Homeowners at Heritage Lake to pay for resurfacing

A small group of Heritage Lake homeowners has decided not to wait any longer to have its roads resurfaced.

Property owners from seven cul-de-sacs in various parts of the Floyd Township community are planning to put up most of the money to have their streets chipped and sealed.

Calling themselves the Neigbors Road Repair Co-op, the group plans to pay $22,480 for the majority of the material to chip and seal approximately one mile of blacktop.

The material cost to Putnam County will be only $1,780 for stone, plus equipment and labor costs.

The effort is in no way associated with the Heritage Lake Property Owners Association (POA). It is an independent group of residents.

Additionally, county officials emphasized the project is the idea of the residents.

"I want everyone to understand this is a group of independent property owners reaching out to the county," Commissioner David Berry said.

The co-op has not yet collected all of its money, but the plan met with the general approval of the commissioners at their Monday evening meeting.

Property owner Jim McCreary has represented the group in discussions with the commissioners at each of their last two meetings. He said splitting up the cost over the property owners on all involved courts will be helpful.

"Our cost per family is going to be reasonable," McCreary said.

Not only is the project not associated with the POA, the effort is not even in one particular neighborhood. The seven involved cul-de-sacs are non-contiguous and spread over various parts of Heritage Lake.

The courts involved in the proposal are Concord Court West, Long Island Court, Rappahannock Court, Richmond Court, Jefferson Court, Bemis Heights Court and Anthony Wayne Court.

"I believe if you want to fix your problem, you have to step up and take part," McCreary told the commissioners in his original proposal.

The commissioners have taken generally the same attitude toward this proposal as the have to the Edgelea subdivision repaving, looking at county contributions as minimal in the face of residents' willingness to foot the bill.

The project does, however, differ from Edgelea greatly in scope. While the Edgelea project will entirely repave the roads and provide drainage, this effort will chip and seal existing surfaces.

As such, this project comes at a much smaller price tag than Egelea's $1.5 million and therefore has no bond issuance or special assessment attached to it.

Earlier in Monday's meeting, county attorney Jim Ensley reported that most of the paperwork surrounding the Edgelea project is completed and work could start later this summer.

In other news:

* Lean funding in the county highway department was discussed. The commissioners informed the highway supervisors that County Economic Development Income Tax funding to the department will be down approximately $200,000 from last year's number.

Co-supervisor Jim Smith said the department had been expecting that hit.

At current levels, Smith reported, monthly cash flow is not keeping up with monthly costs. The problem is that funding is spread out evenly over the year, but warm weather months come at the highest price, as they are most conducive to getting work done.

The department requested the ability to operate at a loss on a monthly basis, with the understanding that the end-of-year funds will be able to pay for all purchases.

The commissioners unanimously approved the request, knowing that highway administrative assistant Radene Varvel will keep a close eye on the funds.

* Smith reported that the Federal Highway Administration and INDOT will pay for repairs to Bridge 10 in Russell Township and Bridge 146 in Greencastle Township (the old Houck Iron Bridge).

The damages were sustained in April flooding.

* Greencastle-Putnam County Economic Development director Bill Dory reported that the county is beginning to see wheel tax funds show up in its coffers, which could help some of the highway funding shortfall.

* The commissioners appointed North Putnam High School Principal Alan Zerkel to the Putnam County Public Library Board.