The following is a statement from the Mayor’s Office:

Late last year, the Michigan City Redevelopment Commission (City) acquired the former Chrysler Dealership located at 1033 E. Michigan Boulevard, Michigan City, Indiana (the northwest corner of 11th Street and Michigan Boulevard), from the County Commissioners after it didn’t sell at a tax sale. Prior to the Chrysler Dealership, this location was the site of a former Concord Cleaners, owned by the Begley Company. In an effort to develop and beautify this location, the City began investigating whether historical contamination exists on the site. During this recent investigation, and as part of a lawsuit brought against the Begley Company by the City to pay for clean-up of the contamination, it was discovered that pollution from dry cleaning chemicals used by the former Concord Cleaners has gotten into the ground water and migrated through the ground water to the north/northwest toward Trail Creek. The City has reported these findings to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) and IDEM has advised that they will be investigating this matter further. There is a possibility that vapors from the pollution in the ground water can rise and enter the air in the lowest level of a home. The only way to find out if any of this polluted vapor has entered a home is to test the air in the lowest level of the house and under the basement floor, slab, or crawl space. In an abundance of caution, the City will seek to conduct such air testing in all residences in the four-block area bounded by Tryon Street, Walker Street, Michigan Boulevard, and 8th Street. Additionally, the Mayor will be holding an informational session in the affected neighborhood in the near future at which persons who are knowledgeable about this matter will be available to answer questions. Until then, questions may be directed to Steven Stanford, Operations Manager, Michigan City Sanitary District at 219-874-7799 or sstanford@mcsan.org.