King's Highway Widening Project Considered
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
WINONA LAKE - Engineer Larry Long presented plans to widen King's Highway to three 10-foot lanes, from the alley north of Seventh Street/Wooster Road past Jefferson School Tuesday morning during the town council meeting.
A special feature of the design is moving up the place to stop to near the corner of Rupe Drive, instead of at the north edge the fire station building. A new curb cut and parking lot is planned to the north of the fire station.
A sign will be posted at the corner of Rupe Drive, which will become a one-way street westbound.
There was some discussion about hanging a flashing red light at the intersection. The council will look into costs.
Eighteen "decorative" street lights installed along the college campus are part of the project.
Long recommended that the bid opening and authorization schedule be speeded up somewhat and the council agreed to open bids at the 7 a.m. June 8 budget meeting and hear Long's recommendation for a contractor at the regularly scheduled 6 p.m. meeting. The project should be substantially complete before school starts with a final project date of Sept. 30.
Real estate broker Dan Harstine approached the board regarding property he has listed for sale.
Harstine said Jonathan Walters applied for and was accepted to receive a Housing Authority loan. Repairs were to be made on his roof that were never complete despite the work of two contractors. The roof still leaks.
"I've had two prospective buyers who conducted two inspections and the roof has never passed," Harstine said.
In May 2003 the town returned a check for the loan payment, indicating the $10,000 amount was forgiven.
Harstine said he has a closing of property sale set for Saturday and now has learned there is an outstanding $12,000 grant, but no liens are recorded on the deed.
Town manager Craig Allebach said there are two issues - the forgiven loan and an earlier grant. He said there is paperwork for the grant.
Harstine repeated that there are no liens on the property and would like the matter cleared.
"The work was approved by the building commissioner and signed off by Murphy and Associates," he said. "If you're going to hold them to a loan the town should fix the problem."
Allebach said they really should be talking to the property owner about the matter.
The board also:
• Reviewed a conflict of interest statement from officer Stevens who owns Heaven's Best Carpet Cleaning service.
• Discussed the new fence placement at Packerton Road and CR 225 which "seems" to block a driver's view. Building commissioner Dick Leaf said the fence is placed well back from the road according to specifications, but drivers were used to an open field on all sides there. Town marshal Malcolm Gilbert agreed with that assessment. The marshal said once a person stops and looks there is plenty of visibility.
• Heard town events were: June 5 and 6, village at Winona Art Fair; June 13, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Billy Sunday Festival; June 14 the IPGA Northern Open at Stonehenge Golf Club; June 20 to July 18, MasterWorks Festival; June 26, 8 a.m., Optimist Triathlon at Winona Lake Park; and July 3, the 4th of July Celebration.
Board members are: Jerry Clevenger, John Boal, Jeff Carroll, David Delp and Rolly Ortega. [[In-content Ad]]
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WINONA LAKE - Engineer Larry Long presented plans to widen King's Highway to three 10-foot lanes, from the alley north of Seventh Street/Wooster Road past Jefferson School Tuesday morning during the town council meeting.
A special feature of the design is moving up the place to stop to near the corner of Rupe Drive, instead of at the north edge the fire station building. A new curb cut and parking lot is planned to the north of the fire station.
A sign will be posted at the corner of Rupe Drive, which will become a one-way street westbound.
There was some discussion about hanging a flashing red light at the intersection. The council will look into costs.
Eighteen "decorative" street lights installed along the college campus are part of the project.
Long recommended that the bid opening and authorization schedule be speeded up somewhat and the council agreed to open bids at the 7 a.m. June 8 budget meeting and hear Long's recommendation for a contractor at the regularly scheduled 6 p.m. meeting. The project should be substantially complete before school starts with a final project date of Sept. 30.
Real estate broker Dan Harstine approached the board regarding property he has listed for sale.
Harstine said Jonathan Walters applied for and was accepted to receive a Housing Authority loan. Repairs were to be made on his roof that were never complete despite the work of two contractors. The roof still leaks.
"I've had two prospective buyers who conducted two inspections and the roof has never passed," Harstine said.
In May 2003 the town returned a check for the loan payment, indicating the $10,000 amount was forgiven.
Harstine said he has a closing of property sale set for Saturday and now has learned there is an outstanding $12,000 grant, but no liens are recorded on the deed.
Town manager Craig Allebach said there are two issues - the forgiven loan and an earlier grant. He said there is paperwork for the grant.
Harstine repeated that there are no liens on the property and would like the matter cleared.
"The work was approved by the building commissioner and signed off by Murphy and Associates," he said. "If you're going to hold them to a loan the town should fix the problem."
Allebach said they really should be talking to the property owner about the matter.
The board also:
• Reviewed a conflict of interest statement from officer Stevens who owns Heaven's Best Carpet Cleaning service.
• Discussed the new fence placement at Packerton Road and CR 225 which "seems" to block a driver's view. Building commissioner Dick Leaf said the fence is placed well back from the road according to specifications, but drivers were used to an open field on all sides there. Town marshal Malcolm Gilbert agreed with that assessment. The marshal said once a person stops and looks there is plenty of visibility.
• Heard town events were: June 5 and 6, village at Winona Art Fair; June 13, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Billy Sunday Festival; June 14 the IPGA Northern Open at Stonehenge Golf Club; June 20 to July 18, MasterWorks Festival; June 26, 8 a.m., Optimist Triathlon at Winona Lake Park; and July 3, the 4th of July Celebration.
Board members are: Jerry Clevenger, John Boal, Jeff Carroll, David Delp and Rolly Ortega. [[In-content Ad]]