GARY -- Cash shortages at the Gary Parks Department led to the recent layoff of workers there, officials said, and a union leader thinks more are coming.
Meanwhile, Parks Superintendent Caren Jones said her department's offices will soon move to the 800 block of Broadway so the Hudson-Campbell Fitness Center will be eligible for federal grants.
"We should be officially moved by the first of December," Jones said.
Arlene Colvin, Gary's chief of staff, said eight employees recently lost their jobs at Marquette Park and South Gleason Golf Course. Marquette is closed for renovations; Gleason is closed for the season.
Ted Bilski, trustee for Teamsters Local 142, said he hopes the city will restore those employees' jobs when a new budget begins in January.
"We're hopeful this is short-term," Bilski said.
But he also said there are indications employees elsewhere on Gary's payroll will face layoffs by December.
"I don't believe it to be isolated just to the Parks Department," Bilski said.
Gary Controller Celita Green said the Hudson-Campbell Fitness Center also had a cash shortage in its nonreverting fund. That shortfall was eased, she said, when Gary shifted the cost of some repairs to its capital outlay fund. She said it should have been charged to that fund in the first place.
Still, the facility is expected to sustain itself soon.
"We have asked for the Hudson-Campbell to give us a plan," Green said.
Gary's Parks Department has been a regular cost-cutting target as the city manages its ongoing financial difficulties. Jones said the department will always exist, but it might not be what it once was.
"We are working on a plan to be able to include more community organizations being involved in the Parks Department," Jones said.
The department, now based at Hudson-Campbell, will soon operate out of the City Hall Annex building at 839 Broadway. Other city departments, including Community Development and Redevelopment, already have offices there.
"They'd like to have most of us in the same building," Jones said.
Taking a city department out of Hudson-Campbell makes the building eligible for federal Community Development Block Grants, she said.
Colvin said Gary's Community Development department is working on landing such a grant.