I got a notice in the mail the other day informing me that Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, CARR, has officially ended their efforts to at first stop, and then hold accountable the Indiana Department of Transportation's I 69 expansion. The new terrain section has already been completed, the damage done, and now they've exhausted their options to have a court consider their grievance of INDOT's negligence and abuse. I never had much hope that it would go anywhere, but still, reading the notice sounded a tiny death knell in my heart.
It was sometime back in the late 80's or early 90's, while I was a clerk at Pygmalion's Art Supply, that my coworker Sandra came into work with the news that she and her husband Thomas had found surveyors on their land southwest of Bloomington. They approached the surveyors and learned, well before most people, that INDOT was considering an I 69 expansion, and that one of the possible routes would cross their land. The Tokarskis (Sandra and Thomas) then formed CARR to try and stop that from happening.
I donated money, I went to rallies, protests and city council meetings. I didn't do as much as I could have, maybe should have but to be honest I was never hopeful that we could stop them. It was obvious that the big boys in Indy wanted to play with their earth moving machines and build a highway, sound economics and the will of the people be damned.
Why, the first study ever done to asses the economic feasibility of the highway, the "Donohue Study," found that they couldn't recommend building it at all. Did that stop INDOT? Heavens no, they just had more studies done, some of which also came back negative, until they got the result they wanted. Remember, I had a front row seat working with Sandra. INDOT wasted a lot of my tax dollars getting "objective scientific backing" for their project (the quotes are for irony, I don't know that anyone in particular said that).
I then had the pleasure of attending one of INDOT's public information meetings where I saw them stand up and say (to paraphrase), "Building this highway is a great idea. We've done blank number of studies, so we know what we're talking about." Oh, was I pissed! I wanted to go add my name to the list of people who wanted to speak but it was long and I knew I'd never make it up there. I'd have cooled down by then anyway and wouldn't have been half so eloquent!
The point was raised anyway, by more than one speaker. The trouble was that CARR was never allowed to present a coherent counter argument at these "information meetings." Instead each speaker was given five minuets. There was huge traffic light on the stage. The light turned green when the speaker began, turned yellow when their time was almost up, and when it turned red they were escorted off of the stage. Anyone who came actually seeking information would find it hard to integrate the dissenting opinion. Or maybe the entire audience was there in dissent. Certainly none of the speakers from the general public that I saw were in favor of the highway.
Poor Tokarskis. The route that was ultimately chosen cut through their land. Not only that, but during the new terrain section of the construction the crews worked 24 hours a day, with big earth moving machinery and dump trucks full of stone. CARR complained and Monroe County made INDOT stop construction at night so that people could sleep, but a judge overturned the order saying that the greater public was served by timely completion of the project, or some such.
Keep that in mind if you would, INDOT's concern for the public and its timeliness. I've got a lot more to say about I 69. I've wanted to talk about if for some time now, but didn't know quite how to begin. I'd finally decided that introducing it a little at a time would be a good strategy and am in fact about half way through the composition of another post that touches on it. Then I got that notice in the mail, felt the death knell in my heart and wanted to share.
