Northwest Indiana’s regional planning agency is joining the voices urging state and federal action to save the region’s eroding Lake Michigan shoreline.
City, town and county officials on the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission voted Thursday to set up and authorize a task force to press for solutions to the problem.
“It’s high time NIRPC got involved in this issue,” Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said as he suggested forming the group.
Lake Michigan’s waves this winter have battered the shore from Hammond to Long Beach, endangering some roads and structures and washing away beaches. Damage was especially severe during a storm Jan. 11.
This year’s mild winter has prevented the formation of shelf ice that has protected the shore in past years, and the lake level is the highest in about 30 years.
McDermott noted that NIRPC set up a task force last year that met several times to investigate potential solutions to the problem of railroad trains blocking crossings for long periods.
Geof Benson, a Beverly Shore Town Council member and a former NIRPC chairman, endorsed McDermott’s proposal for a shoreline task force. Part of Lake Front Drive in his town has been endangered by erosion.
It’s not just a problem for shoreline cities and towns, Chesterton Town Council member James Ton said.
“If that (Lake Michigan shore) is not an attraction, we have a lot of businesses that would suffer,” he said.
“All our families use the lakefront,” McDermott added.
The task force needs to act quickly because the Indiana General Assembly is in its short session now, said Lake County Council member Charlie Brown, D-3rd, a former state representative from Gary.
NIRPC Chairman Michael Griffin appointed Benson, McDermott, Portage Mayor Sue Lynch, Porter Town Council member Greg Stinson, Dune Acres Clerk-Treasurer Jeanette Bapst and Michiana Shores Town Council President Daina Dumbrys to the task force.
Griffin said he will contact the mayors of Michigan City and Gary, who weren’t at the NIRPC meeting, to see if they want to participate.
He expects the task force will meet online or by email, but he will check on that with the state’s public access counselor.
The problem might have to get worse before state and federal governments step in.
Benson noted a letter sent Thursday from the director of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, saying that federal disaster assistance wouldn’t be available until there is actual “loss of infrastructure,” such as roads, bridges or public utilities.
That message, Benson said, is: “It’s a local problem. Fix it yourself.”
Tim Zorn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
![Terry Horton appeared in court briefly in a jail jumpsuit Wednesday where he got time served in a plea deal in connection with a Gary gas station shooting. He faced up to three years. Both Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Dafoe and defense lawyer Gojko Kasich agreed Horton had nearly 500 days of jail credit, enough to close the case. Do you understand what’s going on, Judge Samuel Cappas asked. “Yes, your honor,” Horton replied. Horton, now 26, signed a plea agreement in December 2020 to assisting a criminal, a level 5 felony. His co-defendant and half-brother Aaron Sawyer, the shooter, got […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Post-Tribune.jpg?w=620 "Terry Horton appeared in court briefly in a jail jumpsuit Wednesday where he got time served in a plea deal in connection with a Gary gas station shooting. He faced up to three years. Both Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Dafoe and defense lawyer Gojko Kasich agreed Horton had nearly 500 days of jail credit, enough to close the case. Do you understand what’s going on, Judge Samuel Cappas asked. “Yes, your honor,” Horton replied. Horton, now 26, signed a plea agreement in December 2020 to assisting a criminal, a level 5 felony. His co-defendant and half-brother Aaron Sawyer, the shooter, got […]")