An extension to the state-mandated deadline for Lake County Commissioners to select a proposal for developing a potential county convention and event center is in the works.
The Indiana House was set Monday to hear on second reading Senate Bill 37, a bill on council budget oversight of the convention and visitors authority. An amendment added by State Rep. Hal Slager, R-Schererville, last week in the House Ways and Means Committee, would change the deadline for approving a proposal to Dec. 31, instead of May 31 as outlined in SEA 434, which creates the ability for Lake County officials to develop and fund a convention center.
The measure was not called for a vote before press time.
Slager sought the deadline extension to allow for the completion of the site selection update by the Northwestern Indiana Regional Development Authority. The report is expected to be completed on March 1.
“You don’t put together convention center and hotel projects overnight. We want to make sure have plenty of time for timely submission,” Slager said.
David Wellman, the RDA’s director of communications, said the original study is being updated by Johnson Consulting and The Winston/Terrell Group and is on track to be completed in March. They are revisiting the sites that were finalists in the initial study as well as several additional locations that were submitted in January after the RDA issued a request for information asking if any landowners in Lake County had a site they would like considered.
Sites submitted include the Merrillville Commerce Center at 93rd and Broadway; 7900 Clay St., in Hobart; Ameriplex Southlake at 61st and Colorado Street in Hobart; and 1430 W. 23rd Ave., in Gary.
“RDA and its consulting team conducted a bus tour in early February of all these sites. We also stopped at several existing venues around the region such as the Avalon in Merrillville and the Dynasty in Hammond, to give the team an idea of what event space already existed in NWI,” Wellman wrote via email.
Meanwhile, plans for a special Lake County Board of Commissioners meeting — initially set for March 6 — are in flux. The board was expected to decide on its consultant after conducting a request for qualifications, but Commissioner Michael Repay, D-Hammond, said with the legislation making its way through the legislative process, there may be a chance the meeting is canceled.
Repay said the commissioners want to be prepared in case the current deadline stays the same. If final action has not yet been taken on the legislation before the special meeting, Repay said commissioners have to stay on track to meet the current deadline.
“It’s in our best interest to move forward,” Repay said, adding commissioners may or may not get the extension.
He said commissioners received one response to its request for qualifications to be the consultant. Since it is not a bid, he does not believe commissioners have to accept that firm. With more time, Repay said officials could consider going out for another request for qualifications.
“We’d rather have more than less. I’m not sure how we proceed with that,” Repay said.
Slager also offered amendments to Senate Bill 37, which removes the trigger that gives the Lake County Council oversight of the convention and visitor’s authority budget if it approves an increase to the innkeeper’s tax in accordance with SEA 434, instead making the oversight effective if the bill becomes law.
Slager said the council may never increase the innkeeper’s tax and that would leave the convention center’s board, which has bonding authority and no elected representation, without elected oversight indefinitely. A third amendment would allow the board to remove members who were not working in certain professions connected to the tourism industry.
Slager made the amendments and declared passage of the bill an emergency, so the provisions become effective immediately upon the governor’s signature instead of on July 1, as is the case with most legislation.
