WINFIELD - The Water Works Board has begun investigating alternative methods for homeowners to tap into mains providing Lake Michigan to the Trees subdivision.
     "Residents who want to tap-in have the choice of using directional boring from the water main to the home, a basic connection of copper piping or a PVC line to the home," said board president Rick Anderson.
     The maximum tap-in distance residence will be 100 feet, with a per foot charge added thereafter.
     The board has also offered residents the option of taking advantage of home equity loans or investment programs with local banks to assist in payment.
     "Bank Calumet is offering a Neighborhood Investment Program that would allow someone to borrow up to $5,000 for 10 years at a 7.4 percent interest rate,"      Anderson said. "The present payment schedule that we have been using of a $3,000 loan requires a monthly payment of $27.50 for 19 years at an 8.64 percent interest rate. Under Bank Calumet's program, a resident would pay $35.45 monthly for a $3,000 loan but would save up to $2,000 over the life of it."
     The board will send a newsletter to all Trees residents in the next few days requesting a $250 refundable deposit for those who wish to participate in the water project.
     Members of the board will be traveling to Indianapolis on Oct. 25 to meet with state officials on the bond issue for the project.

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BY ANDREW STEELE 
Star Managing Editor

CROWN POINT - The Board of Public Works approved contract last week for several engineering projects related to the city's sewer system 
     The subjects of the studies are the Beasor Valley drainage basin, the city's combined storm and sanitary sewage system, an extension of the east-side sewer trunk line, replacement of the Fashion Terrace sewage lift station, and a sewer extension on Delaware Street.
     The Beasor Valley is a natural drainage area in the central section of the city.      Stormwater problems have long plagued the East, Main Court, West, and South street areas and surrounding neighborhoods. 
     The city has received an engineering study from the firm Woolpert Associates, but City Engineer Jeff Ban told the Board of Public Works on Oct. l0 that he believes another firm should be asked to review the Woolpert study both to check its accuracy and recommend cost-saving measures.
     The firm, Christopher Burke Engineering, will be paid up to $10,000 to do the review, which will take about 60 days, Ban said. 
     Ban called the Beasor Valley project the city's "top public improvement infrastructure project."  
     "This project is very complicated. This project is very intense," he said. 
     To relieve stormwater backups, the city plans to put a new relief pumping station on South Street, and create retention ponds to the south to slow the flow of stormwater during heavy rains.
     Part of Burke Engineering's work will be to make a recommendation on what order to do those three tasks. 
     Ban said construction on the project should begin in mid-2002.

Sewer 'master plan'
The city will pay Commonwealth Engineering $111,340 to create a master plan for the city's combined storm and sanitary sewers.  
     Combined systems are now forbidden by law, and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management are preparing to tighten regulations on existing ones.
     The main environmental issue is that combined systems often have to let sewage overflow into waterways during heavy rains, because treatment plants cannot handle the excessive flow. Ban said IDEM is requiring long term plans to control overflows.    Eventually, communities will have to look at options like transporting sewage to other plants or building second plants. 
    The process starts with collection of detailed, computer-based information on the workings of the sewer system. That is the work Commonwealth will do over the next year.

East-side sewer
The east-side sewer trunk line will be extended from the intersection of Greenview Place and Indiana Avenue south past Burrell Drive to service the new high school.    
     The board approved a contract with Commonwealth Engineers for $55,800 to do the design work for the project. 
     The project will be bid early next spring so construction can be completed latse [sic] next  year, Ban said. 
     A $500,000 state grant will be available for the project this fall, he said.

New lift station
Commonwealth Engineering will also do the planning for a new sewage pump station on South Street at the south end of the Fashion Terrace subdivision. 
     The new station will have an increased capacity, and will redirect the flow to the new west-side sewer trunk line. Currently, the lift station sends sewage into the overloaded Beasor Valley system to the east. 
     Part of the cost of the new pump station will be paid by Ellendale Farms developer Tom Fleming.

Delaware Street
Ban's own firm, Development
Visions Group, will be paid $29,000 to design and perform field services for a sewer main extension of about one-half mile, from Delaware Street to 127thAvenue. 
     Two properties for sale there have drawn interest from "a very important prospect," Ban said, and sewer service will be needed to bring the development.   
     Board member Robert Corbin, chairing the meeting in Mayor James Metros's absence, said hiring Ban to do the work did not constitute a conflict of interest, because Ban is not a regular employee of the city.
     Instead, his position as engineer is a contract position that requires him to manage the Engineering Department, not to do actual engineering work.
     The engineering that Ban will do for the sewer extension is "outside the existing scope of Ban's contract," Corbin said.

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By Sean McNab
Star Staff Writer

CEDAR LAKE - Town officials addressed concerns residents of 133rd
Avenue have about planned expansion of the road at an Oct. 4 public hearing. 
     Project engineer Rex I Sherrard described plans for the road. 
     "The road will be reconstructed in two phases," he said.. "The first phase will start in the spring of 2002 and will focus on fixing the roadside along with dealing I with drainage issues. The rest of the construction will take place the following spring." 
     Sherrard said the work I will include creation of turning lanes expected to make the road safer. 
     The road will be expanded from 40 feet to a width of 66 feet. 
     The town hopes residents will donate the necessary right-of-way. 
     Resident Larry Stenger warned town officials that he did not think that residents would donate the land. 
     "Most people are not going to be particularly happy when they realize that they are going to have to give up part of their own property for this project," he said.
     Resident Jerome Schmal said the town first needs to correct drainage problems.
     Sherrard said the project includes two stormwater detention ponds.
     Hanover School Board member Marilyn Kaper commented that the project, because it is in a Tax Increment Financing district, will be funded in part by money that would otherwise go to the schools.
     She said the TIF district will reduce school tax revenue $27,000 each of the next two years.
     The project will cost about $4.2 million. The town needs to raise $2.29 million in funding.

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