City Council - Regular Meeting

To the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Eternal God our father. We thank you for this day. Lord we just ask that you continue to keep our residents safe. Continue to cover them and keep them continue to keep everyone in this cold weather. We thank you for everything that you're going to do in this season. In Jesus name. Amen. Thank you. Click roll call. Alexander. Smatelli here. Vanz here. Kowinski here. Selenus here. Tyler here.

Emerson here. Reos here. Warpel here. Let the record show nine present. Zero absent. Mr. Miller.

Good evening council. Um on behalf of the mayor, I want to wish everyone a happy vet veterans day for tomorrow. Um being such city hall will be closed and thank you specifically Councilman Emerson, Councilman Spatitali for your service. Appreciate that very much. Um a report over some of the past two weeks, mayor and I met with Rob Hart and they're the developers from the bank to hear progress on how things are going there. uh they have basically leased out the entire property at this time. Um and they're excited to do more work. So they came in to talk to us about what's next. So they're looking at downtown and finding another underutilized building and continuing to move forward. Um had a meeting about the uh with Councilman Tyler on the Man of Steel in Harrison Park and trying to get it renovated. If you've been by there recently and actually taken a good look at it, you can see it's in need of some love. But the good news is we have some interested partners that are willing to help, you know, fund raise for this. So, it shouldn't cost the city anything to get it redone and looking looking nice again. I attended the Hammond trunk or treat at the police department. Uh we had several hundred people come through there. Uh big shout out to our police department for taking up that initiative and continuing to show uh that they're a trusted resource in our city. The Sports Flex had a uh trick-or- treat event on Halloween to reach out for students with or excuse me, young people with disabilities. It was very well attended. And then afterwards, they had a party where they had several hundred people show up at the Sports Plex afterwards as well. So, they they were both events were very successful and we plan on having them again next year. As was our vet annual Veterans Day parade. Again, we're the only community in the area that takes time to celebrate our

veterans in that fashion. Um, again, lots of people coming out. Uh, some some good reflections on that day. I met with a group called the Lazarus Project led by Bishop Grant. Um, they are looking at partnering with Family Christian Center who purchased the the the building on 7147 Kennedy. It's right there on the north west side of of the park. And uh right now it's painted white, but they're going to be turning that into not just a food pantry, but it's going to be all resources for clothing, for household items, and that should be ready in the next few months. So, um, as you might remember, uh, Steve Muny's father opened up his first church on that location a long time ago. So, Family Christian Center bought the building. They're currently renovating it and it should be open to serve the community, like I said, in the next few months. We held a four Champs promotion boxing event at the Civic Center on the 1st of November. We had a moderate crowd out there, but we're going to continue to work on having events at the Civic Center all through the fall, winter, and spring. Um, we had our monthly meeting with the police department. One of the things that we discussed, some of you may have seen, is that we had a party on Kennedy Avenue couple weekends ago that overflowed into the streets where we had a whole bunch of young people. Um, got a lot of views on on social media. And I just want to let everybody know too that the owner of the property is the one that called the police because the tenant, the one who rented the birthday party place, misrepresented how many people were going to be there. And so when he saw that all these other kids were showing up, he called the police to come and get extra support. But we are still following up on those things. We always do. When things happen

like that, you can rest assured that mayor doesn't rest on those things. He was already texting that evening about what we were going to do about it. So, we follow up with code, we follow follow up with our um with fire inspection, we follow up with our police going to meet with the owners, and we make sure that things like this, the chance of them happening again are limited. Um, moving right on though, we also uh along the same vein, we are continuing to meet on our used car task force and that's an initiative from the mayor to straighten up all the used car lots around Hammond that may be out of compliance. You may see junk cars out um things like that where we're we're attacking them and we in the past few weeks we've had multiple meetings on um most specifically we did the second and the third. We're going to be moving on to the fourth district and we continue to work on the used car lots. We had a me meeting uh with new hires. Marcus Holland was promoted to craftsman in public works and we had four new correctional officers starting in the jail. I know we have our hiring freeze, but these are critical positions for for the city to move forward. And then I just want to mention um just in general, redevelopment continues to be really hot in the city. Uh just in the past two weeks, we had meetings about the property on Kyle Avenue where we thought a Starbucks was going to go. We already have three interested parties for that for that property. We had interest in one straight state street that's over on State Line to the to the west of the Straen Van Tills empty lot there. Uh we had interest on the former Nipkco building on Homeman 5265. We had interest in the old public aid office on 4803 Homeman. That's the one that's kind of on Hoffman Street. I gave a tour over there. Um we continued to

move forward on Rimach Plaza. Um we had another meeting on 1175 State Street. So a lot of these are under non-disclosure. So I can't tell you exactly in a public meeting who is looking for it, but that's all in the last two weeks. We've had meetings on all those different properties. So like Hammond Hammond is very popular right now as far as development and a big reason I think is the community we've built here and and basically the taxes compared to Illinois. People want to come here. All right, just a few upcoming events. Already mentioned city hall will be closed tomorrow. We do have the sports flex expansion ribbon cutting on Thursday, November 20th at 11:00 a.m. Like to invite all the council there again. That is Thursday, November 20th at 11:00 a.m. Sportslex expansion ribbon cutting. The day after on November 21st, that Friday, we have the mayor's commission on disabilities lunch and learn. That's from 10 to 1:00. That is also going to be held at the Sports Flex this year. And then lastly, um we have a paint and sip at the Jean Shepard. Um, they're going to be building a lighthouse or painting a lighthouse at dusk. That's on November 20th in the evening from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. You do have to RSVP and there's a minor cost for that, but if you'd like to do like a whining canvas, we're doing that out of the Jean Shepard on November 20th. All right, that concludes all of my updates and announcements. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Scott? Yes, sir. Um, couple things. Uh, as far as the used car lots go. Yes, sir. Um, one of the places that started all that was Cooper Tire, right? It was. Yeah. And because of the task force and some pressure that was put on, we've got them to come into compliance. Is that my understanding of it? Yes, absolutely. Like you saw before and after pictures. That task force has been in effect for a year now. So much so that we were able to take some properties off the list like Cooper's Tire that we're on to monitoring status now and we added a bunch of more properties on. So word's getting out there about it

just in my neighborhood along because I live right behind there. That that was a huge success from the first night we drove by there and saw some animals running from the parking lot there. And then um I know that the mayor and I discussed this briefly one night and I've had a conversation with you one night about the possibility of trying to go paperless citywide within the next couple of years. And I know when the mayor and I talked and I talked to you, we can start it with the council, if you guys are open to it next year, of going to the iPads and um we'd be trained on it according to the mayor because I know there's a couple of dinosaurs on here like me that don't know how to turn an iPad on. But are we making are we have we open any more discussions on that or no?

We've had some internal discussions. I've talked to it about it. Um I it's getting new iPod iPads is not a problem now. What the implications are for everybody's processes. It's going to we we need to meet and get some clarification on how that's going to be.

Well, the conversation started because of Councilman Tyler asking about getting the agendas online and all that. I mean, the the packets online and if it's that easy to do it, there's no reason why we got to have all these papers. So, I just it's a heads up to the council, too. There has been a couple of initial discussions on it. And I know when the mayor and I talked that we'd like to do something by the before the budget of next year at least as far as iPads and as far as the council office goes. So, if everybody would give input on that, that'd be appreciated. Anybody else have anything to add?

Yes. Councilman Kinsky, have we put agendas and ordinances on the internet? No. So what I see when I go on there is once the council approves the the the ordinances in the final version and any resolutions you can go on to the go Hammond and and get the final versions I I don't know clerk did you or anyone do you want to provide any more detail to that all all of it goes through it we provide the information up to it whether it's published what I referring to

the agenda is required now. Okay. What I was referring to was agendas and and the agenda items before the meeting. No, I I agree with you and mayor is on board with having that.

The discussions that I've had about that with Councilman Tyler and it and the mayor, I don't think anybody's opposed to to that going online. It's just a matter of what day will it be up at what time. You know, I know that our stuff is usually on Wednesday and it might take a day to get it up online. So, you know, if we'd have it like a drop dead date of it'll be up on Friday before a meeting or whatever. That's all we basically need to work out.

Yeah. It actually it all kind of goes together with the initiative of going paperless too though. If you can just have everything in a digital format, it there's platforms that can do all that pretty simply. Not to bring up my past, but like at School City, they converted all the way back in 2014 to everything going online. So like it the technology exists. It they can it can certainly be done if the will is there. That's what I think we got the Friday idea from was you said the school city does it by the Friday before the meetings. Mhm. So, I don't think anybody's opposed to that either as far as I'm aware of. So, Mr. President,

Councilwoman Vanz, um I am not opposed to it. However, um just as uh we have in our packet right now, the minutes and it has draft on it. I think it should whatever document we put online should have draft on it. Uh so no one is under the impression that uh it's etched in stone.

I think that's a good idea that that before the final version gets done it could it could say draft for sure and then once the minutes have been approved by the council at at the following meeting then you can upload the final version of the minutes. Well, that's if I'm understanding that correctly, it's got to do with sometimes we have an ordinance or a resolution in the packet that doesn't get introduced. And that's what I think you're referring to is uh No, I uh I was referring to as our minutes. Okay.

Right now it has draft on it, right? and whatever goes online I would like to see draft on it because it hasn't been um approved. That's not a problem. Anybody else? Thank you. You're welcome. Item number four, approval of minutes. Make a motion that we accept the minutes from October 27th meeting and place them on file.

Second. Motion's been made by Councilman Selenus, seconded by Councilman Emerson. Is there any discussion? Is there any discussion? Is there any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. The eyes have it. Item number five, approval of claims. Mr. President Councilwoman Venez

I move for approval of claims beginning with claims dated October 22nd, 2025 and ending with claims dated November 5th, 2025, claim number 9759 through claim number uh 10129 inclusive in the amount of 6,452,4819. 19 cents. Second. Motion's been made by Councilwoman Venez, seconded by Councilman Reikos. Is there any discussion? Is there any discussion? Is there any discussion? Clerk Golic, roll call. Alexander, yes. Spatelli, yes. Vanz, yes. Gowinski,

yes. Selenus, yes. Tyler, yes. Emerson, yes. Reikos, yes. Purple, yes. Let the record show nine in favor, zero opposed. Item number six, public hearings. There are none. Item number seven, communications. Anybody have any communications? Mr. President, is that Councilman Tyler? Yes. Yes.

Uh, this weekend I had the pleasure of attending the 30-year anniversary of Reverend Poke at his church, uh, New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. So, just want to say congratulations to him and his first lady, Miss Marvapolk, on 30 years of serving our community. Um, being advisers to so many different leaders across our city. Uh, I think their their reach expands outside of Hammond, outside the state of Indiana. So, just want to congratulate him uh once again on 30 plus years of leadership here in the city. And also want to announce that this year our drive-through turkey giveaway will take place on Saturday, November 22nd at 9:00 am. Once again, it's being hosted in the affiliates themed parking lot. As of right now, we'll be giving away 200 turkeys. Um, we're also in the process of trying to partner more deeply with the food bank and and other organizations to see if we can provide additional food items for families in need, too. So, if anybody out there would like to donate, please reach out to me or Councilwoman Alexander. Thank you to uh the council people who have already supported that initiative. I'll be releasing more information. Uh but thank you for your sponsorship and support. Once again, that's Saturday, November 22nd at 9:00 a.m. at the Affilias Center. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else have anything on the communication? I have a question in regards to Councilman Reos. Does it go through the Greater Hammond? The checks, the sponsorships actually go to the sponsorships go to the food bank of Northwest Indiana. Okay. All right. Thank you. Anybody else have anything under communications? Anybody else have any communications? Communications are now closed. Item number eight, committee reports. Councilwoman Vanz.

Uh, yes. As usual, I would like to announce the upcoming community and crime watch groups. Uh on uh Wednesday, December 3rd, Edison Community Watch will meet at Edison School beginning at 6:30 p.m. Harrison Park Crime Watch will meet Tuesday, December 2nd, 6:00 p. p.m. at the VFW on Homeman Avenue across from Harrison Park. Uh Jefferson Crime Watch will meet tomorrow, November 12th, 6:00 p. p.m. at Jefferson School. Uh please come out and support that effort. That is a new crime watch that is starting. Um we've had many requests and thank uh thanks to uh Tom Casmerac for uh starting that up. So that's tomorrow at Jefferson's Tuesday. Wednesday. Wednesday. I'm sorry that is correct. Wednesday, November 12th, 6 p.m. at Jefferson School. Um Hesville Crime Watch will meet Thursday, November 20th, 6:00 p.m. at the HC3 Community Center on Martha Street. Irving Community Watch will meet tomorrow, November 11th, uh, which is Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. at Irving School and Whiting Roberts Dayo Crime Watch will meet Thursday, November 13th, 6:30 p.m. at Calt College. Uh also I wanted to announce that uh we are in the

process of the uh Ring doorbell program. We have had uh as many applications. Uh we have 175 doorbells to give away. Um you the um uh the flyer is online on Go Hammond. Uh it's also online at Edison Communityw Watch uh on Facebook and uh fill out the application, supply the appropriate information and we will have a drawing uh November 25th uh at the police department. The community affairs police officers are going to be drawing the names. I don't want to touch them. Um, and uh, uh, this is just a great opportunity for you to protect your property, protect your neighborhood. Just so you know, I've seen some of the comments online that, oh yeah, this is big brother watching and the police department will be able to watch whatever is going on on your camera. That is not true. the police department will request that they can view the uh your video. They will not automatically get into your Ring doorbell. So, uh please be the eyes and ears of your neighborhood for your neighbors and our police department because community is not just about me, it's about us. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Selenus.

Yes. Uh, thank you. The capital improvement board met last Monday on November 3rd, and there was only one funding allocation number 294 that was approved. That uh that was with uh Summer Street Reconstruction change order number 18 to INDOT and Rethan Riley in the amount of $1,626.39. This had to do with the transition milling and resurfacing at the intersection of Summer and Indianapolis Boulevard to prevent ponding. This was part of a 20% local match. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Kinsky.

Thank you, Mr. President. Council as a whole will be bringing out 25-30 and 25-31.

Thank you. Does anybody else have anything on the committee reports? Does anybody else have anything on the committee reports? Committee reports are now closed. Item number nine, ordinance third reading and final passage. Ordinance number 25-30 sponsored by Councilman Kowinski and ordinance for reclassifying certain lands in the city of Hammond for zoning purposes and amending ordinance number 8514 which is an ordinance establishing a zoning plan for the city of Hammond including the regulations and maps to administer the zoning plan in order to provide for quarterly growth and development within the city. All in accordance with the comprehensive land use plan as amended for property commonly known as 3518 Sheffield Avenue and 30 or 345 136 Street.

Mr. Present. Councilman Kowinsky. I move for final passage of 25-30. Second. Motion's been made by Councilman Kowinsky, seconded by Councilman Spatali. Is there any discussion? Councilman Kwinsky.

Thank you. This is a development in the first district. Uh it's approximately 21 acres of land. 14 acres are developable. Seven acres are wetlands that will be preserved. And the the plan for this almost $21 million development is to have a three-story enclosed self- storage building and then to have a number of uh buildings with a roof for RVs and boat storage and then a number of buildings a few built buildings for that will be enclosed for RV and boat storage. Um there is no there is not adequate storage for these kinds of vehicles at this time in the in the area of Hammond and the surrounds and the Mr. Patel the developer feels very certain that this is a need that he can fulfill and this will be gated at both entrance and exit points on Sheffield and on Boy Scout Road or 136. Um they will also include a number of amenities such as um a dog park, uh a dump station, an office, a lounge, and uh service with go a golf cart to get people from the office to the area within the facility that they're going to. If all goes well, Mr. Patel plans to start development breaking ground in

June of 2026. I had the pleasure of meeting him and taking him around our district last week and have discussions with him. He's fully on board with creating a facility that uh will have eye appeal on the frontage and uh uh so that one he's a good neighbor but also so that uh people will want to bring their vehicles to that site. Excited about this potential development on what land used to be a lot of slag and unused. Um and if there are any questions I'm happy to entertain them. Thank you.

Thank you. Does anybody else have any further discussion? Anybody else have any further discussion? Hearing no further discussion. Clerk Golic Rooff. Alexander. Yes. Spatelli. Yes. Venez Kowinsky. Yes. Selenus. Yes. Tyler, yes. Emerson, yes. Rikos, yes. Warpel, yes. Let the record show. The motion carries. Nine in favor, zero opposed.

Ordinance 25-31, sponsored by Councilman Kowinski and ordinance vacating a 446.06 06 portion of 125th Street line east of the east rightway line of Gasper Avenue and west of the west right ofway line of New York Avenue in the 1400 block of New York Avenue in the city of Hammond Lake County Indiana. Mr. Present. Councilman Kowinsky. I move for third reading and final passage of 25-31. Second.

Motion's been made by Councilman Kinsky, seconded by Councilman Emerson. Is there any discussion? Mr. President. Councilman Kinsky.

This is a plot of land between New York and Gasper Avenues, uh, which was designated to be a street someday, but it never happened. It is currently owned by redevelopment and so that portion is necessary to add to the other area of the colleg's green space to create a practice field that will also be used for summer camps with the youth that come to those summer camps at the college. Um there's really not much else to say about that except that the le it's a long-term lease through redevelopment to the with the college and uh the college is looking forward to breaking ground uh with some of the $15 million Lily grant they received to begin this process as soon as possible after passage tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Any further discussion? Hearing no further discussion, clerk Golic Rooff. Alexander, yes. Spatelli, yes. Vanz, yes. Gowinski, yes. Selenus, yes. Tyler, yes. Emerson, yes. Reikos, yes. Warpole, yes. Let the record show nine in favor, zero opposed. President Warpo, that concludes the ordinances for final passage. Thank you, Clerk Goolic. And with the passage of ordinance 2530, the intent to consider on the agenda goes away. Thank you, Mr. President.

Item number 10, introduction of ordinances. Ordinance 25-32 sponsored by Councilwoman Vanz and ordinance creating a new fund number 4684 for the purpose of accounting for and administering the willertex project funds. Mr. President, Councilwoman Venez, I move for first and second reading of 2532. Motion's been made by Councilwoman Venez, seconded by Councilman Spatali. Is there any discussion, Mr. President? Councilwoman Vanz.

Uh yes, this ordinance uh is at the request of uh our controller. It is um uh establishing a line item for project expenditures from the wheel tax funding. Thank you. Is there any further discussion? Is there any further discussion? Hearing no further discussion. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppos. The eyes have it. President Warpole. That concludes the introduction of ordinances.

Thank you, Clerk. Go. Item number 11, resolutions.

Item A, resolution 25R-22, sponsored by Councilman Kowinski. A resolution ratifying the Hammond Redevelopment Commission's good faith offer to purchase pursuant to IC chapter 32-24-1-5 and the Hammond development redevelopment commissioners commisss pursuing the acquisition of the property through eminent domain pursuant to IC chapter 32-24-1 for Mr. President.

Councilwoman Councilman's Kinsky, I'm sorry. I move for passage of 25-22. Second. Motion's been made by Councilman Kowinsky, seconded by Councilman Selenus. Is there any discussion, Mr. President? Councilman Kowinsky. This is radica ratification of the action of the Hammond Redevelopment Commission concerning the property at 1318 and 1320 Indianapolis Boulevard. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other discussion? Is there any other discussion? Is there any other discussion? Clerk golic roll call. Alexander. Yes. Spatelli.

Yes. Vaness. Yes. Kowinsky. Yes, Selenus. Yes, Tyler. Yes, Emerson. Yes, Rikos. Yes, Warpole. Yes. Let the record show. The motion carries. Nine in favor, zero opposed. President Warp, that concludes the reading of the resolutions. Okay. Item number 12, new and unfinished business. Anybody have anything under new and unfinished business? Does anybody have anything under new and unfinished business? New and unfinished business is closed. Item number 13, public expression. Lori Zuno.

Good evening. Lori Zno 7. I'm sorry. Go ahead. 7142 Forest Avenue. Uh, I just want to say to all of our veterans here on the council, in the chambers, and in our community, thank you for your service. Uh, I would also like to thank the council for the effort they have made to put the um ordinances online. I see that we got two ordinances posted uh from the last council meeting. Unfortunately, the one from tonight did not make the posting. Uh I know it's a new process but I do thank you all and uh I appreciate the information that is provided.

Thank you. I number two Brian Lowry.

Brian Lowry 1812 Sheridan Avenue Whiting uh representing Kelly College of St. Joseph. I wanted to personally thank each and every one of you for the passage of the ordinance this evening. Uh as well as thanking Mayor Tom and his staff, um chief of staff Scott Miller, Ian and Brian for all of their help through this uh long process. It's been wonderful. uh and on behalf of the college and members of our community advisory council who joined us here this evening uh look forward to making each and every one of you very proud with the project that we are about to undertake. Thank you and thank you for your service gentlemen. Thank you.

Mary Shuns Shones. Hi, I'm Mary Shones. I wanted to talk about the October 29th mayor's night out meeting that happened in the sixth district. The mayor tried to create a perception that nobody was interested in talking about Brier Eastwoods when in fact most people in the room were there to talk about it since Brier Eastwoods is located in the sixth district. This is far from a done matter. The mayor refused to deny that he intends to put housing up in that old growth growth Duneland forest. And then he said something amazing at the very end of the meeting. So you don't you can skip all the nonsense that happened before that. But he said at the very end of the meeting that he want that we should be happy to have houses built in Brier Eastwoods because that would increase property values. It will if you if you succeed in turning um old growth forest into a condo development then you will flood Hesville because those trees act as as water retention. So in fact it will do the opposite and it will make that land it will it will turn it into a lake basically. So, uh, but I I I don't know. I you all are the last line of defense against the mayor's short-sighted greed, and you should you should be the stop to that. I don't know. You You're all in agreement with everything. I I don't I don't understand. Anyway, it just there

is a perception that he tried to create and there's the reality that most people are upset about it and the more people know about it, the less they like it. We're trying to save this property. We're trying We're trying to save this neighborhood. I know you're shaking your head, Councilman Reikos. Is that true?

I'm not willing to I'm not willing to find out. Okay. If we take out a natural sponge that soaks up the water in Hesville, we don't have a hundred years to wait for like whatever twigs we get from the Arborday Foundation to soak up the water. And you all won't be around to see it. It's our kids and our grandkids who have to deal with the mess that we create. Thank you. George, he waved us off. So, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. To adjourn. Second. All those in favor signify by saying I.