The Porter County
Convention, Recreation and Visitors Commission Board of Directors will meet
Thursday at 3 p.m. for its monthly public meeting inside the conference room
at the Indiana Dunes Visitors Center, 1215 N. Ind. 49 in Porter.
On the agenda, the
board will talk again about moving forward with an economic study for the
South Shore Heritage Train Project and Operational Analysis. The results in
the study done by Stone Consulting Inc. were discussed in November.
The South Shore
Heritage Project aims to restore historic South Shore rail cars from a
private collector that would run on a track and boost the County’s tourism
numbers.
PCCRVC Executive
Director Lorelei Weimer has said running the train cars from the Dunes State
Park to the Visitor Center and into the towns of Chesterton and Porter would
be too costly and she believes the best option would be to move the cars on
a mile’s length of track behind the Visitors Center. The cost for this is
estimated to be about $8 million, including $1 million for the restoration
of the wooden rail car.
The board supported
the next step which would be to examine the possible economic impact the
attraction would have and what it would cost to operate.
Also on the agenda,
the board attorney will make a report, as will board treasurer Richard
Riley. Weimer will give the staff report.
The board will
decide its attorney’s contract for 2016-2017.
There is no new
business on the agenda. The public is welcome to attend and give comment.