Andrean High School suffered severe damage to several buildings on the campus after a tornado ripped through Merrillville on June 11th. As a result, extensive damage assessments were done in the ensuing months and it was determined that the original nun and priest residences on campus sustained too much damage to reasonably make repairs. These two wings of the school have been there since the school was founded in 1959 and served as housing for the Basilian Fathers and Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius. The two buildings will be torn down imminently.

The warehouse in Merrillville that ICE and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita had sought out for a detention center location has been mostly leased out to other companies, so the space they were looking for isn’t available. Rokita had previously filed a lawsuit against Merrillville Town Council, alleging that the town conspired in private to discourage a detention center being developed in Merrillville. The Town Council then filed a motion to have the case moved from state court to federal court, of which Rokita and his counsel have filed a counter-motion to have the case returned to state court - which was granted by a federal judge. Rokita is now asking the court to order Merrillville Town Council to pay for the legal fees Rokita and his counsel incurred in filing the previous motion.

Increasing $3 million from last year’s budget, and drafted with the potential effects of Indiana Senate Bill 1 in mind, Hammond’s budget is aimed to fuel future development to offset any potential revenue lapses that come from the reduced state funding as a result of SB 1.

The two parties met for the first time in a while this past Monday, with talks being reported as having been “constructive”, although no new conclusions have been reached. No particular details of what was discussed or what elements of the contract have been negotiated, but this hopefully signals a healthy sign as the union laborers enter their seventh month without pay or work.

The Transportation Operations Management Team at the Merrillville Amazon fulfillment center filed union authorization cards last week to join Teamsters Local 142, with a rally taking place in the ensuing days to demand a contract negotiation with Amazon. Amazon has said that they are not recognizing the unionization efforts, making claims that the Teamsters union is misrepresenting facts and they have no negotiating stake at this single Amazon facility. The Teamsters have been making a concerted effort to unionize Amazon drivers all across the country, with Merrillville being the first in Indiana to file for unionization.

The stretch of Old Ridge Road between Ash Street and Beverly Boulevard in Hobart will be closed throughout most of November to reconstruct a culvert. The closure will take place this Friday and will last for roughly four weeks. Detours are encouraged through downtown Hobart.

Upgrades are coming to the galvannealing line and coke plant at the Burns Harbor Steel Mill, aiming to meet the demand from the automotive industry for galvannealed parts. A full rebuild of the coke plant at Burns Harbor is also planned to help streamline the use of coke - a purified form of coal used in blast furnaces.

Demolition of the Genesis Convention Center and City Methodist Church are already planned. The Hudson-Campbell Fitness and Sports Center will be getting a fresh overhaul in the coming months and new locations for the health department and police department are planned as well. The big new info dump comes in the form of the plans for the Gary Metro Center, which is planned to be replaced by a new South Shore Line station. The new station will be located at the northwest corner of 4th Ave. and Broadway, with $75 million pledged by both the City of Gary and the State of Indiana to help fund the new construction project. Gary Metro Center is not being demolished, however, with future plans for the building still in flux.

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On Oct. 29, 1986 - 40 years ago this Thursday - President Ronald Reagan signed Public Law 99-583, adding more than 900 acres to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The bill, pushed through Congress with unusual speed that fall, raised the lakeshore's land-acquisition ceiling by $3.5 million and its development ceiling from $11 million to $20 million. Its scattered additions were meant to round out the park boundary: segments of the Little Calumet River and Salt Creek, an addition to Hoosier Prairie, a buffer for the Heron Rookery, and the corridor carrying the Calumet Trail. It also ordered a feasibility study of a parkway on U.S. 12 and of using the Little Calumet to link the lakeshore's western and eastern units - a key step toward the park that became Indiana Dunes National Park in 2019.

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