“I’m basically here to spread some good news.”

That’s how Brock Lloyd, this year’s president of the Chesterton/Duneland Chamber of Commerce, opened his remarks on Wednesday at the annual State of the Chamber Luncheon, held at the Sand Creek Country Club.

Business may not be exactly booming in Duneland but the Chamber certainly is, Lloyd said. It closed 2009 with 304 members; only six months later it’s grown to 349, an annualized growth rate of 30 percent.

Yet one only needs to take a look at the packed room to see that membership is growing by leaps and bounds. A total of 81 persons attended last year’s State of the Chamber Luncheon; at least 120 were in attendance at this year’s, Lloyd noted.

In short, the Chamber is making good on the first of the four “critical success factors” identified two years ago when a committee formulated a strategic plan for the organization.

But the Chamber is actively fulfilling the other three factors as well, Lloyd said, beginning with the commitment to create an effective central office function. “We’re working smarter, not harder,” thanks to new software and technology including the updated website at www.dunelandchamber.com with its zoning maps, GIS capability, and listing data base of available property for lease or purchase.

The Chamber is likewise taking a leadership role in economic development, Lloyd said—“We’re not just a social club”—and is leveraging partnerships with both the Tri-Towns and regional entities. Lloyd cited in particular the Chamber’s work with the Town of Chesterton to establish a Downtown Riverfront District, which enables restaurateurs to obtain liquors licenses at reduced rates, and he cited the award of $20,000 in grants to 11 different businesses to improve their facades by the Duneland Economic Development Company.

Lloyd concluded his remarks by noting that the envisioned Duneland “medical corridor” will be taking shape soon as Saint Anthony Memorial Hospital begins to build its 24-hour free-standing emergency department on the site of the old Jewel/Osco in Chesterton and Porter hospital its new facility at U.S. Highway 6 and Ind. 49 in unincorporated Liberty Township.

“Those are two projects which will accelerate economic development in Duneland for years to come,” Lloyd said.

A representative from each of the Tri-Towns then gave a brief run-down on activity in their necks of the woods.

Burns Harbor Town Council Member Toni Biancardi was happy to announce that the blighted Standard Plaza has, at long last, been demolished, after “much perseverance and diligence”; took note of the BHPD’s billboards on U.S. Highway 12 and I-80/94—funded by an ArcelorMittal grant—warning motorists not to be famous but safe; the super summer day camp at Lakeland Park, free to all Duneland kids, one week during every month of the season; the designation of the Village of Burns Harbor as the country’s first certified green neighborhood by the National Association of Home Builders; and the town’s new brand, “The Art of Green Living,” chosen to celebrate the community’s ties with Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Lakeland Park, and the Little Calumet River.

Chesterton Town Manager Bernie Doyle touted his town’s work on updating infrastructure, including the Downtown sewer project, the West Porter Ave. sewer re-lining project, and the South Calumet District project; predicted that the ongoing update of the Chesterton Comprehensive Plan should be complete this fall; remarked that the Downtown Riverfront District has already born fruit, with the recent opening of The Octave Grill on South Calumet Road and the proposed opening sometime late this year or early next of The Chesterton Chop House in the space formerly used by Antiques 101; and cited the “many positive comments” about the town’s new brand of “Artcentric,” as seen on the banners in the Downtown.

Porter Town Council Member Michelle Bolinger began her remarks with a nod to this year’s highly successful edition of the lakefront fireworks extravaganza at Indiana Dunes State Park, spearheaded by the Town of Porter with help from the Chamber; summarized the various trail projects on tap—the Orchard Pedestrian Trail, the Porter Brickyard Trail (groundbreaking scheduled for spring 2011), and the mother of them all the Dunes-Kankakee Trail, with reconstruction set to start on Aug. 9 of the bridge on Ind. 49 over U.S. Highway 20, funded by moneys provided by Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority; and synopsized the Brickyard project, to be sited on land purchased by the Porter Redevelopment Commission and envisioned as an extension of the Downtown to be anchored by a senior living facility.

While actually having no business at all, Dune Acres is nevertheless a member of the Duneland community, and Dune Acres Town Council Member Lou Roberts took a few moments to discuss her town’s environmental mindedness, with its public removal of invasive species and its partnership with The Nature Conservancy, the National Park Service, the Shirley Heinze Fund, and the Lake Michigan Coastal Initiative to restore Cowles Bog.

Posted 7/29/2010