By DAVE SCHULTZ
A section of the Interurban Trail will be closed off in mid-summer to allow Indiana Michigan Power to better supply electricity to Bluffton’s newest substation.
The city’s Board of Public Works and Safety, with some degree of reluctance, agreed to allow for the closing of the trail from Madison Street/Wells County Road 150N south to the area across from First Merchants Bank.
Chris Welbaum, a right of way agent from Actalent, a contract engineering services firm, represented I&M at the city’s Board of Works meeting Tuesday. He said the trail needed to be closed May 23 to May 26 and again from July 18 to Aug. 5, depending on the weather and any the variables.
Welbaum held open the slim possibility that the trail could be open in the evening and on weekends, but the optimum case for the workers would be to keep everyone off the trail until the work is completed.
Jon Oman, the city’s operations manager, pointed out the value of the upgrade I&M was making. “They’re bringing their feed to our north substation,” he said. “They’re doing us a service.”
He also noted something else: “It was only through an easement from them that we were able to build the trail in the first place.”
There is some concern that people who use the trail may attempt to walk around the closure, even moving onto Main Street/Ind. 1 to continue going north or south. While no one was encouraging that, Welbaum said the Indiana Department of Transportation had been contacted and a portion of Ind. 1 would be blocked off for traffic control.
The three Board of Works members — Mayor John Whicker, Scott Mentzer, and Roger Thornton — approved Welbaum’s request.
Also Tuesday, the board approved the hiring of the Christopher B. Burke engineering firm to guide the city through the beginning stages of establishing a stormwater utility.
Whicker said he had talked to Dan Rickord, the mayor of Decatur, and Rickord recommended the Burke company for the work. “He tells me they do a good job to manage their stormwater,” Whicker said.
daves@news-banner.com
