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NEW HOSPITAL IN LAPORTE UNDERGOES NAME CHANGE
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aPorte Hospital is receiving a new name when the new hospital in the city opens later this month. Northwest Health – LaPorte is what it’s going to be called. Starke Hospital in Knox will change to Northwest Health – Starke and Porter Regional Hospital near Chesterton will be called Northwest Health - Porter. All of them are owned by Community Health Systems, which acquired the hospitals in LaPorte and Starke counties in 2016. Ashley Dickinson, CEO of LaPorte and Starke hospitals, said the over 40 medical care facilities owned by CHS in the region will be under the new Northwest Health umbrella. LaPorte Physician Network and Porter Physician Group are now Northwest Medical Group under the restructuring. She said all CHS owned facilities being in one system will expand and provide quicker access to services. “We share a passion for offering patients the best possible experience when and where they need it,” Dickinson said. The new $125 million hospital in LaPorte is scheduled to open Oct. 24 at State and Tyler streets just several hundred feet away from the existing hospital, which is targeted for demolition. The Northwest Health system is comprised of more than 3,000 employees and 700 physicians throughout northwest Indiana, officials said. — STAN MADDUX
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2020
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Chikaming Township Board of Trustees objects to applications for proposed revetments
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BY FRANCESCA SAGALA
embers of the Chikaming Township Board of Trustees objected to applications for permits for proposed revetments in favor of conducting more research on them at a special meeting Tuesday, Sept. 29. Board members discussed one application from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) for a proposed revetment at Pier Street and four applications for revetments at Suns End. Several residents (including the applicants) were on the Zoom meeting voicing their concerns before the discussion. Chikaming Township Supervisor David Bunte said that the board wasn’t required to respond to the application for 9239 Pier Street in Lakeside; however, the property in question is directly adjacent to the Pier Street public beach access, of which members of the Park Board are stewards. Trustee Rich Sullivan said that he was in favor of having someone who’s not invested in the project review the project. “Many of the people tonight are talking about experts but we know experts can, like statistics, say whatever we want them to say if they already have a goal… It’s wise for us to have someone who has outside interests looking at the project and give us advice on yes, this might have an impact,” he said. Board members approved drafting a letter to EGLE with their objection to the permit, pending an engineering analysis of the application. Board members were required to respond to the applications for the proposed revetments for the parcels on Suns End due to the proposed projects being located on a critical dune. Board members were required to either object or waive their interests in the applications. Bunte said one of the parcels specifically was adjacent to Cherry Beach. Greg Weykamp from Edgewater Resources, which provides solutions for coastal and waterfront projects, said that there are impacts associated with “anything” that’s done on the shoreline and an engineering team will “try to mitigate those impacts as much as possible.” Weykamp said that the condition of adjacent properties may affect any impacts. If an adjacent parcel already has armour, there shouldn’t be a major impact because it’s a similar use. “If you have just a stretch of sandy beach and one person puts in armouring, that does tend to have the impact that the folks downstream, typically to the south, are going to either see increased erosion or need to do aromouring themselves - that sets forward this chain of events,” he said. Weykamp said that EGLE will consider anything that the board gives to them as public comment, particularly that the township is trying to purchase property adjacent to Cherry Beach to expand it. Bunte said that the parcels on Sun’s End are the most critical
mainly due to the Cherry Beach Project. “We spent two years trying to acquire this property, we have the $1.6 million that has been raised by almost 1,000 residents and visitors from all over the country…We have a commitment to this project and we want to do everything in our power to preserve this property for generations to come,” he said. Board members approved drafting a letter to EGLE stating that the township rejects the present applications for permits until given the opportunity to review them with an engineering firm and then get a report back to address it. Bunte said he’s ‘tweaked” a copy of a resolution and policy with township Attorney Charles Hilmer that the city manager from Bridgman gave him with regards to the township board handling future EGLE requests. The policy will give a step by step process on when an application comes in, such as giving it to a building official and then maybe the Planning Commission to review. Bunte said he’d like the resolution and policy to be on the township’s Oct. 8 meeting agenda. Resident Douglas Greeff said the “weight of proposed imported rocks to be placed on our beaches is approximately 7 and a half million pounds, which requires approximately 206 truckloads of rocks coming down Cherry Beach road and transported down the critical dune directly abutting Cherry Beach, which is mind numbing when barges could’ve been proposed.”
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esident Ian Ram, a homeowner on Suns End, who was opposed to the proposed revetments between Cherry and Harbert beaches, said that plans call for over 200 truckloads carrying over 7 million pounds of rock to be taken directly over “the same sand dune shared by Cherry Beach and rolled down the dune to the water.” Ram said that he’s confirmed with a contractor that applicants can bring in materials with a barge instead but it would just be more expensive. Rich Ham, one of the applicants whose primary residence is in southern Indiana, said that since he and his wife bought a property adjacent to Cherry Beach, he’s been “beyond distressed” at the “massive loss of bluff.” He was told by experts that he hired that they’d be taking a “significant risk heading into winter without armouring.” Contractors and environmental firms have also advised barging not being a “viable” solution to the problem, he added. Ham added he and the other neighboring applicants on Suns End have met to discuss the best solution for the problem. We’ve gone to great lengths together to identify and develop optimal plans for protecting our homes while preventing adverse impact on beach and neighboring properties and we believe the plans we have submitted are reflective of this process,” he said.
