The Northwestern
Indiana Regional Planning Commission is holding Gov. Eric Holcomb’s feet to
the fire, urging him to declare a public emergency, so as to make lakeshore
communities in the region eligible for federal disaster relief.
On Feb. 18, NIRPC
adopted a resolution which, though noting that Holcomb’s recent executive
order is a step in the right direction to combat beachfront erosion
occasioned by record high lake levels, falls short of an emergency
declaration. The resolution specifically refers to an emergency declaration
as “unfinished business.”
The resolution
calls Holcomb’s attention specifically to the following:
--The mild winter
has failed to generate shelf ice along the lakeshore which would protect it
from winter storms and projections indicate that lake levels could rise by
fully 12 more inches.
--Indiana Dunes
State Park, the most visited state park in Indiana, could see a “decline in
visitors due to disappearing beaches and lakeshore.” Dunes State Park is an
“important source of DNR revenues,” and any decline in those revenues could
“negatively impact the DNR’s ability to support its fee supported services.”
--Michigan City’s
largest public park “has been inundated during these high water events.”
--Public
investments along the shoreline--including the “newly constructed Portage
Lakefront Park”--“have already been significantly damaged by the high lake
levels and additional damage to primary structures is imminent.”
--“Private
property, utilities, public roads, and/or public beaches in the communities
of Long Beach, Dune Acres, Beverly Shores, Ogden Dunes, and the Town of
Porter are under constant threat of destruction.”
--“The Town of
Beverly Shores has spent considerable capital using debt financing and
additionally relying on donations to secure and prevent the destruction of
Lake Front Drive and more funding is urgently needed.”
--“The possible
impact of these exigent water levels in Lake Michigan upon the state’s Port
at Burns Harbor, the steel mills, the oil refineries, the investor-owned
public utility plants of NIPSCO, while not known, must be a concern as this
exigency continues.”
NIRPC, accordingly,
is calling on Holcomb to declare a public emergency “without undue delay”;
authorize INDOT and the Indiana National Guard to transport needed materials
to impacted sites in collaboration with local authorities; direct the proper
state agencies to work with federal partners to deliver the necessary
resources to impacted communities; and to urge leaders in the executive and
legislative branches to “adopt the necessary measures to protect threatened
resources, to prepare for the prospect of an enduring threat from high lake
levels, and to equip and guide long-term solutions to prevent loss from
future lake-level incidents.”
Letter to Holcomb
On Tuesday, Feb.
25, NIRPC forwarded the adopted resolution to Holcomb.
In a cover letter,
NIRPC Chair Michael Griffin expressed his hope that Holcomb would finally
pull the trigger on an emergency declaration. “We hope that the sentiments
of the resolution have sufficient compelling appeal that you will be moved
to make the emergency disaster declaration for the area in order to trigger
the added resources for a remedy,” Griffin wrote.