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......... LETTER: July 28, 2003 Letter to Star about I-69 meeting in Perry Township Pat Andrews, Vice-President of McANA, sent the following letter to the Editor of the Indianapolis Star. This letter was not published by the Star. On Wednesday, Mayors and other officials, will gather and vote on whether the proposed I-69 Route 3c should be included in the region’s long-range transportation plan. Route 3c, a/k/a the “new-terrain” route, travels the SR 37 corridor through Perry Township and on to Bloomington and Evansville. Last Thursday, more than 300 people gathered at Rosa Parks Elementary School in Perry Township to hear the case for and against this route. Anyone interested in the extended debate should catch a WCTY rebroadcast of the meeting. Impressive and significant were a string of speakers from the audience who called on Mayor Peterson to vote ‘no’ at Wednesday’s meeting. They were Dr. Phil Borst - President of the City-County Council, Jack Sandlin –Trustee, Katherine Price –Assessor, and David Frizzell – State Representative; all responsible for the SR 37 area of Perry Township. Dr. Larry Borst, State Senator whose constituents in both Marion and Johnson Counties are affected, could not attend the meeting, but called the next day to voice his strong opposition to Route 3c. US Representative Julia Carson continues to stand with the neighborhoods and against new terrain routes. And, Senator Richard Lugar has been asking if Indiana can afford INDOT’s plans. Indiana would be better served if the ‘common sense’ route were used - utilizing existing I-70 from Indianapolis to Terre Haute and an upgrade to interstate standards for US 41 to Evansville. Using INDOT’s own numbers, the cost for I-70/US 41 construction is half that of new-terrain while the annual maintenance costs are one-tenth. This money will come out of Hoosier pockets in the form of increased gasoline taxes; some estimate an additional 15 cents per gallon. Meanwhile, the supposed benefits of new-terrain are indistinguishable to those of I-70/US 41. Central Indiana is certainly far better served if I-70/US 41chosen. Folks stand to lose their homes and businesses if they lie right in the path of new-terrain. Those alongside have already begun to feel the effects of dropping property values. Increased noise, increased response times by critical services such as fire safety, and increased difficulty getting around the community will all reduce the quality of life for these neighborhoods. I-70 is already built and causes no harm. Neither the Perry Wellfield, out of which is pumped 45 million gallons of water per day, nor the public wells in Johnson County, are noted in the INDOT’s study. The proposal for a new-terrain route does not take into consideration the risk to our to public drinking water supply. This is a serious oversight and calls into question the validity of the analysis done by INDOT. Just as the EPA’s new air quality standard is taking effect, INDOT is moving forward with a freeway that may push us over the limit or keep us there longer. Next year we fully expect that the metro region will be paying fines because we will not be ‘in attainment’. No study has been done to see if I-69 can pass muster with the new standard or if it will cause more air pollution, more fines, more ozone action days, and more notoriety as a ‘polluted’ city. This notion of air quality is not just a health issue or a regulatory issue – it quickly becomes an economic issue when your city cannot meet the standards. If a business that emits gases wants to build in a polluted city, it must add expensive air pollution controls. Non-polluting businesses, such as in the life science or computer industries, look at quality of life before they locate anywhere. Polluted cities are not high on anyone’s quality of life scale. If I-69 pushes Indianapolis and the metro region out of air quality attainment, or keeps it out longer, it will have a negative effect on economic development. I-70 already exists and causes no harm. 94% of the comments sent to INDOT during their public comment period were in opposition to new terrain routes or in favor of I-70/US 41. This represents a public process that has worked – but is being ignored. The elected officials in Terra Haute stood up last year in favor of the I-70/US 41 option. The elected officials in Bloomington (their Mayor excepted) stood up against I-69 going their way. And here in Indy we have all of the elected officials responsible for the citizens of Perry Township standing to voice their opposition – except Mayor Peterson. McANA calls upon Mayor Bart Peterson to vote against the inclusion of I-69 in the long-range transportation plans – simply because he was elected to serve the best interests of the citizens of Indianapolis. Pat Andrews
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