Residents voice concerns over I-69 development

Leaving the outdoor playground empty and the nearby horseshoe pits barren, community members from Terre Haute to Evansville to Bloomington packed the AMVETS Post 2000's Gathering Hall to voice comments and concerns about the new-terrain I-69 that is scheduled to cut through a few Southern Indiana communities sometime soon. I-69 project team members -- including engineers, environmental scientists, planners and Indiana Department of Transportation representatives -- provided the public with maps and aerial photos to highlight the highway's proposed route through Greene, Davies, Pike, Gibson and Vanderburgh counties. \n"These preliminary alternatives mark a milestone in the project and will allow us to move forward in indentifying a preferred alternative," said Bruce Hudson in a statement, a project manager for DLZ Indiana -- the engineering firm conducting the studies for Section 4. "Public input is an important part of the study. It will help us ensure the alignment of I-69 within the approved corridor is safe, efficient and environmentally sound."\nSupporters of a new-terrain I-69 cite potential economic benefits like employment opportunities, increased intrastate and interstate business incentives the highway might bring. Opponents cite the potential for excessive tax-payer costs associated with the North American Free Trade Agreement superhighway, the potential for a paved "terror" corridor for terrorists and drug cartels running from Central America to Canada, the economic hardship from uprooting personal plots of land and rural communities and the irreparable damage to the environment and wildlife from continued urbanization.\nINDOT representative Ricky Clark was muffled half-way through his opening remarks with opponent chants of "No I-69" and the display of two protest banners among the crowd. Indiana State Police personnel escorted the opponents to the front and side of the Gathering Hall, having granted them permission to continue their opposition silently and without further disruption of the speakers.\nMonroe County Councilwoman Sophia Travis said community members should continue "the good fight" in voicing their opposition to all elected Indiana officials throughout the state about the potential baggage a new-terrain I-69 might bring to Hoosiers and the Indiana environment.\n"Sustainability is not something this highway will be a part of. What is the necessity of more pavement?" Travis asked INDOT officials. "Save it, don't pave it."\nBloomington City Councilman Andy Ruff said the "whole argument" for a new-terrain I-69 is "based on lies." He further added that the city's resolution against the INDOT proposal was the longest resolution in the more than 185-year history of Bloomington.\nCity Councilman Chris Gaal reaffirmed the I-69 supporter belief that people in South Central Indiana need jobs, but his opposition centered along political projections providing "fear of economic security" throughout the state -- specifically at Crane Naval Base.\n"You can manipulate people with insecurity and fear," he said, "but it isn't necessary to save jobs at Crane -- isolation is a strategic advantage." \nOther opponents to a new-terrain I-69 cited increased congestion on county roads, increased highway fatalities, increased tax-payer costs associated with highway maintenance, increased unemployment due to cheap labor elsewhere and increased low-income job growth. \n"I would stop repeating myself if Gov. Daniels or INDOT was listening," said concerned Hoosier Mary. She repeated four more times for effect: "We don't want I-69 -- We can't afford I-69. Fix the roads we have."\nHoosier William Boyd recommended INDOT bulldoze existing Wal-Mart stores and stripmalls throughout Indiana to plant trees. Wait 100 years, he said, and then talk about cutting down more trees for a highway.\nBloomington resident Martha Croutch said "taxpayer-supported vandalism of the Indiana people" and the Hoosier environment does not compare with the protest statements spray painted on the Statehouse in Indianapolis a few weeks ago. She said "we have some terrorists here in our midst," and she called for the Indiana State Police to arrest INDOT officials and others for vandalizing maps of Southern Indiana with blue, red and orange lines. \n" ... And I think they use dynamite to blast their way through," she said while the crowd applauded.