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WINONA LAKE - Despite discussions for the past year on moving the town's police station, the Winona Lake town council still has not decided where the police station will go.
At the Tuesday morning council meeting, architectural consultant Jim McCleary said the estimated cost to turn the Quonset hut into a combination police station/town hall would be approximately $350,000 to $400,000.
"And that's a straight job, nothing fancy," he said.
The council also noted that even if the town offices move out of the community building where they are now, that building still must be made handicapped-accessible to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Police headquarters must move from its present location because Winona Restoration Company, which owns the land where the police station is, plans to develop that property.
Town council president Brent Wilcoxson listed the town's options, besides the Quonset hut renovation, as building a new town hall on town-owned property on Pierceton Road, which was once used as a landfill; renting a location for the short term; adding on to the town's fire station; leaving the town offices where they are now and fixing up the community building; or building a new fire station and moving the town offices into what is now the fire station.
Since councilman Randy Ruppel was not at Tuesday's meeting, the council decided to table the subject and discuss it again at Friday's budget meeting.
Wilcoxson asked McCleary to check with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management on what would be required to build on the Pierceton Road site.
The council also defeated two motions Tuesday to install curbs on Tennis Street, between Administration and Auditorium boulevards, while the island sewer installation and street renovation is being done.
In response to a petition from Tennis Street residents that curbs be installed, councilman Dick Taylor at different times proposed motions to put in the curbs, but the motions died both times for lack of a second.
The approximate cost to put in the curbs on Tennis Street was $6,100, and council member Edna Gamble said that since the town has only $14,000 for all town streets until the end of 1997, she was reluctant to spend that much on curbs now.
The council did unanimously approve a motion to allow residents who want to install their own curbs to do so according to specifications.
In other business, the council approved Taylor's recommendation for a 5 percent across-the-board wage increase for town employees, and directed town engineer Larry Long to write a letter to the owners of Merrywood mobile home park giving them 30 days to test their sewer system for leaks.
The council will hold a special public meeting at 7:30 a.m. Friday on the 1998 budget.
