Heritage Lake residents looking for road repairs

Thursday, May 21, 2009

For the past two months, residents from Heritage Lake have appeared at Putnam County Commissioners' meetings asking for help in getting nearly 30 miles of roads paved and repaired.

At last month's meeting, a group from the area presented an option for the county to take out a bond to pay approximately $3 million to pave the roads in the second largest populated area in Putnam County. They came again to Monday night's meeting to see if any other options were being considered by the commissioners to help repair roads at the lake.

"We don't have anything extra for anything," said Commissioner Gene Beck, explaining that the county had just lost $700,000 out of the county highway budget for this year.

Tom Pittman came to the last meeting to talk about the option of Heritage Lake creating an Economic Improvement District so they could tax themselves to pay for the necessary bond.

"Economic Improvement Districts (EID) are driven by members of an area who have an interest," Pittman said. "They have to be very actively involved."

Pittman reiterated his earlier presentation that explained the process to create the EID.

A petition has to be filed requesting the improvement district that has been signed by a majority of owners (51 percent). The petition has to include a detailed description of the project, cost estimates and a financial plan.

A three-member board must be set up, and two of the three must be property owners.

The creation of an Economic Improvement District can create revenue payable by assessments to property owners. Financing can be set over a long period of time to make payments more manageable.

"I feel the county owns the roads and is responsible for them," said Dan Antico, a member of the Heritage Lake Homeowners Association. "They haven't lived up to it except with the main road."

Beck said Heritage Lake wasn't the only area that was asking for help with roads, and that they also weren't the only ones being turned down for assistance.

"We just don't have the funds," he repeated, pulling out a large packet of letters from residents asking for road work. "All we can do right now is grind up the road and put it back to stone because we have no funds."

Lake residents told commissioners they planned to hire a consultant to do a study for them. Beck suggested they contact Wabash Valley Asphalt.

"They will come out and look at the roads and give you an estimate and they don't charge you for doing it," said Beck.

The commissioners offered additional information giving the amounts of money spent in all the county townships from May 2005 to May 2009. A total of $1.2 million was spent on roads during that time period.

Heritage Lake board members agreed to consider calling Wabash and getting some closer estimates, as well as talking to homeowners to see if they are willing to sign petitions.

They requested to be put on agenda for the commissioners' July meeting.

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  • What part of "no money" do these people not understand? The Cty. Hwy. is looking at lay-offs to lower expenses and Heritage Lake prop. owners want 3 million in road work. Maybe they should join the real world and realize with the economy ....... blah blah blah. I'm sure it won't sink in!

    -- Posted by workingmomoftwo on Thu, May 21, 2009, at 9:04 AM
  • THOSE PEOPLE??? THEY ARE CALLED TAXPAYERS JUST LIKE THE REST OF THE COUNTY. THEY PAY SOME OF THE HIGHEST TAXES IN PUTNAM COUNTY. ROADS HAVE TO BE FIXED !!!!!!

    -- Posted by skittlebug on Thu, May 21, 2009, at 9:24 AM
  • the roads that are around my home that i have to drive on daily are as bad or worse than heritage lake roads, and i pay some of the highest taxes too what do i do to get mine fixed they are still gravel, if that is what you call it, they half grade it and then put ever so slight amount of creek gravel on it so when it rains it is just mud.

    -- Posted by kamiller on Thu, May 21, 2009, at 9:36 AM
  • everyone wants their roads fixed, the county highway workers only do what roads they are told to fix, if you want a good road move to Mr. Beck's road; seems his road gets attention

    -- Posted by senior'08 on Thu, May 21, 2009, at 11:23 AM
  • Heritage Lake needs to stop living in their fantasy world. If you want taxpayer money for public roads, then you need to be open to the public, lake included. You want to keep to yourselves, then take care of everything yourselves. I live on a GRAVEL road were there are even two businesses, and there is a sinkhole that has now swallowed the sign warning of the sinkhole. When will that be fixed?

    -- Posted by purduegrad on Thu, May 21, 2009, at 3:06 PM
  • Again the issue is about COUNTY ROADS not the lake. I don't even live on the lake and haven't been fishing since I was 12. Purdue Grad, act like a grad with some sense.

    -- Posted by Harmony Church on Thu, May 21, 2009, at 3:39 PM
  • Hey there Purduegrad. Was that the University of Purdue Chicken you graduated from? Break the words down and sound them out if you have to, along with the other "authors" on this blog, who, by the way, from their lack of English skills are confusing Van Bibber Lake with Heritage Lake. We, at Heritage Lake have been paying the second highest percentage of taxes in the county. Part of that money was to keep our roads paved and in good repair. This money was above and beyond the property taxes. We had a "deal" with the county that the extra funds we had paid would be for that purpose. That never happened. Our "extra" funds collected got thrown into the county pot, and therefore, or roads were never completed. We'll label this a "default of an agreement". Now, what we, at the lake are saying, is, since we are a privately owned lake community, let us pay for our own road repairs through our yearly dues and then we are guaranteed that our roads will be repaired with our own money. Got that grad!

    -- Posted by lindam7766 on Thu, May 21, 2009, at 10:41 PM
  • Again, as I said before go to the Comm. meetings!! lindam7766 1.2 million dollars have been spent at Heritage Lake in the past 4 years. That is more (alot more) than spent on the other townships in our county. So, maybe you should not be paying the 2nd highest in taxes but the highest since the county has spent the most tax dollars in your township. Why the personal attacks? This is a place for opinions, sowhat a word is mispelled or grammer isn't correct. Does that make thier opinion less meaningful than your just because you live at Heritage Lake? I pray that you realize what life is really about, and you don't always get what you want because of where you live or what you have. Oh ya, I agree with purduegrad!!!

    -- Posted by workingmomoftwo on Fri, May 22, 2009, at 8:04 AM
  • Hey Harmony Church, ironic name huh! You must be a great christian for putting someone down for a misspelling. I'd be proud to be a member there! I also grew up on your "public roads" at Heritage Lake. And you cannot call them public. They are in your subdivision, leading to your PRIVATE lake. No one drives your roads, only those that live there. workingmomoftwo has done her homework! Way to go and use your common sense that most crybabies at the lake seem to have lost.

    -- Posted by purduegrad on Fri, May 22, 2009, at 1:42 PM
  • The roads were put in by the county to homes that pay county and some city taxes (depending on where you work). The county is responsible for them the same at HL as elsewhere. If that weren't enough, here are the expenses you pay for the privilege of being at Heritage Lake: Property Owners Association $210, Sewer Fees $150, Clear Creek Conservancy $200-ish, boat on water license $225. If you haven't paid those fees yearly, then you don't get to put a boat on the water. We don't require or refuse to sell to anyone; we are EO.

    Regarding if we need 10 sign jockeys and one worker filling or repaving roads that haven't been paved in 20 years more or less than other places in the county is a fair debate.

    -- Posted by Bubba99 on Wed, May 27, 2009, at 12:46 PM
  • I have been to Heritage Lake several times in the past couple months. I didn't notice any problem with the roads I drove on.Actually I thought they were in good shape and I came in to that area from different routes.There are so many roads in this county that need immediate attention. I use to live in a housing addition that had a membership fee yearly in Michigan and the money was used to repair streets and trim trees.It also had a lake that was open to the public and no one was charged to put a boat in it.Our taxes were not cheap by no means. What I did see at Heritage Lake that needs attention is a lot of homes in Heritage Lake that look run down and lawns not mowed which I was quite surprised. If I were living at Heritage Lake this would be a concern more at this time cause that runs down your property values.Who wants to buy a nice home and a lot near it with a house that looks like a dump.

    -- Posted by peace2019 on Thu, May 28, 2009, at 6:43 PM
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