Although the Interstate-69/Bloomington standoff seems to have been resolved — at least from the state's standpoint — opponents continue their outrageous rhetoric against the Evansville-to-Indianapolis highway now under construction.
Their protests are such that a couple of Courier & Press readers suggested this past week that the Indiana Department of Transportation should simply bypass Bloomington and Monroe County. It's a tempting suggestion, but it overlooks the fact that there are people in the city who support the highway and look forward to the day when they can use it.
What first got us thinking about a Bloomington bypass was a report from The Associated Press on Nov. 3 that members of the Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads and the I-69 Accountability Project had called for construction to stop in Greene and Daviess counties because it createstraffic hazards.
"I-69 work is creating conditions that have led to deaths, severe injuries and extreme damage to property and aquifers," the groups said.
According to the AP, INDOT told the Herald Times of Bloomington that the crashes cited did not happen in construction zones or involve vehicles being used by project contractors.
Regardless of the circumstances, we are sorry for the people who died or were injured in those accidents. But that said, we are utterly shocked at the gall of highway opponents, who seem to be defending the current roads that feed into Bloomington from the south. There is no better reason for the construction of I-69 than to replace the narrow highways now used by students and visitors to Bloomington.
If that wasn't enough to set us spinning, we next read that Mark Stoops of the Bloomington/Monroe County Metropolitan Planning Organization termed INDOT's current strategy as "extortion." This is coming from a group of local officials who, by their refusal to sign on to I-69, are forcing the state of Indiana to build nearly two miles of the new highway in Monroe County without the use of federal funds. And that's not extortion? Of course, the other side of the story is that INDOT can refuse to allow federal transportation funds to be spent on Bloomington projects as long as the Bloomington group holds out.
Meanwhile, the Bloomington planners refused another opportunity to join the real world, agreeing instead to delay a vote on including I-69 in the county transportation plan until February. They say they want a role in helping plan I-69's course in Monroe County. They probably could have had that long ago by working with the state as other counties have done.
Instead, at the meeting on Nov. 4, highway opponents interrupted several times with their protests, which lends credence to the suggestions of those letter writers who have grown weary of watching these presumed grown-ups re-enact those crazy '60s days of fun and protest.