Grand Beach Village Council appoints police chief as short-term rental code enforcement official

HEAR OVERVIEW OF SHORT-TERM RENTAL PROCESS

Members of the Grand Beach Village Council approved appointing Ryan Layman, police chief for villages of Grand Beach/Michiana, as the shortterm rental code enforcement official at their Wednesday, Sept. 21, meeting.

They also approved paying Layman $200 for the inspection of each property and a billable court time fee at $150 per hour.

Council president James Bracewell said having a code enforcement official is part of the structure of the code of the short-term rental ordinance.

Letters from anyone who will be affected by the ordinance were forwarded to Layman.

Regarding the inspection fee, Layman said that this isn’t an “extra fee” and that a three-bedroom home is $900 and his $200 would come out of that $900.

The village adopted a short-term rental ordinance in the spring that will go into effect Jan. 1, 2023.

Layman gave an overview of the village’s short-term rental ordinance.

He and the property owner or a local agent will meet at the property to get the inspection done. If no reinspection is necessary, the documents will be signed, and the fee will be paid to rent the property. If a reinspection is needed, Layman will let the owner know what wasn’t in compliance and then schedule a time to come out and recheck it.

A rental must be registered annually. Each time the home is rented, a new registration form must be submitted to the police department email. All the owners of the home shall sign a waiver and indemnification form.

All rental homes shall have a local agent assigned. The owner can be the local agent, but they must be able to respond within one hour to the property. The agent must inspect the dwelling 30 days while all rentals occur.

Contact information for the local agent shall be posted in a prominent location in the home. The maximum occupancy should also be posted inside the dwelling.

The property must have a working landline.

Maximum occupancy is 16 adults (anyone over the age of 2). The owner must maintain short-term rental liability insurance, which includes coverage for all amenities of the dwelling. Smoke detectors shall be in each bedroom and tested every 90 days by the local agent. A CO carbon monoxide detector must be on each livable floor and tested every 90 days.

Any rental property registered for more than eight people must have two recycling cans and two garbage cans.

No attic or basement can be counted toward maximum occupancy unless it meets the building codes or egress.

Two parking spaces must be provided for every rental and one additional space for every four occupants.

A violation is a municipal civil infraction and each day that a violation continues is a separate violation. If a property owner fails to register the property as a short-term rental, the fine is the annual registration fee times three for the first offense, and a subsequent offense is the registration fee times six.

If the maximum occupancy is exceeded, the fee is the annual registration fee times five the first time and times 10 for each subsequent offense.

The village may revoke the registration for a dwelling which is the site of at least three separate incidents occurring on three separate rental periods within a calendar year “resulting in a plea of responsibility, a plea of guilty, a plea of no contest or a court’s determination of responsibility or guilt by the owner, local agent or any renter or a violation of two or more of village’s code of ordinances,” Layman said.

It will be determined if a dwelling is a rental property if it’s occupied by someone other than the owner or his or her immediate family or friends of the owner’s family; persons residing in a dwelling represent they pay rent to occupy a premises or a dwelling or dwellings that has been published as being available for rent or lease.

Upon revocation of registration, a dwelling can’t be reregistered for a period of one year and can’t be used for short-term rentals until reregistered. A dwelling may be reregistered after the one-year period “if all the registration requirements of this ordinance and the zoning ordinance are satisfied and if short-term rentals are still permitted under the zoning ordinance,” Layman said.

For issues with rentals, people can call the dispatch center and an officer and will investigate. The complainant must sign a citation for the owner to be cited if the complaint is noise related.

Layman said he has a Google document for the Michiana homes that are rentals and that he’ll share it via a link with officers, so they can access all rental homes on their phones.

“So, if they have a call somewhere, they can see if it’s registered or not,” he said.

The information will include the address for the rental, the name and a phone number of the local agent and how many people are authorized to stay there.

Councilmembers approved extending an offer to Keith Kehoe as the new full-time maintenance employee at $21 an hour, with benefits. Bracewell said the new hire will bring the maintenance crew up to four members.

He said that the village has “21 homes on paper being bult” and an “incredible increase in demand for village service.”

Bracewell added that it also helps deal with the “very basic economic challenge at the council level” that involves getting to the point where the maintenance employees can’t take vacation time “over the full extended period that they’ve earned it.”

Latest census numbers also show that the village has seen an increase in senior citizens, who “ask our maintenance employees for a whole world of help.”

Superintendent Bob Dabbs said Kehoe lives close by on Wilson Road and was employed at Corvette Central in Sawyer for 13 years.

Councilmembers approved the village passing through to the residents any cost increase that it receives for water and trash.

BY FRANCESCA SAGAL

OPEN HOUSE MARKET AT MANJUSHREE HERMITAGE SATURDAY, OCT 1

Manjushree Hermitage in Michigan City, Indiana is inviting all to join them for a day of community and fun. While there, you can learn about the programming they offer, explore the grounds, purchase a delicious lunch, and shop their vendors for unique and handmade gifts and treasures.

The open house market will take place Saturday, October 1, from 11 am - 4 pm CST, (12 - 5 EST). Manjushree is located on US 12 (just over the Indiana border) at 10303 E. US Highway 12, Michigan City, IN 46360. Everyone is welcome.

Please email manjushreehermitage@ gmail.com if you have any questions. — STAFF

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NBES SRO Deputy Michale Troup, principal Adam Bowen, Curtis Stewart, Lt. Ryan Sullivan, New Buffalo Township Supervisor Michelle Heit, Vannessa Thun and Paul Brady

Paul Brady, special agent for CSX Railroad Police, and Curtis Stewart, Michigan Operation Life Saver coordinator, speak about railroad safety

New Buffalo Mayor John Humphrey discusses railroad safety while riding the bus

Students are schooled on train safety during presentation

BY FRANCESCA SAGALA

According to Curtis A. Stewart, state coordinator for Michigan Operation Lifesaver, every three hours every day, someone is hit, and the gates go down, don’t go through the tracks. New Buffalo Mayor John Humphrey, who drove a school bus for the district for five years, said that, whenever they ride a killed or injured by a train.

“What belongs on train tracks? A train. What doesn’t belong on train tracks? You or anything else,” Stewart said to kindergarten through fifth grade students at New Buffalo Elementary School Friday, Sept. 23.

Because trains don’t have steering wheels, they can’t steer but must “follow the tracks,” he said.

A train hitting your car is just like a car running over a pop can because a train weighs about 12 million pounds.

If a car is stalled or you see something wrong with a crossing, you can call an 800 number (which also lists the address of the crossing) that’s on a sign at the crossing, Stewart said.

Stewart reminded students that there’s a line where cars must stop and wait for a train to pass through. If you’re riding a bike or walking and you come to a crossing with lights blinking and the gates going down, he told the students, you must “stop and wait for the train.”

Some places have “quiet zones;” however, when the flashing lights come on bus throughout the district, they will cross railroad tracks (on the way to one place for a field trip, the bus has crossed tracks seven times). “Make sure when you’re on the school bus and you come to a railroad crossing, stop, be quiet, listen to your teachers on the bus, listen to your bus driver and make sure there’s not a train coming so the bus can cross the railroad tracks,” he said.

Friday’s Vanessa Thun, president presentation of the NBRRM Board, was arranged opens the presentation by the New Buffalo Railroad Museum. Michigan Operation Lifesaver is an active, continuous public information and education program designed to help prevent crashes at highway/rail gradecrossings. According to www.community. oli.org/state/mi, the three “E’s” of Operation Lifesaver are: Education, Engineering and Enforcement. “Each has a role in our attempt to reduce the over 500 fatal crashes and over 600 trespasser fatalities that occur each year,” the website states.

City tackling zoning map revisions

BY STAN MADDUX

The process of updating the City of New Buffalo’s zoning ordinance is well underway. and aesthetics in areas like U.S. 12 and Whittaker Street. There was some concern expressed about the impact on property owners whose The first of three public meetings to go over the proposed new ordinance was held Monday, Sept. 26, before the New Buffalo City Council and New Buffalo Planning Commission at City Hall. Mayor John Humphrey said a rezoning is supposed to happen every 10 years but the last official update to the zoning ordinance in the city was in 2001. Humphrey said one of the objectives is to eliminate the many inconsistencies now contained in the current zoning ordinance. “We need an updated, concise and streamlined plan with a vision that meets the expectations of the growth and future use of the city,” he said. Ruben Shell from the Chicago based urban planning and design firm, Houseal Lavigne Associates, presented a draft of the revised zoning ordinance based largely on input from the community and diagnosis of the existing zoning that began in April. In some zoning districts, few changes were made to existing boundaries. Shell said one of the goals where changes are more noticeable is to promote more seasonal housing north of U.S. 12 and more year round housing south of U.S. 12. Other desires reflected in the proposed adjustments to the zoning map include improved parking, walkability structures are on land where changes in zoning are proposed. Officials said there would be no changes in existing use unless the building is torn down. Councilman Mark Robertson emphasized there are two more meetings for members of the public to ask questions and voice any opposition to the revised bus throughout the district, they will cross zoning ordinance being proposed. He said changes in the proposal could be made in response to concerns before a final vote on the final draft is taken by the city council. “Nothing is set in stone,” he said.

Planning Commission Chairman Paul Billingsley said the draft is a working document open for adjustments during the approvals process. “You can’t do this and Buffalo Railroad not offend somebody. You just have to deal with it as it comes up,” he said. The updated zoning also contains proposed changes to promote the creation of businesses and professional office space serving citizens and members of the vacationing public. Other matters, like reduce the over 500 fatal crashes and over standards for storefronts and setback requirements, are also contained in the draft.

Work release center at risk of closing

BY STAN MADDUX

The work release center in LaPorte County might have to shut down from a shortage of correctional officers seeking better pay elsewhere.

LaPorte County Corrections Interim Director Mericka Beaty said five male correctional officers plan on quitting after submitting two week notices.

She said the facility housing more than 50 male offenders and nearly a dozen female offenders would have just one male correctional officer if all of the employees leave once their notices expire Oct. 7.

“I have some female workers who are considering doing the same thing,” she said.

Beaty also said there are no job applicants for openings at the already short staffed facility near the fairgrounds.

She cited low pay and having to work a lot of overtime for an extended period as major factors in the latest departures.

Beaty said correctional officers are also not paid cash for overtime. They receive compensatory time but are not able to utilize their earned time off from work because of the low staffing numbers.

In response, the LaPorte County Council Monday, Sept. 26, agreed to support a 10% increase in pay for correctional officers at the facility.

That would bring their wages to just over $20 an hour.

The proposed increase in pay is expected to come up for a formal vote by the council in a month.

LaPorte County Commissioner Sheila Matias said there might not be no other choice but to temporarily close the facility until enough job applicants are found and trained to become correctional officers.

“That program needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. There’s some really good staff there but it’s going to take some time,” she said.

Any decision to close the facility would have to be made by the LaPorte County Community Corrections Advisory Board.

One of the advisory board members is LaPorte County Sheriff John Boyd, who said there are options for the offenders should the work release center have to close until staffing levels are restored.

He said the options include judges ordering offenders to continue serving their sentences in the county jail or on home detention.

Boyd said work release allows non-violent offenders to financially support their families by allowing them to be employed and stay at the facility until returning to their jobs.

He said the facility also helps prevent jail overcrowding.

“I’d hate to see it go by the wayside,” he sa

HIKERS DONATES TRAIL BENCHES TO CHIKAMING OPEN LANDS, LOCAL PARK DISTRICTS

The Harbor Country Hikers has donated 10 trail benches that will be installed along trails maintained by Chikaming Open Lands, Chikaming Township Parks and Three Oaks Parks.

The benches follow a design by Aldo Leopold, an early 20th Century American conservationist, environmental ethicist and author. Leopold benches are popular for their ease of construction, durability and relatively low cost.

Providing trail amenities is a key item in the Hikers’ statement of purpose, according to President Pat Fisher. Fisher points to the uniform trail markers installed at many local preserves and parks as another example of how the Hikers is helping to improve local trails.

An additional 12 benches have been requested and are under construction. The benches were built by Hikers members Bob Fournier and Bob