Gary, Indiana, Anglers Still Need Your Help to Gain Lake Michigan Access

Back on July 5, I told you about Silas Sconiers’ fight for angler access in Gary, Indiana. (Anglers in Gary, Indiana, Need Your Help to Regain Access to Lake Michigan)

Now, incredibly, Gary’s mayor says Buffington Harbor should be used by industries, not as a recreation area. She made that suggestion to the planning commission, even though the regional Marquette Plan recommends that the harbor area be developed as a marina and green space for the public to enjoy Lake Michigan.

A Gary resident who attended the commission meeting calls the mayor’s speech “jaw-dropping.”

“That’s right smack in the face of the regional consensus of the Marquette Plan,” he says.

“The city of Gary has 22 miles of shoreline, with piers and wharfs and a shuttered power plant,” Sconiers says. “We use to enjoy fishing all along the lake front. But one by one, due to plant closures and politics, we no longer have access.

“Gary is the only city on the entire Great Lakes in the United States and Canada without a public access fishing spot!”

To help Gary’s anglers regain access to Lake Michigan, send your e-mail of support to NPS at mary_denery@nps.gov, with a copy also to the Department of Justice at askdoj@usdoj.gov. In the subject line, put this: “No Equal Opportunity to Fish in Lake Michigan in Gary, Indiana.”

Sconiers can be contacted at gigeronimo@sbcglobal.net.