Common Council says I-69 will make city 'generic'

Gov. Mitch Daniels' plan to make Interstate 69 a public-private partnership toll road is compounding the dilemma the proposed road creates, anti-I-69 activists said Thursday at the annual meeting of Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads.\n"The toll road is bad for all the same reasons I-69 is, plus many more," said Bloomington Common Council President Andy Ruff.\nDaniels' plan would make Indiana State Road 37 -- a major north-south corridor that runs through Bloomington -- a toll road. Construction is not planned to be completed until 2018.\nWith S.R. 37 as a toll road, traffic would be diverted to other local roads that were not designed to handle the load, Ruff said.\nDuring a Sept. 29 town hall meeting in Bloomington, Daniels said I-69 was essential for the future of Indiana's economy and that a toll road along with a public-private partnership is the only way to pay for it.\n"Which half of Indiana's future would you not like to build?" Daniels said to anti-I-69 activists at the meeting.\nDaniels said at the meeting that building I-69 would help the rest of Indiana's economy grow like Bloomington's has recently. But Ruff said I-69 would make Bloomington more generic, calling it "Anyplace, USA." He said it would destroy the qualities that attract investment and make Bloomington special, saying it would become an average stop on an interstate, indistinguishable from any other.\nThe problem of traffic diversion not only hurts existing roads but the toll roads as well, said Thomas Tokarski, president of CARR. If not enough cars use the road, then the toll road can't pay for itself like planned.\nBut Tom Sharp, Indiana Department of Transportation commissioner, said in the Sept. 29 town hall meeting that a public partnership is the most efficient way to build I-69.\nThe toll road proposal has increased opposition to I-69, Tokarski said. He emphasized that the proposal still must be approved by the state legislature, and activists should concentrate on writing letters and contacting their local legislators.\n"(The toll road) may be the stick that broke (I-69's) back," he said.