Published: July 01, 2008 09:09 am      

Brownsburg residents, Council frustrated with construction

by Brian Kern



BROWNSBURG — Despite several tense moments, cooler heads appeared to prevail on Thursday evening as Brownsburg residents expressed their concerns and frustrations to Town Council members who say that they simply don’t have the answers. The conflict centers around road construction in mass on several main arteries running through the town and resultant traffic delays and difficulties suffered by frustrated residents within the Lake Ridge subdivision. They allege poor communication between the state, town and county in planing simultaneous construction that has three key stretches of road closed within the town.

The road is completely closed at 56th street between Northfield Drive and CR. 1000 E due to a schedule town maintenance project. That in addition to lane restrictions on S.R. 267 that extend all the way to the I-74 interchange and the closer of C.R. 900 E. between C.R. 600 and C.R. 700 N. Town Council members say that those two projects are managed at the state level by the Indiana Department of Transportation and that they have little control in the timelines that correspond with them.

That was not the answer Lake Ridge home owners were hoping for as they grilled the town council both during and after the meeting for answers with respect to the construction timeline.

“The thing is that the Town Manager’s schedule is so packed that if you don’t create tension, you won’t get answers,” Lake Ridge resident Chad Sriram said. “We represent 10 percent of the Brownsburg population so we have to matter.”

Sriram made his way to the podium after the Council opted not to respond to public comments made by the Lake Ridge Home Owner’s Association President requesting that the Council provide a timeline for project completion and status updates as construction continues.

Members of the Council uncomfortably urged Sriram to schedule a meeting with Town Manager Jim Waggoner and to get Waggoner and county officials in the same room to hash things out. Sriram relented and the meeting adjourned with further discussion still occurring between he and several council members.

Lake Ridge resident Kiran Fuller was disappointed with the meeting’s outcome and said that repeated calls to Waggoner’s office by she and other Lake Ridge residents have gone unanswered. “We were trying not to take the angry villager approach and we were hoping for just the courtesy of some sort of response,” Fuller said. “I was really disappointed at the way they shrugged us off.”

Waggoner says that the current construction situation is not ideal for anyone. “We are pushing contractors so hard it’s a wonder that they don’t walk off,” he said. “The timing is not good for any of this and it wasn’t to our choosing that this happened, however, it will be over soon.”

Officials are hopeful that the 56th Street construction project will be completed by September 1.

brian.kern@flyergroup.com