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......... LETTER: July 31, 2003 Letter to Star on Commissioner Nicol's reaction to I-69 meeting in Perry Township Pat Andrews, Vice-President of McANA, sent the following letter to the Editor of the Indianapolis Star. J. Bryan Nicol’s letter to the editor is a prime example both of not listening to what the public has to say and of spin. In that letter, the Commissioner of INDOT answered a question supposedly posed to him at last Thursday’s MPO hearing in Perry Township. The question from the audience that Mr. Nicol points to was indeed one of the best of the evening. That’s saying a lot given the high caliber of the question and answer period. But, Mr. Nicol cited the question incompletely and inaccurately. The actual question was: “Is there one decision that’s been changed from the opinions you’ve gotten from the public?” Mr. Nicol’s answer on Thursday, as well as his entire letter to the editor, is instructive of way he utilizes public comment to suit his purposes. Mr. Nicol is content to take the most minor threads of public input and spin them into something they are not – representative of the tone, content, and outcome of the public process. Mr. Nicol answered the question posed with spin of the Decatur Township meeting last September. He said he had “pretty clear direction from folks over there [Decatur Township] saying that, ‘you have an existing road corridor [SR 37] – it makes a lot of sense to use that corridor as opposed to an all new corridor [Mann Road]’ ”. Was that the reason INDOT decided to take I-69 through Perry Township? In any case, how accurately did Mr. Nicol represent the Decatur comments? Of the 228 written comments we received at last year’s Decatur Township meeting, 213 were against any extension of I-69 or were in favor of upgrading I-70/US 41. Five did indicate that they opposed I-69, but, if the road had to be built, they preferred expanding SR 37. By the way, that meeting was not one call by Mr. Nicol or INDOT. The Decatur Township Civic Council called it. It was public process invoked by the public for its own protection. There is something seriously wrong with the integrity of the public process being used to select a route for I-69. INDOT may have participated in a public process ‘unprecedented’ in the history of Indiana. But they also disregarded the public in a volume and to a degree ‘unprecedented’ in the history of Indiana. We do not want an opportunity just to speak. We want an opportunity to be heard. 94% of the comments from throughout the state submitted to INDOT during its public comment period last year stated a position against I-69 new terrain or in favor of I-70/US 41. Those comments were not heard. The message from September’s Decatur meeting was not that people wanted I-69 to go down SR 37, it was that they were against I-69. Those comments were not heard. The message of last Thursday’s meeting was not that people wanted more overpasses; it was that they did not want I-69 plowing through Perry Township AT ALL. And it is disingenuous of Mr. Nicol to spin it any other way. Patricia Andrews, Ph.D.
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