Resealing will be done in parking lots at the office, the water plant, Memory Park and Rambler Park.

SILVER LAKE —  A Silver Lake resident requested that the speed limit be lowered at the curve on SR 15 entering town due to truck traffic from the Louis Dreyfus Company, located in Claypool.

Kent Parks brought up the issue at Wednesday’s town council meeting. 

Parks lives near the Pizza King, in the area of 10406 SR 15, Silver Lake. The speed limit is 30 mph in that area but is 40 mph just up the road at the curve.

“Dreyfus is expanding, almost double, that’s what I’ve been told,” Parks said. “We have all kinds of dump trucks and if we get additional grain trucks going up and down the road, along with all the cars …”

“I don’t have any trouble when I come out of my drive as long as I go north, but if I go south, even though I look right and left before I pull out of my driveway, somebody invariably is right on my tail,” Parks told council members. 

“I’d like to ask if it’s possible if we could move the 40 mph speed limit sign up to the top of the hill going north where Dixie Drive tees into SR 15 and then put a 30 mph speed sign on the other side of the road,” Parks said. “I’d love to have a 30 mph speed limit there. The trucks come over the hill and they’re on it because it’s downhill and they get it going.”

Council members told Parks such a decision is controlled by the Indiana Department of Transportation.

“We don’t really have any control over it,” Town Marshal Jason McGlennen told Parks. “I agree with you — it’s a residential area. It should be 30 mph.”

McGlennen told council members that INDOT contracted with another company to put cameras in downtown Silver Lake at the intersection recently to monitor traffic.

“When I talked to the guy he said they take the video to a third-party company that has a computer that counts everything, so it will tell us how much truck traffic is there, pickup trucks, cars, pedestrians crossing,” McGlennen said.

McGlennen said he had also heard that there will be additional grain trucks with the Louis Dreyfus expansion.

In April, the Kosciusko County Board of Zoning Appeals approved an exception for Louis Dreyfus Company Agriculture Industries, for the purpose of a change or alteration to an approved agriculture processing plant. It was reported at that time that the company planned to add two new warehouse buildings, a turbine building, a boiler house and another building.

“We can request INDOT to revisit it, but that’s about it,” McGlennen said.

The town received a USDA grant to assist with the purchase of an equipped dump truck. Clerk-Treasurer Tonya Conley said that truck was expected to be picked up Thursday, Aug. 8. 

Street and Sewer Superintendent JT Prater is in the process of obtaining quotes for road repaving and resealing work. Resealing will be done in parking lots at the office, the water plant, Memory Park and Rambler Park. Repaving is tentatively planned for Dixie, Edgewater, Courtland, Wilson, Herendeen and Elm from North of Cemetery Drive, and Cemetery Drive to Jefferson Street.

Silver Lake Water Department Superintendent Joey McNeal said they are still working on installing water meters. He told council members he had to order a few more, as they were about 15 short. McNeal reported there are 40-50 meters that still need to be installed. 

In other matters, council members approved a $188.66 water credit for Thelma Miller.

The next regular meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11.