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for Evansville honesty and compassion. Evansville Citizens be good Hoosiers. INDOT projects as large as upgrades of US 31 from South Bend to Indianapolis are being dropped without mention as Mitch Daniels tells Evansville, we will try to build I-69 faster even though we have a two billion dollar plus shortage over the next ten years. Actually five Citizen's groups issued a study of INDOT documents showing the shortage is more than double that much. (http://www.i69tour.org/INDOT.html) Everybody is now understanding that "the 80% federal money" the last INDOT commissioner claimed would build I-69 was just describing the federal gas tax collected in Indiana and sent back to us I-69, or no I-69. Now we know it is the same money to fund any and all other INDOT projects. Do those in Evansville really care so little about what I-69 will cost everyone in the state to demand that we build it, no matter what? When we talk to you one on one you seem nice and honest. You admit that far less would serve the need. Please thinking Evansvillian's speak out. What if even your politicians can't keep this from being a toll road? At least you will still be able to get to Indianapolis on US 41. Bloomington and Bedford will have you to thank for a toll only road to Indy and every small trip now free on SR37. Greene County will be stuck with one or two access points to this divider Interstate that will hinder cross travel for all time. Crane will loose its precious isolation and have the ultimate terrorist highway for future BRAC considerations. Hundreds of fields in Gibson and Daviess Counties will become triangles that farm implements are unable to plant and cultivate efficiently. Google "Nuevo Laredo cartel" if you want some scary facts about the drug cartel control of our hoped for international boarder connection. Perhaps that is not an issue with a build I-69, at 84 miles longer to Canada. Maybe the drug runners will only use the shorter routes... bypassing Evansville and Indiana University as will mileage consciences international trucking. The two existing Interstate routes between Nuevo Laredo Mexico and Sarnia Canada are well known. The idea of another under utilized I-64 like Interstate for your occasional travels might sound nice, but please be fair to others. Proposed I-69 is the most expensive Indiana highway project ever. The 9 out of 92 Indiana counties that it would cross average the highest income per person region in the state possible according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. Contrary to what proponents of I-69 claim, the official study of I-69 has shown "real disposable income per capita for the build alternatives does not differ significantly from the 2025 forecast for the no build alternative." That means no more money per hoosier if we build it or don't. INDOT now admits that former INDOT commissioner Brian Nicol only spun this differently. Its our money, so Federal Highway lets INDOT set the rules. Lack of financial benefit was of no concern to FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) in issuing a Record of Decision allowing continued study, because INDOT stacked the deck. The EIS study of I-69 listed building the NAFTA corridor interstate a hoosier "Core Goal" but showing a profit and economic improvement was of less importance. Saving a convenience gas station or fast food restaurant "business" was important, but "farms" seen not as businesses were less important... Those are not really Hoosier values, not OUR Core Values! Come on Evansville this is a political set up and you know it. You have stacked the deck. With the Billions of missing dollars needed now understood, it's time to be a team player. It's time to be real Hoosiers. Most opponents have always offered the compromise... a 9 minute longer route on US 41 and I-70, an existing commerce route that still costs us all $1 billion to upgrade. It would serve the truly "economically deprived" Terre Haute region which is dead last in income per capita despite I-70. Even if highways don't provide a benefit, at least with I-69 on US41 and I-70 they wouldn't lose your business along US 41 in route to INDY. I-69 built there could use our gas tax dollars to relocate those businesses rather than just letting them die on the vine as you would bypass Terre Haute for Bloomington. BTW, if you don't know it, Evansville has the second highest income per capita of any city in the state. Only Indy residents make more. You are not "the forgotten stepchild" of Indianapolis that you so often complaining. You are a powerful lobby block pushing through an unneeded an unpopular infrastructure item on your fellow Hoosier taxpayers. Truth will beat this highway. Honesty from Evansville residence now might result in road improvement for all of us without the overkill of NAFTA I-69. The existing traffic is so small as to be unimaginable for a project of this magnitude. Can you say N-A-F-T-A? Given the jobs you have lost to Mexico... can you say it with a strait face? Realize that it was your proponents of I-69 who dubbed this as The NAFTA Free Trade Interstate. What do protester and unemployed former teamsters have in common.... a dislike of NAFTA! Be honest please, you can't have it both ways. Open your eyes, smell your own mess. What you need, does not have to be this big and be so offensive to the rest of us. There could be much less expensive and damaging solutions for your trips to Indy, Chicago and Bloomington. Don't forget, it is US41 that will get you to Chicago. Be honest don't push your weight around to get everything. Compromise, or maybe now that Evansville's INDOT Commissioner is gone, you might just loose it all. We believe truth will win the day. $3.50 per gallon gasoline will beat you if nothing else. John Smith COUNT US! |
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