CARR Unveils Anti-New Terrain I-69 Billboard

By Tom Douglas

Information received Wednesday from the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) reveals a report on the long term study of potential routes for I-69 may soon be released.

The most recent study has involved five routes selected in October 2001, including two involving new-terrain routes across Owen County. That final list was the result of an earlier selection process that included 14 potential routes. In the final five, routes #2 and #4 each utilize 67/231 as options, cutting cross the east central portion of the county from Gosport to Spencer to Freedom.

As the INDOT report nears, the Owen County branch of Citizens for
Appropriate Rural Roads [CARR] has announced the installation of a new billboard designed to continue a process to organize opposition to any new-terrain proposal for the I-69 highway.

According to CARR Owen County Representative Bruce McCallister of
Freedom, "the billboard contains a new toll-free telephone number,
1-800-515-OWEN, that will be used to help disseminate information about the project. He said citizens may call the number to be placed on a mailing list to receive important updates about the project, including upcoming public hearings.

"Southwest Indiana is at risk and people in Owen County feel like they have a target on their back", said McCallister. "Farms and forests would be paved over forever and our quality of life would be sacrificed if a new-terrain I-69 were built."

The billboard is located two miles south of Spencer on State Road 67 facing northbound traffic. The billboard was commissioned by Owen County businessman Terry Moore.

According to McCallister, "The sign features a spoof of INDOT's much-maligned 'logo' for the I-69 project, which features a winding road with no traffic, a tree and an eagle.

Moore's design more accurately depicts what the highway's critics believe the impacts of the project will bring - a traffic-choked highway with trucks belching pollution, a dead tree and a vulture."

"INDOT wants to force this highway through our homeland in order to benefit those far away from Owen County", said Moore. "There is no credible evidence that a new-terrain highway will be of any economic benefit here. This is actually a subsidy of the transportation industry who will be just passing through. The imaginary benefits they claim for Owen County - even if they were real - are not worth carving up and polluting our beautiful rural setting. The reason to oppose the new terrain I-69 is that it does not bring us what we need and it takes from us what we have. We are hopeful that this billboard will raise awareness of this critical issue."

For those not aware of CARR, McCallister explained that "CARR is a grassroots organization working to protect the integrity of farmlands, forest lands and rural communities by supporting fiscally conservative and environmentally sound transportation policies. CARR is opposed to all I-69 alternatives that use significantly new terrain and place an unacceptable financial burden on the citizens of Indiana and the nation. CARR believes that upgrading and repairing existing roads and bridges is the responsible way to meet Indiana's highway needs."

Evening World - August 2002