Huntingburg Council: Overpass plans and discussion next month
Huntingburg residents will be able to view and comment on plans for the railroad overpass project at a public meeting in October.
On October 1, preliminary plans and environmental impact documents for the overpass will be available at the City Hall, 508 E. Fourth St., for interested residents.
Then, on Thursday, October 15, the City of Huntingburg, Indiana Department of Transportation and engineering firm DLZ will hold a public meeting at the Huntingburg Event Center at 6 p.m. Residents can view the plans and provide input or comments on the overpass construction.
The project includes construction of a new bridge on Styline Drive over Norfolk Southern Railway and 12th Street with a total length of .83 miles.
According to Mayor Denny Spinner, the meeting will not be a question and answer session but comments from the public will be taken and discussion time will be available before and after the presentation. The group will continue to take comments until October 29 and then respond to those comments after they are reviewed.
The project was announced in June of 2013 and at the time was expected to be completed by 2018.
The council also heard that the city has received four responses for requests for proposals for the Market Street Park project.
The council approved the formation of a committee comprised of Mayor Spinner, Director Of Communication & Community Development Rachel Steckler, Stellar Committee member Corey Menke, Huntingburg Park Board President Mike Fulkerson, and Councilman Glen Kissling to review the proposals and score them according to a set of criteria.
The scoring will be used to choose the firm the City will hire for the project. That decision is expected to occur in October.
The Market Street Park project is funded through the Office of Community and Rural Affairs through the Stellar Communities Program.
Once the firm is selected, a definite timeline for completion of the park will be determined. “If all things go as well as they could, this is a project that could be under construction by late spring or early summer of 2016,” Spinner said.
The council also took the following actions at the meeting.
—Approved the budget for 2016 with an advertised tax rate of $1.5925 per $100 assessed value. The budget will be up for adoption at the October 8 council meeting. Huntingburg Clerk/Treasurer Thomas Dippel reported to the Council that this is what will be advertised rate, based on a conservative Net Assessed Valuation for the City of $130 million. The actual assessed value is expected to be near $160 million, which could result in the final tax rate being $1.1708 per $100 assessed value. The final rate will be determined when the actual assessed value numbers are received in late January.
—Approved the 2016 Salary Ordinance for city employees. The ordinance will be up for final approval at the October 8 council meeting. The ordinance increases wages by 1 percent across the board and up to 1.5 percent with a .5 percent bonus based on performance evaluations.
—Approved trick-or-treat hours for Saturday, October 31, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
