Drivers: no new construction

The changing fall colors were a bonus, but not the reason why carloads of farmers, environmentalists and other citizens drove across southwestern Indiana Sunday afternoon.\nInstead, they hit the road to express opposition to a "new terrain" extension of Interstate 69 by driving along four of the five proposed routes for the highway between Indianapolis and Evansville.\nCounty Under New Terrain U.S., a Bloomington-based group directed by Bloomington businessman John Smith, organized the car tour.\nOfficials of COUNT US said they favored the route following Interstate 70 west to U.S. 41 south for two reasons.\nOne is the cost; the other routes would cost an average of $600 million more. The second is the environmental impact -- in terms of lost farmland, forests and wetlands -- of a new terrain route is far higher than building on the existing 70/41 route.\n"We can save billions by using 70/41. If we put the interstate in the middle of the state, we'll lose places like this," said Leah Roy, a Bloomington resident, as she distributed leaflets and information about the highway at the Oliver Winery. \nThe winery, located on State Road 37, was a stop on the way to Indianapolis for drivers, hosting a concert led by Bloomington City Councilman Andy Ruff. The business could be one of the many removed under several of the proposed I-69 routes.\nVisitors to the winery were able to see if their homes would be taken away by proposed routes on a computer equipped with mapping software.\nEllie Gallahuge said she was very upset about the possibility of the highway taking away parts of her land. Gallahuge lives on a farm adjacent to the winery. \n"We've been there for 25 years," she said. "We raise horses on 30 acres. They could take the front 16, which would bring the road right up to our house."\nHer friend, Amy Imman, who grew up in Bloomington but now lives in Illinois, said people recognize the beauty of the area the highway would pass through. \n"The environmental impacts would be so significant," Imman said. "A highway would negatively impact the culture and the area."\nAt the final destination of the tour, the drivers met at Southwestway Park in Indianapolis to listen to music and speakers. Large posterboards with pictures of homes, farms, forests and other areas that could be paved over by the highway were prominently displayed. \nLater this week, COUNT US, Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads and the Hoosier Environmental Council will present the photographs to Governor Frank O'Bannon.\nAlso displayed was a letter Indiana Senator Richard Lugar recently sent to the Indiana Department of Transportation Commissioner J. Bryan Nichol.\nThe letter requests that INDOT not choose a route that would pass through the Lugar family farm.\n"If it's not a good idea to put the highway through his farm, it's not a good idea for anyone's farm," said Bruce McAllister, a farmer from Owen County, whose farm would be cut in half under two of the proposed routes. \nMcAllister said that Lugar's letter gave him hope that a new terrain extension would not be built.\n"He can't maintain the posture that the highway is a good idea," McAllister said. "What he said in the letter thousands of farmers across southwest Indiana could say"