Paul Labovitz makes a point while speaking to a small group of people at the Indiana Dunes Tourism Visitors Center in Porter Thursday March 5, 2020. Labovitz, superintendent of the Indiana Dunes National Park gave a presentation and then answered questions from the audience. (Andy Lavalley / Post-Tribune)
Other than the name, not much changed in February 2019 when the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was upgraded to Indiana Dunes National Park, Paul Labovitz, the park superintendent, told about a dozen attendees Thursday evening at an open house.
The event, at the Dorothy Buell Visitor Center in Porter and one of four being held across the region, was a way to provide an update on the park, take suggestions and start a dialogue, Labovitz said.
The park’s status upgrade, he said, increased the park’s exposure, drawing an additional 70,000 people to the visitor center in the past year.
While going over improvements and repairs at properties in the park, which stretches across Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties, Labovitz said it’s more than the park can come up with.
“We have a lot of facilities that require ongoing repair. We try to keep up with it, but we’re $40 million behind in deferred maintenance,” he said, adding that includes Bailly Homestead, which is so structurally unsound it’s been closed to both the public and park staff for more than two years.
The maintenance challenge that garnered the most discussion which was erosion caused by rising Lake Michigan water levels and pounding waves, a destructive combination that’s done heavy damage to the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk, shrunk beaches and damaged a parking lot, and threatened beachfront communities and the lakefront roads through them.
The lake, Labovitz said, was five feet lower when he arrived here in 2013.
“Waves and water just nibble away constant at anything in its way,” he said, going through photos of damage at the Portage property. “Anything you build close to the lake will be destroyed by the lake.”
The short-term plan to protect the park and its pavilion, he said, is beach nourishment, which is bringing sand in to replace what’s been lost to the lake. Park officials are working with the U.S. Army Corps of engineers on an agreement to bring sand to the park when the nearby Port of Indiana is dredged.
“We’re paying almost half a million dollars to nourish the beach and protect the pavilion,” he told Paul Panther, of Ogden Dunes, who had questions about protecting the Portage property.
Plans also may include moving the pavilion so it’s not damaged by the lake, he said.
Sarah Smenyak, of Dune Acres, asked about plans to make the Calumet Trail usable. The 9.1-mile trail stretches east from Mineral Springs Road to the LaPorte County line.
That’s challenged, Labovitz said, since Northern Indiana Public Service Co. owns the land and allows a trail on it though a licensing agreement with the county. The land is a NIPSCO easement so if utility lines under the path need repairs, the county is responsible for repairing the path when the work, which could include 70-ton construction equipment, is completed.
While state and federal funds are available to the county to improve the trail, if NIPSCO shuts it down, the county has to repay that money, Labovitz added.
One option officials are exploring is relocating the trail so it’s no longer beholden to the easement agreement with NIPSCO, moving it north of U.S. 12 and the railroad tracks.
“They’re in the process of doing that right now, and county commissioners are motivated to get it done,” he said, adding moving the trail is likely faster than trying to repair it where it is.
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