City Council - Regular Meeting

eternal god our father we thank you for this day we thank you for you to continue to bless us continue to keep us continue to keep our police and fire safe and continue to keep every resident safe as we go into the festival week we just ask that we have good clean fun good clean outcome and that it's a prosperous week in jesus name amen

Click-a-lick roll call vote, please. Alexander. Present. Spitelli. Here.

Kowinski. Here. Salinas. Here. Tyler.

Here.

Emerson.

Here.

Warple.

Here.

Rakos. Here. Vanes.

Here. Let the record show Aiden Chambers won virtual. Mayor's address. Hi, Mayor.

How are you? Hi, Councilwoman. Nice to see you all. Thanks for the invite. This is my address for July 13th. I want to warn you guys, it's a little bit longer than normal. It's been three weeks since we last met. There's a lot going on, so try to keep it quick. I know that we've been talking about this here, about the status of the high schools. We had a hearing before the Board of Public Works and Safety in regards to Gavit High School, and I wanted to update you real quick. Last Thursday, the Board of Public Works and Safety conducted a hearing to consider affirming the order to repair or demolish Gavitt High School, issued by the Inspections Department. The order was issued under the Indiana Unsafe Building Act and conducted just like the Board would for any other vacant, abandoned, blighted building in any other part of the city. In this case, however, it happened to be Gavitt High School, which has sat unused, vacant, and abandoned since 2021. The law department by my corporate counsel, Kevin Smith, prosecuted this action, was supported by the head of the inspections department, Kelly Kearney, head of the code enforcement department, Bill Luter, the building inspector, Bob Vail, and the fifth district inspector, Chris Padgett. The case clearly showed that the building had gone unchanged since its 2021 closure. It has remained vacant. It has remained abandoned. It has remained unused since that time. It clearly needs to come down. The school city made a statement at the hearing that the city police department has used that building. I want to point out that is completely untrue. The city police department has not used that building. They've used other buildings for their SWAT training. Gabbitt High School needs to come down, and I believe it's the city's position is solid under the Unsafe Building Act. We cannot sit back. Well, the school city Hammond does nothing on this vacant building. I personally met with school board president, Ms. Carlotta Blake King, their lawyer, Joel Harris earlier this year, and I let them both know that the city cannot wait forever for them to do something. Since that time, they have done nothing. They completely ignored that meeting and have done nothing. Water has been turned off to that building for quite a while. Windows have been found open on that building. Paint is peeling. The bricks and mortar are starting to give. What we've seen in other communities, what happens when school buildings are left vacant, graffiti, people hanging out at night, even dead bodies. We can't, as a community, let that happen to our school buildings, so I'm pressing ahead to get this issue resolved. And I do want to point out, I did not ignore Clark High School Councilman Mark I'm supposing you're about to ask me that. July 30th is the Clark High School hearing before the Board of Public Works and Safety in case you want to attend that as well. Same kind of case, same kind of issues, Councilman Mark. It's unacceptable that these high schools are just sitting there unused. We're moving ahead. We need to get them on the ground. So that is the first report I wanted to make. Don't know if you have any questions before I move on to the next. Cool. Memorial Park live auction summary. I know Councilman Berry is online. Thursday, June 25th, we held a live auction for the Memorial Park single family lots. It was held at City Hall right in here. We auctioned 28 lots. The asking price was $8,500 per lot. We had 25 registered bidders with a mix of residents and developers. The lowest lot sold for $30,000. Keep in mind, we were asking $8,500 for the minimum bid for all of the lots there, 28 lots. Minimum sold for 30,000. The average sale price was 35,000. The maximum sale price was 42,000. With all 28 lots selling at those prices, we came in with right around $1 million for that piece of property, which is nice for the city. Construction to begin as soon as the purchasers get their plans approved by Planning and Development. I know Councilman Berry was there. I don't know if Councilman Berry wanted to add to that.

Thanks, Mayor. It was very interesting to see. It was my first live auction. And so just being there to see a good mixture of residents and developers being able to take part in that, I think was fascinating. It's a sign of just like the continued improvements that are happening. And I know with all the development that's happening, there's a lot of want for more housing. And so I'm glad that we're able to create new housing, especially in this part of the third issue. So thank you to you and your team for making it happen. Thanks, Councilman.

We still have about one third of that development left for it's going to be senior housing, assisted living kind of situation. Tax credits we needed for that project to move forward stalled out. They're going to reapply next year. So we anticipate that other one third starting probably next year. And last but not least about the big items I wanted to hit was a summary of the Hammond storms of July 3rd, 2026. July 3rd, severe storms hit Hammond especially hard. And unfortunately, many families woke up to flooded basement and power outages during the 4th of July weekend. That's never a good time for this to happen, but a holiday weekend makes it even more difficult. Between 9.30 p.m. and midnight, multiple rounds of severe thunderstorms drop three to five inches of rain in a short period of time, which is a deadly combination. Three to five inches of rain, you'll get storms over a two-day period where you don't get that much rain. When you get three to five inches in such a short period of time, you're in big trouble. National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Hammond. That's never a good sign either. It seems like the area around Harrison Park appears to have suffered the most significant damage. Harrison Park itself is, I don't want to say destroyed, but I've never seen it in such bad shape. Numerous trees down, power lines down all over the city. The sanitary district lost its primary and backup source of power, went to use their diesel generator, and they were completely flooded out. So the actual Hammond sanitary district was underwater as well. Residents were underwater with no power. When residents have no power, unless they have backup in their house, they can't get their sump pump started, which results in flooding. We did have significant flooding during that storm. It was horrible. A lot of people worked really hard. NIPSCO lost power to 22,000 customers across the service territory, most of them in our city, by the way. Thank you to Hammond Sanitary District for doing everything they could. We were using the CSO basin. We were overflowing. We were doing everything we could to prevent what ended up happening. But the Hammond Sanitary District was working all night on July 3rd, July 4th. Hammond Police and Fire Departments, of course, the Street Department, NIPSCO crews, Park Department workers with the trees. First responders, utility workers, it was a rough, rough storm. And obviously, whenever we have basement backups, that's a failure of the system. And I want to apologize to the families that were adversely affected. And now I'll get into the mayor's schedule over the last three weeks. I received a drone demonstration at the Hammond Police Department showing how departments on the cutting edge like us are starting to use drones as first responders. They had a drone base at the Hammond Police Department and we responded to a house on Forest Avenue in one minute and 20 seconds. which would have beat the police officers there. And while the drone was hovering over the house on Forest Avenue, it was relaying to the officers on the ground a picture of what was going on in the backyard. It was all a drill. But can you imagine that kind of technology when an officer is responding to maybe a shooter or a dangerous type of situation? They could literally look on their phone and see what's going on in the backyard because we have a drone hanging over them. We were testing people. We flew 500 feet over somebody's head. They had no idea we were there. We were watching this guy work on an air conditioner. And then we got down to 200 feet. And when we got down to there, he heard the drone and he started looking around. This is amazing technology. They have drones that we can put on the lakefront that will save swimmers. If you're out in the water, the drone will find you because you've got heat in your body. And it's equipped to carry life preservers. It's pretty amazing stuff, and we just lost a swimmer right outside of the Hammond Marina just this last week. And it was at nighttime, which is, you know, this drone would help in that situation as well. We don't have this technology in the Hammond PD yet. We're checking it out, but it was pretty interesting stuff. So I imagine we'll be talking to you about that in the future. Attended and golfed at the 30th annual Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce annual golf outing at the Las Mars Golf Course. Funny enough, Kelly Talon, who is the executive director or CEO of the Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce, is behind us right now. So thank you very much to Kelly and the Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce. It was a great outing. Also interrupted by bad weather. It's been the theme lately. In the second district, attended Big O's Barbecue Ribbon Cutting in downtown Hammond, located at 5252 Holman Avenue. It's always great to see another restaurant open in downtown. They got great barbecue. If you're a barbecue type of person, go to downtown Hammond to help keep them in business. Met with a lot of architects lately seems like a lot of people want to meet with us and talk to the city Hammond about Possibly assisting us in design and build out in the area around the potential new bear stadium So I had like two or three meetings like that. So I just summarized it into one meeting It's all sales pitches basically and obviously we don't even know For a fact if the Bears are gonna end up in Hammond when this is all said and done. So obviously we're not committing to anything Until we know for a fact with certainty what's gonna happen with the Bears and Tended the Pavilion at Wolf Lake Summer Concert Series with the Indianapolis-based Grateful Dead cover band, High Rider. It was a great night. You guys should have been there. Perfect weather. And if you like Grateful Dead like I do, it was really good. Did a Zoom call with the NIPSCO CEO and one of their upper managers, who used to be the chief of staff at City of Hammond, I'll let you figure out who, to talk about what was going on with the Seniel's development agreement with City of Hammond that fell apart on June 30th, 2026. We've been talking about it in this meeting a lot, that that was probably not going to make it. It did not make it, as we all surmise by now. So NIPSCO wanted to hear from our side what was going on. There's a lot at stake for NIPSCO as well as for Decennial and the City of Hammond, so it was a good conversation. Attended the City of Hammond's annual fireworks display, listening to the Bill Porter Orchestra at the PAV like we do every 3rd of July. It was Bill Porter Orchestra's last PAV experience. So it was sort of sad to see him go out, especially because it was cut short due to lightning. That was the night the storm hit. It was wicked. It was coming in while we were shooting off fireworks. It was a pretty amazing display. But anyway, we already talked about that storm that hit that night. attended the annual 4th of July Whiting Parade representing the city of Hammond, walked alongside a group of college-bound students that were passing out flyers for the Festival of the Lakes, as well as a large number of Hammond residents. It was always a lot of fun, thanks to Mayor Spivar and Whiting. Met with Hammond's 3rd District Councilman, Barry Tyler, in regards to issues he wanted to discuss with Hammond's 3rd District. Met with the Chiefs and Captains of the Hammond Police Department for our regular monthly meeting. Met with Hammond's 2nd District Councilman, Al Salinas, in regards to issues he wanted to discuss with Hammond's 2nd District. Spoke on a panel for the Indiana Business Journal Innovative Indiana Series Stop at Valparaiso University. I was on a panel with the director of the Ports of Indiana, one of the owners of Albanese Candy, the head of the Northwest Indiana Forum, the CEO of the Dean and Barbara White Foundation, and myself. The governor spoke right before us. He was real positive about the whole bears thing. He described it as we're in the red zone and we're about to punch it in. So I like the governor's optimism. 10 of the groundbreaking in the second district, a lot of stuff going on in the second. 10 of the groundbreaking for USCO Cranes in Hammond's second district. It's located at 5009 Calumet Avenue. It's a new national headquarters for USCO, $25 million investment, 70,000 square foot facility. Real proud to land that business. We kept them online. They wanted to go where... Hammond Riverside Christian School is. We chose the Christian School. They stuck with us, and we relocated them across the street. So that was a good job by Economic Development, and everybody worked really hard on that deal. Met with Councilwoman Janet Veniz in regards to citywide issues. She needed an explanation from myself about, and I appreciate those meetings. Attended the 2026 Hammond Festival of the Lakes sponsor celebration at the Jean Shepherd Center. And finally, last but not least, I raced against our Hammond City employees in our annual 2026 Festival of the Lake Rody run. I turned into 29. I beat some people. I got beat by a lot of people. But it's always nice to see people work hard to get a day off. And I figure if they beat me in a race, they're probably not costing us a lot on our health insurance. So Festival of the Lakes starts, as we all know. On Wednesday, we have the DJ free parking night. We anticipate that. Technically, it's called the ultimate freestyle experience. Free parking. That's the only night of the fest, free parking. So if you want to just go out, listen to music, take your kids to the carnival, there will be no parking, no charges for parking on Wednesday. On Thursday, we have a ticketed show, Jelly Roll, sold out solid in the gold section. Solid. Completely sold out in the gold. The silver section still has tickets available at face price. Gold section tickets are going for over $300 each on StubHub right now, which is really cool because they only cost $100. So they're going three times the face value. Completely sold out for the gold section. So the only way you can get in the gold section is StubHub. On Friday, July 17th, we have The Offspring selling really well. It's a great band. It's like an alternative band. On Saturday, we have Rap Night with Moneybagg Yo and Kevin Gates. Tickets are going like crazy for that one. And then Sunday, July 18th, Bondo El Recodo. This is our second time playing with us. And this time, they're selling about five times as many tickets as the first time. They're on pace with Los Tucanes de Tijuana as far as ticket sales. And that was our biggest night ever at the Festival of the Lakes. so thank you everybody i'm sorry about the long report it's been three weeks so councilwoman if you have any questions i'm available anyone yes councilman thank you uh mayor any idea how many single family homes four

or the new development behind Ophelia Steen? 28. 28?

Yes, sir. 28 single-family homes. Thank you.

I drove through there over the weekend, and the infrastructure's in, the lights are in, and there's a retention pond or two in there, I think. Yes, sir. And another thing is the flooding events. Would it make sense to put a publication in your water bill monthly about, the programs and how to get into the programs because people are calling me about that and maybe that's a way to get it across the city.

You're talking about the backflow preventer. I'm sorry. Backflow preventer. Councilman Mark, that's a great idea. I'm proud to say that we, through Awana's program, a lot of people are participating in that and I don't believe that's income limited anymore, is it Scott? It is. Iwana's is. But the sanitary district also has it. They have their own program. So no matter who wants to install a backflow preventer in Hammond, you could go through a WANUS program, which is through community development dollars, which is great, or you could, the sanitary district will reimburse you. You know, that's an act of God when you get five inches of rain in a short period of time. However, we can do better by preventing, you know, we can protect our homes better by installing backflow preventers, maybe having backup power supplies on your sump pump. There's things you could do to better prepare your home. And the backflow preventer is the best way you can. So I will talk to them. Scott, could you make sure we talk about that?

The double whammy to that is that when Nipsco goes out, your pump goes out unless you have a backup and your backup will only go for so long. And so people were frustrated. They did everything they needed to do. And yet, you know, Yep, that's true. Nipskill wasn't there for them quick enough.

When we have bad storms, blizzards or storms like we're having in the winter, one of the first things we're always watching for in the city is power outages. And if we get them, we all know it's an emergency. Power outages during a heat wave like we're having, no good. Power outages during a rainstorm, no good. There's no way to fight it. You know, my house, if I lost power, I don't have backup to my sump pump. You know, some people have Degenerac, and Degenerac kicks on. That's a way to protect your home, but it's expensive. So, you know, I get it. Nobody wants their home to get wet, but we have to protect our homes too. And I realize some people are better able to do that than others, but I think that's a great recommendation.

Thanks for considering putting that information in the monthly letter.

Anybody else? Hey, Mayor. Yes, sir. Hi, Barry.

Thanks for talking about the storms. And I know you and I had a conversation about it right after it happened too. So I just want to know, I know HSD lost phones for a few days. Are we still asking residents to call in and report where it occurred so we can keep track of?

Thank you, Councilman. If you had a basement back up, please call it into the Hammond Sanitary District. Even if you fixed it up, we use it for historical purposes. We have like scatter maps for every flood event, and then we see which neighborhoods flood, and then we look for consistencies. So even if you cleaned it up yourself, but if you flooded, call it into the Hammond Sanitary District, and Barry's right. Along with losing their primary and backup power source, they also lost their diesel generator because it was underwater, and all their phones went out during that storm. Hammond Sanitary District was destroyed. It was right near the Hammond Sanitary District where the South Shore lines, their canopy, the power lines above it fell to the ground, and I was just driving by today, and they're still fixing that. So the South Shore lines affected Harrison Park. 100-year-old trees on the ground, multiple. That was a bad storm, and we got the worst of it in Hammond, unfortunately.

Mayor, question.

Yes, sir.

Any upgrades or changes that Sanitary District are currently exploring with the failed options that happened?

The upgrade that we use all the time is the CSO basin. It cost us $55 million, and we use it regularly. And every time you see that CSO basin with water in it, that's water when Councilman Mark and I first got elected. That was water that ended up in our basement or on our streets. So when you see that CSO basin, that's a good thing. I know Councilman Allen and I have different issues to deal with that about when it gets dry. But that CSO basin saves us from basement backups. And since we've had that in, we really haven't had too many basement backups. And I'll be honest, I know that we've, you know, it's like once a year it seems like we're getting these real bad storms and it seems like basement backups. I know Councilman Mark got it a couple years ago. Councilman Barry got it bad. It's just... It could happen anywhere in the city and it's like the best you could do is protect your home even more. You know, if there's battery backups on your sump pump, you know, just stuff like that. But there's going to be another improvement we have to do in the Hammond Sanitary District, probably going to be a couple years from now, Councilman Howell. It's a stormwater capture facility that's going to be in the 5th District down by the Starbucks, okay? We talked about doing that, but then Munster sued the Hammond Sanitary District and put it on hold. but that we have the designs for that. What it's gonna do is it's gonna capture the storm water that comes to us from our customers councilman out and prevent, we don't have to send that. If we treat it there and we put it into the little cow, we won't have to have all that water go to the plant anymore, which will save us. It'll save us tens of millions of gallons. But that's like a $60, $70 million project. And when we decide to finally move on that, it's going to result in rate increases. Unfortunately, that's how you pay for these things. But that will help us. But this is the infrastructure we have underneath the streets. And to change that is a lot more than even the bears are talking about. So thanks for the question.

Are the storm events discharges into the river?

Yes, sir. We have to report it. We're not supposed to. But it's better for us to do that than to flood out, right? So what they usually do, Councilman, is it's a CSO event. First, the plant starts overflowing, and then it goes into the basin. And then the basin fills up, and then the basin starts gravity filling into the Grand Cal, right? That's mostly stormwater. Let's call it 90% stormwater, 10% dirty. Dirty is heavy. I'll let you analyze yourself. And the heavy falls to the bottom of the storm basin, which is the Project Allen. So what happens is the solids usually don't flow into the river. They flow into the storm basin, and they get caught at the bottom. That would be like six feet when it dries out, right? And then the water that goes into the Grand Cal is dirty. It's not treated like normal, but it's not – E. coli, okay? And that's a, we have to report that to IDM. It's a violation.

And we get, what, four events a year?

Oh, regularly, Councilman Mark. The overflow, we don't have basin backups regularly. We have the overflows into the CSO, into the Grand Cal on big storms. It's a, the storms are changing. We receive water from Whiting, Griffith, Highland, Munster, and Hammond. And when we have storms that hit all those customer communities, every raindrop that's falling in all those cities is coming to that plant. Now, if we could intercept it and keep some of it in the fifth district, because it's mostly separated down there, so that'll just be stormwater. And we can just keep the stormwater out of the second district plant. Treat it right there in the fifth and put it in the little Calumet. That'll help us a lot. But that's a couple years away still, Councilman. And expensive.

Power still just can't fail, though, right?

I mean, that's a whole separate issue. When we lose NIPSCO. And I'm not here to beat up NIPSCO. That was an exceptional storm. And what happens is NIPSCO is not losing power. These trees are going down, and they're taking the lines with them. And, you know, so like it's our trees that are falling into the power lines and it kills the power. And then you're out until they can fix all the lines.

And they've had a lot of crews out cleaning up around the trees and just doing collaborative maintenance type of things. I've seen them all.

Yes, sir. Been a busy three weeks, I told you. Sorry about the long report. Do you have any other questions?

Thank you, Mayor.

Thanks, guys. Very informative. Thank you.

Have a good evening.

Thank you, too.

All righty.

Moving on to approval of minutes. Yes, I ask that we approve the minutes from the June 22nd meeting and place them on file. Second.

Motion by Councilman Salinas, second by Councilman Emerson to approve the minutes from June 22nd. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Approval of claims.

Madam President. Yes, Councilman. The motion to approve the claims dated 6-17-26 and ending with claims dated 7-8-26. Claim number 4906 through claim number 5476 inclusive. I so move.

Motion by Councilman Rakos, second by Councilman. to approve the claims for the meeting of July 13th. Any discussion?

Madam President, the amount was $21,065,498.37. All righty. Okay, thank you. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion?

Clerk Golick, roll call vote, please.

Alexander. Yes. Spitelli. Yes. Kalwinski. Yes. Salinas. Yes. Tyler. Yes. Emerson. Yes. Warple. Yes. Rakos. Yes. Vanes.

Yes. Motion carries, nine in favor, zero opposed. Clerk Golick, for the record, Councilman Tyler is in chambers now. So noted. Public hearings, there are none. Communications?

any communications yes i wanted to give some thank yous out because as the mayor stated we have gone through a lot of flooding it's been a lot of extra maintenance and work required i know in my district and i'm sure a few other districts um so i want to go on record as just giving a very special thank you to public works felix and ronda have worked around the clock to do their best to get us back to normal so to speak i know that juan serrano in the second district has been an all-star as well as Timo on the street sweeper doing their best to help get our area cleaned up. Over at sewer maintenance, Jack Smith and Wally and their crews have been busy throughout the second district. I've seen them active. Mayor mentioned about flooding. Magnolia near the Bishop Knoll High School area had water up to the knees in the streets. But Jack and his crew came out as soon as they could to help alleviate some of that. And for our Parks Department as well, because just like Harrison Park, Columbia Park got hit pretty hard as well. Mr. Devin Wick, Matt Markham, and Jim Talon over at the Parks Department, very special thank you to all of you. If there's anyone I left out, it's not on purpose. Just thank you to all of our departments for working hard throughout the city. Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you, Councilman. And I will just add, I was fortunate not to be affected the way your district was. I did drive through and I saw some of the damage, but all of our city workers, they step up. They are outstanding. Everyone cares about the city and they are there to do whatever they can to make our city the best that it can be. So thank you. Any other communications? Any other communications? Madam President? Yes, Councilman.

My apologies for using this as a place for making a personal statement, but I just want to thank the Hammett Fire Department. One of my kids had a medical emergency over the weekend, and just like they always do, they responded very professionally, caring to help look after my little one. So I just want to thank the Fire Department for all that they do to keep our residents safe, including my family. We need it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam President.

Yes, Councilwoman.

Piggybacking off of what Councilman Tyler said, I do know that during the storm, our fire department was going and checking on a lot of our elderly residents and things like that to make sure that they were good when they were losing power, especially for those that are on oxygen and things like that. So giving them kudos for those checks as well.

Thank you. Any other communications? Any other communications? Any other communications? Communications are now closed. Committee reports. Does the plan commission have anything, Councilman? Okay. Economic development, Councilman?

No business tonight.

Finance, Councilman?

No, but 2619 will be coming.

Pardon me?

2619 will be coming out. Finance hasn't met.

All righty, thank you. Capital improvement, Councilman?

Yes, I have a report. The Capital Improvement Board met on July 6th, and there were a total of six, seven, seven funding allocations.

You guys were busy.

It was a busy meeting, yes. All of which I'll cover at this time. Our first funding allocation, number 266, was a revision. It was 165th Street from Kennedy to Kennedy, sorry, from Kennedy to Kentucky. Design and Michigan Street from Homan to Calumet was awarded to first group engineering in the amount of $92,300. This was a community crossings grant and this 92,300 reflects the construction cost only. Funding allocation number 283 was also a revised funding allocation. It was the Summer Street reconstruction change orders 8 and 13 through 17. This was to both NDOT and Reith and Riley construction in the amount of $15,567.94. Funding allocation number 330, Summer Street sewer change order number one was awarded to Grimmer Construction in the amount of $3,100. I was told that this was due to the current contract quantities were exceeded. This was needed. Funding allocation number 331, Memorial Park street dedication awarded to American Structure Point in the amount of $1,300. Funding allocation number 332, disposed, salvaged building materials. This was to Dyer Construction in the amount of $10,700. Funding allocation number 333 was the 2026 General Engineering Services awarded to Nice Engineering in the amount of $60,000. Their current contract had exceeded the last allocation that we awarded them. The final allocation, number 334, was a fabricate steel bollards from Holman Avenue to Vans Industrial Inc. in the amount of $18,900. These are to be installed in front of the illuminated bollards. They're needed because a lot of them continue to get knocked down or hit by cars and traffic riding through. Try to slow them down with a reduced speed limit, but they still continue to hit some of our... ornamental infrastructure.

Yes, it does happen. Yes.

All righty. Those are all the allocations. Thank you.

Thank you. And as usual, I'll read off the upcoming community and crime watch meetings. It's kind of slow right now. uh school is closed so we're not able to utilize the uh schools for our meetings so i'll just give you a tba for a month uh community watch at mount zion pleasant view plaza actually we just met this last wednesday i had a great meeting sergeant gonzalez showed showed because Sergeant Lernick was on vacation and gave the seniors some great information. Our next meeting there will be in September. Pullman Crime Watch will meet Tuesday, July 21st, 6 p.m. at the Ophelia Steen Center. Edison Community Watch will meet in September, so stay tuned for that date. Harrison Park will meet... in September as well. Stay tuned for that date. Hessville Crime Watch will meet Thursday, August 20th, 6 p.m. at the HC3 Community Center. Irving Community Watch, stay tuned for that. They will meet in September. South Holman Avenue Neighborhood Watch will meet in October, stay tuned for that date. Whiting-Robertsdale Crime Watch will meet Thursday, August 13th, 6.30 PM at Calumet College. And Jefferson Crime Watch will meet in September, stay tuned for that date. Meanwhile, if You just want some information about something going on in your neighborhood. Please be sure to utilize the 311 app. If you're feeling extremely uncomfortable, please call 911 it's better to be safe than sorry the police would much rather get a call about something that turns out to be nothing than to miss a call about something of consequence so please utilize every safety feature that we have available in the city because community is not just about me it's about us All righty, moving on to committee reports. We did not meet tonight. Okay, ordinance, third reading, final passage.

Ordinance 26-19 sponsored by Councilman Warple. An ordinance of the City of Hammond to amend Title VII, Chapter 76, Schedule 15 of the Hammond Municipal Code as it pertains to bike paths.

Madam President.

Councilman Warple.

Move for final passage and adoption of 26-19. Second.

Motion by Councilman Warple, second by Councilman Kalwinski for final passage of 2619. Any discussion?

Madam President.

Yes, Councilman.

This ordinance is literally one half of one page. And it's... section one schedule fifteen of the bike pass of the hammond municipal court is hereby amended to add the following locations as additional bike pass in hammond marquette greenway the erie lackawanna the monon trail the wolf lake trail the lake or the george lake trail the little calumet river trail and the downtown wolf lake corridor trail are added to the ordinance that doesn't mean they're brand new bike pass

Thank you. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Clerk Golick, roll call vote, please.

Alexander. Yes. Spitelli. Yes. Kalwinski.

Yes.

Salinas.

Yes.

Tyler.

Yes.

Emerson.

Yes.

Warple.

Yes.

Regals. Yes. Vanes.

Yes. Motion carries, nine in favor, zero opposed.

President Vanez, that concludes the ordinances for final passage.

Moving on to introduction of ordinances.

Item A, ordinance 26-20, sponsored by Councilman Warpo. An ordinance to appropriate monies into the 2026 gaming fund.

Madam President.

Yes, Councilman.

Move for first and second reading.

Second by motion by Councilman Whirlpool, second by Councilman Rakos for first and second reading of 2620. Any discussion? Madam President. Yes, Councilman.

Reason I'm not putting this in committee, it's something we do every year. It transfers the 2025 funds, leftover gaming funds into the 2026 accounts.

Thank you. I do believe there's a need for a public hearing July 27th. Is that correct?

It doesn't say it on mine that I'm aware of. Let me look.

It's on the agenda.

Yeah, that's correct.

Okay, thank you. I got my two folders mixed up last week and this week. Okay, so there will be a public hearing on July 27th as well. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? Clerk Golick, roll call vote, please.

Alexander? Yes. Spitali? Yes. Kalwinski?

Yes.

Salinas?

Yes.

Tyler?

Yes.

Emerson?

Yes.

Warple?

Yes.

Rickles? Yes. Vanes?

Yes. Motion carries, nine in favor, zero opposed.

President Vanes, that concludes the introduction of ordinances.

Thank you, clerk. Moving on to resolutions.

Item A, Resolution 26R-16 sponsored by Councilman Warhol. A resolution of the City of Hammond Common Council designating the funds into which distributions of the financial institutions and commercial vehicle excise tax shall be receded for the 2026 spring distribution.

Madam President. Councilman Warple. I move for adoption of 26R16. Second.

Motion by Councilman Warple, second by Councilwoman Alexander. Any discussion?

Madam President.

Yes, Councilman.

This resolution is pretty much described what it does in the title. It designates the funds into which the distributions of the financial institution tax and commercial vehicle excise tax shall be receded for the 2026 distribution. Legislative changes provide flexibility to taxing units, including the City of Hammond, in receding and utilizing these two taxes and distributions.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Quick roll call vote, please.

Alexander. Yes. Spitelli. Yes. Kalwinski. Yes. Salinas.

Yes.

Tyler. Yes. Emerson. Yes. Warple.

Yes.

Rakos. Yes. Vanes.

Yes. Motion carries, nine in favor, zero opposed.

President Van Ness, that concludes the reading of the resolutions.

Thank you, Clerk Golick. New and unfinished business. New and unfinished business. Anyone have any new and unfinished business? New and unfinished business is now closed. Clerk Golick, moving on to special zoning action adopted under Indiana Code 36-7.

Item A, Ordinance 26-21, sponsored by Councilman Salinas. A petition of Raul Correal. for a variance of the use from zoning ordinance to allow an event space general facility in a R1U urban single family residential district located at 1424 through 30 Michigan Street within the city of Hammond, Lake County, Indiana.

Councilman Salinas.

Yes, I ask that we like to adopt special zoning action 2621 with the conditions of approval set forth by the BZA. Second.

Motion by Councilman Salinas, second by Councilman Kowalski. Any discussion?

Yes, Madam President. I know Mr. Novak is here in the audience. He'd like to say a few words about it. Can I say nothing about it? My apologies. He does such a good job on the BCA. Thank you for your help.

Madam President.

Go ahead.

Yes, Councilman.

I consult with Councilman Salinas before the meeting to see if the letter was sent out within 300 feet of this action. And it was, and primarily the neighbors were in approval of this going forward. So I appreciate that information. Thank you.

It was, yeah, that was stated in the... I believe it was over 90%. Right.

I believe it was over 90%. Mm-hmm. As well as I left everyone with a copy from the Hammond Police Department on their desks today, just offering the support that they've... given to the business owner who's here, Raul Correa, regarding anytime there's an event with alcohol present or alcohol on site, that it is a standard that the police department are our security of that event.

It's a standard, not a requirement?

Well, it's a requirement. Okay, thank you. He requires it, it's a standard in his business practices, and he's got a letter of support from the half police department as well.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Clerk Olick, roll call vote, please.

Alexander.

Yes.

Spitali.

Yes.

Kalwinski? Yes. Salinas? Yes. Tyler?

Yes.

Emerson?

Yes.

Warple? Yes. Rakos? Yes. Vanes?

Yes. Let the record show, nine in favor, zero opposed. Motion carries. Thank you.

President Vanes, that concludes special zoning action.

Thank you, Clerk Golick. Moving on to... Public expression. First speaker, Mary Schoens. Good evening, Mary.

Good evening, Councilwoman. I hope everyone who's listening to this has a drier basement than they did about a week ago. I was very grateful to see the utility crews roll up. And I was very grateful. There's lots of different ways that when I'm a veteran myself, but whenever I hear someone say thank you for your service, I always think I'm a much better librarian than I ever was a soldier. There's lots of different ways to serve our country, whether it's by repairing our power grid or by picking up branches or taking our streets and our sanitation crews Server our city very well, and I'm very thankful for them. What else serves our country and our city are our trees. And I'm thinking, especially of the 32 acres of old growth trees and Briar East woods. I'm going to throw some numbers at you, but it's nothing too crazy. According to the Purdue Extension Department, a mature tree absorbs anywhere between 10 and 150 gallons of water per day. So on average, about an acre of forest has about 400 trees. And at the low end, if they said 10 gallons of water per tree, 400 trees per acre, 32 acres, you're talking at the low end, 128,000 gallons of water per day that is being absorbed by these trees. And on the high end, 1.9 million gallons of water that didn't end up in our basements and in our storm sewers. And that's something these trees serve our city. And we would do well to leave them alone. And one of the things I think about is something that The mayor kind of gave the game away a little bit last year when he was at the last Sixth district mayor's night out at the very end of the this October 29th meeting he said well, you know It's if we have townhomes that's going to drive up the price that it's going to drive up property values and in our city and And I'm like, well, if everything's underwater, what are we doing? Some things are more valuable when we leave them alone. And we should protect this space because this space also helps to serve and protect our neighborhood. Thank you.

Thank you, Mary. Next, Anthony Higgs.

Good evening, fellow council members. I would also like to piggyback on Councilman Salinas in him applauding the efforts of the sanitary district as well as public works. They did a wonderful job as I observed and watched them work. continuously around Harrison Park and throughout the city of Hamming cleaning up. There were a number of residents within the third district were flooded out without power. So I did go around to some of the people within the third district and speak to them to see what I could personally do to help them in their time of crisis. However, there is a measure that's put in place where you go through the sanitary district, you report it, and then you can go to to the North Township Trustee's Office and get a voucher as well. in terms of helping it's not much but it will assist with the mop or broom or something for those individuals who uh basements foot like mine i also had to have my line rotted out secondly i would like to speak in terms of being active and involved in the community i didn't wait until i was 70 i had been in the active involved since i was 18 years old and that's something i continue to look forward doing within my community i love hammond and i'm part of hammond Thirdly, there are a number of issues that are affecting the residents in Hammond that are currently being brought to my attention. I can't resolve them all. All I can do is bring them to the attention of those that are in charge. So I try to forward that information to them as quickly as the department heads or whoever. there is available to assist in those efforts. I'd like to applaud the mayor in bringing out a press release in regards to the flooding and utilities being out. That was helpful. Also, my TV, Xfinity just got there on yesterday to get my TVs up and running. So I appreciate their efforts as well. Certainly, as the weeks to come, of course, the Festival of Lakes is going to take place this week. I'm hoping that no incident occurs there and that it's safe and taken care of. And I hope that the police officers are also safe. I would also like to congratulate a friend of mine who's retiring from the police department in Chicago, Illinois. I look forward to coming to the meetings and addressing the issues and concerns of my community for the rest of my life. God bless.

Thank you, Mr. Hicks. Tommy Dorsey.

Good evening, everyone. Tommy Dorsey, and just like it was just said, and I just wanted to come here to actually introduce myself to everyone that may not know of me. And I wanted to, for the last two plus years, I've volunteered for helping the elderly here in the area. for the last two plus years, I've got a real close look up and not to piggyback off of some of the things that was said about the fire department, but our fire department, I would have to say is in the top I would put them up against any city. These guys, I don't know if you've noticed, but by watching them and helping some of the elderly, these guys, when they're called, they come out like it's a fire on blaze. Every time they get out of that truck or off of that vehicle, they put their radios on, they put everything in gear. And the only reason that I've been able to pay attention to this is because I volunteer for the elderly. And I can't say anything but just high praise for our fire department and ambulance workers. I thank you. And I'm looking forward to working with this council to better and keep our city safe.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dorsey. Linda Verdusco.

Good evening to each and one of you at the council and thank you for each doing a good job. This is especially for the mayor. I wanted to tell him that I had attended the Was it the roadie run at the PAV? And it was so enjoyable. I even joined the Striders again. Everybody in that team, they were so happy with the amenities, the awards, and they were just very pleased. I know I'm not going to make any friends here on this one. I will be so glad when that bridge over Parrish Avenue is done. I had to wait yesterday all the way from Indianapolis to 165th to 169th all the way to to get around it i finally had to get on the expressway and come around on uh kind and kind right now is not doing very well but anyway i'll be glad when that's over let's get this bridge done thank you all have a good evening thank you and you're welcome do you want to stay here here

Alrighty. There isn't anyone online who would like to speak, so public expression is now closed. Motion to adjourn? So moved. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Please.

Madam President.

I just about gaveled us. Point of order. Point of order. Yes.

I make a motion that we go back to public expression since we just closed the meeting out.

All righty. Is there a second? Second? Yeah, me. Okay. Clerk Golick, roll call.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Motion carries nine in favor, zero opposed.

Please state your name and your address, please.

All right. Hi, everyone. I'm Matt Miller. I'm from Griffith and I'm I'm here to discuss the monumental crisis that we're heading towards with the data centers. I'm not sure if this has been brought to your attention yet, but this is my first time coming out. This is extremely important here. They're advertising that they'll provide data for schools and create jobs. I don't know about you guys, but we didn't need data centers, massive data centers running and taking all of our energy and water and emitting EMFs to learn things in school. And The idea that it's creating jobs when the whole thing that the data centers are being built for, they're a battery for the technology state that we're heading towards right now. We're talking about just ushering in drones without thinking twice about what the other effects of this could be and what the downsides could be on all this. I mean, they've got drones flying around surveilling California on the 4th of July. Are you guys okay with drones just flying around for the police? I'm not. I'm addressing everyone because we're all in this together. I am, but it's good to include the people because I can't do this by myself and I want to see what you guys have on this as well. This is a public discussion here and What they're being built for simultaneously as these flock cameras are being put up, they're only ushering in more and more flock cameras. And what do you guys think that they need this massive data center to be fueling? They're creating a surveillance state with cameras all over the place, and they need these data centers to do that. They're being built to track all of our information, medical, financial, online, our movements. Palantir has received a contract from the Trump administration to accumulate and centralize data on Americans. They're surveilling us. They also say it will create jobs, but those jobs are going to quickly be replaced by AI and robotics. AI and robotics will quickly take more jobs than what these data centers are providing. That's just an extremely short-term mentality to say that the construction jobs will be beneficial to the community because these robots and AI are quickly gaining the capabilities to work in the trades. They're welding. They're doing masonry. They're doing all this, and this is only 2026. Imagine where this goes in a couple years. This is going to take all the jobs. They're capable of construction, inspection. Tennessee has already passed laws for monitoring online content. Brandon Johnson is also heading towards this as well in Illinois. This is a chain reaction that's going on in this country. They're already suppressing free speech on Facebook in Tennessee. And the more monitoring and the more battery they have for this technology, this just grows and grows. If we don't stop this technology avalanche, it's going to swallow us all up. And... A woman in Texas was arrested.

Matt, I'm sorry, but your time has expired. And we appreciate your thoughts. Thank you. Madam President. Yes, Councilman.

I suggest he saves what he's got on his phone and come back and read the rest of it next meeting.

Next meeting, OK. There we go.

I mean, I think on the phone there's data on the phone, correct? That's how we save the stuff? That's precisely how we save the stuff. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Dave. I'll be back. Do I have to schedule myself a time? And how much time do I have?

You have three minutes at the end of the meeting during public expression.

And I don't need to sign up? Yes.

When you come in, you've got to sign up.

Make a motion to adjourn.

Second.

Hold on, don't we need to go back to regular order of business? No. No, that's okay. You had your time.

Okay, it'll just be out here. Madam President. Thank you.

Yes, Councilman. Make a motion that we go back to regular order of business.

Is there a second? I'm second by Councilman Kalwinski. Clerk Golick, roll call. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion carries, nine in favor, zero opposed. Is there a motion to adjourn?

I make a motion to adjourn.

Second. Motion by Councilwoman Alexander, second by Councilman Spitali. All those in favor?