EAST CHICAGO | Speakers at a public hearing Thursday night on solutions for the closed Cline Avenue Bridge made it plain the state's plan for building a permanent detour remains controversial.

A number of residents and one prominent business protested the state's plans, some large business groups supported it, and East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland said the city will be submitting its own plan to the state.

The mayor would not say if the city will request a new bridge be built, but he said it will be a different plan than the state's plan, which uses the Dickey Road drawbridge and Riley Road to get back and forth to Cline.

"Tonight we are here to absorb and embrace what industry is saying, what the community is saying and what other residents near and far are saying," Copeland said in response to a Times reporter's questions outside the hearing.

Inside the small auditorium, more than 70 people listened intently as neighbors and some of the region's most powerful business leaders took to the microphone at East Chicago Central High School.