kind of flow.”
The Advisory Plan
Commission will hold a public hearing on the primary plat for the two hotels
at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19.
October in Review
In October,
Chesterton used 44.75 percent of its 3,668,000 gallon per day (gpd)
allotment of the wastewater treatment plant; Porter, 48.97 percent of its
851,000 gpd allotment; the Indian Boundary Conservancy District, 49.92
percent of its 81,000 gpd allotment; and the plant as a whole, 46.26 percent
of its capacity.
There were no
bypasses of sewage into the Little Calumet River last month, which saw 3.65
inches of rain.
Also in October,
the Utility ran a deficit of $161,714.49 and in the year-to-date is running
a surplus of $441,530.31.
Rate Review Meeting
The Service Board
will hold a special meeting at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 19, at the wastewater
treatment plant.
The purpose of the
meeting: to discuss the biennial rate review study being prepared by London
Witte Group.