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Mayors ready to divvy up marina money
* Other cities stand to gain from Gary's foot-dragging as interest nets $600,000.
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June 7, 2009
By Jon Seidel, Post-Tribune staff writer

While other communities on the shore of Lake Michigan took advantage of millions of dollars set aside by the state to build municipal marinas, Gary let its money sit in a bank for more than a decade.

Now that Gary has withdrawn its final $1.2 million for engineering on a marina project, lakefront mayors are returning to the long-dormant Lake Michigan Marina Development Commission to divvy up $600,000 in interest that grew on Gary's cash. There's also talk about breathing new life into the board.

"We are all very committed to seeing the continued development of our lake," Michigan City Mayor and commission chairman Chuck Oberlie said.

Talks began earlier this year, around the time Gary signed a $1.2 million contract with W.F. Baird & Associates to do final design and engineering on the first phase of a marina project at Buffington Harbor. In 2007, W.F. Baird secured a $12,900 contract with the city to do a market study.

Both contracts were funded with money held by the marina commission, and the most recent agreement drained the last of the original marina cash.
Interest compiled

However, commission director Jody Melton said another $600,000 in interest was left behind in the bank.

"It accumulated because Gary didn't spend their money," Melton said.

Members of the commission, including Gary representative Joel Rodriguez, acknowledged conversations took place about whether Gary should receive all of the interest money, as it wouldn't exist if the city hadn't taken its time. It still isn't clear how the city will pay to build the marina, as it's short on cash and about to begin a fresh round of layoffs.

"Those questions were brought up at several hearings," Rodriguez said. "However, there is a state statute which outlines those types of dollars."

That state law, Rodriguez and other commission members said, eventually brought the commission to a consensus that the dollars be divided up evenly.

"This has been thoroughly discussed," Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said.
Splitting the bounty

The member mayors are submitting proposals to the commission outlining ways in which they would use their share of the cash. The proposals will be reviewed at a meeting of the commission later this month. McDermott said he wants to use Hammond's share to make electrical upgrades to its marina.

The city has had trouble finding money for the project, McDermott said, and the marina cash is "sort of a godsend."

"We needed to do the work, and we didn't have the funds identified," McDermott said.

Oberlie said Michigan City's proposal will be to build six launch ramps that would be available free of charge to the public.

Portage, Whiting and East Chicago also have representatives on the commission. State law allows one representative for Burns Harbor, Porter, Ogden Dunes, Dune Acres and Beverly Shores. That person is state Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage, who said she is still reaching out to those communities about the money.

Another suggestion under consideration is whether to use the interest money to fund future projects if the commission decides to reinvent itself instead of disbanding. McDermott points out that the commission is already bringing several communities together.
Keep commission going?

"Why don't we stay together and try to lobby together?" McDermott said.

Tallian said there has also been talk of merging with the unfunded Lake Michigan Shoreline Development Commission, created several years ago by state Rep. Earl Harris, D-East Chicago.

Harris introduced a bill to the Indiana House of Representatives in January that would transfer all unused money held by the marina commission to the shoreline commission. The bill passed the House but died in the Senate's appropriations committee. Harris didn't return multiple calls for comment.

Tallian, a member of the Senate appropriations committee, said Harris said he thought the marina commission

"I sort of said, 'Well, now, wait a minute,'" Tallian said. "I said, 'It does, because I'm on it.' There was a little confusion about that."

Tallian said Harris backed off on the idea, and the two agreed to talk about working together in the future.

"Maybe we should look at packaging these into one commission," Tallian said. "That's another thing that we're looking at right now."

Contact Jon Seidel at 648-3068 or jseidel@post-trib.com. Comment on this story at www.post-trib.com.