Structural repairs needed for Munster’s Centennial Park Clubhouse are on hold pending a possible legal remedy to pay for the work.
Beneath the building, built in 2006 at the former site of the Munster landfill on Calumet Avenue by Larsen-Danielsen Construction of LaPorte, unstable slag and backfill have caused a variety of structural problems, officials said. These include misalignment of the interior columns and the elevator shaft, and a portion of an exterior wall protruding outward at the western-facing base of the building.
Last year, the Munster Town Council approved an approximately $1.8 million bid to stabilize the interior columns and adjust the column lengths to level the second floor of the building. The estimated 12- to 14-week project included removal of 6 feet of slag fill and installation of micropiles around the interior basement columns.
However, town officials later put the repairs on hold while they explored a legal remedy to the situation, having engaged the Jefferson & Brewer and Barnes & Thornburg law firms.
Council President John Reed, R-1st, said that research is ongoing in terms of assigning responsibility for the structural defects and determining a course of action. If the town does file a lawsuit, recouping the cost of all repairs plus legal fees would be the likely intent, he said. But town officials can apparently proceed at their own pace.
“The clubhouse is not moving anymore,” Reed said. “But there’s no guarantee it won’t move again in the future.”
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Town Manager Dustin Anderson said the town has maintained normal operations at the clubhouse and the adjacent golf course and that there has never been any danger to the public.
“There are things in there that should be repaired,” he said. “We paid for a perfect building.”
Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.