Hebron focuses on rebuilding infrastructure

Council President Don Ensign said the past year was a good one for taking care of a few long-standing problems, and, if the money is available in the coming year, the council hopes to continue those upgrades.

The 2011 projects included replacing the water lines on Washington Street. Ensign said, "That's something that for the past couple of years has been a problem with constant breakage in the winter."

Construction of a lift station on Oak Court will take care of drainage problems Ensign said have existed for years. The upgrading of another lift station, this one on Monroe Street, started in 2011 but wasn't completed until earlier this year because of all the wet weather last year. It was enlarged and increased to three pumps to handle all the water.

"That will be a huge improvement for the area and one of the things we wanted for the west side for the Ganz subdivision," he said.

The town's redevelopment commission added gateway signs and, earlier this year, way-finding signs to go with the decor of the new streetlights installed as part of the Main Street project.

Ensign said the council will take things slow to start the year until it can figure out the impact of the property tax caps. Although it will be in "a maintain and save" mode, if the funds are available later in the year, he said the council would like to install the north end sewer extension to the properties annexed in the past few years.

"The HRC (Hebron Redevelopment Commission) has sought requests for quotes on an engineering study for that project," he said. "We've got a lot of work that needs to be done with upgrading the infrastructure, like the sewer plant and the water tower at the north end that is not being used because of the repairs it needs.

"We don't need (the water tower) now, but, if development comes to that area, we will have to rehabilitate it and get it back in operation."

The other "dream" project is the proposed new Town Hall/community center. Ensign said the town will meet early this year with officials in Porter Township and Hebron schools as well as the town of Winfield to see if they are interested in partnering on the community center project, which could include a pool.

"I want to see if people are interested enough to build that intergovernmental group needed to get it going," he said. "It's still my dream, but it could boost the whole area if it could happen."