Chesterton residents will pay higher motor vehicle license registration fees effective Jan. 1 as the Town Council deals with the fallout from property tax changes made by the state legislature last year.
The Town Council on Monday unanimously approved the increased fees, which means customers will pay $25 more per motor vehicle and $40 more in wheel taxes for commercial vehicles like trucks or buses.
The new wheel taxes will generate an increase of $344,732 annually, which the town can only use for street paving.
Town Clerk-Treasurer Courtney Udvare has calculated that the town is going to have a total of $1.6 million less in property tax revenue from this year through 2028, due to the changes made by the state legislature.
Council President Erin Collins, D-2nd, said that they could have approved the wheel tax increase at the last council meeting, but wanted to give the public time to respond. No one came to Monday’s council meeting to speak on the issue.
Councilwoman Jennifer Fisher, R-5th, said that while people don’t like tax increases, the public has been understanding about the town’s funding challenges.
“I really thank our community for their support, contributing so they can make sure that we can pave our roads,” Fisher said. “It does take a village. We thank you.”
Councilman James Ton, R-1st, said that the town also had to raise the wheel taxes because of the possibility that the town wouldn’t qualify for state Community Crossing grant funds if it didn’t raise the fees.
In other business, Chesterton Police Chief Tim Richardson said that there have been discussions with the other police chiefs in Porter County about the upcoming consolidation of Chesterton and Porter with the Porter County E 911 system.
Richardson said that it’s been agreed that another separate channel will be added to the 911 system to handle the radio traffic from the Duneland towns of Chesterton, Porter and Burns Harbor and other smaller communities.
So far, the most obvious change is that there is more radio traffic but that’s to be expected, Richardson said. Since April 1, the Porter County E 911 operators have held onto and not transferred 911 calls to the Chesterton/Porter joint dispatch center.
“We’re in the infancy stages of how this is all going to happen,” Richardson said, regarding negotiations with Porter County officials over when the dispatch center for Chesterton and Porter police departments will close and there is a full switch to Porter County E 911.
Meanwhile, a major section of the Prairie Duneland Trail through Chesterton will be closed between Jackson Street and Pearson Road so that it can be repaved.
The trail resurfacing will kick off the street repaving planned for the town this year. Chesterton and Porter have a joint project to repave S. 23rd Street this year.
Assistant Street Superintendent Dan Moy said the town will be using $306,528.06 from the town’s Tax Increment Finance (TIF) funds to repave five north-south streets — 10th through 14th —
between Broadway and Porter Avenue this summer.
Moy said they are “among the worst” for wear in town.
The council also gave its formal approval of a settlement with Olthof Homes, which will pay $38,500 to the town from a 2022 case for stormwater violations found at the Springdale subdivision construction site. Olthof Homes successfully challenged a $100,000 penalty levied by the town in the Indiana Court of Appeals, so a lower fine was negotiated between the two parties.
Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
