It was standing room only last Tuesday for the monthly Crothersville Town Council meeting as residents of Main Street Circle filled the town hall seeking street lights and paving.
Main Street Circle at the eastern end of Main Street is the town’s most recent housing development established in 2001. At the time, developer Paul Scholl provided the, then, town board with plans to develop the empty field with up to 27 new homes.
However, before the subdivision was completed, the developer died.
Jim Martin, of 621 Main Street Circle, acted as spokesman for the group of about 20 residents.
“We’re here tonight to ask the town to accept the street so it can be paved and to install street lights,” he said. “Without street lighting the area is dark at night for the 23 children who reside in the neighborhood.”
He said to provide some level of safety, residents leave their porch lights on.
While supportive of the residents concerns, town council president Lenvel ‘Butch’ Robinson said more research needed to be done to determine if developer plans were approved by a previous council and if utilites and the street were installed to those specifications.
“This is something that happens frequently in small communities,” said town engineer Brad Bender. “Developers developing property, don’t finish, and there is no bond to cover any incompletion.”
Town attorney Jeff Lorenzo added that developers should post a performance bond at the start of beginning a development and after the utilities and streets are completed post a maintenance bond for three years before the governmental entity accepts the utilities as a part of the town system.
However, frequently small communities are so excited about new houses being built, those future legalities are overlooked or ignored in an effort to support additional residents coming to the community.
The council told the Main Street Circle crowd that they would study the matter, perhaps do some engineering tests, and have an answer on street, utility and street lights at their October meeting.
The council approved second reading of an ordinance to make it a fineable offense to mow grass and leave the resulting clippings in town streets. A public notice of the ordinance is found on page 6 of this edition of the Times.
“Grass clippings, leaves and other yard waste left in the streets and ditches cause a problem by clogging drains,” said Robinson. “The town has recently made great expense on improving storm water drainage and we don’t want that money to be wasted by yard waste plugging drains and culverts.”
The town determined that a significant portion of the debris in the streets results from residents leaving grass clippings, leaves and yard waste in streets when property maintenance is performed.
Residents who contract with a lawn mowing service are still responsible if the mowing contractor doesn’t clean clippings from the streets or alleys.
The first offense will result in a $20 fine, 2nd offense will cost $40; a third time will mean an $80 fine and any fourth or subsequent offense will cost the property owner $100.
In other matters, town engineer Brad Bender informed the council that the stormwater grant project has begun and that replacing three culverts in the west side of town will result in some traffic disruption.
Bethany Road will be closed approximately 10 days from Sept. 18-28 for the replacement of a larger box culvert to improve storm water drainage into Hominy Ditch.
He said after the Bethany Road culvert is installed and the street re-opened, culverts over Park and Kovener Streets will be replaced closing both of those streets at the same time for about 20 days while work is completed.
