When Scott Pelath decided not to seek re-election last year to the Indiana House of Representatives after 20 years there, he thought that was the end of long drives to Indianapolis.
But there he was on a recent day, driving back to his Michigan City home after spending part of the day in a House committee hearing.
Keeping in touch with the Indiana legislature will be part of Pelath’s new job as executive director of the Kankakee River Basin Commission.
Pelath’s predecessor, Jody Melton, led the KRBC for 37 years, after taking the job just a few years after the commission was created.
The Kankakee River flows past the opposite end of LaPorte County from where Pelath lives and grew up (and where his grandfather was a commercial fisherman on Lake Michigan), but he said the new job fits his interests.
“I have a passion for water resources issues, and I have an interest in regional development,” he said during a phone interview on that recent drive.
His proudest legislative achievement, he said, was sponsorship of the bill that led to Indiana’s joining the Great Lakes Compact, along with seven other states.
“I’ve always cared about natural resources issues that had a regional component,” Pelath said. “In certain respects, maybe that’s why I’m the right person (for the KRBC job).
“It’s the kind of complex challenge I find invigorating.”
He’s took the job at a crucial time.
The Kankakee River, which has flooded more than 12 times since the early 1980s, had one of its most severe floods last year, and climate models indicate more frequent severe storms are likely in the Midwest in the coming years.
After last year’s flood, a new study on the causes and possible solutions for flooding was commissioned.
And though Indiana and Illinois have clashed over the river’s management in the past, both states have been working together on the recent study.
“An emerging partnership is a necessity,” Pelath said.
The Indiana General Assembly created the commission with 24 members – three from each of the eight counties along the Kankakee and its tributary, the Yellow River.
A bill now in the legislature would cut the membership to nine – one from each county and one appointed by the governor.
Some KRBC members oppose that, saying that fewer members would reduce representation.
And while the KRBC has always depended on funding from the legislature, some KRBC members would prefer locally based funding, such as an assessment on property owners, that would be more assured.
Pelath has urged commission members to be patient while the legislature works out those issues.
And, he noted, the legislature has found ways before of working on a funding solution across county lines.
“It’s not much different from what happened with the South Shore railroad in the last few years,” he said.
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