For immediate release:

COUNT US! "Outraged At INDOT for the Second Holiday Season in a Row.”

DATE: 12/ 17/03
Contact:
John L. Smith (Director of COUNT US!
And COUNT US! PAC
Paid for by COUNT US! Political Action Committee,
and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
E-MAIL countus@i69tour.org
Web: http://www.i69tour.org
Phone: (812) 327-6142

COUNT US! Director, John Smith, today made public a letter sent to Governor Kernan on December 15th calling for the removal of INDOT Commissioner J. Brian Nicol for tactics COUNT US! branded psychological warfare like.”

Smith said, “Today’s announced completion of the I-64 to I-465 section DEIS is a repeat of the same announcement made last year at during the holiday season. This dirty political trick is getting very old!”

“I-69 proponents have very little public support and less idea of how to fund this Boondoggle. They are basing the feasibility and affordability on nothing more than hopes for a windfall from places yet to be imagined. Nicol seems totally unsupervised as he tries to deliver Evansville it's most expensive Holiday gift ever and to the rest of us, our now seasonal ‘lump of coal’.”
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December 15, 2003

Dear Governor Kernan,


Please replace the INDOT commissioner as soon as possible.

J. Brian Nicol, a lawyer with an undergraduate degree in political science from Evansville's University of Southern Indiana running over our homes with I-69 is more than we can stand.

Now he is flaunting his disposable transportation budget, unavailable in any other branch of our Indiana Government, as he buys us the IPL land.

I ask you to watch Brian Nicol from our eyes as you and your family enjoy this "joyous season". Homeowners along proposed I-69, 3-C will endure this holiday season under the duress of his announcement of the completion of Tier I and the forwarding of I-69 to the Federal Highway Administration. For a second holiday season in a row, Brian Nicol will have orchestrated blows to the psyche of Hoosier taxpaying homeowners at this most vulnerable time in order to bully and intimidate his prided I-69 into existence. Last year Governor O'Bannon's announcement a full year ahead of the completion of Tier I should have been enough of this mental abuse for one lifetime!

The printing of I-69 on the state map when other large projects to be sooner completed were left off, demonstrates his political science degree being used against the public's will. His tactics are mental warfare against Hoosiers who simply live in his way.

His youth and Evansville connections are leading this state down a path of immature fiscal recklessness.

Brian Nicol and Evansville based, Bernardin Lochmueller and Associates would be a conspiracy, if not for the fact that the DEIS has plenty of integrity to discredit 3C over and over if the Governor, our legislators and business leaders would take the time to look at the data rather than simply listen to predetermined and unjustified conclusions.

The analysis of State Senator Lawrence Borst regarding I-69 is right on! If you have not read the clearly stated Borst analysis of I-69, then you don't know anything about I-69! Lawrence Borst supported I-69 until one of his Republican constituents challenged him when he claimed to know what he was talking about. If you think highways develop small towns, or reduce traffic congestion, or put more American products in our stores, I say, "Open your eyes!" If you think the rest of the state's roads will not suffer from reduced maintenance and lack of attention to problem spots and needs, dream on.

If built, I-69 will be the largest Eminent Domain property damage fiasco in Indiana's history.

My wife is a teacher. Currently, INDOT's budget can not be used to balance the out of balance state budget the way our families retirement dollars are, but they need not be blown as quickly as possible by mitigating a highway that has not even finished the Tier 1 process, much less been approved by FHWA for Tier 2. This version of I-69 got no better grades from the USDA, US-EPA, US Dept. of Interior F&WL than did the prior scrapped DEIS for I-69. Nicol's "cart before the horse" will be the "mud on your face".

Getting this state in sound financial condition for a new economy should be "job one" for our next Governor. A debt ridden state with empty buildings on interstate highways will be in plentiful supply for some time given the collapse of the tech sector and the flight of manufacturing and the state of state's economies.

We can now buy a made in China, 109-pound outdoor grill at Menard’s for $89, which is 89¢ per pound. Cheap efficient transportation is not the solution to Indiana's jobs losses, it is the problem. More expensive transportation would improve our competitiveness. You can't perhaps fix that, but you could run a sound state that pays it's debts rather than borrows it's future from the Teachers Retirement Fund. A low sales tax and disposable income will encourage shopping in state with our local merchants. Small businesses employ the largest percentage of taxpayers.

John Smith

(812) 327-6142

Director of COUNT US! PAC
Paid for by COUNT US! Political Action Committee, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.


Cc; Eric Miller, Mitch Daniels