United Steelworkers union members locked out at the BP oil refinery in Whiting now have the backing of the city of Crown Point and Mayor Pete Land.
The Crown Point City Council, with one member voting no and one abstaining, passed a resolution on Monday in support of United Steelworkers union members who are locked out at BP in Whiting.
Voting against the resolution was City Councilwoman Laura Sauerman, R-4th.
Sauerman said taking such a step was something the City Council had never done in all the years she has served on the council.
She said she didn’t feel the City Council should take a position.
“It’s not a part of what we are called upon to do,” Sauerman said.
City Councilman Joe Sanders, R-5th, abstained after noting that he supports the union but feels that the council’s business should be Crown Point-based.
Land, who led the charge of asking the council to approve the resolution, responded: “We want it (the lockout) to end. The primary focus is to support the men and women in the union, whether they are Crown Point residents or not.”
Crown Point resident Luke Hoffman, a member of USW 7-1, came up to the podium at the end of the meeting and thanked the City Council for its action.
He said some 800 members have been locked out since March 19.
“Your action sends them a message,” Hoffman said.
The City Council joins a growing bipartisan group of elected and government officials that has called for an end to the lockout at the Midwest’s largest oil refinery.
Those include former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, White House Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro, Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr., the Hammond City Council and the East Chicago City Council.
Representatives from BP and United Steelworkers met most recently on May 22 but the two entities remain at a distance on coming to a deal, according to Post-Tribune archives.
In other business, plans for a residential subdivision called Crystal Grove moved forward with the City Council voting 6-0 in favor of a zone change request from R-1A residential to R-2 residential.
The subdivision, with plans for 172 single-family residences, has been met with opposition from neighboring residents, including Jamie Lies.
Lies and other remonstrators have questioned officials about whether the development team has completed its environmental impact evaluations.
At the April 27 meeting, Lies said she and other residents who live nearby chose to locate there because of the wildlife, including owls and hawks.
“We live there because we want country life…. We want the wildlife,” Lies said.
Plans by Lennar Homes are to build the single-family homes on about 112 acres of property on the city’s south side.
Attorney Jim Wieser said now that the rezoning of the property has been approved, the next step in the process is to present development and engineering plans for the subdivision.
Those plans will be presented at upcoming meetings, Wieser said.
Plans as previously presented are to build the subdivision into what Lennar representative Todd Kleven termed three products, including homes on the east side of Delaware, to be called Horizon, which would be priced in the $420,000 range.
Other homes planned include those in the middle of the subdivision to be called Landmark and priced in the $480,000 range.
Homes on the west side of Delaware would be what he termed estate homes and would be priced at $650,00 on average and up.
In other business, the City Council tabled until next month a special use request to allow a 3,800-square-foot Quick Run gas station to be built at 200 109th Ave.
The request, which went before the Board of Zoning Appeals on May 26, had received a 3-0 favorable recommendation.
The City Council agreed to table the request following comments made by Merrillville attorney Brian Woodward, who asked the council to take a look at all legal documents before proceeding with approval.
Deborah Laverty is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
