The Water Street Townhomes project is starting to lease up. Two of the new tenants have personalized the front patios with furniture, flowers and in one case, lights. Very nice! I want to go down there some Friday evening and see how they fare with the Mayor’s Summer of Music in River Park Square. The Water Street Townhomes patios should be prime listening spots!
I spent a little time there before a meeting pulling some weeds in the beds. The cooler wet Spring has allowed the landscaping to become established. I’m hoping it didn’t suffer too much through the heat we’ve been having. Things are looking good and I am hopeful that the Creeping Thyme will fill the tree lawns and put on a vibrant display next Spring. What i can’t figure out is how to stop the birds from dive-bombing and pooping on the back wall! What’s up with that!?
View of Water Street Townhomes from the roof of The Heartland Art Center shows the solar panels on the roof
We haven’t gotten the final software connections made on the solar panels yet, so I’m eagerly waiting to see the effects on the electric bills. Things are set up for tenants to pay the difference. If things work like they were sold, tenants should mostly be without electric costs in the shoulder months… unless they are big bakers… Ha! The units are all electric, so that should be a plus for them. All of the residential units have supplemental solar. The solar panels are mostly invisible from the ground, but Brent Martin from SRKM Architecture took the picture to the right from the roof of The Heartland Arts Center. He is the Architect for that renovation project as well as the Architect for Water Street Townhomes.
There was supposed to be a sister project, Spirit Townhomes in Culver, but the Town Council withdrew support, instead pursuing other projects.
Other than some subcontractor/supplier delays, this was a good project. I’m happy to see some progress towards the project leasing up and supporting itself.
While never an actual employee, Jackye was an integral part of the ECC supporting cast. She would run errands, pick up supplies, help with entertaining clients and hosting company gatherings. While Larry Berger ran the company, Jackye was a stay-at-home mom. Larry was fortunate to be able to walk home for lunch most days, so he was able to spend lunch hour breaks with her. She served as a reassuring break from what was often a stressful job.
As outlined in her obituary, Jackye was also very involved in her community, volunteering and and serving on multiple boards and service entities. Her willingness to give of her time, knowledge and talents had an outsized effect on the Culver community.
Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease and the ECC family was saddened to watch her decline.
There will be a Celebration of Life this Summer when Larry returns to Culver, date yet to be determined. For those so inclined, her family requests in memoriam donations to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Easterday Construction Co., Inc. is proud to have achieved STEP Silver status again in 2025. We always strive for safety and we’re pleased to receive the recognition for it.
I have to admit to not being up on all the rules about trees in Culver, but I definitely have a lot of confusion about enforcement. Several years ago (14+) one of the 100-year-old (or more) Oak trees in from of Easterday Construction received the Tree Commissions red mark of death. (Also an old wild cherry tree a little further north, that I didn’t care too much about.) At the time, I went to a Tree Commission meeting and was told this was due to a large branch that hung over the road and was a danger to vehicles. I protested that the branch was healthy, and they said I probably shouldn’t worry about it, since they didn’t have the budget to take it down anyway. They didn’t do tree trimming at that time, so it was a case of live or die for an old friend. I made my plea for life as best I could. I also made a donation to get a couple of replacement trees. (The only one that lived was the one they mistakenly planted on the adjacent property instead of at ECC!)
Since that time, the Oak tree has lived through several butcherings by NIPSCO tree trimmers for non-existent line interference, but fortunately it has remained healthy. Like all trees of that age, there has been, and there is currently, some minor deadwood, but that’s what trees do.
Face Palm
Last week, without any heads-up this time, they came out and removed that limb. They didn’t trim it, they took it back to the trunk. If I’d been given any heads-up, I would have gotten a “before” picture, but I didn’t know anything about what they were doing until the chainsaws were buzzing… They did leave me the sickly Wild Cherry Tree though… <sigh>
The tree is probably in jeopardy at this point due to this limb removal. It is the nearest to the camera in the picture (southernmost). Because it is in a cluster of three trees, most of it’s growth has been on the south side. Now it is distinctively top heavy to the south and west. Pretty sure the crew doing the trimming weren’t licensed arborists…
Despite the fact that this limb was never a problem in the 10+ years since it was designated a problem, it’s gone now. If the concern was damage to vehicles on the street, why didn’t they remove any of the deadwood that is there while they were removing the healthy parts? Aren’t the trees overhanging and shading the streets are one of the charms of Culver? <heavy sigh>
I found all this interesting, since we just had Emerson Wells from IU here this year and there was a lot of talk about preserving our tree canopy. While a couple of small trees have been planted at the Little League diamond, they hardly make up for the ones the school removed from the parking lot on the other side of the street. The north end of Slate Street could stand some tree additions rather than removals… There are a couple of unhealthy trees in this block of Slate Street, so it’s tough to understand spending the limited Tree Commission dollars to put one of the healthy ones in peril.
On a tangent, a truck took out the trees in front of 412 Lake Shore Drive a few years back. I was told that only one of the two could be replaced because of the proximity to the alley. I argued that a bit since it was just a dead end alley mostly serving two houses and there had been a tree there for decades, but to no avail. “Sight Distance” requirements would have been violated. So how is a new tree being planted at the NW corner of school street and Hwy 10, a much busier intersection? I’m left scratching my head…
I know there’s “a plan”, but but it’s pretty hard to discern. Government is not at it’s best when it is working mysteriously. I was at the last two Tree Commission meetings and this was not brought up. It was kind of lonely in the audience there, so there’s no doubt that it could have been. They know me. Such is life. Fingers crossed that my tree friend survives this. Time will tell…
The Water Street Townhomes project in Plymouth is moving right along. The exterior framing is complete. Most of the doors and windows have been installed, except the storefront aluminum windows and entrances for the commercial space. The roofing is underway. (You can see the materials placed on the roof in the picture to the right.) Plumbing Rough-in is underway. We’re building the interior stairs.
Mayor Listenberger gave me permission to take pictures from the Council Chambers windows, so I get the aerial photos like this one without purchasing a drone. (Though a drone purchase is on the list. Ha!)
The project has been taking a beating on Facebook! And to think I accused Culver of having the most active CAVE Society in Marshall County! I found some amusement in these comments:
The project is hurting downtown businesses by closing the parking lot. (We didn’t close it until after Christmas. It will be back open before next Christmas. There’s a MACOG study showing that downtown Plymouth has twice the parking needed. The parking lot will have more spaces when we’re done.)
The project will not be affordable. Latest, highest rent number I’ve seen in the comments is $5k per month for one of the townhomes, though others are saying it is housing for illegal immigrants and there will be multiple families in each unit. Hmmmm… “Multiple” sounds like more than two, so three families in each unit at $2,500 cash per family tops that $5k per month projection!
And I particularly liked this exchange between two people in the comments:
Person 1 – “Do we really need this!?”
Person 2 – “We just went through a housing study that says we need an additional 1,300 dwelling units in Marshall County.”
Person 1 – “Then what good will 14 units do!”
Person 2 – “It’s a start!”
The City administration and Common Council have been supportive of this project. I attended a Downtown Merchants’ Association meeting last year and they were also supportive. I participated in two housing studies, one by United Way of Marshall County and one by MACOG, both or which came to similar conclusions about the need for additional housing. I’m pretty confident this will be a positive addition to Plymouth.
