It's not shocking that people in Griffith are working up a head of steam about divorcing themselves from Calumet Township, since it's been a pretty one-sided marriage for years.
The township is made up of the incorporated municipalities of Gary and Griffith and a small unincorporated area between the two, and the money flow has been a one-way stream into Gary.
Townships are mysterious things, and what they provide depends on where you are but two of the things they offer are administration of the poor relief system and ambulance services.
People in Griffith have woken up to the fact that they have their own fire and ambulance system and that most of the poor relief money is going to Gary, leaving them with just about nothing to show for a tax rate that is about the highest of any of Indiana's more than 1,000 townships.
The township trustee's north office, its south office and the assessor's office are all in Gary. The ambulance service is in the unincorporated area, as are the civil defense and fire service, the community service building and the south office of the township assessor.
What's in Griffith? Not a thing.
The effort is being led by Rick Ryfa, a Republican councilman from Griffith. It will be interesting to see what his Democratic counterparts will say after Thursday's jam-packed meeting at the town's Central Park pavilion.
That is because Griffith is asking to leave Gary on its own, and the mayor of Gary is Rudy Clay, who is also the Lake County Democratic Party Chairman.
Clay shouldn't be surprised Griffith wants out. Calumet Township has for years been the poster child for nepotism, fraud and waste.
The new trustee, Mary Elgin, has slashed the payroll that allowed her predecessor Dozier Allen to hire more than 200 full-time employees. For this, she was sued. However, a judge ruled in her favor in all but one case, saying the township had become "an immense bureaucracy" with a multimillion dollar budget.
Clay, when running for county commissioner several years back, told me he focused his campaign on Gary and did not work in small bits of his district in Highland and Griffith, and said very candidly, "Those people aren't going to vote for me anyhow."
To be honest, he was probably right. But that is not the point. You are representing "those people" whether they voted for you or not and the people of Griffith feel they are being taxed without representation.
Isn't that what started another famous revolution back in 1775?
The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at markk@nwitimes.com or (219) 933-4170.
