Culver Elementary School Parking Lot

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CES Parking Lot Milled for Repaving

Best to start this out saying these are observations about which I’ve been too lazy to research. These are just what I’ve observed from my vantage point across the street.

Currently, Culver Community School Corporation is in the process of replacing paving at the elementary school and middle/high school. The paving is being ground off and (I assume) new asphalt will be installed. I understand that part of the paved area at the elementary school will be repurposed as playground with a new playground surface in lieu of asphalt.

When the elementary school lot was revised and repaved a couple of decades ago, it included landscape islands with small patches of grass and trees. To the school’s credit, they planted trees of significant size, but after the first year, care for these trees waned. Over the years, a few died and were left standing as skeletons. Eventually, these were cut down along with the remaining live trees, which frankly, were not doing well.

Former CES Island with curb cut flush and filled with gravel

The maintenance of the islands declined and eventually, a couple of years ago, the school cut the curbs flush with the pavement, stripped the topsoil and filled the area in with compacted limestone, effectively adding this area to the impervious surface and gaining a half dozen parking spaces.

This was sad as the islands effectively broke up the pavement and the trees would have eventually provided some respite from the hot black asphalt. It’s always interesting that during the hotter parts of the school year, some teachers will park on our side of Slate Street under the shade of our trees and walk a bit farther, rather than having their cars cooking on the CES parking lot.

Demolishing Remaining Curbs

The current project appears to be removing the islands completely. This shouldn’t be an impervious surface issue if the new playground area is a pervious surface. It is an aesthetic and functional issue. The islands broke up the expanse of asphalt. The trees looked nice and gave scale to the building. I realize that the islands hindered efficient snow removal, but it would have been nice to preserve them and to replace the trees. I’m sure the Tree Commission could have worked out something to include them in their planting plan.

Buried Catch Basin Inlet

I’m also curious what is to be done with the existing drywells. No inlet protection is being used, so they are becoming further clogged. I’m hopeful that remediation of these is part of the plan. To be effective, they need to be cleaned and I don’t believe they have been since installation.

This is an example of how my blog blathering helps me track time, since I was able to find where I had brought this up before, clear back in 2009! Ha! I recall watching the brick masons for the gym addition setting up their saw and cutting bricks directly over the drywell with no inlet protection whatsoever… Interestingly, the storm water project mentioned in the article in 2009 was completed, but it didn’t include any connections to the school’s system. Currently the drywells overflow, the parking lot fills and excess runs out the lot entrance and surface flows to the Lake Shore Drive storm water catch basins.

The two large trees at the south end of the parking lot were planted at the same time as the island trees. If they’d been nurtured, the island trees would have been similar size by now.

Culver’s Electronic Sign Spoke to Me!

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On my way into the office this morning I noticed the cute little Lakefest signs along School Street. Of course, I wondered if Lakefest was on the electronic sign, since all I had seen on my way past it was the day and date. (See right)

So I looped back to see what was on the sign:

  • Slide #1 – Monday; July 3
  • Slide #2 – 7:10am; 66 degrees
  • Slide #3 – Farmer’s Market Schedule
  • Slide #4 – Don’t Give Up

So, I was a bit upset that the biggest event on the Culver Calendar is this month and it’s not on the sign, but then wait… “Don’t Give Up”!? Was the sign speaking to me? Ha!

For my lurkers, I’ve been harping on the sign not living up to it’s charter, let alone it’s potential for months now. I’m more tactful in public as I don’t want to offend those in charge, but I still think it would be great to see Lakefest on the Culver Sign and repeated on the other Stellar signs in Argos, Bourbon, Bremen, Lapaz and Plymouth.

So, with the encouragement of the sign itself, I decided to put out another post, encouraging the Town to make better use of this asset. Lakefest is a Culver event that should be drawing visitors from around the County, so it really should be on all the signs this month.

To some extent I understand this responsibility should fall on the Visit Marshall County, but unless the communities step up, it won’t happen. If each took responsibility to spread their respective events, this would (well should) take hold. Lets make it happen, people! Do it for the Sign!

MCEDC Annual Report

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Great to see that Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) is back on track with Annual Reports. (And not just because of my teeny-tiny picture on the cover! Ha!) Riverside Commons actually has two references in the report, though not by name.

The lack of an Annual Report was one of the major issues in my last couple of years on the board. It got contentious with that director fabricating a false schedule for producing a report that never happened. Then it was apparently just completely disregarded by the next director. I’m glad to see that the new leadership under Greg Hildebrand includes living up to commitments, the Annual Report being one of these.

I don’t know how Greg is doing on the State and National levels, but on the local level, it’s been refreshing to have a MCEDC President that is not constantly burning bridges, MIA or joked about due to the inability to contact them or find them in the office. He also doesn’t take his title too seriously. IYKYK This will go a long way to improving MCEDC’s image and returning it to the mission it had when it was founded.

I hope we will be seeing quarterly newsletters again too. The organization has to be seen and seen as productive in order to continue to move the county forward. Even at its low points, I felt it was positive for Marshall County to have MCEDC. Good luck to Greg as he strives to make it an organization of which we can be proud once again.

Electronic Sign Update

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Culver Sign

Well, following up on my previous sign posts (Pun Intended), there was some improvement around graduation with some good info on schools and congratulatory posts, but that ended rather quickly. We’re back to Date & Time, Affirmations and the Farmer’s Market.

I didn’t see anything about LaPaz’s Sesquicentennial celebration last weekend. There’s been nothing about the Mayor’s Months of Music kicking off at River Park Square in Plymouth. I know there are a lot of other things going on throughout the County we could share.

Locally we have a concert at the park on Saturday. The Park has a movie night on June 23rd. We have calls for Miss Maxinkuckee entrants. The library has programs almost weekly. It’s never too soon to start promoting Lakefest coming up July 14th. There is no reason to ever see the Date & Time on that sign! Ha!

Crosswalks

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At the Culver Town Council meeting this Tuesday, Don Fox made a presentation on Make My Move. It’s an interesting pilot program to encourage full-time remote workers to relocate to Indiana. Culver is a participant in the pilot program and already has someone interested.

Crossing sign on Lake Shore Drive at the Beach Lodge

Later, under public input, Don again spoke. He first commended the Council for their wisdom for installing the crosswalk markers in the middle of Lake Shore Drive at the Beach Lodge, Osborn’s Mini Mart and The Lakehouse Grille. He then requested they consider adding these at State Street, Washington Street and Madison Street.

It was quickly pointed out that the crossing at State Street was included in the original sign placement, but it quickly became apparent that it interfered with the ingress/egress of fire trucks at the fire station. Someone in the audience extrapolated this to be a problem if a sign was installed at the Madison Street crossing due to the narrowing of the street in this area created with the landscape/traffic islands. This also devolved into a conversation about whether this would require a sign ordinance reference or if it was exempt since it was State Law. At that point it was tabled until the next meeting.

Shark Teeth at the Intersection of Harrison Street and Center Street in Plymouth

Culver’s traffic is not unique, but it is often comprised of a mix of locals that know the area and visitors, both motorists and pedestrians, that are not as familiar with the area. One suggestion I would put forward in lieu of the center-of-the-road signs is to use Shark Teeth as an added reminder. (See left) They serve two purposes: 1) Providing a visual cue that there is a crosswalk and 2) Providing a visual cue for where to stop when there is a pedestrian in the intersection.

Nothing is free, so even though it’s just paint, there would be some cost for installation and maintenance. These will not work for snow covered roads, but at that point, you can’t see the crosswalk either! Also, the Town only has the the yellow center-of-the-road signs up Spring through Fall, since they would be destroyed by snow plows in the winter. To the best of my knowledge, Shark Teeth have not been used within the Town of Culver, but they were installed by INDOT on S.R. 10 at the crossings to the Academies sports fields. Unfortunately those are currently an example of what they look like when they aren’t maintained…

The ones in the picture above are from Plymouth, IN and I believe they are on one of their Safe Routes to School. I will say that when I first ran across them, I slowed to try and figure out what they were, but had to look it up later to actually know. I’ve also been behind people in Culver that have seen the little yield sign on the center-of-the-road signs and stopped… even though there were no pedestrians anywhere near the crosswalk… Education is an important component of any plan. But just some slowing and extra attention is the point, isn’t it?

I’m sure there will be other ideas, but this seems to be an economical and efficient solution.