Work may begin soon on improvement projects on Central Avenue and Stagecoach Road, and city officials are exploring ways to beef up an area that could see support a few new homes.
City Project Manager Sandy McDaniel said Tuesday at the Board of Public Works and Safety meeting that Portage has won a $900,954 grant from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s Community Crossings grant program. The fund will match the same amount the city has to invest in repaving and resurfacing Central Avenue, from Willow Creek Road east to Hamstrom Road and a stretch of Stagecoach Road, from roughly the Harbor Oaks subdivision north to U.S. 12.
“Basically, we applied for the fund, and we received everything we asked for,” McDaniel said.
The board of works and safety awarded the work to Walsh and Kelly two weeks ago, and the city is finalizing details of the work with the firm, she said.
About a quarter of the work on Central Avenue will be more extensive, with crews breaking up the existing road and replacing even a sub-base, while other parts of the project will involve resurfacing, McDaniel said.
The timing of the work, especially the more extensive work on Central Avenue, still must be worked out, she said.
More Top Picks Hammock Stand
“Work could begin this year on Central Avenue, but I don’t want to be stuck in the middle of winter with the road cut open,” McDaniel said.
The resurfacing projects can start earlier, she added.
The board also voted to transfer a relatively small area, roughly 280 feet by 280 feet, around the former Crisman Elementary, on the corner of Portage Avenue and Crisman Road, from the city to the Redevelopment Commission. Through a number of legal maneuvers, the city has owned the property since about 2012.
There has been “some interest” in developing the property, but the Redevelopment Commission first must make it more attractive to a developer, likely by putting in some infrastructure, said Mayor James Snyder.
“It’ll sit there forever if we don’t so something to make it reasonable for development,” he told the board.
The infrastructure might include a north-south street or an alley, and the commission will work with city planners to come up with a conceptual plan on how to use the property, said one city official
Now that is has the property in its possession, the commission can authorize advertising the property for sale.
In other business, the board set Oct. 22 as the date for a city auction at the street department headquarters, 2303 Hamstrom Road. The board also set the city’s official Halloween trick-or-treat hours for 5:30-7:30 p.m. Oct. 31.