FLINT â An encroachment variance was the best option that Steuben Lakes Regional Waste District could come up with for a Little Otter Lake property owner.
Superintendent Bryan Klein allowed property owner Theresa Steele to run her line from her grinder pump to the road on Steeleâs property at Lane 150 Little Otter Lake in rural Fremont.
Steeleâs request was to have the line run under her deck, which is on blocks, to the road.
âHer property is 70 to 80% wetlands,â Klein said during a meeting of the SLRWD Board of Trustees on Wednesday. âItâs difficult to really do anything here.â
CLEAR LAKE â The Clear Lake Township Land Conservancy is one of 18 organizations that received a $4,000 NIPSCO Environmental Action Grant on Wednesday.
Each organization receiving a grant applied earlier in the year. To date, the program has awarded $370,000 to help 92 projects become reality across the northern portion of Indiana.
This yearâs projects include multiple wetland restoration projects, including the project at Clear Lake that will help restore the hydrology of a wetland on the west end of the preserve.
Clear Lake Township Land Conservancy Executive Director Bridget Harrison said over the last seven years, work has been ongoing to restore the preserve at Clear Lake to create opportunities for public access.
ANGOLA â Snow? Really?
After days of unseasonably warm temperatures earlier this month â warm enough to draw skiers out on the lakes â it will be time to break out the winter jackets and possibly snow blowers as an spring snowstorm might be headed toward northeast Indiana.
Rain and possibly some snow is in the forecast today before a storm that could bring 2 to 4 inches of heavy snow could be coming tonight, the National Weather Service Northern Indiana is predicting. This is almost a repeat of a year ago on April 17, 2020, when 3 inches of wet, heavy snow was recorded in Angola.
Officials with street and highway departments across the area where the chance of snow is 90% are returning plows to trucks.
ANGOLA â The Steuben County Highway Department will continue to evaluate its winter treatment mix, but for now will stay with the formula thatâs been used a few years.
The Highway Department treats roads with a mix thatâs two parts sand and one part salt, said Steuben County Highway Engineer Jen Sharkey.
The county uses this mix because of the cost of salt, which if a pure mix of salt were the only treatment, it would cost $820 per 10-ton load, she said at Tuesdayâs meeting of the Steuben County Board of Commissioners.
The current mixture of 2:1 sand to salt costs about $320 per 10-ton load. If the county were to go with 1:1, it would be $435 per 10 tons.