By KEVIN NEVERS

The decision of the Board of Directors of Lakeshore Festival & Events Inc. (LFE) to ban a NONOS float and booth at this year’s Wizard of Oz Festival has rankled at least one Chesterton resident.

In its Aug. 20 edition, the Chesterton Tribune reported that the LFE Board banned a NONOS float and booth after concluding that the mission of Neighbors Opposing NIPSCO’s Odorization Station does not match the mission of the Oz Festival. As it happens, the Northern Indiana Public Service Company is one of the Oz Festival’s main sponsors, but in its story the Tribune quoted LFE President Karen Spallina as saying that the NIPSCO sponsorship has nothing to do with the ban. “We’re trying to have a very positive, upbeat message. . . . This is not a political festival,” she said.

For Paul Tharp, however, the coincidence is just too great, and at the Town Council’s meeting Monday he connected the dots from the floor. “I just think it’s shameful that this outside organization is dictating and denying a hometown organization access to a hometown event. . . . I just think it’s a rotten shame.”

For the record, Tharp indicated that he is not a member of NONOS but feels strongly that NONOS is being denied its constitutional rights.

NONOS did have a float in last year’s Oz Festival.

A Survey

Although Member Mike Bannon, R-5th, had nothing new to report Monday from the Tri-Town Anti-Drug Steering Committee, the council has received a communication from the Porter County Substance Abuse Council, which is redoing its county plan on alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (ATOD) issues and is asking communities to complete a survey to identify “top-priority” ATOD issues.

The Substance Abuse Council said that, over the last five years, it has identified and prioritized the following five problems: the county has a high incidence of transportation, availability, and accessibility of ATOD; ATOD abuse by county residents hurts not only the abuser by the community at large; county residents generally are uninformed about ATOD abuse and therefore tolerate it and other high-risk behaviors; the county has a high incidence of chemically dependent offenders and repeat offenders in its criminal justice system; and ATOD abuse prompts many young people in the county to practice such at-risk behaviors as shoplifting, vandalism, and sexual promiscuity.

The survey then asks the responding organization the following questions: what substance abuse issues would you like to see addressed in our community? what strategies/recommendations can you recommend that our council support in addressing these issues? what type of new programming could you recommend to our council in solving substance abuse issues? are you in favor of a countywide clear air ordinance banning smoking in all public buildings (restaurants, offices, etc.)?

Finally, the survey asks the responding organization to rank the extent to which it addresses the following issues: prevention, intervention, treatment, aftercare, alcohol use, tobacco use, impaired driving, ATOD-related health problems, and drug abuse.

The council took the survey under advisement.

First Thoughts and Last

The meeting opened with a comment or two from former president Bob Crone, R-3rd, who resigned at the council’s Aug. 9 meeting. “For the last 12 and a half years I’ve wanted to speak from the floor,” he said. “I don’t have any complaints but if I did I know who my councilman is. . . . For 12 and a half years I watched people speak from the floor and then leave. And now I’m going to do that.”

Crone’s former colleagues laughed, and Member Frank Sessa, D-2nd, thanked him for his years of public service. For the record, Sessa is Crone’s councilman.

Sessa later took a moment at the end of the meeting to thank the CPD for its efforts to resolve a “situation at the end of his street,” in which some youthful residents were using “a lot of foul language,” coming “close to fist fights,” and giving “the appearance of drug trafficking.” Officers brought some pressure to bear and things have evidently returned to normal, Sessa said. “Everybody thinks they moved into a new neighborhood.”

Sessa also thanked Westchester Township Trustee Suzanne Philbrick for providing the council with information on contributions which the township has made in recent years to the CFD. “They are not flush with money,” he said, but Westchester is doing the best it can.

For his part Member Jim Ton, R-1st, noted that the town continues to investigate the feasibility—and constitutionality—of a local curfew ordinance. It’s “a murky area legally” and “our legal department is doing an excellent job of trying to unravel this,” he said. Ton did say that the ultimate responsibility for keeping children off the streets at night falls to their parents, not to police officers, and with the school year starting today parents should make “doubly sure” that they know where their kids are in the wee hours.

Posted 8/25/2004