Students clamor for new highway

Not everyone in Bloomington is against I-69.\nIU students formed a new organization in favor of an interstate route through Bloomington Thursday. The group, called Students for Interstate 69, provides students who would like to see the interstate through Bloomington with an opportunity to get involved in this controversial issue. Roughly 100 students have joined Students for I-69.\n"Those in favor of I-69 represent a silent majority," said senior Terry Record, Students for I-69 foundation committee chairman. "But our voices are almost drowned out by a small but vocal minority."\nRecord, an Evansville native, has long contended with the state highway system in the southwest part of the state, a road system that he believes is inadequate. He said an interstate is a necessary step to improve southwest Indiana and Bloomington.\n"I-69 is long overdue for Indiana," Record said. "It is necessary for the future of our state."\nThe organization believes that the interstate highway is vital to the future economy of southwest Indiana and Bloomington. \n"It would help stop the 'brain drain,'" Record said. "Every year thousands of Indiana college graduates leave the state due to a lack of quality jobs. According to the 2000 census, Indiana ranks 32nd in the nation in per capita income. Indiana's rural communities have fallen seven percent from the national average, as well."\nAnother major aim of Students for I-69 is preserving the safety of Bloomington students. The organization is troubled over the lack of measures the state has taken to ensure safety on the current road system.\n"Students need safe transportation to the University," Record said. "Thousands of students every year literally play 'Russian-roulette.' For every 100 million miles logged on the road, there are four times fewer crashes on interstate highways than on two-lane state roads."\nEnvironmental activists, led by the Hoosier Environmental Council, support an alternate interstate route through Terra Haute US-41 and I-70, which they claim to be less harmful to the environment as well as more economically sound.\nRecord disagrees on both accounts.\n"As an organization, we would not advocate a route that would damage environmental regions that are cherished by the state," he said. "US-41 would have to be rebuilt from scratch, and that would displace all the homes and businesses that currently use that road. We favor a process called 'threading the needle' that would take the interstate through Bloomington and still avoid the Hoosier National Forest and other important environmental areas."\nThough the organization is campus-based, much of their efforts are media based. \n"We are a debate organization," Record said. "We are simply advocating the voices of many students who agree that I-69 through Bloomington is the best thing for Indiana. In short, that I-69 through Bloomington is the shortest, safest, and most economical option, and that Indiana's infrastructure development depends on it."\nLocal environmental activist and journalism professor Steve Higgs disagrees.\n"This is the most environmentally destructive piece of policy that I've seen in 20 years of covering the environment and government. It's outrageous, and the public must put a stop to it."\nHiggs said the Indiana Department of Transportation environmental impact study, reviewed by the Environmental Protection Acency, clearly shows that a Bloomington route is substantially the most environmentally destructive and most costly.