Michigan City Mayor Ron Meer wants nothing to do with the South Shore Air Show as long as Speros Batistatos is behind it. “I quit responding to Speros when the conversation became unprofessional and disrespectful to me and my colleagues in LaPorte County,” Meer told me last week after reading my column on the contentious relocation of the air show. In that column, I wrote about the recent announcement from Batistatos, CEO of the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority, that the popular air show would be relocated from Gary and its Lake Michigan shoreline to Fair Oaks Farms in Newton County. Batistatos told me, in a nutshell, that Gary can’t afford to host the air show any longer, both Whiting and Hammond are not allowed to host it due to federal aviation restrictions, and Michigan City didn’t return his phone calls. “For the record, Michigan City did return his calls but I’m not going to let someone like him disrespect my community and our county’s visitor’s bureau,” Meer told me. “I was in communication with Speros on numerous occasions and he was very rude and disrespectful, even using some profanity in regards to our visitor’s bureau.” Meer also noted that he sides with Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. in regard to not using one county’s innkeeper’s tax dollars for use in another county – in this case the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority using Lake County’s dollars in Newton County. For the record, Batistatos has repeatedly insisted that his bureau’s mission is to think regionally, not only as a county, citing tourists’ apathy and unawareness of county lines. Then again, regionally speaking, Batistatos has a knack for rubbing other public officials the wrong way.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 19:48:47 +0000
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