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Street crews nearly finished with chipping downed branches |
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Monday, January 12 2009 |
By TJ HEMLINGER
Staff Writer
Columbia City mayor Jim Fleck discussed with the Board of Works Friday his concerns with the proposal by a statewide commission to reduce the number of elected officials by eliminating township trustees and county commissioners, among other changes. It also would consolidate fire protection.
“The real issue is there is not good information coming down from the state on which we can base decisions,” the mayor said. “We’re being asked to submit without any concern on the impact on taxpayers. There are so many unforeseen circumstances.
“We all know there are things about government that can be improved, but to suggest wholesale changes ... I think we have a very high level of service (in Columbia City) at low cost.”
Part of that service is the effort to pick up limbs that were broken off trees. Street department head Kelly Cearbaugh said crews have been out chipping branches since the ice storm on Dec. 19 and have picked up 23 loads of chips from the east side of town and another 22 from the west side.
“We’re still working on the west side,” Cearbaugh said. “Once we’re done, we’ll probably make one more sweep through town.”
He said the normal amount is seven to eight loads throughout the summer.
The chips are available free to anyone who wants to pick them up and are at the municipal service facility on Towerview Drive. The hours are 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and the city will help load them.
In other business, the city police department will trade in three used police cars and get $5,000 for them.
Fire chief Tom LaRue said his department said they set a record for fire runs in 2008, making more than 600 calls. However, structural fires were down, which he attributed to a good fire prevention program.
He said with the bad weather his crews are responding only to fire calls and are not making trips that otherwise would be routine.
The board voted to close Chauncey Street in front of the police station Jan. 24 and 25 for the ice carving festival.
The board learned that 40 blocks of ice have been sold, making it one of the largest ice carving festivals in northern Indiana.
It also voted to pay several bills, including:
• $5,224 to Siemans Water Technologies for the final 1 percent of the cost of the digester cover at the city’s water pollution control facility;
• $1,130 for improvements to the facility’s aeration basin by Schneider Corp.;
• $2,500 to Whitaker Engineering for the influent screen project at the plant;
• $1,067 to Bonar Group for the stormwater master plan update;
• $1,901 to Burgess & Niple for the final invoice for the second of two semi-annual tests of the groundwater at the landfill site; and
• $8,470 to Shambaugh & Sons for the installation of two gates, both automatic.
Bonar reported that 1,200 surveys were sent out, one-third of the customer base, to discover problems with stormwater in the city. Eighty were returned, and 30 said they had drainage problems.
The city will assess whether it’s a public or private duty to fix. Fleck said there is a trend evident, and one place that has troubles is the 4-H fairgrounds.
E-mail staff writer TJ Hemlinger at
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, January 13 2009 )
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