After a slow start in fundraising, the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority will fully foot the bill for the Gary Air Show – with a little help from a Lake County Commissioner.
Lake County Commissioner Kyle Allen Jr., D-1, is chipping in $25,000 toward the show, SSCVA Events and Facilities Chief Kristin Taylor told the CVA Board at its July 18 meeting. The board approved an interlocal agreement with commissioners with a 9-0 vote.
“We’ve now raised $200,000 more than last year and $150,000 more than in 2023,” Taylor said.
“We keep having bad weather, but you keep raising more money each year,” Board President Andy Qunell said.
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Allen had the money to give via a lawsuit settlement with Monsanto, he told the Post-Tribune Tuesday. He and Commissioners Mike Repay, D-2, and Jerry Tippy, R-3, divided the settlement three ways to spend in the community as they see fit.
“I’ve spent mine on various charitable causes, anywhere from $500 to bigger donations like the air show,” Allen said.
The Gary Air Show came back to Northwest Indiana in 2023 — with the SSCVA as its sponsor — after a seven-year hiatus for various reasons, including the COVID-19 pandemic and financial challenges, the Post-Tribune previously reported. Launched in 2000 by former Gary Mayor Scott King, the city of Gary took over the airshow operations from SSCVA in 2015 after SSCVA started sponsoring it in 2006 because of the city’s financial woes.
Back then, officials estimated the two-day show cost about $350,000 and drew thousands to the lakefront. The city offset some of that cost in 2015 when it started charging $30, $20 and $10 for parking, the Post-Tribune reported.
Last year, the air show cost $580,000, including a $50,000 monetary contribution and an in-kind security donation from the city of Gary, the Post-Tribune previously reported, while it cost $630,000 in 2023. The city will provide in-kind security again this year, Taylor said.
In other business, the CVA is “working really hard” to reconcile a -$266,198.48 balance in its legal fund, Chief Financial Officer Nicole Wolverton and President and CEO Phil Taillon told the Post-Tribune. Between scaling back event sponsorships and other costs, and Taylor’s fundraising efforts, Wolverton expects they’ll be able to transfer funds to cover the shortfall before the end of the fiscal year, she said.
According to the organization’s June Appropriations Report, the CVA has spent $406,198.48 in legal fees this year after allocating $150,000 for legal funds in 2025.
“I’m not concerned that we won’t be able to cover it,” Taillon said of the deficit, adding that he plans to go before the Lake County Council before it’s time for the CVA to work on its 2026 budget to explain where they are in the lawsuit with former CVA President and CEO Speros Batistatos.
Batistatos sued the SSCVA in August 2022, one month after being fired, alleging the agency violated the law and mishandled contract renegotiations because of his age and misspent federal Payroll Protection Plan funds in violation of the CARES Act.
The county council on Nov. 12, with Lake County Councilman Randy Niemeyer, R-Cedar Lake, voting against it, approved the SSCVA’s proposed 2025 budget of $6,614,000, a $15,000 increase from the agency’s 2024 numbers, according to Post-Tribune archives.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.