Taken from IndyStar (http://indystar.com)
HAMMOND, Ind. -- Nearly 1,000 boat owners are worried about a plan to close nearly all the slips at one of Lake Michigan's largest marinas for a year to make way for expansion of the Horseshoe Casino next door.
"I don't know where all those boats are going to go," said Hammond boater Peggy Dunn, who lives in Dyer. "Nobody knows where they're going to put their boats. Everyone has a waiting list."
Hammond Marina plans to close the slips in 2007 and reopen in 2008. But some boat owners already are looking elsewhere.
"You could probably go all the way up to South Haven in Michigan, or up to Racine in Wisconsin, and you still won't find 1,000 (available) slips," said Lisa Gawel, a boating enthusiast from Tinley Park, Ill., south of Chicago. Her boat slip is being removed from the marina.
The Times of Munster contacted about a dozen public and private marinas on the south shore, from Waukegan, Ill., to New Buffalo, Mich., and found that there are not 1,000 slips available in that 70-mile stretch of lakefront.
Nine harbors in Chicago have waiting lists, as do the public marinas in East Chicago, Portage and Michigan City in northwest Indiana. Three privately owned marinas along the south shore have slips available.
Hammond Marina director Milan Kruszynski is referring many Hammond boaters to Waukegan, north of Chicago. The harbormaster there said the Waukegan Port District has about 250 open slips -- the largest concentration in a nearby public marina.
The Hammond Marina earns $3.5 million from its slip rentals and gasoline sales, and boaters say they spend considerable money in the shops and restaurants in the area.
The agreement negotiated between Hammond city officials and Horseshoe says the casino will pay $3.5 million to vacate every boat from the marina during the 2007 season. The company will not pay the city for lost business in 2006 or 2008, except in the unlikely event that actual construction cuts into the 2008 season. |
Dang! That is going to really cut on some buisness!
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