Chesterton Tribune

 

 

Legislature sends Indiana Dunes privatization alcohol bill to Governor Pence

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By The Associated Press

and the Chesterton Tribune

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Indiana House gave final approval Monday to a measure designed to revive a stalled privatization deal that would bring restaurants, a rooftop bar, and a banquet center to Indiana Dunes State Park.

The House agreed to changes made in the Senate, voting 63-30 to send the bill to Republican Gov. Mike Pence’s desk.

The measure would allow Pavilion Partners LLC, a group formed by politically connected Valparaiso developer Chuck Williams, to sell alcohol at the planned beachfront development--something the group says is necessary for the project to be viable. It circumvents a Porter County alcohol board and the state’s Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, which both ruled to deny an alcohol permit amid opposition from environmentalists who said the decades-long lease for the development amounts to a sell-off of public land that should be free of commercial interests.

Democrats railed against the measure, noting it was folded into a massive alcohol and tobacco bill that contained other provisions many people support.

House Minority Leader Scott Pelath, of Michigan City, said many are opposed to alcohol sales at the park. But he added “it really has more to do with the idea that somebody seems to be getting a special deal.”

Pence spokeswoman Kara Brooks said in an email that “the governor will review the legislation when it reaches his desk and make a decision.”

Williams is a state Republican Party official who has donated handsomely to GOP causes. But he has disputed allegations that his connections played a role in the project’s advancement. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources has said it followed state and federal laws and did not give Williams preferential treatment in approving the project, which gives him control of the facilities for up to 60 years in exchange for $18,000 in yearly rent and 2 percent of gross revenues.

“There is no correlation between contributions I made to the local GOP 10 years ago and any legislation pending before the Legislature,” Williams said last week.

Williams, who hired a lobbying firm to push the bill, has previously said alcohol sales would be necessary to make it profitable for him to rehabilitate a dilapidated pavilion in the park nestled among the towering dunes that line Lake Michigan. His plan would include two beachfront restaurants, the rooftop bar, and a glass-walled banquet hall offering “the best view in Indiana.”

The effort by Williams to renovate the Pavilion dates back to the administration of Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Emails show Williams pitched the idea and worked with the DNR on a proposal long before the DNR published its initial prospectus seeking a private investor in the Pavilion. The only competing offer came from a nonprofit group of local conservationists, lawyers, and finance professionals.

Williams has maintained he had “a vision and a passion” to rehabilitate a building that the state has neglected since he was a child. He says he poured money into a project that the state had refused to fund.

Jim Sweeney, a co-founder of Dunes Action, expressed both his dismay in the vote and his hope for a veto. “I watched most of the vote yesterday and I am disappointed in the final vote,” Sweeney told the Chesterton Tribune today. “It sends a terrible message to local communities around all our state parks that their input and their voices on such matters do not count. I guess ‘local control’ is only important when influential developers want it to be.”

“I hope the Governor will veto the bill due to his core commitment to ‘family values,” Sweeney said. “We remind him that allowing alcohol back into a family-friendly beach and state park is not family-oriented and the way that it is happening is incredibly unethical.”

“The fight is far from over,” Sweeney added. “I’d like to remind folks that the Bailly Alliance beat the nuclear plant after construction of the plant foundations had begun.”

Sweeney did take a moment to thank the Northwest Indiana legislators who voted against the bill. “We appreciate the support of Reps. Scott Pelath and Chuck Moseley and Sen. Tallian on this,” he said.

All but one of Northwest Indiana’s Republican state representatives voted for the bill and no Democrat ones did.

For: Mike Ayleworth, R-Hebron; Tom Dermody, R-LaPorte (the bill’s original sponsor); Bill Fine, R-Munster; Julie Olthoff, R-Crown Point; and Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso.

The lone Republican nay vote: that of State Rep. Hal Slager, R-Schererville.

Also against: Charlie Brown, D-Gary (who is notable for actually voting in favor of an earlier version of the bill as a member of the House Public Policy Committee and then on the floor); Donna Harris, D-East Chicago; Linda Lawson, D-Hammond; Chuck Moseley, D-Portage; Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City; and Vernon Smith, D-Gary.

 

 

Posted 3/8/2016


 

 
 
 

 

 

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