Porter County Convention, Recreation and Visitor Commission Tuesday approved a $3,000 grant for the Wizard of Oz Festival that will be returning to Chesterton in September.

The nationally known festival began in Chesterton, went to the Expo Center in Valparaiso for a few years, and is returning to Chesterton under the leadership of the Duneland Business Initiative Group.

Board members said they consider this a new festival because it is under new leadership, and because it is going back to the small-town style festival, having not-for-profit organizations offer food venues and other booths, rather than the commercial venues that became prominent at the previous festivals.

Executive Director Lorelei Weimer said the Oz Festival in Chesterton was the largest of Porter County’s festivals for visitor count, drawing people from around the world to attend.

Vice President David Canright, grant committee chairman, said if PCCRVC is going to give a grant, this would be the year, because it would get the full amount allowed being considered a new festival.

Also Tuesday afternoon PCCRVC unanimously approved a resolution to endorse the Dunes-Kankakee Trail Plan.

The plan, which will follow SR 49 from Indiana Dunes State Park and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to the Kankakee River, has been identified as a crucial north-south link in the overall non-motorized and green network in Porter County and Northwest Indiana region.

Phase I of the trail goes from IDSP to Division Road in Valparaiso, Phase II from Division Road to Kouts at SR 8 and Phase III, from Kouts to the Kankakee River and along SR 8 to Hebron.

Ultimately the DKT would connect with the American Discovery Trail, slated to run through Kouts and Hebron.

Plans for the ADT were established in the early 1990s to connect a coast-to-coast non-motorized trail.

According to a brochure handed out at Tuesday’s meeting, in 2006, Gov. Mitch Daniels took the first step toward creating a network of trails that could connect every Hoosier, so that every residence in the state of Indiana would be within 15 minutes of a network trail. The DKT will play a major role in connecting the northern community trails to the rest of the state.

The resolution notes multiple local, State and National Park Service trail efforts have been undertaken as a connection to or portion of the proposed Dunes-Kankakee Trail corridor, which includes, American Discovery Trial, Burns Harbor Trial Network, Chesterton’s Westchester Liberty Trail and Prairie-Duneland Trail, Coffee Creek Conservancy Trail, Indiana Dunes Gateway Trail, Marquette Greenway Trail, Portage’s Prairie-Duneland Trail and Iron Horse Trail, Porter’s Orchard Pedestrian Way and Brickyard Trail, Porter County’s Calumet Trail and Meridian Road Trail and City of Valparaiso Pathway and Greenway System.

Plans for the trail project are dependent upon the cooperation of communities and to that end PCCRVC has lent its support.

For more information about Dunes-Kankakee Trail Plan, visit duneskankakeetrail.com

Also Tuesday afternoon, the board approved an additional appropriation of $68,000 for product development and research, planned in 2008, but reappropriated for 2009. Also the board approved $69,107.67 in claims, which is 9.9 percent of the total yearly budget.

The Innkeeper’s Tax collection for March was $54,460.20, which is a 14 percent decrease from 2008.

According to Weimer, a decline was expected due to the economic downturn in the country and due to the weather.

Matt Murphy, board secretary, noted that the decline nationally is 20 percent, so Porter County actually did better than the national norm. Weimer said Hawaii tourism took a major hit for the same time period.

Jeff Good, board member, said hotels across the country are suffering from the economic recession.

The Indiana State Bowling tournament is an indication of the economic downturn. According to Lindsey Chamberlain, niche market director, 1,100 teams had initially registered, only 850 teams have participated to date. The tournament began in February and runs through mid-May.

The next regular meeting will be at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 21 at the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center, 1420 Munson Road, Porter.

Posted 4/1/2009