WINONA LAKE – Muirfield Subdivision’s roads are in bad shape so Tuesday night the Winona Lake Town Council approved for town engineer Larry Long to advertise for bids to repair them.
Muirfield is west of CR 250 and south of Pierceton Road.
Long said Prestwick and Muirfield subdivisions were constructed in 1988 in conjunction with the golf course. Both had concrete streets, no curb or gutters and there was limited drainage. In most cases, Long said, there was no gravel base underneath the pavement when they were built.
In 2012, a street reconstruction project was undertaken at Prestwick, which had 1.18 miles of streets, at a cost of $1.3 million. Concrete streets were taken out and replaced with asphalt streets, curbs and gutters.
There are 22 developed lots and nine undeveloped lots in Muirfield. There are basically two streets in the subdivision – East Porthcawl Road and the curved one, East Muirfield Road. Wyland Ditch provides drainage for the whole area.
Long said Muirfield has 0.42 miles of streets that are 24 feet wide with concrete about 6 inches deep. There is no curb and gutter. While showing pictures of the problems to the council, Long said the issues they identified include concrete and pavement cracking, limited storm drainage, joint sealing problems and some surface deterioration.
In how to do the project and pay for it, Long said he came up with three different phases for that. The first phase would be the east-west portion of Muirfield Road for about $208,100; the second phase would be half of Porthcawl for an estimated $110,700; and the third phase would be the remainder and the cul de sac for approximately $85,000. Board member Robert Swanson later suggested the project start with the inner-most portion and cul de sac and work its way out toward South CR 275E, which Long said was a feasible idea.
The project consists of fixing the roads, including widening them from 24 to 28 feet, and adding curbs and gutters.
After further discussion about the project and how to pay for the approximate $403,800 cost – using a combination of Wheel Tax, Economic Development Income Tax and other dollars – the council approved for Long to advertise for bids to be presented at the April 19 council meeting. The bid opening would take place the Friday before the council meeting.
The council also opened a bid from Advance Disposal for the town’s refuse and recycling collection, and will award the bid at its April meeting. The company is the town’s current vendor.
Advance Disposal’s bid for weekly garbage collection was $12,960.18 a month, and for weekly collection of recyclables was $7,523.70 a month. Its alternate bid was for picking up the refuse every week at $12,960.18 and picking up recyclables every other week for $6,876.50.
“They also proposed that we go to a Tote system. They would provide the Totes for both the trash and recycling so each resident would each get a trash Tote and a recycling Tote,” Allebach explained after the meeting.
In other business:
• The part-time position in the clerk-treasurer’s office will be split into two with Karen Cripe filling the new second part-time position. She will be paid $15 an hour. Along with Clerk-Treasurer Kent Adams, the office also has two other full-time positions.
• The council approved for Town Marshal Paul Schmit to replace a police vehicle that was damaged in an accident earlier this year. The two bids came in at $28,225.18 from Kerlin and $28,600 from Rice Ford, and the council approved the Kerlin bid because it was the lowest.
• Upcoming events in Winona include: Pi Day 5K, Winona Lake Park, Saturday, 9 a.m.; World Compassion Network 5K, Winona Lake Park, March 26, 10 a.m.; Easter Egg Hunt, Winona Lake Park, March 26, 2 p.m.; and Limitless Park Community Build, April 23, 8 a.m.
• The council approved voiding a check for $98.80 to Big R Stores, which was written Dec. 17, 2013, but never cashed. The State Board of Accounts allows municipalities to void checks if they are not cashed after 2-1/2 years.
