Erin Meyer, Daily Reporter Staff Writer

The Greenfield City Council passed a watered-down resolution Thursday supporting continued study of Gov. Mitch Daniels' proposed outer loop.

While a large crowded showed up in anticipation of the vote, none of the individuals who lobbed criticisms at Greenfield's elected officials Thursday night actually live within city limits. Much of the opposition that is developing aginst the proposed Interstate Commerce Connector are rural residents who fear the tollway will ruin property values and hurt their way of life, among other things.

"The people who live outside of the city have other issues, and I am not here to quarrel with that," said Mike Fruth, the city's engineer. "This road is long overdue."

The council, however, backed off language contained in an early draft of the resolution and voted instead to support further study of the tollway, which would run north-to-south through Hancock County as part of a ring roughly parallel to I-465. The original resolution all but endorsed construction of the roadway.

During public meetings held in Hancock and other counties, officials with the Indiana Department of Transportation have stated repeatedly that the plan is only conceptual and is purposely vague.

Opponents contend that the lack of details is reason enough for the Indiana General Assembly to deny Gov. Mitch Daniels the authority he needs to move the tollway forward. The Indiana Senate already has passed a bill that does that.

Debbie Borgmann, a founding member of Hancock Coalition for Rural Preservation, a group that has formed to oppose the tollway, suggested the council take a cue from state Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield, who voted with a minority against the governor's plan. Gard has said she voted against the bill because it provides no legislative oversight in further planning for the road.

The council, worried that a vote would commit it to a position it might come to regret, opted to strike much of the resolution's original text before passing it 4-0. Three members - Jon Clark, D.J. Davis and J.D. Fortner - abstained.

"This resolution could not be anymore non-binding," District 3 Councilman Kelly McClarnon said. "As I see the resolution rewritten, it is something I can live with."

The only surviving passages include the very beginning and end, which state; "Whereas, legislative action is presently pending in the Indiana General Assembly concerning the proposed construction of a new interstate highway, commonly known as the Indiana Commerce Connector... Therefore, let it be known that the common Council of the City of Greenfield, Indiana, hereby declares support for the study of an Indiana Commerce Connector."

"Like some of these people said, if you approve the study, it is a done deal," Davis warned, referring to what many have come to think of as an all-or-nothing request from the governor.

The resolution does not reflect conversations among council members and residents after the meeting about adding a disclaimer stating that the resolution should not serve as an endorsement of State Bill 1, the bill that already has passed the Senate.

Clark said he simply could not, in good conscience, speak for all who live in the city.

"(With this resolution) I am trying to give the opinion of 1,500 people," Clark said.

Like the council, Fruth opted to distance himself from the governor's plan, focusing instead on the need for action.

Fruth cited a 1970 inter-departmental memorandum from the Indiana State Highway Commission concerning Ind. 9 in Greenfield. That document outlined a strategy that included a bypass around Greenfield.

"The ultimate development of (Ind. 9) should provide for a relocation of the route to bypass Greenfield," the document says, adding that a new bypass would be "part of the primary network providing for a belt around the Indianapolis metropolitan area inter-connecting the ring of cities and towns out-lying that metropolitan area."
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