Chesterton’s Utility Service Board is planning again to make a contribution to the town budget that would provide funds toward a pay raise for all town employees.
The board at its meeting Monday recommended that $970,000 be transferred to the town budget, up from $753,000 last year.
Nothing has been finalized, but the amount would allow the town to give an additional 2% and $1 per hour raise for town employees. Chesterton had tentatively figured a 2% pay raise for its 104 employees in its 2026 budget.
Board Chairman Larry Brandt said that Chesterton needs to value its employees as an asset and pay them a decent wage.
“It’s a moral imperative, I’m telling you. It’s a moral imperative,” Brandt said.
The Utility Board in 2021 made its first contribution to the town budget, which helped finance a 10% pay increase for town employees in 2022. Brandt said the town needed to do that then because Chesterton was lagging behind other communities and employees were leaving for better pay.
The board has also settled on a rate increase of 11.64% for the utility bill, which includes sewer, stormwater and trash pickup.
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The average utility bill would increase to $122.98 every two months from $110.16 for 10,000 gallons used, said Dave Ryan, the utility superintendent.
The Chesterton Town Council will have the last word on approving the rate increase.
Brandt noted that a rate study found that Chesterton is about in the middle of comparable communities when it comes to utility charges.
The board also approved a project costing at least $2.33 million that would refurbish the main 48-inch sewer line into the treatment plant.
Chesterton’s main line is about 100 years old. The project would involve placing a new 42-inch pipe in the line from Broadway to the plant off Woodlawn Avenue. What makes the project tricky is, the line goes underneath the railroad tracks.
The town will send $1.33 million to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to start the project.
There is a possibility that the project would extend to Porter Avenue at a higher cost.
John Schnadenberg, the town’s street superintendent and a utility board member, said it would be a better idea to do a project like this at one time.
Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.