Town Council President Rick Ryfa concedes Griffith is still recovering from the devastating tornado and flooding last year.
He said images of town employees and church and community volunteers laying sandbags and cleaning out homes are fresh in his mind.
"Their (Griffith residents) resolve wasn't lost," Ryfa said. "Their determination showed what type of backbone they had. Everybody was pitching in to get their homes cleared out."
"It illustrates the good character of Northwest Indiana," he added.
This year, he is encouraged that people already have started rebuilding homes and said despite the economic downturn, there were fewer homes on the market in 2008 than in 2007. He also said business vacancies, especially on Broad Street, have decreased compared to the year before.
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Ryfa acknowledged the downturn has stalled some potential "high-profile" developments, but the town aims to attract businesses that can move easily into vacant storefronts. Ryfa said he hopes Griffith Park Plaza can be improved because it suffered a lot of damage from the disasters last year and it still needs to be rehabbed.
High-end salon Bang Bang Beauty & Boutique and Lombard, Ill.-based Valdes Engineering Co. decided to open locations in Griffith last year. With its move, Valdes Engineering is expecting to employ 100 people. International food store De Rosa Imports and Blythe's Sporting Goods are unique businesses Ryfa and Councilman George Jerome said can give people even more of a reason to shop locally.
"We need to go after service-based industries," Ryfa said.
This year, the town's Redevelopment Commission will begin attracting developers and businesses to the area. Jerome said the town's chamber of commerce and other entities are actively trying to increase development downtown.
"We're blessed with a lot of high-energy people who want to work and better the town," Jerome said.
Griffith, known as "the town that came to the tracks," will see a return to increased train traffic this year, but city officials don't expect the EJ&E track sale to adversely affect the community. Ryfa said officials negotiated benefits to reduce the impact on residents, including eliminating train whistles from the town and creating a system where the town's emergency dispatch center knows where train traffic is at all times.
Jerome said $6.5 million will come to the town in the deal and Ryfa said the town will soon hold public hearings to determine how the money should be spent.
Another goal for the town this year is to leave Calumet Township and to lobby the Legislature to eliminate the township system, Ryfa said.
