MERRILLVILLE | LaPorte's mayor said a conference here Monday strengthens his belief Northwest Indiana's transportation engine shouldn't leave the station without his county aboard.
"It's clear to me and has become clearer still that LaPorte should become part of the Regional Development Authority," Mayor Leigh Morris said at the conclusion of Northwest Indiana Moving Forward forum.
More than 600 regional leaders and members of the public gathered at the Radisson Hotel at Star Plaza to take part in a discussion, sponsored by The Times, NIPSCO, the Northwest Indiana Forum, Purdue University, U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., and Whiteco Industries. The key topic was why transportation is vital to the region.
Morris announced his support earlier this month for LaPorte's inclusion, but he repeated statements of support for the RDA from state and national transportation figures "confirm my feeling of LaPorte's placement in Northwest Indiana."
Lt. Gov. Becky Skilman told the audience, "Northern Indiana is not realizing the financial boost it should get from our strength as a center of national commerce."
Mary Sue Barrett, president of the Metropolitan Planning Council of Chicago, said its version of the RDA, the Regional Planning Board of Northeastern Illinois, came into existence last summer and has many of the same goals.
"We are an interdependent economic unit, and we have to act like it. We need to blow out the borders between us, and Wisconsin and Illinois. The tri-state area has 11 million people and by 2025 we will have 1 million more people and 2 million more cars," she said.
John Swanson, executive director of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, inventoried the area's transportation assets, including: the Gary/Chicago International Airport, the Indiana Harbor in East Chicago and Port of Indiana in Porter County, the South Shore commuter rail, the area's major railroads and its interstate and heavy truck highways.
He said Northwest Indiana needs an intermodal center to move cargo among waterways, rail and road network; extend light rail commuter service south to Valparaiso, Munster, Dyer, St. John, Cedar Lake and Lowell; and establish circulator bus services in suburban Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties to increase access to jobs.
Ned Ruff, East Chicago's representative on the RDA, praised the conference for underlining a transportation goal Mayor George Pabey is stressing.
"I'm extremely impressed with talk of Indiana Harbor as a port. We are in a perfect situation to use the whole city as a facility to offload freight from boats to storage.
"Containers could move by rail through Chicago to avoid the congestion and offload them here," Ruff said. "This is not to exclude other cities."