The Port Authority is preparing to transfer control of the Portage Marina to the parks department.
On Thursday, the Port Authority ordered its attorney, Tom Dogan, to get all the necessary paperwork in order for a vote as early as next month.
The Park Board meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Mayor Austin Bonta asked that the property on the west side be transferred to the Portage Redevelopment Commission, which owns the rest of the property there.
The marina and fishing pier would go to the parks department.
The Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission signed an interlocal agreement in 2005 to transfer ownership of the marina site to the city in 2005, Dogan said. The commission is OK with handing control of the marina to the parks department, he said.
The agreement said the Port Authority would budget for construction and operation of the marina and budget for its maintenance.
“We’re trying our best to dig through old records,” Bonta said, to make sure the transfer goes smoothly.
Last month, Bonta told the City Council he wants to put the marina under the parks department’s umbrella, either diminishing the Port Authority’s role or dissolving the board.
The Port Authority was created with the idea that Portage could have gained a riverboat casino when the General Assembly legalized them, but Porter County voters rejected Portage getting a floating casino, Harbormaster Barb Lusco said Friday.
In other business, member Carl Simpson reminded the Port Authority that when slip rental and launch rates at the marina were raised two years ago, the launch rate was raised to $15 with the extra $5 going to the Port Authority fund, which covers waterway maintenance.
With the Port Authority fund now at nearly $145,000, and an annual budget of $25,000, Simpson easily persuaded the board to vote unanimously to shift that additional $5 to the marina fund.
“I think it’s a creative additional solution to get more money in the marina fund,” Bonta said.
The fee isn’t being raised; it’s just a matter of moving the funds already being collected, Simpson said.
Also, the new fish cleaning station is nearly complete, with the table for it expected to be shipped next week. It will be installed and tested before it’s winterized.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
