SSCVA to assist Munster with funds for CVPA feasibility study

If the Town of Munster decides to go ahead with a feasibility study to determine whether purchasing the Center for Visual and Performing Arts is something it should do, the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority is willing to help with the cost.

The SSCVA Board of Directors, during a workshop after its July 18 meeting was adjourned for lack of quorum, agreed it would contribute a $10,000 grant toward that study, which would cost the town $90,000. While the Munster Town Council hasn’t discussed going forward with the study in public, representatives from the town have approached the SSCVA, Legacy Foundation and others to gauge whether there’s interest in defraying the cost, SSCVA President and CEO Phil Taillon said.

“(The town wasn’t) expecting to have this $90,000 expense, so they’re trying to get it where the town would have to pay only $40,000 or $50,000,” he said.

“Do they really need to (have a study) after all those residents expressed what they wanted?” SSCVA Secretary Chareice White said.

“The study would be helpful in determining what they want to accomplish,” Taillon said.

Board member John Bushemi asked why the CVPA is in danger of closing, to which SSCVA Board Treasurer Matt Maloney, who chaired the meeting and session in Chairman Andy Qunell’s absence, said, “It’s losing money.” But the huge public outcry to save it as an arts facility isn’t something to ignore, he said.

“The outcry was not just Munster,” Mahoney said. “The CVPA is talked about as a regional source for the arts, and we should support their fact-finding.”

Board member and Crossroads Chamber of Commerce CEO Deann Patena agreed.

“It’s important that we try to save it because there’s really nothing around here,” she said.

In March, the School Town of Munster passed a resolution in which it would evaluate purchasing the CVPA from Powers Health’s nonprofit subsidiary Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana for $5.5 million, well below its assessed value. After overwhelming community remonstration, the School Town declined to go further with the idea a month later.

Tracie Martin, co-founder and spokesperson for Friends of the CVPA, said the group is “absolutely delighted that the SSCVA is taking this step and supporting the future of the CVPA and the Region” and that it can’t wait to see what happens next.

Also at the workshop, the SSCVA may look into selling the contract it has with family members of notorious gangster John Dillinger for the items the SSCVA has put in storage. An authentication report the SSCVA had done on the items it has produced “mixed results” as to their worth, Taillon said, and if the SSCVA can either find a seller or sell the contract the SSCVA has with the family to another interested party, the SSCVA is willing to consider it; otherwise, Taillon would like to see a local group, such as the Crown Point Historical Society, display the items so that the SSCVA could eliminate the storage costs.

Any sort of sale would have to be approved by the family, SSCVA Attorney Scott McClure stressed, because the contract was born out of a resolution of litigation. The contract has the SSCVA paying the family members $1,500 per month until 2035, plus it pays for the storage.

In other business, the board during the meeting when it had a quorum voted unanimously to transfer $99,150 into its litigation fund to cover ongoing expenses in its lawsuit with former SSCVA President and CEO Speros Batistatos. Indianapolis-based law firm Barnes and Thornburg is representing the SSCVA, while Hammond attorney Dave Westland is representing Qunell, Maloney, board members Matt Schuffert and Brent Brashier, former board member Tom Dabertin and Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. individually.

Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.