Around The State

Work on 6-year I-65 project nears end\nJEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. -- Crews are working on the final sections of a project to widen a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 65 in southern Indiana, meaning the last of six years of construction headaches could be gone by Thanksgiving.\nThe $250 million project, started in 1999, has added lanes to the highway in the area just north of Louisville, Ky., rebuilt interchanges and created a new system of frontage roads. Work is down to two locations within the project area, which stretches from the Ohio River north to Sellersburg.\n"All the big stuff's done," said Todd Listerman, a construction engineer for the Indiana Department of Transportation. "We're down to the little pieces."\nWord that the end of the construction was near came as a relief to Melvin Stanley, a retiree who lives a few hundred yards from the highway.\nStanley said he did not use I-65 much, but the detours created by the project sent dump trucks and other traffic by his house.\n"It seems like they've been working on it forever," he told The Courier-Journal of Louisville for a story Tuesday. "All those barrels and stuff, you can get lost."\nListerman said delays in obtaining steel for a railroad bridge in Clarksville slowed down some work, but that construction should be completed this week.\nGohmann Asphalt and Construction Inc., the project's general contractor, expects to finish paving in the area by early November, said Dave Hardin, vice president of the company's road division.\nThe other site for significant continuing construction is the Indiana 60 interchange at Sellersburg. The northbound exit ramp still must be finished, and concrete barriers still restrict traffic to two lanes in each direction.\nListerman said the highway agency's official schedule still called for all work to be finished by the end of the year.\nThe wider and more efficient highway system already has boosted retail development in the area, said Jack Ragland, president of the Southern Indiana Economic Development Council.\nThe interchange at Indiana 60 also will generate economic advantages, including better access to the Clark County Airport and to industrial land in the Sellersburg area, he said.\nNew Albany resident Sammie Davis said he was glad just to see an end to the construction, as he drives twice a day to pick up his children in Louisville and the I-65 work sometimes causes delays of 30 minutes or longer.\n"I'll believe it when I see it," he said. "I hate it."\nAbout 500 Indiana guardsmen to be mobilized for duty\nGARY -- About 500 Indiana National Guard members will be mobilized in October to support the U.S. military's ongoing operations in Iraq, guard officials said.\nGuard spokeswoman Capt. Lisa Kopczynski said the Gary-based 113th Engineer Battalion has been activated and will deploy in early October to Camp Atterbury south of Indianapolis. There, the battalion members will be processed, including medical and physical checks, and equipment tests.\nIt will take at least a month for the guardsmen to be ready for deployment overseas, Kopczynski said. Their deployment, including time spent at Camp Atterbury, may last up to 18 months.\nAlthough the unit is being mobilized in connection with Iraq operations, Kopczynski could not say whether the guardsmen would be sent to Iraq.\n"The entire battalion is being called into active duty and that's about 500 people," she said Tuesday. "We can't discuss any of the security issues, but the mission will be to support Operation Iraqi Freedom."\nTo bring the 113th Engineer Battalion up to full strength, 64 of a Hammond-based unit's 90 guardsmen are being activated and transferred to the 113th, said Lt. Roberto Gonzalez, the unit's commander.\nHe said the affected members of his unit have been told to expect that they will be in Iraq no later than January.\nThe company has been trained to clear minefields, lay minefields, construct perimeter defenses and dig foxholes, Gonzalez said.\nJudge denies request for special primary\nCROWN POINT, Ind. -- A judge has rejected a request by the Lake County Election Board that the special East Chicago mayoral primary be held on the same day as the general election.\nInstead, Special Judge Steven King reaffirmed his order scheduling the new Democratic primary for Oct. 26 -- a week before the general election.\nKing's six-page order, signed Monday, indicated even more confusion might result for voters -- particularly among those lacking experience or sophistication in voting or with limited English skills -- if those elections were on the same day.\nEven by contesting the Oct. 26 date King set when he ordered the special election, the Election Board has confused the process, the judge wrote.\nThe new election was set after the state Supreme Court last month threw out the results of the 2003 primary because of widespread fraud by the campaign of longtime Mayor Robert Pastrick.\nPastrick, the city's mayor since 1971, claimed a narrow victory over George Pabey, a former city councilman and police chief.\nIn his ruling, King barred people who voted in the 2003 Republican primary from voting in the makeup Democratic primary between Pastrick, Pabey and Lonnie Randolph, a former state senator and city judge.\nFederal Judge Allen Sharp issued an order for the U.S. Justice Department to send federal election examiners to the polls for the Oct. 26 primary, the November general election and East Chicago's new mayoral general election, tentatively scheduled for the end of December.