SSCVA ups Pierogi Fest sponsorship amid dustup with Hammond

Chicago Tribune

18-06-2025

The South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority is giving Whiting's Pierogi Fest an extra helping of sponsorship dollars this year, but the gesture likely won't smooth over bad feelings between the SSCVA and the City of Hammond.
The SSCVA board at its Wednesday meeting voted 10-0 to give Pierogi Fest a $10,000 sponsorship after finding an extra $5,000 in its budget. The SSCVA in April voted to give the wildly popular festival $5,000 while giving Festival of the Lakes $15,000, the Post-Tribune previously reported.
During discussion before the vote, Board Member Bernie Grisolia said that Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. had given back the $15,000 for Festival of the Lakes and wants to see it given to Pierogi Fest. McDermott did that because 'there were hurt feelings between Whiting and Hammond' over the money, Grisolia said.
'If we take the $15,000 back, we'll be giving Pierogi Fest $25,000,' SSCVA Board President Andy Qunell said.
'Are we not sponsors for Festival of the Lakes, then?' asked Board Member Chris Cash, who's the general manager for the Ramada Conference Center in North Hammond. 'I don't want people to think we're not supporting Festival of the Lakes.'
Qunell then moved to approve the $10,000 for Pierogi Fest and said Hammond should still accept some of the money and that he would call McDermott even though the SSCVA's relationship with him is 'strained right now.' SSCVA Treasurer Matt Malony added that Qunell should make clear it the SSCVA never intended to slight Whiting.
McDermott, however, told the Post-Tribune on Wednesday that Qunell's effort would be a 'loaded proposition.'
'This whole thing was botched, completely mishandled from the beginning,' McDermott said. 'I love Whiting, and we never wanted to take any sort of money away from them, so (SSCVA) can keep the money.
'We pay $2.5 million to the CVA each year — that's 50% of their budget — and they want to give us $15,000? That's a pretty crappy return.'
This year's smaller SSCVA sponsorships for the two prompted President and CEO Phil Taillon in April to consider changing the process by which festivals asked for sponsorships, the Post-Tribune reported. Having previously paid $20,000 for a high-level Festival of the Lakes sponsorship, the organization's vote to give $10,000 to it this year and $5,000 to Pierogi Fest was directly tied to the SSCVA's lawsuit between it and former President and CEO Speros Batistatos.
Grisolia at that meeting asked whether the board would consider giving Festival of the Lakes $15,000 since $10,000 is 'kind of an insult.' Chief Financial Officer Nicole Wolverton concurred with Taillon that the money isn't there right now.
In other business, CFO Nicole Wolverton said the SSCVA collected $398,000 of Innkeeper's tax for March, about $33,000 less than last year. So far, the SSCVA has collected $1.6 million, or $100,000 less year-to-date. Some of the lower revenues, at least on Hammond's end, could be attributed to a function BP Whiting hosted where many of their contractors were staying in hotels, Cash said; as such, revenues are 'hard to make up' at the start of the year. But Taillon wasn't too concerned yet.
'Tourism is down all over, so to be where we're at right now isn't a bad place,' he said.