BY KEITH BENMAN, Times of Northwest Indiana
kbenman@nwitimes.com
Northwest Indiana and its new Regional Development Authority have two years to prove themselves to the rest of the state following the largest transportation conference held in the region.
"I believe Gary has an extraordinary opportunity because it is a community in the path of growth," said U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., a featured speaker at the Moving Northwest Indiana Forward forum.
"Your challenge is to harness that transportation growth in ways you want to see your community grow."
Oberstar often used Gary as a stand-in for Northwest Indiana, in delivering a national perspective to more than 600 people at Monday's forum at the Radisson Hotel at Star Plaza.
The six-hour forum featured wireless electronic polling that was a big hit, giving instant results on questions ranging from who has taken a bus before, to how much money should be invested in the Gary/Chicago International Airport.
Indiana Commissioner of Transportation Tom Sharp said it was the largest crowd he had ever addressed on the Indiana Department of Transportation's Major Moves initiative. That initiative will result in billions of dollars in new investment, much of it through leasing roadways to private companies.
"To promote economic development we need to move on infrastructure sooner rather than later," Sharp said.
The challenge, Oberstar and other speakers told the forum, is coming up with a comprehensive plan to link air, rail, bus transit and shoreline development in Northwest Indiana.
"We want to be a catalyst for transforming the Northwest Indiana economy to a robust, world-class status," RDA Executive Director Tim Sanders said.
There will be challenges. One of the biggest will be leveraging the RDA's yearly budget of about $27.5 million to obtain the funds necessary for major transportation projects. Just one mile of light rail would cost about that much.
So millions or even maybe billions of dollars in federal, private sector and other funds will be needed.
The RDA also is faced with the challenge of coming up with a long-term business plan to submit to the Indiana General Assembly by January 2008. The RDA has to outline not only goals, but also actual projects and funding sources.
Any major action of the seven-member RDA board takes a super-majority of 5-2, with the governor's appointee in the majority. But broad consensus on many issues may be hard to reach, both for the RDA and the state.
On the issue of leasing the Interstate 90 Indiana Toll Road in northern Indiana to a private company for operation, the audience split 50/50.
Though the consensus opinion was the Gary airport should get the biggest slice of the pie when it comes to funding, only 26 percent of people have ever flown from there.
Four of seven RDA board members attended Monday's forum. Board Chairman John Clark had to cancel as a speaker because he was undergoing minor surgery for kidney stones.
Board member Gus Olympidis said feedback from the forum would help the RDA construct a well-thought-out strategic plan. Olympidis is chief executive officer of the Family Express chain of gas stations and convenience stores and the Porter County appointee to the board.
"Six hundred people coming together to celebrate a regional revival -- that itself is relevant to what we want to do," Olympidis said of the day's conference.
RDA board member Ned Ruff, the East Chicago appointment, said Oberstar's talk was right on target, both for East Chicago and the region.
Oberstar spent much of his speaking time on the need to develop air, rail, truck and ship transport centers for cargo exchange -- known as intermodal ports.
Local transportation planners also pointed out the paucity of fixed-route bus services and other public transit in the region holds workers and employers back.
"We have to think of where people who need transit are, where they need to be, where they have to go," said John Swanson, executive director of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission. "We are not dealing with that."
On the subject of public-private partnerships, both Ruff, RDA board member representing East Chicago, and Olympidis said that will be part of the RDA's plan for leveraging more funding, but only a part.
Legislation will be introduced in the short term of the Indiana General Assembly in January to lay the groundwork for leasing the I-90 Indiana Toll Road.
Most likely, a number of European firms will be interested in leasing it, Sharp said.
Intermodal freight centers drew surprising support in the audience polling and from officials. Eighty-seven percent supported such a center in Northwest Indiana.
Commuter rail, as proposed for the South Shore rail line with Lowell and Valparaiso extensions, drew 82 percent support.
The RDA is specifically empowered to target the Gary/Chicago International Airport, South Shore Railroad, Regional Bus Authority and the Marquette Shoreline Development Plan. But it also can undertake other economic development projects such as intermodal centers.
Sanders said maybe we spend too much time worrying about how to get people from Northwest Indiana to jobs in Chicago.
"We need to create jobs here in Northwest Indiana," Sanders said. "I would rather have people fretting in Chicago about how to get to the jobs here in Northwest Indiana."