Granat presented the results of her intensive five-day self education about the virus and pesticides on Internet sites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Indiana Department of Health.

“Porter County has five possible cases of West Nile, seven horses, and two dead crows, but no confirmed cases,” she said. She said she also spoke with officials in Marion County, where there have been three confirmed deaths from the disease.

Granat said Chesterton and many other area communities have chosen not to spray.

She also said that it’s too late to break the mosquito life cycle by killing the larvae, the approach recommended by many experts who view killing the adults as a last resort.

“The pesticides don’t discriminate between the good insects and the bad insects,” she said.

Councilman Mike Liebert said he had talked with two Illinois towns about their results with spraying.

“It just doesn’t work,” he said.

Granat said the best method for now is education — making sure homeowners keep their property and gutters free of stagnant pools where the insects breed and keeping water in ornamental ponds and birdbaths clean and fresh.

The council agreed to put on its next agenda the possible use of a dispute with Indiana American Water Co. over an unsatisfactory job to hasten the extension of water lines to all of Porter Beach.

Town attorney Ed Hearns said the alternative would be to seek $34,000 in damages for the town to do the work to fix streets torn up by work along Waverly Road and Wabash Avenue a year and a half ago.

Hearns said the utility is eager to settle the matter so that the town will issue a permit for its project to build lines into Dune Acres.

After a continuing exchange of letters and phone calls, he said, Indiana American has proposed to include mains for Duneland Drive, Glenwood Beach Trail north of Bote Drive, and an area east of Dudley Street.

The town would then assume the burden of making the street repairs.

The council decided to continue the discussion in two weeks, to allow consultant Karl Center to firm up “very rough” estimates of $400 to $500 per year to homeowners for costs of extending water to all of Porter Beach beyond the scope of the utility’s offer.

Granat suggested a special council meeting at some point to sound out residents on the idea.