Chesterton Tribune

 

 

Schnadenberg reports that road salt price will put dent in town budget

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By KEVIN NEVERS

Chesterton Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg has reason to hope most fervently that Old Man Winter (2019-20) is kind.

Turns out, the price of road salt has spiked by $12.90 per ton this year and since 2018 has gone through the roof: up $21.54 per ton.

Brass tacks: if the Street Department purchases its full ration of road salt this winter--1,500 tons--it will cost the town an additional $19,000.

“There’s not much we can do about it,” Schnadenberg said.

Paving

In other business, Schnadenberg announced that the Street Department is in the home stretch of this season’s paving projects. Most notably, West Indiana Ave. between South Calumet Road and South Fifth Street has been milled, re-paved, and striped for angled parking in the 100 and the 300 blocks.

And, as a photograph he shot Monday afternoon attests, the new angled parking spaces aren’t just being used during the European Market on Saturdays. “They’re being utilized every day,” Schnadenberg said.”

“I think it’s phenomenal,” observed Member Emerson DeLaney, R-5th. “It’s better than it was planned out. It’s beautiful.”

Upcoming paving projects, the last of the season, scheduled to begin late in September:

--Sidewalk Road (1050N) from Dickinson Road to 200E.

--200E south to Harrington Ave.

--Coffee Creek Drive and Mississinewa Road in the Morningside subdivision.

Schnadenberg also said that the Street Department will do some patching on the south side of East Oakhill Road, “just to hold it together over the winter,” and then next year work toward a joint re-pave of East Oakhill Road with the Town of Porter and the Porter County Highway Department.

Schnadenberg did take a moment to extend his gratitude to the Highway Department for chip-sealing 950N and Saemann Road. Under an agreement, the town purchased the chip-sealing materials and the Highway Department did the job itself. “It turned out to be a nice project,” Schnadenberg said. “Thanks for their assistance.”

CSX Contractor

Meanwhile, Schnadenberg told the council that he’s got a bone to pick with the contractor hired by CSX to do track work around the grade-crossing at Indian Boundary Road and North Calumet Road.

The contractor left a “mess,” Schnadenberg said: gravel in the roadway as well as damage to the traffic island.

Schnadenberg added that he was told the contractor intended to return today to clean up the debris, but that he’s most desirous to speak to CSX itself to register his complaint.

Tripping Hazards

Schnadenberg had one other piece of information for the council on Monday: fully 312 sidewalk trip-hazards were ground down this season.

 

 

Posted 9/10/2019

 
 
 
 

 

 

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