Whiting lands $215,000 grant for license plate reader

Mayor Steve Spebar said the city has secured a $215,000 federal grant.

"That's going to provide an additional license plate reader," Spebar said. "We're planning on putting that at 119th (Street) and the (Indianapolis) Boulevard."

Tthe grant will also be used to install security cameras up and down 119th Street and near Whiting High School.

Spebar said Whiting Redevelopment Director Brian Lowry worked with the office of U.S. Rep. Frank J. Mrvan, D-Highland, to obtain the grant.

Even though the money has been appropriated, Lowry said, there is still one more step involved: "We still have to go through the complete application with" the U.S. Department of Justice.

License plate readers take pictures of license plates as vehicles pass and the information is relayed to police if there is an issue associated with that particular vehicle.

Whiting has one reader, which is at 129th Street and Indianapolis Boulevard.

Spebar said that unit helped catch a suspect in a Gary murder case when he drove by shortly after the reader was installed in 2021.

Spebar said the grant will pay for equipment and will reduce the cost the city will have to pay, which has yet to be determined.

"We'll have to install it and probably pay for some of the hardware," he  said.

In other city news:

* A half-dozen people who attended the Jan. 3 council meeting expressed concern over hunters reportedly standing on rocks near the city's shoreline as they shoot at birds.

One attendee said she doesn't feel safe in Whiting Lakefront Park and has been finding dead or injured geese.

A city ordinance says there is to be no shooting in the city, but Spebar said a state law passed in 2011 "kind of takes the teeth out of that ordinance."

Indiana Conservation Officer Alex Neel, who was at the meeting, said state law requires hunters to make an effort to retrieve animals they shoot.

"The rocks are not under our control," Neel said. "The water is."

Spebar said the city would work to address the situation.

"We don't want people walking on the rocks," Spebar said. "We sure as heck don't want people hunting on the rocks."

* The first council meeting of the new year saw the election of officers, and Councilman Chris Sarvanidis, D-at large, was again chosen as president — a role he has filled since 2004.

He was the lone nominee for the position and elected unanimously. He was also elected to remain as ordinance chairman.

Councilman Nick Suarez, D-1st, was elected to continue as finance chairman.

The council voted to reappoint Don Harbin and Paul Progar to the city's Redevelopment Commission for 2023.