A special meeting will take place Monday to reconsider the proposed Porter
leg of the Dunes Kankakee Trail between Waverly Road and the Porter County
Visitor Center at Indiana 49.
The Porter Redevelopment Commission will host the community input session at
7 p.m. at the town hall.
The town previously was pursuing a tentative route along the Munson Ditch
easement from Indiana 49 west with appraisals conducted and land acquisition
pending, but still unknown is how hikers/bikers are going to cross the busy
highway safely.
Under construction now are two large pedestrian bridges across U.S. 20 and
U.S. 12 for Porter’s Brickyard Trail; a third, smaller bridge was built
years ago over the Little Calumet River adjacent to Waverly Road awaiting
construction of Porter’s Orchard Pedestrian Way trail, now slated for 2013.
Concern has arisen how many pedestrian bridges the town should have and be
required to maintain.
The RDC is looking to the public to help come up with a feasible alternative
for the west leg of the Dunes Kankakee, said member Elka Nelson. “We’re
really encouraging people to show up (Monday).” Maps and diagrams of the
area will be available at the meeting for discussion.
During the Town Council’s meeting Thursday, building commissioner Mike Barry
said next week a fence along the west side of Sexton Avenue south of Beam
Street will be installed to protect Brickyard Trail users from a steep
drop-off in that area.
In other council business last night:
• Greg Stinson was chosen to replace Bill Cantrell on the town Plan
Commission as a municipal appointment. Cantrell asked to step down due to
health reasons.
• Indiana Dunes Tourism executive director Lorelei Weimer said the state
Department of Natural Resources will be presenting two proposals next week
to an Indianapolis commission seeking approval for a third party to renovate
the historic pavilion at Indiana Dunes State Park with alcohol sales
restricted to the pavilion itself.
• The Porter council agreed to hire a police officer to patrol at Porter
Beach this summer pending Police Commission approval. Town police chief
James Spanier said the officer was an efffective presence at the beach last
season.
• Public Works superintendent Brenda Brueckheimer said the downtown sewer
reline project hopefully will be done in about seven weeks. Stinson thanked
contractor Performance Pipelining for doing work at night so as not to
disrupt downtown business operations.
• Stinson also encouraged entries to register for the July 4 parade in
downtown Porter, especially family units observing the event’s patriotic
theme.
• Porter Fire Department members will be out in force tomorrow soliciting
fill-the-boot donations to benefit the Hoosier Burn Camp.
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