North Judson Town Council Informed About Outcome of Recent IDEM Inspections

Posted on July 10, 2019
Author Jacque Ryan, WKVI

The North Judson Town Council heard about some recent inspections conducted by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) when members met last week.

Marshal Kelly Fisher provided some information about the agency being called into town on behalf of Code Enforcement Officer Kerry Rust who was unable to attend the first meeting in July.

She explained, “IDEM has been in town. I think it was a couple of businesses that called on each other.”

She added, “They were out at B&T Towing. No violations were found.

Fisher said that they went through and checked that all paint and garage materials were being stored properly before coming to the conclusion that there were no violations at the Lane Street business.

She stated that IDEM officials also were also sent to check out Mike’s Repair located near the corner of SR 10 and SR 39. Fisher said that the agency did discover multiple violations at that business.

She told members, “The violations were for excessive tires, the chemicals that weren’t marked in the 55-gallon barrels, not properly stored propane tanks, the inside of the garage – the maintenance, and some of his tire balancing equipment and so forth wasn’t up to what it needed to be.”

Following the inspection, Marshal Fisher said the business owner was given 30 days to address the violations.

Councilwoman Jane-Ellen Felchuck asked what would happen next if he didn’t fix the issues. Marshal Fisher responded that the matter is now in IDEM’s hands and any additional consequences will be up the agency.

She noted, “I talked to the IDEM employee that had come out and he said he would take care of it. He also offered their services if there’s any kind of burn complaints that we could call him and he would address them as well.”

A community member also unofficially addressed Felchuck’s question. He noted that he was under the impression that if IDEM comes back and sees that nothing has been done to fix the violations, they have been known to shut a place down.