Mint farmer, Mike Materna, of Hamlet, will be sentenced in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, October 5th. He plead guilty to one count of Discharge of Pollutants without a Permit in violation of the Clean Air Act. He reportedly admitted in court that he discharged hot water into a ditch without the proper permit.
When Ted Bombagetti was named the Emergency Management Agency Director, his appointment wasn’t without conditions. One such condition was that he monitor and file paperwork for various grants for the county. Bombagetti appeared before the county commissioners last week to give them an update on his success.
Starke County Highway Superintendent, Steve Siddall told WKVI News that Bridge #156 over the Robbins Ditch at Range Road and 400 North is scheduled to go into the construction phase soon. Bids will be opened for construction work on August 4th.
Some immediacy was put on this bridge after it was closed because it is so heavily used by farmers. The fall season is a critical time for moving grain. The County Commissioners put a priority tag on #156 for this reason.
Engineering for the project is being done by Butler-Fairmont and Seufert, with Ken Minot, the representative.
Once construction begins, the bidder has 80 days to complete the work on the bridge.
President Barack Obama has approved 32 counties for federal public assistance for damage sustained by severe weather that began April 19th. Starke County was the only county listed from Northern Indiana that will be receiving funding.
Public assistance means state and local governments and certain non-profit organizations in the designated counties are eligible to apply for federal assistance to pay 75 percent of the approved cost of debris removal, emergency services related to the disaster and repairing or replacing damaged public facilities, such as roads, buildings and utilities.
Governor Mitch Daniels has issued a disaster emergency for 34 counties due to severe weather that caused widespread damage to homes, businesses and public property beginning April 18th.
Affected counties experienced flooding, damaged roads, downed power lines and other severe damage. The Executive Order includes Starke County, which is the only county in the northern part of the state to be included. Starke County EMA Director, Ted Bombagetti, told WKVI that the levee break on the Robbins Ditch was included in the claim along with a levee break by the Kankakee Fish and Wildlife area outside of North Judson.
The Starke County Commissioners made a decision to move forward with repairs to Bridge #156 over the Robbins Ditch at 400 North and Range Road. The heavily traveled bridge was recently closed by an emergency order.
The State had approved a plan to rebuild the bridge but that would have meant two years of the structure being down.
Starke County Highway Superintendent, Steve Siddall, briefed the Commissioners and public Monday as to the damage done due to the levee break last week on the Robbins ditch.
“It broke out Thursday morning sometime and we were notified,” said Siddall. “The water had come across 400 North and then to the south of that on Range Road. Both roads took a pretty good beating. We’re looking at a lot of damage. $10,000 in damage is a rough estimate. I haven’t been up there because we’re trying to let things dry up. We weren’t able to open up Range Road up to 400 North on Friday by putting stone down as the road was impassable. We just barely made it across Friday to put stone down.”
Starke County Highway Superintendent Steve Siddall reports that the Robbins Ditch at 400 North and Range Road in Starke County has overflowed its banks and has flooded the road and surrounding fields. The road is closed until further notice.
Photos provided by Becky Pulver of Brems. Continue reading
