Residents press council on Governor’s Parkway environmental review, Briar Eastwoods and fireworks complaints

Several residents used the meeting’s public-expression period to raise environmental and procedural concerns and to ask the council to respond to neighborhood disturbances.

Mary Shown told the council that the Federal Highway Administration extended its environmental review of Governor’s Parkway and asked the council to consider the value of 32 acres of native dune forest at Briar Eastwoods. "If we wipe that out, we put the Hessville neighborhood in greater danger of flooding," she said, and warned the council that turning down nearly $8 million in federal funds while seeking state money raised questions about priorities.

Separately, George Stoya criticized how the council handled a prior meeting’s public hearing, saying a councilman reopened a hearing and that his own attempt to respond was cut off. "I was summarily shut down from responding," he said, and suggested he might contact the state Attorney General to review local procedures if the council continues perceived irregularities.

Earlier in new-and-unfinished business, council members discussed fireworks complaints and read the municipal ordinance that limits permitted hours and requires a waiver from the Hammond Board of Works for exceptions; they urged residents to call police with specific addresses for complaints and to take precautions to extinguish fireworks safely.

What happens next: the public-comment items are requests and complaints; residents asked the council to consider a fireworks ban and to account for environmental review outcomes in future decisions, but the council took no formal votes on either request at the meeting.