The South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority will help the city of Hammond round out funding for an Optimist Lake project.

At its March meeting, board members approved to help pay no more than $50,000 for the project, which will build a boardwalk, event pavilion, pier and more at the lake.

Optimist Lake is located by the Indiana Welcome Center in Hammond and is owned by the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission.

Phil Taillon, SSCVA CEO, said the project was Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott’s idea several years ago, but the project was estimated to cost about $10 million, which Taillon said “killed the idea.”

The project is still in a multimillion-dollar range, Taillon said, but it’s less than $10 million. Design costs for the project are about $300,000, he added, with the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission paying half.

The city of Hammond and SSCVA are not going to pay more than $50,000 each for the project, Taillon said Monday. A Legacy Foundation grant covers about $61,000 of funding, and Taillon expects SSCVA to pay about $40,000 for the project.

McDermott was unavailable to immediately comment on Hammond’s project involvement.

“You’re really talking about the city of Hammond and SSCVA coming up with no more than $50,000 each for a multimillion-dollar project to get completed, which I think will be exciting for residents, exciting for tourists, exciting for the hotels in this area, exciting for anybody that uses the bike path in general,” Taillon said at Monday’s meeting.

Catherine Puckett, landscape architecture studio lead for HWC Engineering, presented the project at the board’s meeting. HWC Engineering is completing the Optimist Lake project’s design.

The project will be beneficial for residents and visitors, Puckett said, and it’s near the highway and trails, so it’s easily accessible. The pavilion will also draw people in to host events, she added.

“There’s a lot of brainstorming that went into how the space could be used and what could be built,” Puckett said. “I think the water is really going to be attractive.”

Puckett told board members that various events or festivals could be hosted at the lake, and people could use it for paddleboarding, kayaking or fishing once the boardwalk is built. The proposed boardwalk should be about 300 feet, Puckett said, but it will depend on what material is used.

Jason Spain, project manager, explained the timeline of the project to the SSCVA board. The group is hoping to start project construction in 2026, he said. Project bids will go out in October.

Optimist Lake gets to about 45 feet deep, but the area where the boardwalk will be built is about five feet deep. The lake takes up 16 acres of land.

SSCVA also heard updates to innkeeper tax numbers, which CFO Nicole Wolverton announced decreased again. February innkeeper tax numbers were down $25,000.

In February, Wolverton told the board that January’s numbers were down $42,000, and said she thought it was just a slow period. Previously, SSCVA had seen innkeeper tax increases month-to-month.

Wolverton, at Monday’s meeting, said the SSCVA received marketplace facilitators tax numbers for January, which came in at about $57,000.

“That helps that deficit number,” Wolverton said. “We’re just shy of $17,000 this year to date, and I’m confident that we’ll make that up in the coming months.”

mwilkins@chicagotribune .com