Overnight visitors for Dunes Park

MUNSTER, IN. (AP) -  A popular Indiana vacation spot is hoping to boost its image as an overnight destination to generate more
revenue and help improve northwestern Indiana's economy.

Members of the Dunes National Park Association want to promote the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore as an overnight destination by restoring the current lodge or building a new one and adding underground parking that would not damage the landscape.

"When you spend the night, you spend six times more than you do on a day visit," association board member Jim Janesheski told The Times in Munster.

"The repercussions of having people come and spend the night could be very great to the economic recovery of the area."

Janesheski said some association members would like to see an international design competition for a new lodge.

Another option is to restore the former Good Fellow Lodge, a project that association president David Megremis said would cost $8 million.

The group would like to see it restored by 2016 for the National Lakeshore's 50th anniversary and the national park system's 100th anniversary.

U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, said the Dunes are "a special gift to all of us who happen to live in Northwest Indiana.

"We have a responsibility to enhance the gift we have been given - not only for ourselves, but for the future," Visclosky said.

The Dunes association is a newly formed group consisting of 11 members.

The group is pursuing several projects, including buying backpacks for children at the Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education in Gary, connecting students in the classroom with scientists in the field through distance learning equipment and installing signs designating the Century of Progress Historic Homes District.