Merrillville makes deal to bring Boys & Girls Club back to town
The Boys & Girls Club of Northwest Indiana is returning to Merrillville after a brief pause.
Councilman Richard Hardaway, D-2nd, said the club will begin operating one of its facilities at the Dean and Barbara White Community Center at 6600 Broadway Ave. on Aug. 18, staying there until it can move into a more permanent location in the proposed Epic United Volleyball building to be built on a 3-acre tract next to the community center.
To sweeten the deal, the town council last week voted to approve a sublease between the Merrillville Youth Sports Authority Inc. and Merrillville Redevelopment
Commission that includes a $250,000 payment each year for 10 years from the town in support of the project.
“We’re giving them seed money for 10 years to help them get there. We want them to get there,” Hardaway said. “We’ve been fighting this battle for a lot of years. We’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Hardaway has been working to get a Boys & Girls Club location back in the town after the club left its former location in the Merrillville Intermediate School on 61st Avenue about six months ago.
Ryan Smiley, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Northwest Indiana, said the club closed its intermediate school location at the end of 2020 or beginning of 2021.
Smiley said previously that the Merrillville Intermediate School location wasn’t conducive to the club’s experience and served only a limited number of students in one school.
He said the new location would start with 50 to 60 students, all from Pierce Middle School in Merrillville.
He said the club would be offered on a first-come, first-served basis to Pierce students, who he said haven’t had an after-school program to attend. He said the initial focus will be on workforce readiness and team performing.
“Our ultimate goal is to have space in the new Epic United
building that will serve more students from all over town,” Smiley said.
Smiley said the $250,000 payments won’t begin until the club is in the Epic building. He said he’s negotiating with the town concerning the space at the community center, adding he’s hopeful it will be at a significantly reduced rate so it’s affordable to all students.
“The seed money from the town of Merrillville is very generous,” Smiley said. “It really illustrates their interests in having a Boys & Girls Club in town and enables us to form a partnership with Epic United.”
In other matters, the council decided it would no longer mandate that masks be worn inside any townowned buildings, although it would continue to scan visitors’ temperatures and maintain 6-foot spacing to provide some safety measures.
In making the motion to have the mask mandate removed effective immediately, Hardaway said he’s been monitoring the number of new COVID-19 cases and number of residents that have been vaccinated and believed it was moving in a positive direction.
Council members also discussed town parks and the lack of them in some wards.
Councilman Donald Spann, D-1st, said his ward has only one park.
“I would appreciate another one,” Spann said.
Council President Rick Bella, D-5th, said his ward doesn’t have any parks, and Councilman Leonard White, D-7th, said some of his constituents have complained that a large retention basin at Pruzin Park has reduced the size of that park significantly.
“They’re asking me how this is affecting their property values,” White said.
Councilwoman Margaret Uzelac, D-4th, suggested the councilmen look for available land in their wards for potential parks. She said her ward has several parks because developers provided the land for them.
Matt Lake, executive director of Merrillville Stormwater Utility, said the retention basin at Pruzin Park is intended to be a dry basin. He said there was no park equipment on that portion of the park.
He called the basins, which are part of a massive Meadowdale project to relieve water issues in the area, a matter of public safety.
“There’s a lot of water coming in from Gary,” Lake said.
Lake said the town needs to clamp down on developers, who under town ordinance, are supposed to set aside 10% of their land for parks.
“We offered to accept money instead of getting a park. We need to get away from that,” Bella said.
Police Chief Wiley Cuttino said he started a traffic enforcement team due to the uptick of traffic problems in town.
“We will be ticketing and it will affect your insurance premiums,” said Cuttino, who added that drivers have been going through stop signs, speeding and committing other traffic violations.
“We’re not trying to make money off of this. It’s due to property damage and accidents.”