Some Granger residents welcome plans for a new park on Anderson Road but not if those plans also mean building a county highway department garage at the same site.
St. Joseph County officials hope to change their minds.
The site is near Anderson Road’s intersection with Beech Road. The county parks board bought the land in 1999 but the county has never had the money to develop the park.
County commissioners have offered to give the parks board $2.7 million in American Rescue Plan money for the park, in exchange for a piece of the property to build a new highway department garage.
The garage would store road salt and have gas pumps for county vehicles to use.
People who live near the site say they fear a repeat of what happened at the highway department’s now-closed garage on Cleveland Road near the Indiana Toll Road. There, in the late 1980s and again in 2014, wells in Juday Creek Estates were found to be contaminated with chlorides from the salt.
The county had to supply the homes with reverse osmosis systems that filter out the chloride.
Project opponents spoke at Tuesday’s county commissioners meeting.
"Why are we risking the health of the Granger community when we have a terrible history with salt garages?" Sherwood Forest subdivision resident Emily Troush asked commissioners. "What would change with how the Anderson garage would be maintained? Why are you willing to risk our health, our drinking water and our quality of living?"
Stacia Skillman says she’s lived in Sherwood Forest, which is about a mile north of the site, for about 20 years. She says some Granger wells already have been contaminated by residential septic systems because of the area’s sandy soil and shallow water table.
"The soil there is horrific," Skillman said. "If contamination happens, it would be instant, all over everybody. Now I'm not rich. I don't have a (reverse osmosis) system. I don't have any kind of special water but the thing that most people drink. That's what I shower in. That's what I feed my animals. That's what I feed my children. That's the coffee I drink every day, and it's not going to serve us."
Skillman also questions the safety of children who would play at the new park.
County officials have said the highway garage would not be visible from Anderson Road, and the park would sit between the garage and the road. They’ve tried to convince neighbors that at the Cleveland Road garage, the salt piles were outdoors and exposed to rain. That led to the salt seeping into the ground water. The new facility would be built to meet environmental standards that are now stricter.
Commissioners Tuesday announced they’ll host a public meeting April 27th at 6 p.m. at Granger Missionary Church, where they will detail those plans.
Dan Schaetzle, the county council member who represents that part of Granger, supports the project. He says County Engineer Sky Medors and other experts have assured him it will be safe.
"We ask you to come and listen," Schaetzle said. "We will listen to you, as we have. I've answered almost every email and phone call that I've got. I'm listening to you. I'm asking you to come listen to the plan and then give us your honest opinion. If it hasn't changed, you'll tell us that. If you look at is and say, you know, there are parts of this plan that I didn't understand and I think they're solid, I hope you'll the courage to tell us that as well."
