Northwest Indiana Discussion

Important Hammond Numbers
Populatlon-83,000 in Hammond; 485,000 in Lake County; 9 million in the greater Chicago metropolitan area
Area-25.1 square miles
Area Code?219
Zip Codes-46320, 46323, 46324, 46327, 46394
2 universities
23 public schools
40 parks
1100 slips in the Hammond Marina
Incorporated: 1884

Government
Elected Mayor (4-year term)
Nine City Council members (4-year terms); 6 council districts + 3 council members "at large"
City Court
City Clerk
5-member elected School board

Fiscal Health
Since 1997, the Controller's office has received the Certificate for Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association of the U.S. and Canada, the highest form of recognition in government accounting and financial reporting.

Since 2000, the City's bond rating has been Baa.

The City routinely applies for and receives maximum awards from state and federal sources for infrastructure, capital, and environmental improvements.
Services

A highly trained and dedicated police force of 211 officers; steady reduction in crime over the past decade; new state-of-the-art facility

A professional fire department of 180. The Insurance Services Office (ISO) rates Hammond's fire protection at Class Three, one of the best in Northwest Indiana.

Hammond maintains its own HazMat team, as well as a state-of-the-art confined space training facility.
State-of-the-art equipment throughout the city in Police, Fire, Streets, Sanitation and Recycling departments
The Water Department and the Hammond Sanitary District quality meet or exceed all federal, state, and local established quality standards.

Business Opportunities
Several Hammond entities work together to assist businesses with site location, tax benefits and incentives, training issues, expansion and upgrades, and business loans.
The starting point for your inquiries is the Mayor's Office of Economic Development, located at 649 Conkey Street, Hammond 46324; 219.853.6508. See the Business Opportunities section for more detailed information.

http://www.gohammond.com/web/57.22.0.0.1.0.phtml

http://bluecountyredstate.blogspot.com/2013/06/who-is-justin-murphy.html#links

Who is Justin Murphy?
Justin Murphy is a hooked up Democrat lawyer.

Would it surprise you that he's connected to the Potash deal in Hammond, and that it looks like that project violated scores of laws with its development (like not having building permits, a timely SWPPP, illegal tie ins to the Hammond Sanitary district system, etc.). Because of its shoddy development, flooding of adjacent properties is now routine.


The degrees of separation between Murphy and McDermott are zero. Thus, if the FBI wanted to bust McDermott, this is the project and the person to go through, because it all stinks.
Posted by Buzzcut at 6/24/2013 4 comments: Links to this post

Is Baa credit in regards to the Hammond sheep trade?

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/guest-commentary/guest-commentary-put-hammond-s-debt-in-proper-perspective/article_8af8c697-8866-529a-b0de-046af44bb883.html

lubu

PostPosted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:20 pm
Offline
Member

That McDermott would bring a per capita argument to the question of debt can mean that he doesn't understand it, that he is trying to mislead, or both. Any resident can literally walk away from the debt obligations that Hammond has incurred, except for real property owners who will be facing lowered property values. Per capita is exactly the wrong metric for debt. Whiting and EC have very high personal property values in the form of mills and the BP refinery. Their debt ratios per capita can appear skewed high because their debt will be mostly paid from taxes on industrial personal property. For every dollar per capita to pay Whiting's debt, many more times that will come from personal property tax on BP. As Hammond does not have that infrastructure to tax to pay it's debts, it's a bigger concern for Hammond even if Tom won't admit it. It's ironic that Mcdermott dismisses a Times' writer by saying “you can make numbers say whatever you want them to.” Tom McDermott and his handlers know that game very well.