PORTER COUNTY | This past year was a deadly one in Porter County, as six people fell victims to homicides -- double the number of an average year.
Elizabeth Lepucki, 44, of Valparaiso, died in a domestic attack, police said. Two babies -- Nicholas Munden, of Chesterton, and Timothy Walters, of Portage -- died of abuse, police said.
Dennis Williams, 29, of Gary, died at the hands of his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend during an attack in Portage, police said. The suspect in that case also killed himself and his child, Keahn Hill, 2, of Portage, police said.
Barbara Heckman, 42, of Portage, was robbed and killed while working at Luke's One Stop at U.S. 6 and Meridian Road.
Drug use leads to twice as many deaths in 2008
PORTER COUNTY | More than 30 people died of accidental drug overdoses in Porter County this past year -- twice as many as the previous year and triple the number in an average year.
Heroin, cocaine and prescription drugs continue to be the top killers.
School consolidation possibilities come up
VALPARAISO | The Valparaiso Community Schools convened a task force of some 45 community members to plot out future directions for the district. After weeks of working sessions and two public forums, the group proposed modernizing the city's elementary schools by closing seven them and replacing them with four newer, bigger buildings.
Proponents welcomed the chance to build state-of-the-art educational facilities estimated to cost not a great deal more than renovated buildings. Opponents questioned those costs and raised concerns over losing neighborhood schools. The board is expected take up the issue in 2009.
High school principal's resignation draws ire
VALPARAISO | In a surprise move, Valparaiso High School Principal Patrick Weil resigned during May's School Board meeting. The board was about to consider non-renewal of Weil's contract, when Weil announced he would leave to spare students and the district any further ordeal in the matter. Students, parents and teachers rose to speak in support of Weil at both April and May's board meetings.
Property tax mailing is delayed until 2009
PORTER COUNTY | Despite hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting services, extra efforts by county employees and weekly status meetings, Porter County officials announced in early December that property tax bills will not likely be mailed out until the first of next year.
The delay, which is a month behind the most recent predictions and two months behind the traditional due date, would not only mean late revenue payments to municipalities and schools, but would also prevent property owners from taking the full property tax deduction for 2008.
County officials extended office hours to allow property owners to make their final tax payments without a bill. They are also making an eleventh hour push in hopes of getting the bills to mortgage companies yet this year.
Superintendent's job called into question
VALPARAISO | In September, Valparaiso School Board member James Sarkisian called on Superintendent Michael Benway to resign, accusing him of "incompetence and insubordination." Sarkisian cited the May resignation of Valparaiso High School's award-winning principal and the installation of a taxpayer-paid synthetic turf football field at the school -- a year after private donors raised money for the same goal but the deal fell through. Board President James Bernard strongly refuted Sarkisian's statement and praised Benway's performance. Benway said he had no intention of resigning.
Soliday opens up talk about board's future
VALPARAISO | Discussion of moving Valparaiso to an elected School Board mounted during a turbulent year for the city's appointed board. The discussion culminated in State Rep. Ed Soliday's forum this month to gauge public interest in his proposed legislation to create a hybrid board.
Many participants in the forum said they wanted greater public accountability and communication from the School Board, whether it stayed as an appointed board or became an elected one.
During the year, Valparaiso school parents organized public forums and attended school board meetings and other events in stronger numbers after the resignation of the high school principal and the proposal from a task force for closing seven neighborhood elementary schools.
Parents formed the group Valparaisans Organized, Interested and Concerned for Education to increase awareness of and participation in school issues.
The City Council, which appoints four of the five School Board members, named council member Kelly Ward as liaison to the School Board.
City gives commuters bus to Chicago's Loop
VALPARAISO | With the extension of the South Shore commuter rail line to Valparaiso still several years away, if it is to come at all, the city provided Chicago commuters with an alternative to the train with the start of weekday express commuter bus service to Chicago's Loop.
Called the ChicaGo Dash, the service offers two morning and two evenings buses equipped with plush seats, satellite TV, WiFi Internet connections and bathrooms to take riders nonstop from downtown Valparaiso to three locations in the Loop. The fare is $7.50 each way.
Silver screen hiatus ends with Cinemark
VALPARAISO | The smell of hot, buttered popcorn combined with movies on a big screen that wasn't in your living room returned to Valparaiso with the opening of the Cinemark Theater in Porter's Vale shopping center.
The city was without any theater for about 1 1/2 years after the closing of the Village Theater at the former County Seat Plaza, now Cumberland Crossing. The Village Theater was evicted in a dispute over payment of rent, and the theater was torn down as part of the first phase of the redevelopment of the plaza.
Nearly complete U.S. 6 reopens after 3 years
PORTAGE | After years of waiting, the three-year U.S. 6 construction project is nearly complete.
The eastern half of the project, from Scottsdale Avenue to Ind. 149, was completed in the spring when workers finished landscaping and laid final pavement. The western portion, from Scottsdale Avenue to Union Street in Hobart was fully opened to traffic in November.
Half-acre park finally finds home downtown
VALPARAISO | The city finally found a suitable site for the downtown park Mayor Jon Costas first proposed being built on the courthouse square.
The city bought the former Lafayette Center at Lafayette Street and Indiana Avenue in April for $553,000 and tore down the former department store a couple of months later to make way for a half-acre park capable of providing a venue for a variety of activities ranging from outdoor concerts and performances to movies to just a place to sit under a tree or eat lunch.
Fatal accidents prompt crackdown on highways
VALPARAISO | After truck drivers caused fatal accidents on U.S. 30 and on Ind. 49 in Valparaiso, Valparaiso police conducted a crackdown on motorists who speed, run red lights and fail to use the truck lanes on both highways.
The crackdown, which also involved Indiana State Police troopers, netted 79 tickets and warnings in three hours Sept. 5. Enforcement efforts continued after that and officials pushed for safety improvements on both highways.
Scrap metal thefts become big problem
PORTER COUNTY | Scrap metal prices peaked earlier in the year, making the theft of scrap metal a worthwhile venture for thieves.
Police throughout the area were swamped with reports of catalytic converters -- which contain valuable metals -- being stolen from underneath vehicles. Thieves also stole copper tubing, aluminum and other scrap metal.
The problem lessened as scrap metal prices fell and police solved many of the cases.
Robbery spree ends when suspect killed
VALPARAISO | A series of store and bank robberies plagued Valparaiso in 2007 and Chesterton this past year, but the robbery spree ended when a suspected bank robber was shot to death by police in South Bend in July.
The man who was killed, Brian Szuflita, 29, of LaPorte, was linked after his death to four bank robberies in Valparaiso and two in Chesterton. He was also called a strong suspect in a robbery at Walgreens in Chesterton.
Meth operations in the region suffer big blow
PORTER COUNTY | Law enforcement struck a blow to the manufacturing and trafficking of methamphetamine when they announced in June the indictment of 37 people, most of whom live in Porter, Jasper and Lake Counties.
More than 100 local, state and federal law enforcement officers participated in confiscating meth labs, executing search warrants and arresting those who were federally indicted.
Project inspires rebirth of city's Eastgate area
VALPARAISO | The biggest and most complicated phase of Valparaiso's Eastgate commercial corridor reconstruction was completed in 2008 despite record rains, unforeseen problems with a water line and delays in getting the utility poles moved to accommodate construction crews.
The Roosevelt Road-to-the-roundabout section of Lincolnway was widened to three lanes with curbs, gutters, sidewalks, decorative lighting, new storm and sanitary sewer lines and a new water line. In combination with the redevelopment of two properties and the renovation of several others inspired by the road's renaissance, it has transformed what was a drab district.
The work came on the heels of the roundabout's construction and improvements to Sturdy Road south of the roundabout to U.S. 30 over the past two year.
Commercial expansion takes downturn in '08
PORTAGE | After a couple of years of tremendous commercial growth in Portage that saw the construction and opening of the Portage 16/IMAX, Bass Pro Shops, Kohl's and Menard's, commercial construction took a steep downturn.
Meijer looked, but never came. Texas Roadhouse received city approval, but has put plans on hold. Golden Corral announced it was building here, but backed out. At the end of the year it was announced that Sonic and Checkers, two fast food-style restaurants, are working on plans to locate along U.S. 6.
Velazquez's new staff put in place by mid year
PORTAGE | It took a while, but Mayor Olga Velazquez put all of her staff into place by the middle year.
Mark Becker, a former FBI agent, took over Jan. 1 as police chief. Bill Lundy retained his postion as fire chief and Joe Csikos was named the city planner in the first month.
It took a while longer to find a new park department superintendent and city engineer, however.
Velazquez wrangled with the Park Board for months after long-time Parks Superintendent Carl Fisher announced his retirement. Finally in July Velazquez appointed Clarke W. Johnson, who had recently retired from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, to the parks job.
Banta residents revolt against historic status
VALPARAISO | After less than two years as Valparaiso's only neighborhood historic district, a crowd of residents from the Banta Neighborhood filled the council chambers to ask that the district designation be repealed.
The residents complained the city's Historic Preservation Commission was imposing standards that were too strict for maintaining homes that had no historic value and that the district was not providing promised benefits. The commission denied ever rejecting anyone's applications for improvements and said some of those it had allegedly turned down had never come to the commission.
Prosecutors split on 2008 murder cases
VALPARAISO | County prosecutors had mixed results this year in two high-profile murder trials.
A jury found South Haven resident Mark Easter guilty in October of beating to death 15-year-old neighbor Christopher Janus.
Easter, 21, faces between 45 and 60 years behind bars when he sentenced at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 8.
In December, a jury cleared Portage resident Monica Hicks of charges of helping to murder her 45-year-old roommate Ingrid VanEck.
She was found guilty on a third count of assisting a criminal after admitting to helping dispose of VanEck's body. But the assisting charge carries a potential prison term of just two to eight years, which is far less than the minimum 45 years for murder and 20 to 50 years for conspiracy to commit murder. Hicks' co-defendant Jesus Baca Sanchez struck a deal with prosecutors to testify against her in return for a 40-year prison sentence.
High prices at gas pump prompt rooftop protest
VALPARAISO | As gasoline prices skyrocketed earlier this year to above $4 a gallon, Valparaiso resident Jay Weinberg decided he could stand it no more.
The 29-year-old climbed to the top of the Family Express gas station at the corner of Silhavy Road and Ind. 2 with a guitar and bull horn to decry the fuel prices.
The May 5 stunt not only won international attention for himself and his song, "Price Gouge'n," but also landed him in jail.
Weinberg later pleaded guilty to trespassing and was given unsupervised probation, before deciding in October to keep the attention alive by pedaling his bicycle to Washington D.C.
