Town, utility work to get power at lift station, park

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Updated: January 20, 2012 10:57AM

HEBRON — The town’s northern residents shouldn’t have to worry about flooding for the foreseeable future.

The new storm sewer lift station that the city completed near Oak Court in September is now hooked up and ready to function properly.

The lack of power to the station, which serves the Park Place subdivision, and the lack of power to Alyea Park on Washington Street were both sources of complaints from Town Council members at their Tuesday meeting.

“We have homes that’ll be in jeopardy if there’s a storm,” President Don Ensign said about the lift station, which gets storm water over an incline.

Clerk-Treasurer Terry Waywood was also concerned about the safety of Alyea, which lost power in an August storm.

“We’re going to get vandalism in the park. It always happens when there’s no light,” Waywood said.

The council said the park has been on NIPSCO’s waiting list for months and Public Works Director Jim Shelhart and Waywood said they’d been calling NIPSCO’s Valparaiso office almost daily.

According to NIPSCO, the station had been on line before the Jan. 17 meeting, though.

Spokesman Nick Meyer said that much had to do with inaccurate specifications the town provided in spring before construction began. He said NIPSCO installed transformers Dec. 20 and had finished connecting the lift station Jan. 5, after it had the right specifications.

Meyer contacted the town Wednesday but only communicated directly with Waywood on Thursday. Waywood wasn’t available for comment Thursday evening.

Shelhart said, “It doesn’t matter when it was hooked up. It’s hooked up now; that’s all I care.”

Meyer said that NIPSCO had no record of a request to reinstate power to Alyea Park. The utility will work to improve communications with the town, “something we’re committed to improving with all the communities we serve,” Meyer said.

NIPSCO workers had been at the park Thursday and should have the park hooked up today, he said.