Is there anything that can be done to get somebody to open up a gas station the west side?

There is nowhere in the City to fill up west of Franklin St. and North of U.S. 20.

Driving west on Hwy 12 you will not come to a filling station until you get to the HWY 520 junction in The Pines well into Porter County.

The Spotlite Penzoil station operated for years where U.S. 12, County Line Rd. and Woodlawn Ave. but has been closed after the elder gentleman that owned it passed away and his family did not want to run it anymore. It is actually on the Porter County side and would probably take some significant to reopen it.

I is kind of a sad state of affairs when West of Franklin and North of 20 I can name 9 different drinking establishments (VFW, DAV, Four Stop, Three Sheets, Knuckleheads, Ritz Club, Stadium Inn, Shoreline and McGinnis) but there is not a single solitary gas station.

I can see not having a grocery store in every section of the city because there are not enough qualified butchers in the City to operate the meat department (the entire town of Westville has no grocery store) and I can see not having a drug store in every section of the City because there are not enough qualified pharmacy technicians in the City (The sign at CVS on Franklin has been been lit up advertising for one for 3 years now).

There is plenty of prime locations I have can suggest, 3 1/2 acres are available on Chicago St. in front of the Wall Gang and there is vacant land available in front of the NIPSCO cooling tower right on U.S. 12.

I've been told in the past that with the South Shore, Amtrack and CSX tracks there is fear of a train - fuel tanker collision however these track are about to go through a major upgrade very soon.

In this day and age we now have unattended gas stations which are open 24/7/365 pay at the pump which
you don't have to conduct your transaction with the attendant through a sheet of bullet proof glass. A prime example would be the Pinkerton Oil Station on U.S. 20 in Porter just on the other side of 49, one pump that sells regular 87 octane for passenger vehicles and 3 pumps that sell diesel, no store to get knocked over no covering over head, just gas and go.

And I'm Len O'Connor.

The West side needs lots of things. As of now they are a fuel, education and food dessert. Pretty soon they will be a health dessert as well. They have been completely neglected.

It certainly isn't a drinking establishment dessert.

It certainly isn't any surprise to me that a tavern owner was selected to fill the remainder of Al Whitlow's term on the city council.