Hammond and Munster officials fought Wednesday for control of the Northcote Avenue bridge, which has been barricaded and reopened several times this week.

Munster Town Manager Tom DeGiulio said Wednesday afternoon the town was reopening the bridge after Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. appealed to Lake County commissioners to keep the road open.

However, DeGiulio said the bridge will either have to be elevated or walled off when the Little Calumet River levee system is completed.

County commissioners find themselves in the middle of the dispute because they own the span over the recently flooded waterway.

DeGiulio said the town closed its end of the bridge Tuesday and Wednesday to restrict traffic in the recently flood-damage area on the river's southern shore while reclamation work continued.

Munster Town Councilman Robert Mangus said he is irritated at McDermott for making an issue out of the bridge closures.

"If he had a problem, he should have come to us directly -- not go around us to the commissioners," Magnus said.

McDermott said he had his reasons for going directly to commissioners.

"I went to the commissioners because I've heard a lot of grumbling lately that the bridge should be shut down permanently," the Hammond mayor said. "It's an important way for many parts of Hammond to (Munster's) Community Hospital. (Indiana Department of Transportation) has designated it as a traffic collector road. Closing the Northcote bridge would be a disaster for Hammond's long-term interests."

But Munster Town Council President Helen Brown said, "It's a very sleepy street. People going to the hospital would have to go west of there anyway. At this time, our uppermost concern is flooding problems."

There is no dispute the bridge's surface is 2 or more feet below the top of a proposed earthen dam designed to wall off homes on either side of the river from future flood crests.

Brown said Munster residents near the bridge also have worried about increased traffic.

County Commissioner Fran DuPey, D-Hammond, said there also were complaints of scavengers crossing the bridge into Munster and "treasurer hunting" through debris removed from recently flooded homes.

McDermott said he had Hammond police officers patrol those Munster neighborhoods to ward off looters.

"We did everything we could to reach out to them in their time of need, and now the bridge is being shut down for no other reason than that they don't want us in that neighborhood. It's not neighborly," McDermott said.

Lake County Highway Department Superintendent Marcus Malczewski said Munster doesn't have the authority to close the bridge but can control its portion of the bridge's access.