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Cleveland-Cliffs' offices at the Indiana Harbor steel mill in East Chicago are shown.
A steelworker was seriously injured and taken to the hospital Thursday after an industrial accident at the Cleveland-Cliffs Indiana Harbor mill in East Chicago.
The steelworker was pinned under a steel coil on a man-made peninsula in Lake Michigan and was then airlifted to the intensive care unit at the University of Chicago Medicine hospital in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.
"Cleveland-Cliffs confirms that an accident involving one employee occurred on Thursday afternoon at its Indiana Harbor facility which resulted in the employee being transported to the hospital," Cleveland-Cliffs spokesperson Patricia Persico said. "Due to standard privacy protocols, we are not at liberty to disclose the name of the employee or any further personal details."
United Steelworkers District 7 Director Mike Millsap said the industrial accident was being investigated. Fellow union workers strove to free the recent high school graduate who was hurt at the mill.
"A coil rolled on the lower part of his body below the waist," Millsap said. "He was taken to the University of Chicago. He is in stable condition. He has a broken femur."
Though not as deadly as they once were, steel mills remain dangerous places to work with many inherent hazards like heavy machinery, rumbling trucks, barreling trains, molten metal, raging temperatures, high catwalks and steel coil that's weighed by the ton. The Department of Labor's Occupational Health and Safety Administration estimates steel mills had 7.3 recordable illnesses or injuries per 100 qualifying hours in 2020, the most recent year for which data was available, making it one of the most dangerous jobs in the country.
Chicken Paradise and Cinco De Mayo will soon open in the food court of the Southlake Mall at U.S. 30 and Mississippi Street in Hobart.
The fast food restaurants are chains that operate in other mall food courts.
"It's a local operator," said Kristyn Filetti, Southlake Mall Marketing & Business Development Manager. "They have other locations in our other centers as well. The same operator will be opening two spots."
Cinco De Mayo specializes in Mexican food while Chicken Paradise has chicken sandwiches, fried chicken and wings.
They should open in the next two months, she said.
"We have a lot of new tenants, a lot of action coming to the center," Filetti said. "We're excited about our leasing activity."
Morkes Chocolates, a chocolate shop with more than a century of history in Chicagoland, will soon open in Cedar Lake.
Founded in Chicago in 1920, the vintage sweet shop has sold candy since 1920. It has locations in Palatine and Huntley, specializing in sophisticated, fine chocolates.
Kris VanderPloeg, who had worked at the Paltantine location, plans to open a Morkes in Cedar Lake in August on West 133rd Avenue in front of Strack & Van Til. It's been a longtime dream.
"It's historic," she said. "William Morkes, who worked at Nabisco, opened the first one in 1920 at 26th and Trumball in Chicago. It was a chocolate shop with sodas, ice cream and doughnuts. That was the original. His son Bill Morkes opened in Palantine in 1967. It was the same thing, very old school with wicker baskets with different hard candies, different chocolates, caramel apples and everything. We've served chocolates to generations."
The Cedar Lake sweet shop will be located in a historic 2,400-square-foot building that belonged to Dr. Robert King.
"He was the first medical practitioner in Cedar Lake. It was a medical doctor's office where he's making house calls and things like that," she said. "He's been called the father of Cedar Lake. We realized that when we bought the building. There was a plaque to Robert King and we knew his son. We were floored when we found out."
The space is decorated with black-and-white photos procured from the Museum at Lassen's Resort to play up the historical vibe.
She drove by the building and knew it was where she wanted to open the chocolate shop she always dreamed of.
"It was like a wedding dress," she said. "You just know it's the one."
Morkes Chocolates offers many candies chocolates, caramels, caramel apples, toffees, fudge, Mint Creams, Original Silks, truffles, peanut butter cups, chocolate bars, double stuffed cookies, chocolate graham crackers, Peppermint Barque, Morchunkies, Coconut Haystacks and Sponge Candy. It will have a line of sugar-free chocolates for diabetics. Velvety French Cream is the signature item.
It also has Pecan Puppets, which are like turtles with caramel, pecans and chocolate but thicker. The store will have eight different candy dispensers with jelly beans, malted milk balls, Swedish fish and other sweets.
The Cedar Lake candy shop will carry Dairy Belle ice cream. It will seat 12 to 15 people and have a party room with another 20 seats and closed-circuit television cameras that will let parents and grandparents watch the kids from another room if they prefer.
Morkes will furnish candy, ice cream and pizza for the parties. The kids can play and make their own chocolates.
"We'll have a lot of kids' birthday parties," she said. "They'll get to do chocolate-making, dipping things in chocolate and taking home whatever they make. I want to make it easy for moms who have to do so much. I'm a mom myself. It's a one-stop shop for moms for birthdays and other parties."
She expects it will be a destination since people would drive as far as an hour away to visit the Palatine location. The Cedar Lake Morkes will not carry the doughnuts but will otherwise be very similar.
"I want to create a place where people are going to be motivated to try every single different piece of chocolate," she said. "I want to create a place where people are going to be very comfortable to go back to, a place where the owner is nice and independent."
Morkes Chocolates will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, visit morkeschocolates.com, find the business on Facebook or call 219-390-7161.
Surf's Up recently opened in the Southlake Mall in Hobart.
The restaurant specializes in seafood, fish, shrimp and fried lobster. It also has salads, wings, tacos, desserts and fountain drinks.
"It just opened," said Kristyn Filetti, Southlake Mall Marketing & Business Development Manager. "There's a lot of action going on in our food court."
The menu includes crab legs, lobster, perch, catfish, tilapia and whiting. Most of the seafood can either be ordered fried or grilled.
Sandwich options include salmon burgers, shrimp po'boys and The Bomb Sandwich, which stuffs a lobster tail and shrimp in a toasted garlic brioche bun, topping them with lettuce, pickle, tomatoes and house-made surf sauce. Sides include potatoes, corn on the cob, collard greens, cheese grits, shrimp and grits and fried green tomatoes.
The restaurant is located on the second floor of the mall at 2109 Southlake Mall.
For more information, call 708-516-4924.
Pandora Jewelry will soon open a location in the center court at the Southlake Mall in Hobart.
The Danish jeweler sells customizable charm bracelets, designer rings, earrings and necklaces. It sells jewelry at more than 6,700 retailers in more than 100 counties on six continents.
"Bridal & Co. had Pandora and Albert's Diamond Jewelers did too when it was here," said Kristyn Filetti, Southlake Mall Marketing & Business Development Manager. "But this is actually their first location here and their first location in our portfolio. They specialized in the personalized bracelets you can add onto with charms."
The company was founded by Danish goldsmith Per Enevoldsen in 1982 and debuted its signature charm bracelets in 2000. It became the world's third-largest jewelry company in sales volume in 2011, trailing only Cartier and Tiffany & Co. The company employs more than 26,000 people worldwide, including at its manufacturing site in Thailand.
Though worldwide in scope, Pandora's business is concentrated mainly in Europe and the United States.
Pandora Jewelry plans to open in an 882-square-foot space on the first floor on the superregional Southlake Mall near the other jewelry stores that flank the center court in the new few months.
"It should be open by the end of summer, in August or September," she said.
The Duneland Chamber of Commerce recently hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for The Junkluggers of Greater NW Indiana, which opened last year at 157 W. 1050 N. in Chesterton.
The business specializes in eco-friendly junk removal. It's a nationwide franchise that a University of Connecticut student founded while drinking boxed wine and listening to a friend play guitar while studying abroad in Australia. A friend mentioned he made $100 for lugging away a neighbor's fridge and CEO Josh Cohen realized he could do that.
It offers residential and commercial junk removal, curbside pickup, e-waste recycling, senior downsizing, estate cleanouts, appliance removal, construction site cleanouts and furniture removal. It will clean out attics, basements, garages and storage units.
For more information, call 219-248-2094 or visit junkluggersofnwin.com.
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Joseph S. Pete is a Lisagor Award-winning business reporter who covers steel, industry, unions, the ports, retail, banking and more. The Indiana University grad has been with The Times since 2013 and blogs about craft beer, culture and the military.
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The United Steelworkers union and Cleveland-Cliffs reached a tentative agreement for its mining ad pelletizing workers.
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The union fears steelworkers would not be able to get coverage from a number of Northwest Indiana healthcare providers, including Community Hospital, Pinnacle Hospital, St. Catherine Hospital, St. Mary Medical Center, Community Health Network, Northwest Health, UChicago Medicine, Northern Medicine, Loyola University, LaPorte Hospital and Pulaski Memorial Hospital.
Centier Bank named new branch managers at two Gary branches.
Methodist Hospitals named a new director of Women’s and Children’s Services.
The Northwest Indiana Influential Women Association, a group dedicated to the professional advancement of women in the Region, will soon give out its annual awards recognizing leading women in business in Northwest Indiana.
Local companies could get a big break and be given the chance to stock their products at Meijer superstores around the Region and the greater Midwest.
But like any good businessperson, our eyes must be on the horizon, scanning for future risks that could endanger Indiana’s future growth.
Cleveland-Cliffs' offices at the Indiana Harbor steel mill in East Chicago are shown.
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