[Southsider2k12]

http://www.michigancityin.com/articles/200.../24/news/n7.txt

Burke seeks Second District Common Council seat

By Jason Miller, The News-Dispatch

Dennis Burke Jason Miller/ The News-Dispatch

A 30-plus year member of the railroad union and current member of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District board of directors has announced plans to run for the Second District seat on the Michigan City Common Council.

“I believe my commitment to the railroad union for over 30 years, my serving on the NICTD board and my love of this city qualifies me for city council,” Dennis Burke said Tuesday. “If elected, I will attend the council meetings prepared, I will attend the workshops to better educate myself on the current issues and I would be a team player, not standing in the way of progress for personal reasons.”

Current Second District Councilman Paul Przybylinski hasn't yet said if he plans to seek re-election. No other candidates have announced their intention to run in the district.

Burke is a graduate of St. Mary's High School, served in the U.S. Army from 1968 to 1972 and has worked on the South Shore Railroad for more than 30 years.

He's a governor's appointment to the NICTD board and is one of three certified transit ambassadors in Indiana.

Burke this week laid out a series of issues he plans to advance if elected to the council. He thinks the city's North End must be developed for business, the lakefront needs to be developed for tourism, and he said the city should stop spending thousands on studies and move the South Shore tracks south of 11th Street and build a new transportation hub.

He also would like to see the park department buy the old Naval Armory and sell the current office to private developers.

“I would like to see the council have a two-term limit,” he said. “Any longer than that and you seem to develop tunnel vision and vote against changes because you are used to the way things are,” Burke said. “I probably will have lost my alliance for this, but it is the way I feel.”

Contact reporter Jason Miller at jmiller@thenewsdispatch.com.