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NORTH LAKE COUNTY EDITION

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2012

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Official: Gunman did not feel pain School adviser says former student ‘had some disabilities’ ADAM GELLER AP National Writer NEWTOWN, CONN. | At Newtown High

School, Adam Lanza had trouble relating to fellow students and teachers, but that was only part of his problem. He seemed not to feel

Gary airport moves to fill expansion finance pothole

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Candlelight vigil

physical or psychological pain in the same way as classmates.

R i c h a r d Novia, the school district’s head of security until 2008, who also served as adviser LANZA for the school technology club, said Lanza clearly “had some disabilities.”

“If that boy would’ve burned himself, he would not have known it

Residents honor victims with vigil, PAGE A8 or felt it physically,” Novia told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “It was my job to pay close attention to that.”

Novia was responsible for monitoring students as they used soldering tools and other potentially dangerous electrical equipment.

MARY ALTAFFER, ASSOCIATED PRESS He recalled meeting with school guidance counselors, administrators Kathy Murdy, left, and husband Rich Murdy react Saturday as they look at the list of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School See SHOOTING, Page A8 shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Study says Pence tax cut would benefit rich

GARY AIRPORT EXPANSION COSTS BALLOON

This is the current financing plan for the $166.2 million Gary/Chicago International Airport’s expansion. Its ballooning costs have forced the airport to scramble for funds.

The backstop plan now is to tap the Airport Development Zone TIF district for up to $49.8 million, a sum far beyond that in earlier financing plans.

• $40 million: Federal Aviation Administration Letter of Intent* • $30 million: Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority (release pending) • $25 million: Airport Development Zone fund balance • $24.7 million: Borrowing backed by Airport Development Zone TIF income • $20 million: Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority (Toll Road lease proceeds) • $9.5 million: Chicago Department of Aviation passenger fees • $6 million: Federal Highway Administration • $5.5 million: FAA Airport Improvement Program • $2.9 million: Supplemental FAA funding • $1.5 million: Airport revenues (leases, fees) • $1.1 million: State of Indiana • Total: $166.2 million *$7.84 million more is due under FAA Letter of Intent, but will be used after project completion to pay down debt from borrowing.

SOURCES: GARY/CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’S EXPANSION FINANCE PROJECT ANALYSIS AS PROVIDED TO THE NORTHWEST INDIANA REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY UPDATED OCT. 9, 2012; GARY/CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY APRIL 12, 2011 APPLICATION FOR RDA FINANCIAL SUPPORT; GARY/CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY AUG. 30, 2012 REQUEST FOR FAA LETTER OF INTENT AMENDMENT.

Most Hoosiers would get back less than $100 DAN CARDEN dan.carden@nwi.com, (317) 637-9078 INDIANAPOLIS | Republican Gov.-elect

JOHN J. WATKINS, THE TIMES

Workers from Superior Construction continue work Monday on the Airport Road overpass that is part of the Gary/ Chicago International Airport’s $166 million expansion project. Railroads’ insistence on an overpass and new rail regulations hiked the cost of the crossing project to $18.2 million from an original estimate of $2.7 million, according to an airport request for federal support.

PROJECT HITTING NEW TURBULENCE Airport board to borrow more for Gary airport expansion KEITH BENMAN keith.benman@nwi.com, (219) 933-3326 GARY | Less than one year from its completion

deadline, the Gary/Chicago International Airport is scrambling to fill the last financial potholes in its $166 million expansion project.

• In its latest financial road map drawn up in Octo- Inside ber, the airport plans to use There are several its taxpayer-funded Air- reasons why costs port Development Zone to have soared, PAGE A9 secure up to $49.8 million.

That is far more than in earlier plans.

• This week, the airport authority is expected to vote on a contract that will allow it to tap a $30 million grant from the Northwest Indiana Development Authority, which has been on hold

for a year-and-a-half.

• Last week, in a move to head off any cashflow problems and keep contractors on the job, the airport authority at its Monday meeting extended the deadline for repaying a $12 million loan it pulled from the Airport Development Zone in June.

“With this shortfall we have, we are trying to get some cash,” said Airport Authority President Nathaniel Williams after the authority’s meeting.

Williams also revealed that although the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority approved a grant of $30 million for the airport expansion 17 months ago, the airport has not yet seen a dime of that money.

“I don’t know what’s going on on their side,” See AIRPORT, Page A9

Mike Pence is standing by his proposal to cut Indiana’s income tax rate, despite a nonpartisan study showing most taxpayers would get back less than $100 and a new poll showing most Hoosiers oppose Pence’s plan.

“I’m determined to keep my promise to the people of Indiana advancing that,” Pence told reporters last week.

An analysis of Pence’s proposal to reduce the individual income tax rate to 3.06 percent from 3.4 percent, conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, found 56 percent of the nearly half a billion dollars in lost state revenue would be returned to the top 20 percent of income earners, or those making more than $80,000 a year.

The top 1 percent of Hoosiers, those earning more than $325,000 a year, would receive an average tax cut of $2,264 under Pence’s plan, according to the study. The top 5 percent, earning between $145,000 and $325,000, would get back $533.

Meanwhile, Hoosiers in the middle fifth of the income scale, those making between $33,000 and $53,000 a year, would see their taxes reduced an average of $102.

The study found the poorest 12 percent of Hoosiers would get no tax cut due to their low incomes, despite paying more of their household budget in sales, excise, property and local taxes than any other income group.

Pence claims his tax cut will create jobs, as business owners use the extra money to hire Hoosiers.

See TAX, Page A7

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NL | Sunday, December 16, 2012 | Page A9

Rail deal, consultant fuel airport overruns Lawyer bill for airport expansion hits $722,875

Planes not only thing soaring at Gary airport Airport officials originally estimated the expansion of Gary/Chicago International Airport’s main runway would cost in the neighborhood of $90 million. They now estimate its cost at $166.2 million. The airport recently made a last minute plea to the Federal Aviation Administration for $24 million more in funding. That would go on top of $57.8 million already committed to the project by the FAA. Here are the chief cost increases, according to the application the airport submitted to the FAA on Aug. 30.

Keith Benman keith.benman@nwi.com, (219) 933-3326‌

Documents obtained by The Times show how a Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority anxious to show progress on an ambitious expansion project let costs escalate to a point where it now must make a last-minute plea for funds.

Those documents show $54.7 million of the increased costs were driven by additional railroad improvement projects, some of them miles away from the airport near downtown Gary. Escalating legal and consultant fees also played a major role.

Railroad relocation and improvement projects for three different railroads now account for $92.5 million of the expansion project’s total $166 million cost, according to a last-minute funding request the airport submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration at the end of August.

The cost for railroad projects alone is now more than the original $90 million estimate for the entire expansion project.

John Clark, CEO of JClark Aviation, who prepared the FAA request, said it is easy in hindsight to question the airport authority’s decisions at any juncture, but no one foresaw the significant changes railroads would demand during negotiations.

“This project needed to move forward for many reasons,” Clark said. “So the city of Gary, the airport and the Regional Development Authority did what they needed to do to move the project forward.”

The costs When the airport received a pledge of $57.8 million in support from the FAA in January 2006, airport officials said the project could be completed by 2010. But only sporadic progress was made until early 2011, when the FAA and airport agreed on a deadline of December 2013 for completing the project.

The FAA request in August shows fees for Washington, D.C., lawyers negotiating with railroads have ballooned to $722,875 at last count — a 1,035 percent increase from the original estimate of $50,000.

Design fees for moving just the tracks at the end of the main runway have exploded 564 percent to almost $2 million from an original estimate of $300,000.

P ro g ra m m a n a ge m e n t fe e s fo r

(Amount of increase followed by cause)

John J. Watkins, The Times

This rail line crossing Virginia Street will be replaced by a new spur and rehabilitated rail line that travels from north of Gary/Chicago Airport to the Indiana Sugars plant seen in the background. The airport will pay $26.5 million for the rail project as part of its $166 million expansion plan.

• $26,507,086: Rehabilitation of Fort Wayne Line tracks, new connection and spur.

• $15,467,703: Construction of a vehicle overpass for tracks on Airport Road.

• $6,593,877: Track route adjustments due to need for higher train speeds.

• $3,836,244: Unanticipated environmental cleanup costs and fees.

• $3,087,975: Fees to program managers overseeing expansion.

• $2,359,635: Second bridge needed for Norfolk Southern tracks.

• $1,692,318: More complex signal system for trains due to a new rail connection.

• $1,625,000: New connection between Canadian National and CSX tracks.

• $973,517: Land purchases.

• $672,875: Legal fees for railroad negotiations.

• $450,000: Construction manager provided for Canadian National.

• $63,266,230: Total of all cost increases

supervising the runway expansion are another area where costs have increased.

The FAA request states those will run an estimated $3.7 million, a 475 percent increase from the original estimate of $650,000.

Much of that leap is due to the fact the airport authority originally expected to oversee much of the project with its own staff. But when the project was stymied almost to a standstill, the authority hired Los Angeles-based Aecom to do the job at a cost of $2.8 million.

Since Aecom came on board in September 2010, steady progress has been made in revving up the long-delayed expansion, including reaching the final agreement with three railroads.

But the increases in legal and consultant costs have continued throughout the past two years. Some board members have expressed reservations about the price hikes, although few have ever voted no to any of them.

The FAA request also shows costs of moving railroad tracks got their biggest jolt when a final memorandum of understanding was reached between the airport and three railroads in April 2011. That agreement added new rail projects, some as far as four miles away from the airport.

The Times acquired the FAA request and memorandum of understanding through a

public-records request, as it did numerous other airport expansion documents.

Railroads have always been a huge part of the equation when it comes to the expansion project, because a Canadian National rail line running from Griffith to Gary’s Kirk Yard looms over the northwest end of the airport’s main runway on a high embankment. That rail line must be moved so the runway can be extended to 8,900 feet from its current 7,000 feet.

That will allow the airport to meet new FAA regulations for runway safety as well as land larger commercial passenger aircraft.

Despite the big price bump under the final memorandum of understanding with railroads, the airport authority’s sevenmember board voted unanimously in favor of the railroad agreement at its April 25, 2011, meeting.

“This is a gigantic step, because we have been trying to get the railroads together for just this type of agreement for a long time,” Airport Authority Chairman Nathaniel Williams said shortly after the vote.

For their part, railroads have always said they were trying to be helpful in the airport project, but didn’t want to incur any long-term increase in costs because of the expansion.

“We were approached and there was a

Workers from Superior Construction continue work on the Airport Road overpass that is part of the Gary/Chicago International Airport’s $166 million expansion.

Gary/Chicago International Airport interim Director Steve Landry in August stands on ground that has been graded for the extension of the airport’s main runway. The runway will be 8,900 feet long when the project is complete.

long series of negotiations to see how we could make this kind of accommodation for the airport,” said Patrick Waldron, a spokesman for Canadian National Railway.

The largest single increase was $26.5 million to rehabilitate an unused rail line known as the Fort Wayne Line. Railroad Norfolk Southern wants to use the tracks to run trains to the Indiana Sugars factory on Gary’s east side. Currently Norfolk Southern uses another track to get there.

Airport consultant Clark said in hindsight people could challenge the airport’s decision on the rail moves and “say the railroads are benefiting on the back of the airport.

“But at the end of the day, if it creates a situation where railroads can operate more effectively and the airport can operate more effectively, then it’s a good deal for both and a good investment in infrastructure,” Clark said.

Continued from Page A1

Airport Williams said when asked why the RDA money was not forthcoming. “But we are hoping we can finalize this piece, so we can get those dollars and pay our bills and transfer the $12 million back to the Airport Development Zone.”

The RDA’s side The $30 million the RDA board of directors approved for the project in May 2011 was held up while the agency undertook an exhaustive examination of the airport expansion project’s finances, according to RDA President and CEO Bill Hanna. That review is now complete.

A joint RDA/airport committee has now agreed on new contract language to guarantee any airport borrowing using the Airport Development Zone solely for the expansion project, Hanna said.

The airport authority board will have to vote to approve that contract before any of the $30 million can be released, Hanna said. He hopes that will happen at an authority meeting scheduled for Wednesday.

“We need to be able to tell the state of Indiana we not only have the funds in place, but we have them locked in place,” Hanna said.

The Airport Development Zone is a tax increment financing, or TIF, district that every year gets a cut of property taxes collected within a broad swath of the city’s west end. It includes residential neighborhoods as well as businesses.

A Times analysis of numerous airport financing documents shows the airport, when the RDA money is added to the mix, has rounded up $116.4 million for the expansion project. It intends to get the additional $49.8 million with what will be the largest borrowing in airport history, perhaps mixed with a cash withdrawal from the Airport Development Zone. The zone has a $22 million cash balance.

The documents analyzed by The Times were obtained through the filing of publicrecords requests with the airport authority and from the RDA during the past two years.

problem with the project during the past year.

A number of contractors working on the expansion said they are getting paid late. Gary Material Supply owner Otho Lyles III said he had to wait two months to get final payment on his contract for hauling away contaminated soils.

Superior Construction President Ted Cuson, whose company has the $11.6 million contract for building the new Airport Road overpass, said his company had the same experience when trying to collect its periodic progress payments.

“The fact is we are financing millions of dollars of this project for them right now,” he said one week ago.

The expansion project was nearly fully funded when its total cost was estimated at around $90 million in 2006. In March, airport officials released a new cost estimate of $166 million.

In August, the airport authority asked the Federal Aviation Administration for $24 million to help deal with those Cash flow problems There have been signs of a cash-flow increased costs.

John J. Watkins photos, file, The Times

Last week, airport consultant John Clark told the authority board the FAA has ruled out about $8 million of its request.

However, the federal agency has indicated it will consider up to $16 million in additional funding.

The FAA and airport have agreed on a deadline of December 2013 for completing the project.

Airport interim Director Steve Landry said he is confident the extension project will get done and sufficient funding will be rounded up.

“To proceed with the railroad realignment and the runway extension, we have that money,” he said.

Covering the shortfall No matter what additional money, if any, the FAA may provide for the expansion project, the airport authority appears to have set course for the largest borrowing in its history.

Earlier this year, the authority took the first step in that process, hiring Cender & Co. of Merrillville to begin looking into

issuing airport bonds for investors to buy.

The airport would back the bonds with tax income from the Airport Development Zone, according to Cender & Co. financial adviser Dan Botich.

After several inquiries on expansion financing by The Times, Landry acknowledged last week the airport is allocating as much as $38 million in TIF district financing for the project. As recently as April 2011, the airport was allocating just $13.2 million in TIF financing for the project, according to its application for RDA funding.

Botich did not think the fact Gary is a city that has skated on the edge of bankruptcy for years would affect the airport’s ability to borrow the money it needs.

That’s because the Airport Development Zone has a steady flow of income from a broad taxpayer base.

Airport officials would soon like to put the $12 million loan it pulled in June back into the zone fund to have the entire $22 million intact to provide a reserve fund for any borrowing, Botich said.

Portage Township Schools look to outfit all buses with GPS Joyce Russell joyce.russell@nwi.com, (219) 762-1397, ext. 2222‌ PORTAGE | Portage Township Schools will

look to outfit all school buses with GPS units.

Director of Support Services Dave Harman said the idea isn’t new. The district already has GPS devices on 40 buses. But

officials want to expand it to the entire 104-bus fleet.

The project, he said, will provide data to help the transportation system become more efficient.

The units will be able to track buses in a real-time nature. That could help improve route efficiency and timeliness of stops.

“This will allow us to look at how our

DESIGNER: Deborah H., ext. 3275

buses are doing, how we can manage the fleet better,” said Harman. He said tracking the information on the 40 buses now equipped with GPS units also helps in managing idling time of buses.

“Drivers are doing an outstanding job policing themselves (in regard to the idle policy). This will allow the drivers to take a more active role in saving money for the

district,” he said.

In addition, within 18 months, portals for principals and parents can be added. In each case, the parent or principal can, via the Internet, track their school’s or child’s bus to know when it is running late.

There is also the potential of having a telephone application available so that parents can check on their children’s bus.

ILLINOIS EDITION

SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2013

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Who is earning SETON SUFFERS what? STINGING DEFEAT IN STATE FINALS FIND OUT HOW MUCH PEOPLE SUCH AS GABRIELLE DOUGLAS AND MARK HARMON MAKE IN A YEAR

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CHILDREN IN PERIL

A NEW FLIGHT PATH FOR GARY EAST CHICAGO

Lake Michigan

Airport Development Zone TIF district

12

Cline Avenue

Chicago Avenue

KEITH BENMAN keith.benman@nwi.com, (219) 933-3326

A key tenant at Gary/Chicago International Airport is warning the airport’s tentative plan to borrow $34.5 million to complete its runway expansion could “handcuff” the airport’s future growth plans.

“It’s unfortunate we are looking at this tremendous debt for this airport going forward, and this is an airport that never had debt before,” Gary Jet Center owner Wil Davis said.

DAVIS Davis and former airport director Paul Karas, now retained as a consultant by the Gary Jet Center, proposed an alternate plan for completing the expansion. It’s one that would take more time, but it would solve the airport’s immediate problems.

Kirk railyard

Gary/Chicago International Airport

90 Ozinga

Con-Way Freight CWS

Fifth Avenue

Burr Street

Airport money

Colfax Street

94

Ridge Road

See EXPANSION, Page A9

Menards

N TIMES GRAPHICS, DEBORAH HILE

Cost squeeze could strand large pollution pile on its property

The airport taxman cometh Here is the amount property taxpayers on the west end of Gary living within the Gary Airport Development Zone TIF district have contributed to the zone in each of the past six years.

The money can be used only for airport projects. Taxes for those living in the TIF district are not any higher than those for other Gary residents, but a portion of taxes collected there every year is deposited in the zone fund.

KEITH BENMAN keith.benman@nwi.com, (219) 933-3326

A huge mound of oil-saturated dirt containing lead, arsenic, benzene and other pollutants may stay on the Gary/ Chicago International Airport property, a move some fear could stall future development there.

Originally, all polluted soil dug up in the airport’s runway expansion project was to be hauled away. But when oil saturated peat was found in the path of the runway extension, the airport opted to simply pile it at the south end of the polluted site.

“The idea has always been to get any

SOURCES: GARY/CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY, LAKE COUNTY AUDITOR, NORTHWEST INDIANA REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY AND CENDER & CO.

GARY

Ninth Avenue West Side High School

15th Avenue

80

Key

Praxair

Clark Road

Davis: $166 million city airport expansion should be scaled back

The Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority plans to use tax proceeds from its Airport Development Zone tax increment financing district to pay back the principal and interest on a $34.5 million loan. The money will be used to close one of the last funding gaps for its $166 million expansion project and for others at the airport. In addition, it could use up to $25 million that has accumulated in the zone fund over the years for the same purposes.

The Gary Airport Development Zone district is one of the largest in the state, with more than 6,000 separately identified property parcels.

Those include homes, apartment buildings, stores, industrial plants and other businesses.

Total property taxes for those owning property in the TIF district are not any higher than those for other Gary residents and businesses. But a portion of their tax payments are deposited in the Airport Development Zone fund rather than going to the county, city or school funds.

NOTE: SINCE THE MID-1990S, INDIANA HAS NOT ALLOWED RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY TAXES TO BE USED FOR TAX INCREMENT FINANCING. HOWEVER, TIF DISTRICTS SUCH AS THE AIRPORT DEVELOPMENT ZONE CREATED BEFORE THE LAW’S REVISION ARE ABLE TO RETAIN THEIR RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES.

What’s a TIF district? $4.31M

$3.84M $3.23M

$2.77M $2.91M

2007 2008 2009 2010

See POLLUTION, Page A9

$4.05M

2011

2012

SOURCE: LAKE COUNTY AUDITOR

Tax increment financing districts have been around for almost 30 years in Indiana. When a municipality creates one, all tax revenue attributable to further increases in assessed property values within the district goes to fund improvements at designated projects there. They are created to set up a self-funding stream for the projects, which in theory become an engine for increasing assessed property values throughout the district.

MARISA KWIATKOWSKI, THE TIMES

Kathy Riley initially struggled to find appropriate services for her son, R.D., who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, Asperger’s syndrome and other conditions.

‘I’m still a living human being’ Mother, son discuss journey to secure his mental health help MARISA KWIATKOWSKI marisa.kwiatkowski@nwi.com, (219) 662-5333

When R.D. Riley was 3 years old, his therapist told him he would become a mass murderer, the boy and his mother recall.

R.D. was kicked out of nearly a dozen schools and programs by the time he was 5. The Batesville, Ind., resident’s mother said a special education director told her it was a waste of time to bring R.D. to school because he couldn’t learn.

By age 6, R.D. said he was hearing demonic voices that told him to See RILEY, Page A7

GOP halts bid to oust chairman Party worried effort may hurt its appeal SARA BURNETT Associated Press CHICAGO | The Illinois Republican Party’s central committee backed off an attempt to fire party chairman Pat Brady on Saturday, amid concern that ousting him because of his support for gay marriage could damage GOP efforts to appeal to more moderate voters.

Brady became a target of some socially conservative members of the party when he spoke out in See GOP, Page A8

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RO | Sunday, March 10, 2013 | Page A9

“Everyone knew there was contamination out there. But no one knew the quantity we would run into.”

Scott Wheeler, airport project expansion manager

Pollution solution one key to Gary airport expansion

The Gary airport's runway extension will pass directly through the NBD Trust and Conservation Chemical properties. Both are owned by the airport. The airport is negotiating with environmental agencies on remediating pollution there. It wants to keep a pollution pile of oil-saturated soil on the south side of the NBD Pollution solution oneproperty key tountil Gary it hasairport the moneyexpansion to dispose of it properly.

Continued from Page A1

Pollution contaminated material off the property,” expansion project manager Scott Wheeler said. “But it was simply that the volume of material found was more significant than anyone thought.”

The plan to leave the soil on airport property is one more sign of the financial stresses afflicting the expansion project.

Wheeler recently told the airport authority board hauling the contaminated soil away would cost $3.78 million and bust the expansion project’s $166 million budget.

So the airport authority is asking environmental regulators for permission to leave the contaminated soil on airport property.

A key airport tenant, the Gary Jet Center, has objected to the plan for leaving the contaminated soil in place at meetings with airport officials. Gary Jet Center owner Wil Davis said leaving the pile in place will stall the airport’s plan for development around the extended runway.

“It defeats the entire purpose of why we are doing this project in the first place,” Davis said.

The polluted pile, as big as the airport’s largest hangar, sits there. The airport is seeking permission from environmental regulators to form the pile into a berm, cap it with clay, and plant grass, Wheeler said.

Airport interim Director Steve Landry said the airport does not intend to keep the pile of contaminated soil on airport property forever.

“There is potential for development down there,” Landry said. “But we know there won’t be any development done here if the runway is not extended.”

That reasoning doesn’t satisfy critics, including former director of the airport Paul Karas, who points out the area where the polluted dirt pile now sits was slated for eventual development as an air cargo or other facility.

“The airport could be shooting itself in the foot with this plan,” Karas said.

The polluted tracts There are two polluted tracts the airport is now dealing with in discussions with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Environmental

The Gary airport’s runway extension will pass directly through the NBD Trust and Conservation Chemical properties. Both are owned by the airport. The airport is negotiating with environmental agencies on remediating pollution there. It wants to keep a pollution pile of oil-saturated soil on the south side of the NBD property until it has the money to dispose of it properly.

Chicago Avenue

NBD and Conservation Chemical properties

12

12

Pollution pile

Gary Airport

90 90 912

Sources: FAA and environmental reports

Fifth Avenue

Times graphic, Amy Olding Sources: Airport and FAA environmental reports.

Amy Olding/The Times

Keith Benman, The Times

A huge mound of contaminated soil sits just south of where the Gary/Chicago International Airport runway will be extended. A key airport tenant and a former airport director are alarmed that plans for leaving the pollution on-site could stifle future development there.

Protection Agency.

The first is known as the NBD Trust property, which lies between Cline Avenue and the current footprint of the Gary airport. The airport purchased 84 acres of it five years ago.

Dirt from the NBD site was dug up during the first phase of the clearing and grading work last year for the runway

extension. The peat covering the area was found to be oil saturated, Wheeler said.

In addition to oil, it contains other pollutants. A final environmental impact statement prepared for the Federal Aviation Administration in 2004 stated pollution at the NBD site included benzene, lead and arsenic at hazardous levels. The FAA decision on the airport expansion

Gary/Chicago International Airport expansion by the numbers 8,900 feet Length of runway $57.8 million Federal 2 scheduled airline

Continued from Page A1

Expansion

when expansion complete

That concept would have the airport proceeding with its rail relocation plan and the leveling of a railroad embankment at the runway’s northwest end. It would allow the airport to comply with federal safety requirements and enable commercial airliners to take off with full passenger and fuel loads – something they can’t always do now.

The main runway expansion, to add 1,900 feet to its current 7,000-foot length, could be completed later, perhaps on a pay-as-you go basis using cash from the Airport Development Zone tax increment financing district.

“The concern is the airport has never had long-term debt,” Karas said. “Never.

That always gave Gary a lot of flexibility.

It’s a real luxury.”

Currently, Allegiant airline is the only regularly scheduled commercial carrier operating at Gary. The airport also handles more than 28,000 general aviation flights per year. Those include the company jets for Boeing Corp., which are based at the airport.

The Gary Jet Center provides fueling, maintenance and other services for planes using the airport.

Funding gap Davis and Karas make their proposal as the Gary airport authority scrambles to assemble a final financing package for the $166 million project, seven years after its start and less than 10 months from its completion deadline.

A financial analysis of the expansion project developed for the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority late last year showed a $49.8 million funding

Aviation Administration expansion contribution

7,000 feet Length

$92,491,904

of runway now

portion of project cost to be spent on railroad moves

7 years since expansion received FAA go-ahead $166,207,257

total price of expansion project

28,237 landings and takeoffs in 2011 at airport

flights per week

3 Number of national Class I railroads involved in project 2 new railroad bridges built 1 vehicle overpass built

SOURCES: GARY/CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY, NORTHWEST INDIANA REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION

gap remains for the project. In addition, there is a separate, five-year, $22.5 million capital improvement plan that has to be financed.

In February, airport financial consultant Phoebe Selden, of Acacia Financial Group, laid out a plan for closing the expansion funding gap and contributing to the needed capital projects.

That plan would use the tax income from the Airport Development Zone TIF district to back $34.5 million in borrowing.

It also would draw money from the zone’s accumulated $25 million fund balance.

Once interest payments are added to the loan’s principal amount of $34.5 million, much of the zone’s income would be defined for the next 30 years. The airport had long planned to use that money for other needed improvements such as extending its cross-wind runway or a new terminal.

Using tax income and cash from the Airport Development Zone TIF district would likely make Gary taxpayers one of the largest financial backers of the project. Their contribution could outrank even the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority’s $50 million and the Federal Aviation Administration’s $57.8 million.

DESIGNER: david.annable@nwi.com

‘Moving parts’ Airport interim Director Steve Landry acknowledges there are still “a lot of moving parts” to the financing plan for funding the airport’s $166 million expansion.

And he acknowledges the plan outlined

by Davis and Karas has always been an option.

But so far, the airport has met all the challenges involved in keeping the runway extension and railroad relocations moving forward, Landry said last week. It plans to complete the project by the end of this year.

Landry was reluctant to identify any funding gap. He also pointed out that, even before the expansion project started, the airport told the FAA it planned to borrow some of the money needed.

There are two moving parts that the airport authority is watching closely at this critical time, either of which could significantly change the financing picture.

The first is what timeline railroads will lay out for refurbishing the Fort Wayne Line, which is part of the expansion project. The airport has to pay its estimated $28.4 million price tag.

Putting the project off for some amount of time would change the financial picture, Landry said.

A huge mound of contaminated soil sits just south of where the Gary/ Chicago International Airport runway will be extended. A key airport tenant and a former airport director are alarmed that plans for leaving the pollution on site could stifle future development there.

The roadbed for new railroad tracks can be seen just in front of it.

John Watkins, The Times

noted some areas may have to be cleaned up to “residential standards” to allow FAA personnel to work there.

When asked to confirm if those substances were in the dirt now piled at the south end of the NBD property, Landry said they may be present — but samples recently extracted showed they were not present at hazardous levels.

The airport authority spent $1.24 million in 2011 to haul away and dispose of dirt at the southern edge of the property.

That soil was found to contain lead, oil and PCBs, the last a chemical banned in the United States since 1979.

The other polluted site the airport is dealing with is even more problematic. It is a heavily contaminated 4.1-acre parcel known as Conservation Chemical on the other side of the railroad embankment at the northwest end of the runway. The airport acquired the property in 2001.

Before that, an oil refinery, an asphalt plant and a hazardous disposal facility operated there.

In the late 1990s, the EPA undertook a cleanup including installing half a dozen wells in 2003 to collect oil. By the time those wells were closed down in 2007, 1.4 million gallons of oil had been sucked up.

But there is more oil in the ground, and three lagoons at the site remain heavily contaminated with a stew of hazardous chemicals.

In 2008, the IDEM issued a “comfort letter” to the airport stating the agency was likely to allow the airport to proceed with the expansion as long as it came up with a plan for taking care of the pollution.

On Jan. 25, the airport authority submitted a draft soil remediation plan to IDEM. However, the airport and IDEM denied Times requests for the remediation plan. According to IDEM spokesman Barry Sneed, a final remediation plan could be ready for public release within a month.

Wheeler said a proposal for a “slurry wall,” basically an underground dike to contain pollution on the NBD site, is also being discussed with IDEM and the EPA. Exactly what remediation the more highly polluted Conservation Chemical site will need is still being investigated and discussed with environmental regulators, Wheeler said.

“Everyone knew there was contamination out there,” Wheeler said. “But no one knew the quantity we would run into.”

The other moving part concerns the cleanup of ground and water pollution found where the runway extension will be built this summer. If environmental regulators require costly solutions, the airport would have to find even more money to complete the expansion.

The airport also has a $16 million request for additional funding pending with the FAA, which is already kicking $57.8 million into the project.

“At this point, it all has to do with timing and cash flow,” Landry said.

The RDA, one of the project’s largest financial donors, continues to carefully monitor its finances, according to CEO Bill Hanna.

He acknowledges the downside of the borrowing, which is that it ties up a ready source of airport funding for years to come.

But with the FAA and airport already agreeing on a deadline of the end of this year for the project, hard choices have to be made, Hanna said.

When the expansion started in 2006, airport officials estimated it could be completed for about $90 million. By March 2012, that had swollen to $166 million.

Since then, consultant and other costs have continued to increase, raising some doubts about whether the expansion project can stay on budget.

At its Feb. 11 meeting, the airport authority on a 5-1 vote approved paying $730,000 more to construction manager DLZ Engineering to keep it on the job this year. In January, the authority approved hiking the $2.8 million contract for overall project manager Aecom Technology Corp. by $322,612 for performing work outside its original contract.

“There’s just no cap to these expenses and no one at the airport is saying no,” Karas said.

business

DOW JONES INDUSTRIALS UP 48.23 . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,613.48 NASDAQ COMPOSITE UP 18.39 . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,222.25 STANDARD & POOR’S 500 UP 9.79 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,563.07

CONTACT THE EDITOR: Matt Saltanovitz, (219) 933-4089, matthew.saltanovitz@nwi.com

RO | TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2013 | SECTION C

Gary airport launches plan to seek investors

Innovation event set for April 18 Speakers to focus on idea-generating process and more

Authority looking for money to keep control tower open

TIMES STAFF KEITH BENMAN keith.benman@nwi.com,(219) 933-3326

HOBART | The Society of Innovators

The Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority by a 6-1 vote on Monday approved moving forward to seek private investors willing to put $100 million or more into airport development.

The vote authorized a number of steps needed to form a public-private partnership with outside investors, including commissioning a joint city/airport committee to put out requests for proposals within months.

The joint committee wants to round up and propose a private partner by August, according to the timeline laid out in its final report. The private partner will likely be an infrastructure fund, private airport management company or real estate developer.

“The rubber is about to meet the road,” said authority member David Bochnowski, who also heads the joint city/airport committee.

The best-known example of a publicprivate partnership locally is the state’s 75-year lease of the Indiana Toll Road to private investors in 2006. Other examples are the deal concluded by the state for the East End Crossing of the Ohio River bridges project and the parking meters deal in Chicago.

Airport Authority members also said the airport is seeking local money to keep its control tower open, after hearing an urgent plea from Gary Jet Center owner Wil Davis.

The tower is slated to close June 15 because of federal budget cuts.

“It’s a huge safety factor,” Davis said.

“And it’s a huge marketing factor. I know the statement has been made it will not impair safety. It will impair safety.”

Davis pointed out the control tower was a big factor in attracting Boeing Corp.’s corporate jet fleet to the airport. Boeing is

JOHN LUKE, THE TIMES

A ground crewman guides an Allegiant airlines jet at Gary-Chicago International Airport. The Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority by a 6-1 vote on Monday approved moving forward to seek private investors willing to put $100 million or more into airport development. currently negotiating an extension of its hangar lease with the airport authority.

Airport authority member Cornell Collins told Davis the airport is working on finding funds to keep it open. Preliminary estimates are it would take $350,000 to $400,000 a year.

The airport authority also approved negotiating a contract with ADK Executive Search, of Atlantic Beach, Fla. For a fee of $30,000, the firm will search for a permanent executive director for the airport.

Steve Landry has been serving as interim executive director of the airport for the past 2 1/2 years.

Authority Vice Chairman Rev. Marion Johnson said Landry can apply for the permanent position and praised the job he does as interim director.

The authority also approved a proposal

by Landry to combine the airport project manager’s job with that of the vacant post of deputy airport director. Along with other

personnel changes proposed by Landry, the airport could save $94,978 annually on salaries and benefits with the move.

For airport marketing, the airport authority extended the contract of Jame Ward’s JACOWA 3 Entertainment until the end of this year at the current rate of $4,333 per month.

The airport authority also approved a contract with Hawthorne Strategy Group for handling all communications for forming a public-private partnership and assisting with other communications. Hawthorne will be paid $7,500 per month for the tasks. The contract runs from January 2013 to the end of the year.

The firm will be paid only if the airport is successful in finding a private partner in line with the criteria laid out in the joint city/airport committee’s report. And payment will be made by the successful private party bidder, not the airport, according to Bochnowski.

Airport will have to move pollution pile Regulators: Contaminated soil must be hauled away KEITH BENMAN keith.benman@nwi.com, (219) 933-3326

Environmental regulators have told the Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority it must undertake a costly project to haul away contaminated soils uncovered by its runway expansion.

The hauling and disposal project will ensure the new areas of the airport are ready to host development such as a cargo facility, but it will increase costs, project manager Scott Wheeler told the authority at its regular meeting Monday.

However, Wheeler said the overall expansion project should still be able to stay within its $166 million budget.

“The negative is it will cost more money,” Wheeler told the authority board at the Airport Administration Building.

“But we still believe we can do it in the overall budget we have today.”

Earlier this year, Wheeler told the airport authority hauling away just one portion of the polluted soil, a pile of contaminated soil now stored at the southwest end of the airport property, would cost about $3.8 million. At that time he thought that

KEITH BENMAN, THE TIMES

Environmental regulators are requiring the Gary/ Chicago International Airport Authority to move a huge mound of contaminated soil, above, which sits just south of where the runway will be expanded.

A key airport tenant and a former airport director previously said leaving the pollution on-site could stifle future development. expense would bust the expansion project’s $166 million budget.

The Gary Jet Center, a key airport tenant, had protested the plan to keep the pile of polluted soil on airport property. The airport’s original expansion plan and master plan called for the area to be cleaned up in order to host a cargo or other airfield facility.

On Monday, Wheeler said the airport now believes funds set aside for contingent

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DESIGNER: DAVID.ANNABLE@NWI.COM

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GARY | A conference Saturday at

Indiana University Northwest will address questions about the university’s medical school.

The Medical School Admissions Conference at the IU School of Medicine — Northwest is geared toward high school students with aspirations of becoming a doctor and current pre-med students who are looking to apply to medical school.

For information or to RSVP, call (219) 980-6504 or visit www. iusm-nw.medicine.iu.edu.

Students and parents are invited to the conference, which will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Dunes Medical/ Professional Building.

Attendees will tour campus and the medical school facilities, receive inside information about how to increase the chances of being accepted into the medical school, speak with current students about their experiences in the pre-med and medical programs and learn about the undergraduate scholarship opportunities at IUN. “By enabling students to complete all four years of medical school in Northwest Indiana, we expect them to have the kinds of professional experiences and relationships that will lead them to practice here and provide our citizens with skilled and compassionate medical care,” said Patrick Bankston, associate dean and director of IU School of Medicine — Northwest and dean of the College of Health and Human Services.

OIL PRICES

GRAIN PRICES Product Kersey Elevator, DeMotte Corn Beans Co-Alliance LLP, Malden Corn Beans Cargill, Burns Harbor Corn Beans Wheat CIRM Chicago Corn Beans Wheat

Conference to focus on IUN med school TIMES STAFF

risks can be used to pay the increased costs.

In addition to the pollution pile, the airport must haul away highly contaminated soils that were known to cover the former Conservation Chemical property, Wheeler said. The airport had hoped it might be able to simply contain that pollution on-site and cap it with the new runway.

In all, the airport must haul away about 100,000 cubic yards of polluted soil, Wheeler said.

That would equate to about 8,000 or more dump truck loads depending on the size of the truck.

The airport has been negotiating its pollution remediation plans with the Indiana Department of Environmental Conservation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration.

In part, the cleanup is being driven by FAA regulations that require airport land where its personnel have to work or inspect be cleaned up to residential standards.

Wheeler had some good news for the authority on Monday. The Army Corps of Engineers has granted a permit for locating navigation equipment on protected wetlands. The airport authority approved paying Lake Erie Land Co. $76,500 for wetlands it owns elsewhere in order to satisfy an Army Corps requirement that wetlands degraded be replaced.

STOCK PRICES OF LOCAL INTEREST

of Northwest Indiana, as part of Ivy Tech Northwest’s Gerald I. Lamkin Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center, will host an evening of outof-the-box thinking April 18.

The presentation, called Idea Ingine Ivent 2013, will take place at 5:30 p.m. at Avalon Manor. Seating is limited and reservations must be made by April 12.

The panel discussion will include local business leaders from various industries, including health care, agriculture, food service and steel.

Speakers will emphasize the process of generating original ideas, the challenges of implementing new ideas and how knowledge is essential to making connections that often lead to fresh ideas.

Innovators expected to attend include Eric Diamond, of Green Farms Agronomics and Mycology; Denise Dillard, of Methodist Hospitals; Raymundo Garcia, of El Taco Real; Stewart McMillian, of Task Force Tips; Alex Olympidis, of Family Express; and Blake Zuidema, of ArcelorMittal.

Appetizers are courtesy of event sponsors Ivy Tech Northwest, NIPSCO and The Times Media Co. RSVP by emailing obutchee@ ivytech.edu. For questions, call John Davies at the Society of Innovators at (219) 981-1111, ext. 2292.

Fri. close

Mon. 3 p.m.

6.39 13.72

6.44 13.88

6.41 13.71

6.43 13.82

6.29 13.71 6.84

6.33 13.88 6.97

6.24 13.72 7.04

6.28 13.88 7.17

Day Monday

Close $93.36

Change +0.66

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Find more news online at nwi.com

PO | Saturday, May 11, 2013 | Page A11

Region Religion briefs TODAY

Church rummage sale CROWN POINT | A rummage and bake sale

to benefit Hope Worldwide is planned from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at NW Indiana Church of Christ, 1123 Merrillville Road.

Call (219) 736-0655.

Greek chicken fundraiser VALPARAISO | St. Iakovos Church Greek

chicken fundraiser and bake sale is planned at 11 a.m. at 36 W. County Road 700 North. Get half chicken, rice pilaf, Greek salad and bread. There also are bake sale items sold separately. Eat in or carry out. Call (219) 462-4052.

Hope’s Closet GRIFFITH | Hope’s Closet provides free

clothing, shoes and household essentials to those in need. Sponsored by Griffith Free Methodist Church, the closet is open from 2 to 4 p.m. the second Saturday of every month at 826 N. Lillian Ave. Call (219) 924-7296.

SUNDAY

Music ministry at church KOUTS | Doug and Lydia Moesta will be

ministering in music at 10:30 a.m. at Hopewell Mennonite Church, 805 N. Main St. Call (219) 766-2184.

History of the Region On this date in 1997 in the times: While Mercantile National Bank plans to move south and into Porter County, it also is making a rather different move within the industry, joining the revitalization trend in the Miller section of Gary.

Today: ArcelorMittal reports first quarter loss on weaker sales, higher taxes. Page D1

City/airport committee wants expansion project reviewed Gary airport could select investment proposal by fall Keith Benman keith.benman@nwi.com, (219) 933-3326‌ GARY | A joint city/airport committee has

recommended the Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority hire a firm to perform a comprehensive review of its $166 million expansion project, which is scheduled for completion this year.

Peoples Bank CEO David Bochnowski has pushed for the hiring of a risk assessment firm to keep tabs on the project since being appointed to the Airport Authority board earlier this year. As chairman of the joint city/airport committee working to lure investors to the airport through a public-private partnership, he has continued to push for it.

“It’s more than an auditor,” Bochnowski said. “It’s a total-risk assessment. They will deal with the integrity of the process and making sure there has

been full compliance with all regulations.”

The assessment firm hired will report directly to the seven-member Airport Authority Board rather than airport management, Bochnowski said at Friday’s meeting of the joint city/airport committee at the airport. Bochnowski said that kind of arrangement is common in private industry.

It now will be up to the Airport Authority whether to accept or reject the proposal. It would have to find a means of paying for the service in a budget that is already under pressure from the expansion and other projects.

Seven years ago, airport officials estimated the expansion project’s cost at about $90 million. By the beginning of 2011 they were pegging the entire cost at $128 million. Today the price tag is about $166 million, although the airport does not yet have a handle on the final costs for environmental cleanups.

Also at Friday’s meeting of the joint city/airport committee, it was resolved to formally notify the Federal Aviation Administration that the airport is seeking to form a public-private partnership.

Gary airport tower to stay open The Federal Aviation Administration has granted the control tower at Gary/ Chicago International Airport another reprieve from closing.

Originally slated to close last month, and then in June, the FAA now says the tower will stay open through September, according to Gary Airport Interim Director Steve Landry.

“It will keep that additional layer of safety there that I was concerned about, and it keeps the airport’s level of efficiency to the very high level it is now,” Landry said.

The tower was to be closed along with more than 140 others nationwide because of cuts to the FAA’s budget under the federal budget cuts known as the sequester.

Gary and similar towers at small airports across the United States will now stay open because federal officials determined recent legislation passed to keep controllers on the job at large airports also provides enough flexibility in funding to keep the smaller airport towers open.

THURSDAY

Donations needed CROWN POINT | Donations will be

accepted for a garage sale between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. May 16 to 20 for St. Matthias’ spring garage sale at 101 W. Burrell Drive. Call for large item pick-up donation. The sale is 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

May 23 and 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 24.

Call (219) 663-2201.

FRIDAY

The Taylors concert LANSING | The Taylors will perform a benefit concert from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at First Reformed Church of Lansing, 3130 Ridge Road. The Taylors are a family Southern gospel group from North Carolina. They performed a benefit concert last year and are returning. Call (708) 614-9777.

Crime Times ARRESTS ‌May 9-10 ALCOHOL CHARGE | William England IV, 20, Crown Point BATTERY, INTERFERENCE WITH REPORTING A CRIME | Christopher Richardson, 37, 1350 Berg St., Porter BURGLARY | Brandon Stringer, 22, 426 Hampshire Court, Valparaiso DISORDERLY CONDUCT | Brad Hodo, 24, 2581 Parkview, Portage DRIVING WHILE SUSPENDED | Beth Gowen, 31, 6539 Joseph, Portage DRUNKEN DRIVING | Jessica Larson, 27, 127 Wabash Ave., Chesterton; Ediberto Gonzalez Jr., 37, Chicago DRUNKEN DRIVING, ALCOHOL CHARGE | Rick Gayda, 20, 480 W. Division Road, Valparaiso FAILURE TO APPEAR | Rodney Gray Jr., 19, 6874 Mercedes Ave., Portage FALSE REPORTING, FAILURE TO APPEAR | Michael Kotlowski Jr., 23, 6041 Canden, Portage INTIMIDATION, BATTERY | Jonathon Johnson, 32, Hobart INVASION OF PRIVACY | Gary Bandemier, 40, Plano, Ill. POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA, DRUG PARAPHERNALIA | Trevor Heneka, 18, 4103 Winter Lane, Valparaiso

Latin Kings defendant given 25 years in conspiracy case HAMMOND | An Illinois man was sen-

tenced to 25 years in federal prison Friday for his role in a sweeping Latin Kings street gang, drug and murder conspiracy case involving more than 20 defendants.

Ivan Quiroz, 30, of Posen, Ill., agreed to plead guilty in Hammond federal court last year to racketeering, two counts of murder in the aid of racketeering, one count of conspiracy to possess and distribute more than 150 kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, and two gun-related counts tied to the murder and drug charges.

Quiroz was among 23 alleged Latin Kings members or associates, including two former Chicago police officers, indicted in the racketeering case.

In addition to his 25-year prison sentence, Quiroz will be required to serve five years on supervised release following his sentence. — Times Staff

John J. Watkins, The Times

Gary/Chicago International Airport board Vice President Marion Johnson presides over a ceremony Friday dedicating the new bridge on Airport Road in honor of the late Tuskegee Airman Quentin P. Smith. The new overpass will be called the Quentin P. Smith Tuskegee Airman Memorial Bridge.

Airport bridge dedicated for airman Overpass named for Quentin Smith part of $166M expansion Keith Benman keith.benman@nwi.com, (219) 933-3326‌ GARY | Friday was a day for standing on

the shoulders of a giant at Gary/Chicago International Airport.

“It will forever be a highlight of my tenure as mayor, that I was able to join with the airport board and others in naming this bridge in honor of Dr. Quentin P. Smith,” Mayor Karen-Freeman Wilson said to people gathered at the airport for the dedication of the new Airport Road overpass.

A short time later, the mayor and others pulled a blue cloth off a green sign with white lettering reading “Quentin P. Smith Tuskegee Airman Memorial Bridge.”

The ceremony was held in the airport administration building, about one-quarter mile east of the vehicle overpass that

will bear Smith’s name.

The idea to name the bridge for Smith originated with the Rev. Marion Johnson, who is vice president of the Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority.

Last month the authority board voted 7-0 to approve a resolution to name the bridge in honor of Smith. It opened to traffic at the end of April.

It is the most significant memorial unveiled to Smith to date in Gary, who died in January at the age of 94.

His son, Quentin P. Smith Jr., was there for the unveiling of the sign and said it was indeed a fitting tribute for a man who was both a pioneering aviator and a former president of the Gary Airport Authority.

“A bridge is to get us over obstacles,” he said. “And he has probably helped almost everyone in this room at one time or another, me included, get over obstacles in life.”

In addition to being a B-25 bombardier with the famed Tuskegee Airman Army Air Corps, the late Smith also was a noted Gary educator and civil rights activist.

Along with 100 other black U.S. Army officers, Smith was arrested in a 1945

Dyer man struck, killed while walking on U.S. 30 near mall HOBART | A 32-year-old Dyer man died

early Friday after being struck by a vehicle while crossing U.S. 30, officials said.

Jasmit Paul Dang, of the 2600 block of Calumet Avenue, was pronounced dead of blunt force trauma at 12:15 a.m., according to the Lake County coroner’s office.

Hobart police Detective Sgt. Jeremy Ogden said police were called at 11:38 p.m. by a 40-year-old Valparaiso man.

The man, who was driving east on U.S. 30 near Westfield Southlake mall, said he thought he had hit something but he didn’t know if it was a person or not.

After arriving at the scene, police saw the body of the Dyer man who had been crossing the divided highway, Ogden said.

The driver will not be cited for anything because he stopped and reported the crash, Ogden said. — Times Staff

incident at Freeman Field in Seymour, Ind., for defying orders not to enter the whites-only officers club there. Those officers were later defended by the future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

In Gary, he was the first principal of West Side High School and later founded the Emerson School for the Visual and Performing Arts.

The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority paid the $11.6 million tab for building the bridge, which is part of the $166 million airport runway expansion project. The expansion is slated to be complete by year’s end.

The overpass was built to comply with railroad demands that there be no new at-grade crossings created by the runway expansion project. CSX and Canadian National tracks pass under the overpass.

It was built by Superior Construction, of Gary, and one lane in each direction is currently open with two more lanes to open by July. The sign unveiled Friday honoring Smith will be posted at one end of the bridge by that time and a second at the other end, Airport Interim Director Steve Landry said.

Portage Fire Department bike safety event canceled PORTAGE | The Portage Fire Depart-

ment’s annual bicycle safety day scheduled for today has been canceled.

The event was supposed to take place from 9 a.m. to noon in the east parking lot of Willowcreek Middle School, 5962 Central Ave. The event was canceled because of the weather forecast. — Times Staff

business

DOW JONES INDUSTRIALS UP 121.18 . . . . . . . . . . . .15,354.40 NASDAQ COMPOSITE UP 33.72. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,498.97 STANDARD & POOR’S 500 UP 17.00. . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,667.47

CONTACT THE EDITOR: Matt Saltanovitz, (219) 933-4089, matthew.saltanovitz@nwi.com

RO | SATURDAY, MAY 18, 2013 | SECTION D

Projects for protecting environment will hike airport expansion cost Manager says project can stay within budget KEITH BENMAN keith.benman@nwi.com, (219) 933-3326

TIMES FILE

Nevada regulators have approved a merger between Pinnacle Entertainment and rival Ameristar Casinos, whose East Chicago casino is shown.

Regulators approve merger of casinos ASSOCIATED PRESS LAS VEGAS | Nevada regulators have approved

Missouri, Iowa, Colorado, Mississippi, Indiana and Nevada. Pinnacle Entertainment’s shares rose to their highest level in more than four years in April.

In a December conference call, Pinnacle CEO Anthony Sanfilippo said Pinnacle will stay with current branding for the casinos it acquires for “at least the foreseeable future.”

That means the Ameristar name should stay on the East Chicago casino for the time being.

Pinnacle executives on the call also said the new casinos their company will acquire in St. Louis and Indiana will give it new geographical reach in the Midwest, and specifically mentioned Chicago.

Also in December, Ameristar spokeswoman Roxanne Kincaid said it would be “business as usual” at the East Chicago location during the acquisition process.

a merger between Pinnacle Entertainment and rival Ameristar Casinos.

The $869 million deal will more than double Pinnacle’s size.

Pinnacle owns seven U.S. casinos and a racetrack, and has another casino under development. Ameristar has eight casinos including one in East Chicago.

The deal had the approval of the boards of both Las Vegas operators, but needed the Nevada Gaming Commission to sign off. The commission approved the deal Thursday.

Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. has said the acquisition would save it at least $40 million a year and boost earnings.

Pinnacle has casinos in Louisiana, Missouri and Indiana.

Ameristar’s holdings include casinos in The Times contributed to this report.

Soybeans shooting higher A lthough U.S. farmers are expecting to harvest a large soybean crop this fall, the current supply of soybeans in storage is running low, lifting prices higher.

This week, July soybeans shot up 45 cents (3.2 percent), reaching $14.47 per bushel on Friday morning.

Many farmers are holding onto their remaining soybeans, waiting for higher prices before they sell off the rest of last fall’s crop, which is preventing soybeans from reaching end users like food processers, livestock feeders and biodiesel producers.

The limited U.S. soybean supplies have prompted talk of the United States importing soybeans from South America this summer.

Unfortunately, labor unrest in Brazil has been preventing the normal flow of soybeans to foreign markets, further compounding supply shortages worldwide.

PRECIOUS METALS SOFTEN Gold and silver prices tumbled this week,

Futures File

By Walt Breitinger approaching the low prices they hit in midApril. Prices have been falling as investors sell off their holdings of the precious metals, preferring to buy stocks, which are at an all-time high. Over the last two weeks, gold has fallen more than $100 per ounce (7.2 percent) and silver has sunk $1.75 per troy ounce (7.3 percent).

See FUTURES, Page D7

The Gary/Chicago International Airport’s expansion project is facing mounting costs, but officials say it can still be completed within its current $166 million budget.

Earlier this week, Frank Deveau, a lawyer representing the airport on environmental matters, told the airport authority that regulators are pushing for added projects they contend are needed to protect the environment.

Deveau said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants the airport to build an underground dike to contain pollution it believes is seeping off airport property, something that could necessitate buying more property south of the airport.

“That’s a very serious issue we are still in negotiations about,” Deveau said.

The airport has proposed a less expensive solution. That would be an underground dike, called a slurry wall, that would be built only on

Coming Sunday After an abrupt departure as Indianapolis International Airport CEO last year, John Clark has landed on his feet at Gary/ Chicago International Airport. Definitely a big player in aviation circles nationwide, Clark is a complex person with the connections that could help the Gary airport fly, but with a sometimes turbulent past. property the airport currently owns.

That would cost about $405,000 Deveau said.

The southern parcel the EPA wants the airport to buy is believed be heavily polluted because it was once a dumping ground for sludge from the bottoms of large fuel storage tanks.

Airport Interim Director Steve Landry said the airport’s hand in negotiations is not weakened by the fact it faces a deadline of the end of this year for completing the expansion project.

“That’s always been part of the mix with this project,” he said Friday.

“It has always been an issue of deadline and project constraints.”

Despite all of the environmental items potentially to be added to the expansion project checklist, project manager Scott Wheeler believes they See AIRPORT, Page D7

Gary airport puts out help wanted sign for director Hiring comes as airport in throes of change KEITH BENMAN keith.benman@nwi.com, (219) 933-3326

Gary/Chicago International Airport is advertising nationwide for an airport executive director as the airport prepares for some of the biggest changes in its history.

The job opening is posted at industry trade organizations such as the American Association of Airport Executives, and the airport authority hopes to have all the applications it needs by the June 13 filing deadline, according to Silas Wilkerson, an airport authority member who chairs its personnel committee.

The airport currently has just one airline, Allegiant, which flies twice a week to Orlando/Sanford International Airport. It also is preparing to seek a public-private partnership with investors willing to sink a minimum of $100 million into the airport.

“We need someone who is knowledgeable about public-private partnerships; someone who has airline recruitment skills,” Wilkerson said.

“There are a lot of needs to be met.”

The airport hopes to have a new executive director on board by Sept.

1, Wilkerson said.

At a meeting in late April, the airport authority approved paying

$30,000 to ADK Executive Search, of Atlantic Beach, Fla., to perform the nationwide search for an airport executive director.

The airport is now racing to finish expanding its main runway to 8,900 feet from its current 7,000 feet by year’s end. The project has been ongoing for more than six years and will cost an estimated $166 million.

The new airport director would oversee a staff of 17 employees and manage a $3.8 million annual budget.

Some of the director’s duties could depend on what kind of public-private partnership, if any, the airport authority forms with private investors.

The starting salary is in the range of $110,000 to $130,000, including an excellent fringe benefit package, according to the airport’s job posting.

The airport has not had a permanent director since Chris Curry left the Gary airport in September 2010 to take a job overseeing three airports for the Collier Airport Authority, in Naples, Fla. Curry’s then-deputy, Steve Landry, has since been filling in since as interim director. When asked on Friday if he had applied for the executive director’s job, Landry said it would not be appropriate for him to answer.

Excellence in construction and safety honored CAF, NWIBRT present awards ROB EARNSHAW Times Correspondent HOBART | Safety and construction

excellence in Northwest Indiana was recognized Thursday at Avalon Manor.

Organized by the Construction Advancement Foundation and the Northwest Indiana Business Roundtable, the annual Construction Awards Banquet honors companies that exhibit superior achievement in a variety of categories.

“This is a chance for the construction industry to recognize the efforts of those contractors and at the same time try to recognize the educational training program of the individuals who are up and coming into those programs,” said Shawn Kelly,

president of CAF, which represents more than 500 union contractors.

Kelly said training is critical to the future of the union construction industry.

“We’re developing our brand new Construction Safety Institute that will really enhance what this is all about – the promotion and the continuing training and education of the people on the importance of safety,” he said. “It’s a one-of-a-kind training facility that will not only do classroom training but will provide hands-on training for safety from everything from scaffolding to confined space training.”

Kelly said a new trend in the construction industry moving into place is how municipalities fund their projects – municipalities that have needs but no money. It involves financed design-build opportunities where teams come in and finance, design and construct, for example, a government center such as a police station.

“These teams can come in and would actually finance design build in which they would then do this at their risk and the municipality would in essence lease back the facility on a lease-to-own basis,” he said. “So this is a good way for municipalities to potentially in time get the facilities they need in a little more creative manner. Everybody’s looking for ways to raise the money we need to serve our citizens. We see this as a growing potential and a growing trend. It really looks very promising.”

As far as the local construction industry, Kelly said the economy has improved and there are more projects that are bidding.

“And there is obviously more competition for that project,” he said. “I’ve seen more owner/clients releasing projects that have been in planning now than there was last year. There is a positive outlook for the future.”

For your information CAF AWARDS: • Maintenance/Service Contract Work Project of the Year: ACMS Group Inc. (Central Hudson Gas, Electric and National Grid) • Industrial/Capital Project of the Year: Hasse Construction (Safety-Kleen) • Commercial Project of the Year: Tonn and Blank Construction LLC (Franciscan, St. Anthony Health and Chesterton Health & Emergency Center) • Public Works Project of the Year: Hasse Construction (City of Hammond) • Commercial Contractor of the Year: Hasse Construction • Industrial Contractor: Hasse Construction • Professional & Engineering Services Contractor: Falk-PLI Engineering & Surveying • Specialty Contractor: Pangere Corporation • Professional Development Award: T.J. Ferrantella, Engineered Constructors Inc. NWIBRT AWARDS: • Innovation Award: Solid Platforms Inc • Life Saver Award: Steve Cowsert, Sargent Electric • Contractor of the Year: Superior Construction Co. Inc.

Find more news online at nwi.com

RO | Saturday, May 18, 2013 | Page D7

Stock prices of local interest

Business calendar Charter School Job Fair | Gary 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 18, 21st Century Charter School, 556 Washington St. A Job Fair will be hosted by 21st Century Charter School. Northwest Indiana charter school officials will be looking for teachers, classroom aides, substitutes, administrative staff and Title I professionals. Candidates will be interviewed on site, on a first come, first serve basis. Wear business attire.

FYI: Contact Linda Scott by phone at (219) 886-9339, ext. 3129 or email lscott@ geoacademies.org.

Construction Training Program | Gary 3 to 6 p.m. May 18, Junedale Park, 50th and Madison Street. Gary Precinct Construction Training Program will be training young people 17 to 30 in the art of construction weekly. Bring them to the park where there will be instructors to show how they can learn a trade that can provide for life and generations to come.

FYI: Contact E. Turner/Eloise Smith by phone at (219) 712-1392 or email monstermtu@att.net.

Business 4 Business | Merrillville 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. May 20, A J Specialties, 1308 E. 85th Ave. B4B is a noncompete referral group with 29 active members who are passionate in what they do. Guest are welcome to come and watch the meeting structure.

FYI: Contact Tony Schifino by phone at (219) 736-0367 or email ajspecialties1990@ yahoo.com. Visit http://www.facebook.com/ Business4BusinessReferrals.

FYI: Contact Genesis Jones by phone at (219) 512-3618 or email nwiwea@gmail.com.

Visit http://http//.www.weainc.webs.com.

ROI Business Networking Group | Crown Point 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. May 22, Crown Point Civic Center, 101 S. East St. The Referral Organization of Indiana (ROI) Business Networking Group meets Wednesdays.

Networking starts at 7:15 a.m.

FYI: Contact Debra Corum by phone at (219) 769-7787. Visit http://www.roinetworkinc.com.

BNI, Business Network International | Crown Point 8 to 9:30 a.m. May 22, White Hawk Country Club, 1001 White Hawk Drive. BNI, Business Network International, meets in the Members Lounge.

FYI: Contact Michael Pelz by phone at (219) 427-5933 or (815) 370-2940.

The Northwest Indiana Professional Network | Gary 10 a.m. to noon May 22, Gary WorkOne, 3522 Village Circle-Village Shopping Center. The Northwest Indiana Professional Network meets Wednesdays in Gary. NIPN is a networking group for professionals interested in sharing information and resources that would allow them to meet their career objectives and work opportunities.

FYI: Contact Sharla Williams by phone at (219) 981-4100 ext. 305 or email swilliams@ gotoworkonenw.com.

Merrillville Chapter of BNI | Merrillville SBDC adviser available | Hammond 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. May 22, Innsbrook 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 20, Hammond INno- Country Club, 6701 Taft St. The Merrillville vation Center, 5209 Hohman Ave. Northwest Chapter of BNI, Business Networking Indiana Small Business Development Center International, will meet. business adviser Bill Gregory will be on FYI: Contact Michael Pelz by phone at hand the first and third Mondays of the (815) 370-2940. month. To meet with Gregory, go online and BNI business development group | fill out a business assessment and call to Schererville schedule an appointment.

7 to 8:30 a.m. May 23, Holiday Inn FYI: Contact Bill Gregory by phone at Express, 1773 Fountain Park Drive. BNI (219) 644–3513. Visit http://www.nwisbdc.

(Business Networking International) busiorg. ness development group meets Thursdays.

South Shore Business Networking | FYI: Contact Michael Pelz by phone at Crown Point (815) 370-2940.

8 to 9 a.m. May 21, Purdue Technology Center, 9800 Connecticut Drive. Meet on the Kiwanis Club meets. | Highland 7:15 to 8:15 a.m. May 23, Michael’s 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of every month.

Restaurant, 2040 45th St. Munster Kiwanis FYI: Contact Rick Gosser by phone Club was founded in 1963 and is part of at (219) 808-9888 or email sales@ Kiwanis International, a global organization gossercorpsales.com. Visit http://www. of volunteers dedicated to changing the southshorebusinessnetworking.com. world one child and one community at a BNI, Business Networking time. The group meets weekly. $100 annual.

International | Highland FYI: Contact Carolyn Moore by phone at 8:30 to 10 a.m. May 21, Harry’s Grill, (219) 923-3887 or email laughingcat_98@ 9400 Indianapolis Blvd. BNI, Business yahoo.com. Visit http://calumetkiwanis.org.

Networking International meets Tuesdays.

NWI Professional Network | Hammond FYI: Contact Michael Pelz by phone at 10 a.m. to noon May 23, Hammond (815) 370-2940.

WorkOne, 5265 Hohman Ave. Northwest Referral Organization of Indiana Indiana Professional Network meets Thurs(ROI) | Schererville days in Hammond. NIPN is a networking 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. May 21, ENG group for professionals interested in sharLending, 833 U.S. 30, Suite 400. The ing information and resources that would Referral Organization of Indiana (ROI) Busi- allow them to meet their career objectives ness Networking Group meets Tuesdays. and work opportunities.

Networking starts at 11:15 a.m.

FYI: Contact Sharla Williams by phone at FYI: Contact Jane Koenig by phone at (219) 981-4100 ext. 305 or email swilliams@ (219) 662-7701. Visit http://www.roinetwork- gotoworkonenw.com. inc.com.

NIAHU Monthly Membership Luncheon | Merrillville Rotary Club of Hammond | Hammond Noon to 1 p.m. May 21, Student Union 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. May 23, The Patio Library Building at Purdue Calumet, 2200 Restuarnat, 7706 Broadway. Northwest 169th St. The Rotary Club of Hammond Indiana Association of Health Underwriters meets Tuesdays is having its monthly membership CE class FYI: Contact Rotary Club of Hammond by and luncheon. Registration is at 10 a.m. phone at (219) 513-0549. Visit http://www. and the one-hour CE, Basics of Disability hammondrotary.org.

Income Insurance, will start at 10:30 a.m. and will be presented by: Joe A Cerda, The Northwest Indiana Professional CLU brokerage director, Mass Mutual. Cost Network | Portage for local NIAHU member is free. Cost for 1 to 3 p.m. May 21, LaPorte WorkOne, nonmembers is $10. Membership Luncheon Sagamore Center, 300 Legacy Plaza. The is from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. — ERISA Northwest Indiana Professional Network Compliance for the employer. Speaker/ meets Tuesdays in LaPorte. NIPN is a netSponsor — Rob Sickler, Regional Sales working group for professionals interested Director. Cost for local NIAHU members is in sharing information and resources that $8, and $15 for nonmembers RSVP by Noon would allow them to meet their career on May 20. $15. objectives and work opportunities.

FYI: Contact Laura Loomis by phone FYI: Contact Sharla Williams by phone at at (219) 765-1062 or email laurajloomis@ (219) 981-4100 ext. 305 or email swilliams@ comcast.net. gotoworkonenw.com.

Noon Kiwanis Club | Merrillville Affordable Healthcare Act(IMA Noon to 1 p.m. May 23, Petro’s RestauCalumet Chapter May meeting) | rant, 6190 Broadway Ave. Merrillville Noon Chicago Heights Kiwanis Club meets Thursdays.

6 to 9 p.m. May 21, Carlos Lorenzetti, 560 FYI: Contact Bruce Woods by phone at West Lincoln Highway (U.S. 30). Presenta(219) 794-1259. Visit http://www.merrillviltion on Affordable Healthcare Act. The lenoonkiwanis.org. speaker is James Kennedy, VP at Hub InterInfluential Women of Northwest national. Registration starts at 6 p.m. and Indiana | Hobart the meeting begins promptly at 6:30 p.m.

5 to 8 p.m. May 23, Avalon Manor, 3550 Anyone with an interest in the subject matter is welcome. $30 for members and guests U.S. 30. Influential Women of Northwest Indiana is an organization devoted to and $20 for college students.

FYI: Contact Mark Camarena by phone at providing women with the resources, (630) 530-6707 or email markt4121@gmail. recognition and motivation necessary to be successful in the business world. Each com. Visit http://www.imacalumet.com/. year, Influential Women honors the area’s Women Entrepreneurs meet | Gary most successful women in eleven different 6 to 7:30 p.m. May 21, GNS Center, 300 industries, ranging from construction and W. 21st Ave. Northwest Indiana Chapter healthcare to education and government, of Women Entrepreneurs of America Inc. during its Awards Banquet. The organization cordially invites the public to learn about also donates funds to four nonprofits to aid the group during its monthly meeting. This them in completed projects that positively is a 501(3_ nonprofit, membership-based impact the community during the event. organization whose mission is to empower $90. and support women in business and to FYI: Contact Matt Pera by phone at (219) provide resources to help those who want to 226-0300 or email mpera@thinkdiversified. become an entrepreneur. com. Visit http://www.nwiwomen.com.

Name

Last price Change Name

Last price Change

Abbott Laboratories 36.59 -0.24 General Motors Company 33.42 +1.03 53.83 +0.67 AGL Resources Inc. 44.18 +0.69 GATX Corporation 19.89 +0.16 Alcoa Inc 8.61 +0.11 Horizon Bancorp 80.75 +2.02 The Allstate Corporation 50 -0.16 Honeywell International Inc. 36.6 -0.17 ArcelorMittal 12.9 +0.43 Hillshire Brands Co 52.3 +1.33 Ameristar Casinos, Inc. 26.44 +0.07 JPMorgan Chase & Co. 56.11 +0.59 AT&T Inc. 37.44 +0.06 Kraft Foods Group Inc 51.58 -0.45 Avery Dennison Corp 44.28 +0.09 Kohl’s Corporation 61.03 +1.43 The Boeing Company 98.92 +2.34 Lear Corporation 1.77 +0.04 Bank of America Corp 13.43 +0.07 Lee Enterprises, Incorporated 34.19 +0.46 Bank of Montreal (USA) 60.41 +0.04 Leggett & Platt, Inc. Lockheed Martin Corporation 106.41 +2.41 BP plc 42.96 +0.21 48.67 +0.79 Boyd Gaming Corporation 12.9 -0.28 Macy’s, Inc. McDonald’s Corporation 101.54 +0.42 Cabelas Inc 71.37 -0.01 57.84 +0.31 Caterpillar Inc. 87.67 +0.89 Motorola Solutions Inc Marathon Oil Corporation 36.15 +1.00 CBOE Holdings, Inc 40.75 +0.48 Marathon Petroleum Corp 82.68 +4.16 CFS Bancorp, Inc. 10.46 +0.02 25.19 +0.61 CME Group Inc 65.17 +0.94 Morgan Stanley MainSource Financial Group Inc. 13.71 +0.02 CNO Financial Group Inc 12.02 -0.02 NiSource Inc. 29.78 +0.27 Coca-Cola Bottling 23 -0.60 Co. Consolidated 61.38 +0.27 Northwest Indiana Bancorp 83.8 +0.06 ConocoPhillips 63.31 +0.88 PepsiCo, Inc. CVS Caremark Corporation 59.44 +0.07 The Procter & Gamble Company 80.02 -0.18 71.51 +1.05 Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. 49.25 -0.34 PNC Financial Services 116.2 +2.20 Eli Lilly & Co. 55.9 -0.04 Praxair, Inc. 68.42 +1.13 Emerson Electric Co. 59.36 +1.33 Reliance Steel & Aluminum 35 +0.94 Enbridge Inc (USA) 46.82 +0.01 Stifel Financial Corp.

57.52 -0.02 Exelon Corporation 35.15 +0.36 Sears Holdings Corp 179.85 +2.29 Exxon Mobil Corporation 91.76 +1.06 Simon Property Group, Inc 43.22 -0.03 Ford Motor Company 15.08 +0.44 Unilever plc United States Steel Corporation 18.32 +0.45 Finish Line Inc 21.52 +0.47 USG Corporation 28.22 +0.62 Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. 32.68 +0.64 Verizon Communications Inc. 53.35 +0.15 FedEx Corporation 100.05 +1.11 Walgreen Company 49.61 +0.78 First Financial Bancorp 15.76 +0.14 Wells Fargo & Co 39.88 +0.62 Fifth Third Bancorp 18.25 +0.23 WellPoint, Inc. 77.81 +0.97 1st Source Corporation 24.33 +0.11 Waste Management, Inc. 42.39 +0.40 First Midwest Bancorp Inc 13.56 +0.14 Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. 77.87 -0.63 Ferro Corporation 7.04 -0.02 Worthington Industries, Inc. 34.33 +0.35 General Electric Company 23.46 +0.19 Yum! Brands, Inc. 70.16 +0.53

Average gas prices Per gallon of regular fuel

Northwest Indiana Chicago metro Nation

Friday Week ago Month ago Year ago $4.016 $3.931 $3.637 $3.919 $4.207 $4.244 $3.817 $4.073 $3.618 $3.560 $3.519 $3.722

Source: AAA Fuel Gauge Report

Metal prices Spot nonferrous metal prices from N.Y. Merc Metal Price Change Copper $3.3210 +0.0290 Gold $1364.90 -23.20 Silver $22.339 -0.304 Platinum $1468.00 -17.60

Oil prices Day Close Change Friday $96.02 +0.86

Get updated online For comprehensive stock data, nwi.com/business features a tool by which you can enter a stock or mutual fund symbol and receive its current status.

Continued from Page D1

Airport can be paid for out of contingency funds that are part of the overall expansion budget.

The EPA also wants testing for pollutants done on a railroad embankment at the end of the airport’s main runway that is slated for demolition within months, Deveau said. If contaminants are found there, it could add to the cost of the demolition.

Airport officials already have conceded

Grain prices Product close Fri. 3 p.m.

Kersey Elevator, DeMotte Corn 6.62 6.73 Beans 14.78 14.99 Co-Alliance LLP, Malden Corn 6.66 6.77 Beans 14.82 15.03 Cargill, Burns Harbor Corn 6.71 6.84 Beans 14.82 15.03 Wheat 6.72 6.68 CIRM Chicago Corn 6.51 6.63 Beans 14.87 15.09 Wheat 6.93 6.87

they will need to remove and pay for disposal of a large pile of polluted soil deposited on the south side of the airport property as part of the expansion project.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Justice also are involved in the negotiations. The Justice Department’s involvement is tied to the Conservation Chemical site at the end of the main runway, which was an EPA Superfund site.

That site will also have to be excavated and the soil hauled to a special disposal facility.

lumber lower. By the end of the week, lumber was trading for only $314 per thousand board feet, the lowest price in more than six months.

Prices are also coming under pressure U.S. inflation is currently near zero, due to expanding lumber mill capacity, which had diminished interest in gold and silver, which are usually perceived as which is expected to rise more than 6 protecting investors from inflation. As of percent this year, increasing supplies. midday Friday, gold for June delivery was Over the last two months, lumber prices worth $1,360, and July silver sat at $22.30 have declined $95, or 23 percent. Going forward, U.S. construction demand and per troy ounce.

Chinese economic growth will both play a major role in the lumber market.

Timber! Lumber Prices Fall Cold, wet weather in the U.S. this spring slowed down construction, Opinions are solely the writer’s. Walt Breitinger diminishing short-term demand for is a commodity futures broker in Valparaiso, Ind. lumber. A report released Thursday He can be reached at (800) 411-3888 or www. showed housing starts in April were the indianafutures.com. This is not a solicitation of slowest in five months, which knocked any order to buy or sell any market.

Continued from Page d1

Futures

breaking news

business

DOW JONES INDUSTRIALS UP 106.29 . . . . . . . . . . . .15,409.39 NASDAQ COMPOSITE UP 29.74. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,488.89 STANDARD & POOR’S 500 UP 10.46 . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,660.06

CONTACT THE EDITOR: Matt Saltanovitz, (219) 933-4089, matthew.saltanovitz@nwi.com VISIT nwi.com/business FOR THE LATEST BUSINESS NEWS.

RO | WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 2013 | SECTION E

Gary airport project could be delayed Airport faces a December deadline for $166 million expansion project KEITH BENMAN keith.benman@nwi.com, (219) 933-3326

Gary/Chicago International Airport should have a clearer picture within weeks as to whether it can complete its $166 million expansion project by its December deadline.

Railroad negotiations and environmental pitfalls both have the potential to delay individual parts of the project, with key meetings and negotiations happening during the next several weeks, the airport authority was told by advisers at its Tuesday meeting at the airport administration building.

“If we don’t make that December deadline, it will make us look awful bad,” said authority vice president Rev. Marion Johnson at one point during the discussions.

The airport authority and Federal Aviation Administration, which is funding much of the expansion,

mutually agreed to the December deadline 2 1/2 years ago.

No timeline can be given for the concluding of utility easements under railroad rights-of-way and complex agreements between two railroads for trackage and other rights, lawyer Charles Spitulnik told the authority.

Both Spitulnik and another lawyer from the Washington, D.C. law firm of Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell LLP were in Gary to report to the airport authority and work with railroads and utilities on the deals.

The authority hired the firm four years ago to kick start negotiations with railroads over the complex

agreements needed before three sets “If we don’t of tracks owned by three different railroads could be moved to make make that way for the airport expansion.

The airport’s fees paid to law- December yers negotiating those agreements deadline, it with railroads reached $722,875 last will make August and were still climbing.

Expansion project manager Scott us look Wheeler told the airport authority a key meeting with environmental awful bad.” regulators is scheduled for Thursday.

The airport is negotiating the final THE REV. shape of environmental cleanups MARION that must be done before the runway JOHNSON, airport authority vice See AIRPORT, Page E4 president

Optimism reaches 5-year high Stocks, housing and job outlook strengthening CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER AND MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writers WASHINGTON | Americans are more

are waiting to put their homes on the market because they’re not comfortable with the lower price point needed to sell their properties.

“They don’t want to sell at the bottom of the market,” he said, adding that buyers have also become very choosy about the homes they purchase.

“Now buyers ask ‘What’s wrong with the house?’” Mangus said. “The home has to be spotlessly clean, well-maintained and appropriately priced. Even Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are making certain the houses they have for sale are updated.”

When it comes to buying appliances for those homes, the trend is also cautiously optimistic, said Erik Schneider, owner of Hometown Appliances & Electronics in St. John.

“Consumer confidence is up because people are buying and the per ticket item cost has increased. Still there’s a hesitation,” Schneider said.

confident in the U.S. economy than at any point in the past five years, thanks to surging home values, a brighter job market and record-setting stock prices.

Stock averages on Tuesday extended the year’s explosive rally.

Further gains in consumer confidence could help the economy withstand the effects of higher taxes and federal spending cuts that kicked in this year. Spending by consumers drives about 70 percent of economic growth.

Consumer confidence jumped in May to 76.2, the Conference Board, a private research group, said Tuesday. That was up from a reading of 69 in April and is the highest level of confidence since February 2008, two months after the Great Recession officially began.

A separate report Tuesday showed that U.S. home prices jumped 11 percent in March compared with a year ago, the sharpest 12-month increase since April 2006. Prices rose year over year in all 20 cities in the Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller home price index.

The reports helped fuel a rally on Wall Street. Traders were also encouraged by gains in overseas markets, especially in Japan and Europe.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up about 95 points in midafternoon trading. Broader stock indexes also rose. The Dow has rocketed 18 percent this year.

Surging stock prices and steady home-price increases have allowed Americans to regain the $16 trillion in wealth they lost to the Great Recession.

Some economists have said the increase in home prices alone could boost consumer spending enough to offset a Social Security tax increase that’s reduced paychecks for most Americans this year.

See NWI, Page E4

See OPTIMISM, Page E4

JONATHAN MIANO, THE TIMES

Crowds shop at the new Strack & Van Til grocery store in Cedar Lake during the grand opening earlier this month. An air of cautious consumer confidence seems to be settling over Northwest Indiana.

Consumer confidence gaining foothold in NWI Many consumers and business owners remain cautiously optimistic LU AN FRANKLIN Times Correspondent

An air of cautious consumer confidence seems to be settling over Northwest Indiana as those who have held off buying bigger-ticket items now return to the marketplace.

The trend to spend again spans generations, from young families to retirees.

Yet there’s still a real sense of caution, said Julie Robb, of Schererville.

“The biggest purchase I want to make is a new car,” said the 75-year old retired nurse who drives a vehicle she bought in 2000, seven years before retiring from Porter Memorial Hospital. “My finance man says I have the money, but I’ve watched my

accounts going down over the last couple of years. I want to be sure I have enough money to last until I die.”

Home purchases have experienced an uptick in Northwest Indiana. Northwest Indiana’s housing market has seen a 22-month increase in sales with April’s single-family home sales up 26 percent over April 2012.

A total of 766 single-family homes were sold throughout the region in April, compared with 608 the year before, according to sales figures from the Greater Northwest Indiana Association of Realtors.

Prices have stabilized, although still at a lower range than in the years before the mortgage debacle, and “sellers have stopped bleeding,” said Rob Mangus, a broker associate with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Highland.

“We’re now seeing some counter offers and multiple offers,” Mangus said. “We’re not seeing normal yet. We’re still in transition.”

In fact, he said, some potential sellers

Franciscan acquires health care company Deal will become effective Saturday VANESSA RENDERMAN vanessa.renderman@nwi.com, (219) 933-3244 MICHIGAN CITY | Franciscan Alliance

officials announced Tuesday the acquisition of a health care company with four locations in Portage and Valparaiso.

HealthAccess Clinics LLC will become part of Franciscan Alliance, effective Saturday, under the auspices of Franciscan St. Anthony

Health hospital in Michigan City.

The health care company, in business since 2009, offers occupational medicine, such as physical exams and drug and alcohol testing, as well as lab services and wellness programs, such as bone density screenings.

HealthAccess Clinics and Franciscan offer similar services but use different models.

“HealthAccess offers combined primary care, urgent care and occupational health clinics at their four locations in Porter County,” said Scott Mundell, Franciscan Alliance regional director of business development. “Franciscan Alliance typically has operated these services at

different and distinct locations. The four Porter County locations enhance Franciscan Alliance’s ability to provide care across Northwest Indiana.”

He said the two Portage sites are Franciscan Alliance’s first clinics there, and the two Valpo locations complement Franciscan’s existing services, including Franciscan ExpressCare and Working Well.

“HealthAccess also offers a unique service to individuals who either have no insurance or high deductibles,” Mundell said. “The plan allows for unlimited urgent care visits for a fixed fee.”

The acquisition is expected to be seamless.

“Currently, our name, pricing, locations, services, technology and processes will remain the same,” HealtheACCESS Clinics owner Don Kiger said in a news release. “We will make notification of any changes.”

The affiliation was done with patients’ best interests in mind, he stated.

The HealthAccess Clinics are located at the Port of Indiana Administration Building, 6615 S. Boundary Road, and at 3220 Lancer St., in Portage; and at 809 LaPorte Ave., and 2590 Morthland Drive, Suite 1, in Valparaiso.

Franciscan declined to disclose financial details of the acquisition.

“The plan allows for unlimited urgent care visits for a fixed fee.”

SCOTT MUNDELL, Franciscan Alliance regional director of business development

Page E4 | Wednesday, May 29, 2013 | RO

The Times

Stock prices of local interest

Business calendar ROI Business Networking Group | Crown Point 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. May 29, Crown Point Civic Center, 101 S. East St. The Referral Organization of Indiana (ROI) Business Networking Group meets Wednesdays.

Networking starts at 7:15 a.m.

FYI: Contact Debra Corum by phone at (219) 769-7787. Visit http://www.roinetworkinc.com.

WorkOne, 5265 Hohman Ave. Northwest Indiana Professional Network meets Thursdays in Hammond. NIPN is a networking group for professionals interested in sharing information and resources that would allow them to meet their career objectives and work opportunities.

FYI: Contact Sharla Williams by phone at (219) 981-4100 ext. 305 or email swilliams@ gotoworkonenw.com.

BNI, Business Network International | Crown Point 8 to 9:30 a.m. May 29, White Hawk Country Club, 1001 White Hawk Drive. BNI, Business Network International, meets in the Members Lounge.

FYI: Contact Michael Pelz by phone at (219) 427-5933 or (815) 370-2940.

Noon Kiwanis Club | Merrillville Noon to 1 p.m. May 30, Petro’s Restaurant, 6190 Broadway Ave. Merrillville Noon Kiwanis Club meets Thursdays.

FYI: Contact Bruce Woods by phone at (219) 794-1259. Visit http://www.merrillvillenoonkiwanis.org.

The Northwest Indiana Professional Network | Gary 10 a.m. to noon May 29, Gary WorkOne, 3522 Village Circle-Village Shopping Center. The Northwest Indiana Professional Network meets Wednesdays in Gary.

FYI: Contact Sharla Williams by phone at (219) 981-4100 ext. 305 or email swilliams@ gotoworkonenw.com.

Merrillville Chapter of BNI | Merrillville 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. May 29, Innsbrook Country Club, 6701 Taft St. The Merrillville Chapter of BNI, Business Networking International, will meet.

FYI: Contact Michael Pelz by phone at (815) 370-2940.

Best of the Northwest Expo | Merrillville 4 to 7 p.m. May 29, Radisson Hotal at Star Plaza, 800 E. 81st Ave. Crossroads Regional Chamber of Commerce will host the annual Best of the Northwest Regional Expo — Improving Your Health, Business & Home Starts Here . Sponsorships and booth spaces are still available. Call Farren at (219) 769-8180. The event is open to the public and admission is free. Attendees will receive an entry for a chance to win an iPad2, donated by Towne Centre Retirement Community.

FYI: Contact Farren Felus by phone at (219) 769-8180 or email farren@ crossroadschamber.org. Visit http://www. crossroadschamber.org.

BNI business development group | Schererville 7 to 8:30 a.m. May 30, Holiday Inn Express, 1773 Fountain Park Drive. BNI (Business Networking International) business development group meets Thursdays.

FYI: Contact Michael Pelz by phone at (815) 370-2940.

Kiwanis Club meets. | Highland 7:15 to 8:15 a.m. May 30, Michael’s Restaurant, 2040 45th St. Munster Kiwanis Club was founded in 1963 and is part of Kiwanis International, a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time. The group meets weekly. $100 annual.

FYI: Contact Carolyn Moore by phone at (219) 923-3887 or email laughingcat_98@ yahoo.com. Visit http://calumetkiwanis.org.

NWI Professional Network | Hammond 10 a.m. to noon May 30, Hammond

Continued from Page E1

Airport expansion can be completed. Wheeler told the authority he hopes to come out of Thursday’s meeting with a better idea of how construction schedules will be affected.

The airport authority also heard there is no resolution yet to concerns on the part of Boeing Corp. about a new aircraft maintenance center that wants to locate at the airport.

Consultant Al Stanley, of JClark Aviation Group, told the authority a meeting had recently been held with Boeing and East Lake Management & Development, which wants to build a new hangar to service aircraft just east of Boeing’s.

Boeing is concerned about the potential

Northwest Indiana Networking Professionals | Merrillville 7:15 to 8:30 a.m. May 31, AJ Specialties, 1308 East 85th Ave., 1308 East 85th Ave. NWINP, Northwest Indiana Networking Professionals, meets Fridays. NIPN is a networking group for professionals interested in sharing information and resources that would allow them to meet their career objectives and work opportunities.

FYI: Contact Carl Watroba by phone at (219) 776-7423. Visit http://www.nwinetworking.org.

Business counseling services | Hammond 9 to 10 a.m. May 31, Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce, 5246 Hohman Ave. Free business counseling services are available through the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) on Fridays.

FYI: Call (219) 931-1000.

Construction Training Program | Gary 3 to 6 p.m. June 1, Junedale Park, 50th and Madison Street. Gary Precinct Construction Training Program will be training young people 17 to 30 in the art of construction weekly. Bring them to the park where there will be instructors to show how they can learn a trade that can provide for life and generations to come.

FYI: Contact E. Turner/Eloise Smith by phone at (219) 712-1392 or email monstermtu@att.net.

Business 4 Business | Merrillville 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. June 3, A J Specialties, 1308 E. 85th Ave. B4B is a non — compete referral group with 29 active members who are passionate in what they do. Guest are welcome to come and watch the meeting structure.

FYI: Contact Tony Schifino by phone at (219) 736-0367 or email ajspecialties1990@ yahoo.com. Visit http://www.facebook.com/ Business4BusinessReferrals.

SBDC adviser available | Hammond 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 3, Hammond INnovation Center, 5209 Hohman Ave. Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center business adviser Bill Gregory will be on hand the first and third Mondays of the month. To meet with Gregory, go online and fill out a business assessment and call to schedule an appointment.

FYI: Contact Bill Gregory by phone at (219) 644–3513. Visit http://www.nwisbdc. org.

for collisions or other accidents when its jet liners mix with the smaller planes that will be using East Lake’s hangar.

But Stanley said he could not give a timeline as to when the issue might be resolved. A planned $3 million investment by East Lake is hanging in the balance, as well as new business it could bring to the airport.

“It’s not something you can snap your fingers at and say all of a sudden you have a solution,” Stanley told the authority board.

After the meeting, airport authority President Nathaniel Williams said East Lake’s other projects at the airport, including the lease of an existing hangar and the management of the airport’s smaller airplane hangars are not dependent on reaching a resolution with Boeing.

Continued from Page E1

NWI Both new homeowners and those who are upgrading their homes are buying appliances, although “they’re waiting for the last minute,” he said. “When the refrigerator goes out, we’re seeing customers doing the whole package of

Name

Last price Change Name

Abbott Laboratories 38.56 +0.80 AGL Resources Inc. 42.55 -0.23 Alcoa Inc 8.59 +0.11 The Allstate Corporation 48.82 +0.09 ArcelorMittal 12.89 +0.06 Ameristar Casinos, Inc. 26.42 +0.01 AT&T Inc. 36.18 -0.57 Avery Dennison Corp 44.37 +0.71 The Boeing Company 100.11 +0.11 Bank of America Corp 13.35 +0.11 Bank of Montreal (USA) 61.21 +0.03 BP plc 43.6 +0.08 Boyd Gaming Corporation 13.19 +0.59 Cabelas Inc 67.58 -0.44 Caterpillar Inc. 86.19 -0.02 CBOE Holdings, Inc 40.73 +0.21 CFS Bancorp, Inc. 10.73 +0.28 CME Group Inc 65.49 +0.95 CNO Financial Group Inc 11.85 +0.33 Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consol. 61.25 +0.21 ConocoPhillips 62.84 +0.31 CVS Caremark Corporation 60.21 +1.01 Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. 48.58 +0.49 Eli Lilly & Co. 54.54 +0.40 Emerson Electric Co. 57.66 +0.72 Enbridge Inc (USA) 46.04 -0.87 Exelon Corporation 32.04 -2.61 Exxon Mobil Corporation 92.38 +0.85 Ford Motor Company 15.28 +0.49 Finish Line Inc 21.36 +0.14 Freeport-McMoRan Copper-Gold 30.89 +0.49 FedEx Corporation 96.53 -1.29 First Financial Bancorp 16.05 +0.22 Fifth Third Bancorp 18.43 +0.18 1st Source Corporation 24.67 +0.46 First Midwest Bancorp Inc 13.72 +0.31 Ferro Corporation 7.15 +0.00 General Electric Company 23.6 +0.07 General Motors Company 33.96 +1.09

GATX Corporation 51.9 +0.44 Horizon Bancorp 19.99 +0.25 Honeywell International Inc. 79.77 +0.48 Hillshire Brands Co 35.4 -0.01 JPMorgan Chase & Co. 54.6 +0.94 Kraft Foods Group Inc 57.54 +0.53 Kohl’s Corporation 51.63 -0.28 Lear Corporation 60.7 +0.50 Lee Enterprises, Incorporated 1.67 -0.02 Leggett & Platt, Inc. 33.24 +0.24 Lockheed Martin Corporation 107.75 +0.69 Macy’s, Inc. 49.42 +0.21 McDonald’s Corporation 101.24 +0.95 Motorola Solutions Inc 58.53 +0.72 Marathon Oil Corporation 35.48 +0.33 Marathon Petroleum Corp 83.75 +1.69 Morgan Stanley 24.73 +0.38 MainSource Financial Group Inc. 13.95 +0.21 NiSource Inc. 28.87 +0.10 Northwest Indiana Bancorp 23 +0.00 PepsiCo, Inc. 82.43 -0.15 The Procter & Gamble Company 80.86 -1.02 PNC Financial Services 71.03 -0.08 Praxair, Inc. 116.22 +0.26 Reliance Steel & Aluminum 67.48 +0.68 Stifel Financial Corp.

36.23 +1.83 Sears Holdings Corp 48.98 -1.27 Simon Property Group, Inc 175.44 +0.97 Unilever plc 43.29 +0.06 United States Steel Corporation 18.47 +0.05 USG Corporation 29.25 +1.45 Verizon Communications Inc. 50.82 -0.57 Walgreen Company 50.23 -0.54 Wells Fargo & Co 40.52 +0.28 WellPoint, Inc. 78.72 +1.74 Waste Management, Inc. 42.45 +0.07 Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. 77.32 +0.01 Worthington Industries, Inc. 35.59 +1.25 Yum! Brands, Inc. 70.03 +0.82

Grain prices

Metal prices Spot nonferrous metal prices from N.Y. Merc Metal Price Change Copper $3.3115 +0.0200 Gold $1379.10 -7.70 Silver $22.180 -0.302 Platinum $1461.80 +9.90

Oil prices Day Close Change Tuesday $95.01 +0.86

Get updated online For comprehensive stock data, nwi.com/business features a tool by which you can enter a stock or mutual fund symbol and receive its current status.

Continued from Page E1

Optimism Thomas Feltmate, an economist with TD Economics, said cheaper gas has also helped consumers shrug off the higher Social Security tax.

And the Conference Board survey said consumers are also more optimistic about the next six months. That should translate into greater consumer spending, substantial growth in hiring and faster economic growth in the second half of 2013, Feltmate said.

The economy has added an average of 208,000 jobs a month since November.

That’s well above the monthly average of 138,000 during the previous six months.

The job growth has helped reduce the unemployment rate to a four-year low of 7.5 percent.

Some of the decline in unemployment is due to fewer people looking for work.

The government counts people as unemployed only if they’re actively searching for a job.

The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the January-March replacing appliances.”

However, it’s “feast or famine” in many businesses whose owners he’s talked with, Schneider said.

“One good day is followed by two bad days,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for it.”

On a larger economic scale, businesses are paying more interest to Northwest

Last price Change

Product Thurs. close Tues. 3 p.m.

Kersey Elevator, DeMotte Corn 6.92 6.97 Beans 15.35 15.44 Co-Alliance LLP, Malden Corn 6.87 6.91 Beans 15.54 14.73 Cargill, Burns Harbor Corn 6.94 6.96 Beans 14.43 14.78 Wheat 6.88 6.78 CIRM Chicago Corn 6.72 6.76 Beans 15.49 15.39 Wheat 7.08 6.99

quarter, up from a rate of just 0.4 percent in the October-December quarter. The fastest expansion in consumer spending in more than two years drove the economy’s growth.

Many economists think growth is slowing slightly in the April-June quarter to an annual rate between 2 percent and 2.5 percent.

A key reason the Case Shiller index of home prices jumped in March was that a growing number of buyers were bidding on a tight supply of homes.

Prices rose in Phoenix by 22.5 percent over the past 12 months, the biggest gain among cities. It was followed by San Francisco (22.2 percent) and Las Vegas (20.6 percent).

“Rising home prices may begin to alleviate a lack of housing inventory ... by encouraging more homeowners to put their properties on the market,” Maninder Sibia, an economist with Economic Advisory Service, said in a research note. “The housing market is clearly improving.”

Indiana as the place to relocate and/or expand their operations, said Donald Koliboski, economic development director with the Portage-based Northwest Indiana Forum.

Distribution, food distribution and manufacturing are chief among those industries exploring the region, Koliboski said.

That uptick in interest began a year ago and “the quality of the inquiries has increased,” he said. “That’s true of all economic development organizations.”

He credited a marketing campaign by the Northwest Indiana Forum that has showcased the Calumet Region throughout the Midwest and beyond.

Howeve r, f i n a n c i n g remains a challenge to the expansion of businesses here, Koliboski said.

“There are still a lot of regulations which are hindering companies from borrowing money, and that’s on a national scale.

Banks want to lend money, but the qualifications are more stringent,” he said.

NORTH LAKE COUNTY EDITION

WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 2013

COOK UP SUMMER GOODIES

THE ORIGINAL JULY 4 MEAL

READ ABOUT WHAT THE FOUNDING FATHERS MAY HAVE PREPARED FOR THE FIRST INDEPENDENCE DAY IN FOOD ON PAGE D1

GET THE RECIPES IN TODAY’S DASH OPINION

A6 OBITUARIES

75 CENTS DAILY

E2 SPORTS

B1 MOVIES

D2 TV LISTINGS

D4 PUZZLES

C2, F4

Obama delays health care law requirement until 2015 READ ABOUT IT ON PAGE A2

FIND THE LATEST LOCAL NEWS ONLINE AT NWI.COM

Gary/Chicago airport project delayed Cleanup, railroad work push job’s finish to 2014

JOSEPH S. PETE joseph.pete@nwi.com, (219) 933-3316 G A R Y | Wo rs e - t h a n - ex p e c te d ground contamination must be cleaned up before the Gary/Chicago International Airport can complete its $166 million runway expansion, which will be delayed until late next year.

Officials announced Tuesday the major project won’t be done until September 2014. Work was supposed to be finished by the end of

the year on a 1,900-foot addition to the airport’s 7,000-foot main runway, which will lengthen it enough to allow flights to the West Coast.

But pollution must be cleaned up and railroad tracks still must be moved before the runway construction can be finished, Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said at an announcement with airport and Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority officials.

Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson talks Tuesday about delays in the expansion project at the Gary/ Chicago International Airport following recent discoveries of more contamination than was originally thought.

JOHN LUKE, THE TIMES

See AIRPORT, Page A2

Gasoline prices fuel perception

150 YEARS AFTER GETTYSBURG

Experts say market, not holidays, drives increases at pumps ANDREA HOLECEK Times Correspondent

JONATHAN MIANO, THE TIMES

Civil War re-enactors April Nichols, left, of the 20th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Company B, and Melanie Caines, of the Sons of Unions Veterans of the Civil War, stand during the playing of taps during a ceremony placing a Civil War marker at the grave of Col. John Wheeler at Historic Maplewood Cemetery in Crown Point. The ceremony is in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Bloodiest battle Dozens pay tribute to Col. John Wheeler in Gettysburg ceremony

was buried in a city ceremony that attracted more than 1,000 people.

On Tuesday, Joseph S p ra g u e ’s g r e a t great-grandson, Phil MARC CHASE Caines, of California, marc.chase@nwi.com, (219) 662-5330 stood among more than 60 other people WHEELER CROWN POINT | A century and a half ago, at Wheeler’s Historic Crown Point’s Joseph Sprague stood Maplewood Cemetery gravesite. among the mourners as Col. John Wheeler Tuesday’s ceremony was part of a

special commemoration and gravemarker placement honoring Wheeler’s Civil War sacrifices on the 150th anniversary of July 2, 1863 — the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Joseph Sprague’s son — and Caine’s great-uncle — Sgt. Edwin Sprague died of typhoid fever in August 1862, the second year of America’s Civil War. Edwin Sprague’s good friend and commanding officer, Wheeler, paid from his own pocket

Despite a common perception, gasoline prices don’t skyrocket just because it’s Independence Day or any other summer holiday, experts said.

Gasoline prices have dropped an average of 25 to 30 cents a gallon in recent weeks, but some drivers expect them to jump as we celebrate the Fourth of July. Gas prices already were starting to spike in Northwest Indiana by Tuesday afternoon. One station in Valparaiso rose from $3.29 a gallon to $3.59.

“I’m sure it (gasoline price) will go up,” said Eric Kersten, of Crown Point, as he filled up his tank at a Dyer gasoline station Monday. “It’s all a scam.”

Others agreed.

“They have them go up because they know people are driving more,” said Arturo Cantu, of Sauk Village.

But calling the opinion a “conspiracy theory,” Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, said gasoline prices go up and down with crude oil prices and supply and demand rather than the day of the week or an upcoming holiday.

Average gas prices were $3.45 a gallon in Northwest Indiana early Tuesday compared with $4.01 a month ago, according to AAA’s Fuel Gauge Report.

Although prices may rise before, during or immediately after the holiday, it would be because of “normal market volatility,” DeHaan said.

See WHEELER, Page A4 See GAS, Page A4

High court suspends E.C. attorney for misuse of funds Lawyer dodged more severe punishment DAN CARDEN dan.carden@nwi.com, (317) 637-9078 INDIANAPOLIS | A longtime Lake County defense attorney, who served briefly as East Chicago city judge, has been suspended from practicing law

for at least three years for misusing client funds.

The Indiana Supreme Court determined Noah Holcomb Jr. violated numerous professional conduct rules, including charging unreasonable fees, commingling client and attorney funds, taking trust account funds for personal use, failing to pay money a client was entitled to and engaging in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.

Holcomb’s three-year suspension begins Aug. 2. He was denied automatic reinstatement and must demonstrate remorse and rehabilitation to the court to regain his law license.

Chief Justice Brent Dickson, a Hobart native, said Holcomb’s punishment likely would have been more severe had he not reached an agreed settlement with the court’s disciplinary commission.

Nevertheless, two of the five

justices dissented from the disciplin- What’s next ary ruling because they believed HolNoah Holcomb Jr.’s comb should have been disbarred.

Holcomb was appointed interim three-year suspenEast Chicago city judge by the Supreme sion begins Aug. 2.

Court in January 2003 to replace Judge Lonnie Randolph, who resigned to run an unsuccessful campaign for mayor.

Two months later, Democratic Gov. Frank O’Bannon picked Eduardo Fontanez Jr. to replace Holcomb and finish Randolph’s term as city judge.

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THE TIMES | THE LARGEST AND MOST TRUSTED MEDIA COMPANY IN NORTHWEST INDIANA

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Page A2 | Wednesday, July 3, 2013 | RO

The Times

Beyond the Region

Vol. 104, No. 335 (USPS 629-960) and Vol. 102, No. 295 (629-960).

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About The Times: Published daily by Lee Publications, Inc., a subsidiary of Lee Enterprises, Inc., at 601 W. 45th Ave., Munster, IN and 1111 Glendale Blvd., Valparaiso, IN.

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A roundup of Associated Press news from around the state, nation and world.

Worker health coverage requirement delayed until ’15 business groups, the Obama administration Tuesday unexpectedly announced a one-year delay, until 2105, in a central requirement of the new health care law that medium and large companies provide coverage for their workers or face fines.

The move sacrificed timely implementation of President Barack Obama’s signature legislation but may help the administration politically by blunting a line of attack Republicans were planning to use in next year’s congressional elections. The employer requirements are among the most complex parts of the health care law, which

is designed to expand coverage for uninsured Americans.

“We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively,” Treasury Assistant Secretary Mark Mazur said in a blog post. “We have listened to your feedback and we are taking action.”

Business groups were jubilant. “A pleasant surprise,” said Randy Johnson, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Under the law, companies with 50 or more workers must provide affordable coverage to their full-time employees or risk a series of escalating tax penalties if just one worker ends up getting

Indiana News

Illinois News

national News

World News

Former prosecutor pleads guilty to bribery charge

Safety law requires training on school shooting incidents

Visitors flock to remember Gettysburg Civil War battle

Venezuelan leader considers granting Snowden asylum

INDIANAPOLIS | A federal judge has

OAK PARK, Ill. | Gov. Pat Quinn has signed

GETTYSBURG, Pa. | People are flocking to

MOSCOW | NSA leaker Edward Snowden’s

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar Associated Press‌ WASHINGTON | In a major concession to

accepted a former Marion County deputy prosecutor’s guilty plea to accepting a bribe.

U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker accepted 53-year-old David Wyser’s agreement with prosecutors Tuesday in Indianapolis.

The plea bargain requires Wyser to tell prosecutors everything he knows about public corruption in Indianapolis.

Wyser could face up to 10 years in prison.

Five Fort Wayne-area people charged in bank robbery INDIANAPOLIS | Federal prosecutors have

charged five Fort Wayne-area residents with robbery- and gun-related charges after a suburban Indianapolis bank robbery.

a law requiring Illinois schools to hold safety drills that include practicing what to do during a possible school shooting.

He said the law increases school safety in the wake of December’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Schools already conduct at least six drills a year, including for severe weather.

The new law says that law enforcement officials also must include preparation for a potential shooting.

Quinn signs new law to protect elderly, disabled CHICAGO | Gov. Pat Quinn says he’s signed

a new law to better protect elderly Illinois residents and adults with disabilities.

The legislation creates an adult protective services unit within the state Department on Aging. It will be responsible for investigating cases of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of the elderly and adults with disabilities.

JULY 4TH SUMMER SALE Thursday - Sunday, July 4 - 7

government-subsidized insurance.

Originally, that requirement was supposed to take effect Jan. 1. Business groups complained since the law passed that the provision was too complicated. For instance, the law created a new definition of full-time workers, those putting in 30 hours or more. But such complaints until now seemed to be going unheeded.

The delay in the employer requirement does not affect the law’s requirement that individuals carry health insurance starting next year or face fines. That so-called individual mandate was challenged all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled last year that requirement was constitutional since the penalty would be collected by the Internal Revenue Service

the Gettysburg battlefield in droves for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s defining conflict, with many visitors seeking to honor ancestors who fought there as soldiers.

Up to 10,000 Union and Confederate troops died at Gettysburg July 1-3, 1863, with another 30,000 wounded.

Some of the bloodiest fighting occurred exactly 150 years ago Tuesday at The Wheatfield, Devil’s Den and Little Round Top. Today, those battlefield sites were overrun by history buffs and tourists following on popular history programs led by park rangers, and people seeking to walk in the footsteps of distant relatives.

Investigators to examine why Arizona blaze killed 19 PRESCOTT, Ariz. | Investigators from across the U.S. poured into the mountain town of Yarnell on Tuesday to figure out why 19 elite firefighters perished in an out-of-control wildfire and whether human error played a role in the tragedy.

The monthslong investigation into the nation’s biggest loss of firefighters since 9/11 will look at whether the Hotshot crew paid attention to the forecast, created an escape route and took other precautions developed after a similar disaster in Colorado nearly two decades ago.

The team of about 10 investigators from various agencies also will look at whether the crew should have been pulled out before the fire exploded.

and amounted to a tax.

Tuesday’s action could provide cover for Democratic candidates in next year’s congressional elections.

Democrats are defending 21 Senate seats to the Republicans’ 14, and the GOP had already started to excoriate Senate Democrats who had voted for the health law in 2009.

Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett cast the decision as part of an effort to simplify data reporting requirements.

She said since enforcing the coverage mandate is dependent on businesses reporting about their workers’ access to insurance, the administration decided to postpone the reporting requirement, and with it, the mandate to provide coverage.

best chance of finding refuge outside the United States may hinge on the president of Venezuela, who was in Moscow on Tuesday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

With a string of countries appearing to offer Snowden little hope, President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela told Russian reporters on Tuesday that his country has not received an application for asylum from Snowden and dodged queries about taking Snowden with him.

During his Kremlin meeting with Putin, Maduro spoke about plans to build on the strong ties with Russia formed under his late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, but neither he nor Putin mentioned Snowden in their public statements.

Egypt’s Morsi defiantly asserts he won’t step down CAIRO | With the clock ticking, Egypt’s besieged president said Tuesday that he will not step down as state media reported that the powerful military plans to overturn his Islamist-dominated government if the elected leader doesn’t meet the demands of the millions of protesters calling for his ouster.

Mohammed Morsi’s defiant statement sets up a major confrontation between supporters of the president and Egyptians angry over what they see as his efforts to impose control by his Muslim Brotherhood as well as his failure to introduce reforms more than two years after the revolution that ousted his autocratic predecessor Hosni Mubarak.

Continued from Page A1

Airport

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NW Indiana Times

“The city of Gary and Northwest Indiana have heavy industrial legacies which bring a lot of sensitive and unexpected environmental issues to resolve,” Freeman-Wilson said. “We are all working together to tackle the problems quickly and effectively so that final-phase construction can swiftly move forward.”

The Federal Aviation Administration agrees the opening date should be postponed, and it will work with the airport to properly deal with the railroad and environmental issues, FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro said.

Bulldozers turned up larger-thananticipated quantities of toxins in the grounds, including PCBs, lead, oils and arsenic. Railroad tracks also must be relocated, but the railroads companies still are working out right of way issues.

Canadian National Railway Co. must move its tracks out of the way of the extended runway and over to the Norfolk Southern tracks north of the airport.

Freeman-Wilson said the railroads didn’t share the city’s sense of urgency and called on them Tuesday to settle their legal negotiations so the city could move forward with the expansion project.

Railroad tracks also have to be moved so the Airport Authority can clean a Superfund site. Airport officials had known that Conservation Chemical Co. had dumped waste on land that is now owned by the airport, but they didn’t realize how much.

A previous sampling suggested that about 80,000 cubic yards of chemicals were in the ground. But when workers started pushing dirt, they discovered the figure is likely closer to 120,000 cubic yards, said Steve Landry, Gary/Chicago International Airport interim director.

Airport officials still don’t know the full extent of the pollution and exactly how much cleanup will be required. Airport officials originally had thought the chemicals could be left in the ground, but a recent sampling identified the presence of some hazardous waste that will have to be hauled out of the airport, Landry said.

PCBs and other dangerous chemicals

John Luke, The Times

Steve Landry, Gary/Chicago International Airport’s interim director, points to an area where larger amounts of contamination were discovered while working on the runway expansion project. The recent discovery will delay the project completion date until September 2014. contaminated the ground at the northwest end of the runway, where a guide pole with a flashing red light and other instruments would be installed, Molinaro said.

FAA workers would have to install and maintain that equipment, and the agency doesn’t want to expose them to potentially harmful chemicals such as arsenic.

“They can’t be standing on that contamination for 10 years,” he said.

How much the cleanup would cost isn’t known yet. Airport officials will work with the FAA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Indiana Department of Environment Management to assess the extent of the contamination and to develop a remediation plan.

The hope is that the project still can be completed while staying within the $166 million budget, but the city has been in talks with a number of federal agencies about lining up additional funding if the environmental cleanup drives up the overall project cost, Freeman-Wilson said.

A delay won’t change the airport’s plans to move forward with a publicprivate partnership, in the hope of luring private investors who could put at least $100 million into the airport and the surrounding area.

The delay is, however, a definite setback, said Gary Jet Center CEO Wil Davis.

“It’s very disappointing for all parties concerned,” he said. “This is a huge deal, and it’s disappointing to see it not staying on track.”