The Lake County Council approved a bond ordinance Tuesday for a $10 million bond and will establish a cumulative building fund to pay for another $20 million in projects for the Parks and Recreation Department.
The Parks and Recreation Department has a 10-year plan for improvements totaling nearly $30 million to cover a number of projects, including updates to the filtration system and waterslides at Deep River Waterpark, said Lake County Councilman Randy Niemeyer, R-7th.
Niemeyer said establishing a cumulative building fund will help the county avoid paying bond interest and legal fees.
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“We took a smaller bite than the park board requested,” Niemeyer said. “We took the first one-third (in a bond issuance), and the second two-thirds we will work on a cumulative building fund … to be able to pay cash for improvements.”
Lake County Parks and Recreation Department CEO Jim Basala said that the cumulative building fund will allow the department to use all the money for projects instead of the county spending money on paying back the bond, which includes interest and other costs.
“It’s all about how we want to invest those resources, and the more efficiently that we can do that the better,” Basala said.
Basala said the department’s staff put together a list of projects to address deferred maintenance, improvements and revenue generation which totaled $45 million.
Ultimately, the Parks and Recreation Department staff decided to ask the county for $30 million in support because of the impacts of 2025’s Senate Enrolled Act 1, which decreases property taxes for homeowners but results in a reduction of property tax revenue for local governments.
“Given the county’s fiscal situation and what’s going to happen in the next two or three years with the Senate Enrolled Act 1 and the reduction in property taxes … the council is being prudent in how we’re going to move forward, which we understand,” Basala said.
The projects the department would like to address include paving the road leading into Oak Ridge Prairie, upgrading the Deep River Waterpark filtration system, which in the long run would save the department money on water and chemical usage, and updating the waterpark’s design, which was built in 1994, Basala said.
Department staff also identified parks throughout Lake County that need repairing and updating, Basala said.
“We’ll see how far that financial support goes. We always try to leverage whatever we get against grants and other sources,” Basala said. “We’ll just start attacking them one by one and see how far we can go.”
Niemeyer said the park projects will attract people to visit and live in Northwest Indiana.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to make Lake County a destination to live, work and play. We believe Lake County has the best parks system in the entire state,” Niemeyer said.
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