State of the city and schools

• Reprints

Dr. Tony Lux, Superintendedt of Merrillville Schools, addresses guests during the State of the Region luncheon on Thursday, February 16, 2012 inside the Maki Ballroom at the Old Courthouse, in Crown Point. | Scott R. Brandush~Sun-Times Media

Article Extras

Updated: February 21, 2012 4:10PM

CROWN POINT — Taking a regional look at comparative governments is always good for some and not for others.

Mayor Dave Uran and the City of Crown Point on Feb. 15 hosted a series of addresses by Merrillville and Crown Point school and municipal leaders in cooperation with the Crossroads Chamber of Commerce.

The event was held in the old Lake County Courthouse located on the square.

Host Uran, who told the audience “everyone is all in the same bag, of getting less money and providing more services,” delivered the state of the city address last of the four.

While getting less money, he pointed out that Crown Point is unique in that there is financial stability, while at the same time it has the lowest tax rate of any city in Lake County.

The city has continued to reinvest in itself, according to Uran, with its infrastructure, SportsPlex, work on Broadway, the new interchange at 109th Avenue and Interstate 65, and the condition of North Street as it brings people to the downtown off the new interchange and past the SportsPlex.

The city once again is the leader in housing development in all of Lake County with 103 new single-family homes, he said. Townhouses have also increased as well as commercial and industrial construction. Not including the dollars in land investments, it totaled over $55 million in 2011, with $35 million in residential and $20 million in commercial and industrial building.

The population has gone up to over 27,000 with the new census.

“Last year’s election included a referendum on the school corporation. People said if it is for our kids — great,” Uran said.

The city has also been able to increase the number of police in 2011 by three officers. Two of those policemen were new not replacement officers. The city now has a total of 41 police officers. This is more police officers then ever before in the city.

“Seventy percent of those officer are dedicated to the streets,” Uran said. He praised Police Chief Pete Land for his leadership.

The city Fire-Rescue Department under Chief Greg DeLor also was able to add five new firefighters. Uran said, “Now for the first time in the city’s history we can send a truck out with the first call.”

The response time is usually four minutes where the goal is 7 minutes. Those three minutes make a bid difference in a fire.

Under DeLor the city has also held 264 CPR classes with over 1,000 people in Crown Point learning to perform CPR.

“We have had incidences where that has been used,” added Uran.

Streets and Sanitation under the direction of Jay Olson has done great work, Uran said.

In 2011 there was the one storm that dropped 25 inches of snow on the city.

“While other communities were still working on their main streets we were working on the secondary streets,” said Uran in praise of Olson.

He also reminded everyone of the importance of being a good neighbor. On June 4 when the south side of the city was hit with the straight line storm, trees were down everywhere and parts of the city were without power for days.

“Our neighboring communities came to help with tree removal. They came with trucks, and people and fuel for those trucks.”

Projects coming up for 2012 include the big project of West Street rehabilitation. This is a $1.6 million clean water project that is set to go.

It is being done in conjunction with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and will completely rehab West Street from U.S. 231 to Summit Street.

It will have fresh water, storm water, and sewage lines enlarged or moved along with the NIPSCO gas lines before a completely redone street is installed including new curbs.

West Street is probably in the worst condition in the city. The city is able to do all this work because of federal financial support secured by U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky.

The SportsPlex is also part of the storm water system, with the parking lot and football fields constructed of pervious surfaces with drainage underneath.

With thousands of children using the facility it also is bringing in teams from around the country for the softball tournament, and in March two teams will be coming down from Canada to play lacrosse with Crown Point High School’s new lacrosse club team.

The Crown Point School Community Corp. also gave a presentation about the state of the schools, as did Merrillville School Corporation Superintendent Tony Lux and the town of Merrillville Council President Shawn Pettit, who presented the state of his town.

According to James Hardman, director of Curriculum and Instruction for the Crown Point Community School Corp., the schools are proud of the Indiana Category “A” placement within the state for the entire corporation.

All the schools, according to Hardman, are high performing. With seven elementary, two middle schools and one high school they are excited that six of the schools are Indiana four-star schools and one, Eisenhower Elementary School, is a national Blue Ribbon School. The only three schools that have not as yet received the four-star rating are Timothy Ball Elementary, Taft Middle School and Crown Point High School.

Hardman said that the state has added a new testing program. It takes into account the students’ growth percentage on standartdized tests within each year. On the ISTEP tests, Crown Point had a passing rate of 91.1 percent in mathematics and 90.2 percent in language arts, making improvement difficult.