by Kevin Nevers, December 19, 2016

At 7:56 a.m. today the temperature was -10 degrees in Chesterton, according to Intellicast; with an overnight low of -12 at 5:23 a.m.

Windchills were in the vicinity of -18 to -20.

Brisk, to be sure, but not quite the December record low of -19 set in 1989. In any case, both the Duneland Schools and Porter County government offices opened two hours late this morning on account of the cold.

Warming centers in Duneland are located at the Chesterton town hall, 726 Broadway; and the Burns Harbor town hall, 1240 W. Boo Road.

Temperatures are expected to rise steadily, however, with a high today of 16; a high of 28 on Tuesday; and thaw temperatures on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

NIPSCO

Meanwhile, the Northern Indiana Public Service Company reported a pair of outages early this morning–both weather related–which affected fairly large swaths of Duneland. Both occurred around 6:20 a.m. and were resolved shortly before 8 a.m., NIPSCO spokesman Nick Meyer said.

The first was located along the U.S. Highway 20/I-94 corridor and affected portions of Chesterton, Porter, and Portage, with 1,750 customers in the dark.

The second was located along Ind. 49 and affected portions of the west side of Chesterton, with 1,500 customers juiceless.

Early this morning, the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District was expecting delays of 10 to 15 minutes on multiple rush-hour trains “due to NIPSCO problems.”

Digging Out from the Snow

Town of Chesterton roadways were mostly clear this morning, after Saturday’s overnight snow dropped something like seven inches on Duneland, Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg told the Chesterton Tribune.

Schnadenberg’s plow drivers, though, have a bone to pick with residents who’ve been shoveling or blowing snow from their driveways and sidewalks back into previously plowed streets, in violation of Town Code.

“Our biggest complaint was numerous people piling the snow back into the roadway after we have plowed,” Schnadenberg said. “Water Tower Drive in Duneland Cove was to the point where we had to send a plow back to plow a second time because of snow being thrown in the roadway.”

Schnadenberg is mulling a solution to the problem, which may involve photographing evidence of the code violation, then later sending a citation to the offending resident.

Boil Advisory

In related news, the 24-hour boil-advisory issued by Indiana American Water Company (IAWC) around 3 p.m. Friday was duly lifted on Saturday, after test results confirmed no contamination in the system.

The boil-advisory was issued following the break of a 16-inch cast-iron water main in the area of Ind. 149 and U.S. Highway 12 in Burns Harbor. “Approximately 850 Indiana American Water customers in Northwest Indiana experienced low water pressure for a short period of time on Friday,” IWAC spokesman Joe Loughmiller told the Tribune. “Certain customers in Burns Harbor, Chesterton, Portage, South Haven, and Porter were notified of the need (utilizing our CodeRED emergency notification system to boil water for three minutes that would be used for consumption as a precautionary measure.”

“Customers in the affected area may have experienced cloudy or discolored water,” Loughmiller added. “If so, we advised them to open several cold water faucets until their water ran clear before using.”