Once upon a time the most notable furnishing in the Chesterton town hall’s meeting room was a long wooden bench looking remarkably like a church pew, salvaged years earlier from the New York Central’s passenger depot.
That bench was typically occupied by three elderly gentlemen who had strong opinions about many things and weren’t chary of sharing them. It would never have occurred to anybody, however, to think that they didn’t have the Town of Chesterton’s best interests in mind, and one Town Council member began referring to the troika as “The Three Wisemen.”
Both the bench and Three Wise Men who planted themselves upon it were throwbacks to a slower, simpler era, when passenger trains still stopped in Chesterton and attending Town Council meetings on a Monday night wasn’t much different from sitting around the cracker barrel at the general store.
Now, it must needs be said, the entire meeting room—lock, stock, and barrel of it—is a throwback. On July 1, 2025, a new state law will take effect requiring every municipal meeting to be live-streamed or video-recorded, yet the room has yet to be retrofitted with that capability. And don’t even mention the trains but—if you do—best to shout, because a 30-minute meeting could well be interrupted three or four times by the blast of horns from passing freights on the Norfolk Southern line just 130 feet due north of the town hall.
The Town Council, accordingly, is interested in the remodel of a meeting room which hasn’t been substantially upgraded or revamped since before the new millennium. To that end, the Town Council voted unanimously at its meeting Monday night, Sept. 23, to authorize a request for proposals from design firms for a package of improvements, not only of the meeting room but of the existing foyer, the former CPD Investigations Division (and before that the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office), and the Fire Department.
As envisioned by Town Engineer Mark O’Dell and Assistant Town Engineer, the improvements would include the following:
*Audio-visual capability, sound deadening, fixed seating, and aesthetic touches would be incorporated into the meeting room.
*A new entrance would be constructed, west of the existing one and whose west wall would be the building’s external wall once the demolition of the old CPD station house is completed. The foyer would lead to reconfigured men’s and women’s rooms, with double doors leading into the meeting room.
*A 675-square foot community room would occupy the whole of the footprint of the existing foyer.
*The former CPD Investigations Division (and former Clerk-Treasurer’s Office) would be converted into a 675-square foot municipal and CFD training room.
*A 1,000-square foot first-floor CFD addition would be built at the northwest corner of the station, with space for a fitness room, storage area, and Deputy Chief offices. It would be able to accommodate a second-story addition should more space ever be needed for the CFD.
*Other CFD improvements would include a separate women’s bunk and restroom upstairs; a captain’s bunk; a balcony on top of the first-floor addition and accessible from the second-floor kitchen; and aesthetic touches to offices and other spaces.
President Jim Ton, R-1st, was enthusiastic about the proposed remodel, in particular as a complement to the new CPD station house across the street. “We’re creating a safety and security campus at Eighth Street and Broadway,” he said. “That’s going to be a very attractive part of town.”
Clerk-Treasurer Courtney Udvare said that funding for the project will be available in January 2026, when a 15-year bond expires.
