NEW ALBANY — In 2010, the New Albany City Council became the first municipal body in Southern Indiana to pass a resolution opposing tolls as they pertain to the Ohio River Bridges Project.
On Thursday, they again broke the mold, but this time the group became the first Southern Indiana municipal council to defeat a nonbinding measure that called for construction of a downtown bridge to be delayed and that a tolling proposal to fund the project be denied by the Federal Highway Administration.
The resolution, offered by Councilman John Gonder, was defeated 5-4 with those opposing it questioning whether a municipal body should be considering such a measure as well as citing concerns that the project could be further delayed.
“This project has been delayed for 40 years,” said Councilman Bob Caesar, who voted against the resolution though he added he “hates” the idea that tolls will be used to pay for the project, which as currently designed, calls for the addition of east-end and downtown bridges, as well as the reconfiguration of Spaghetti Junction.
But Gonder said residents, especially those from Southern Indiana, will be struck the hardest by an inflated project cost of $2.6 billion that relies on tolling.
“We wouldn’t be in this fix if we were only going to build the east-end bridge,” he said.
Gonder, Pat McLaughlin, Shirley Baird and Greg Phipps were the council members who supported the measure, while Caesar, Dan Coffey, Diane McCartin-Benedetti, Kevin Zurschmiede and Scott Blair voted against it.
Three people spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting on the topic, and each was opposed to the bridges project as offered and tolling. One of those who spoke was Clarksville Town Councilman Paul Fetter.
“If this was something we were doing, our constituents would kill us for putting something together like this,” Fetter said of the bridges project.
Clarksville and the Jeffersonville City Council approved similar resolutions recently. The New Albany measure did differ in that it called for sound barriers to be installed along Interstates 64 and 265 within the city limits to buffer additional noise that Gonder said would be created by more vehicles traveling through the area.
The reason for the extra traffic, Gonder said, is that under the current plan the Sherman Minton Bridge in New Albany wouldn’t be tolled.
But Coffey said the addition of the sound barriers was the main reason he opposed the measure because it would add even more costs to the project.
If tolling is OK’d for I-65 and the new bridges there will be more traffic in New Albany especially on the interstates, which will result in added sound pollution and that could deter quality of life, Baird countered.
“We want to put more people downtown, get more people living downtown, and that’s going to be near” I-64, she said.
Blair said the matter is under federal and state review, and that it’s “almost a disservice to our community” to vote on a nonbinding resolution when city residents have other concerns the council can control.
“I look at this as a symbolic measure,” he said. “It’s not within our jurisdiction.”
But Phipps said sometimes officials have to use what power they have to stand up for who they represent, as he added that tolling could be disastrous for the area.
McLaughlin said that while Kentucky is getting the better deal, state officials in Indiana also deserve some of the blame because they haven’t adequately represented the best interests of Southern Indiana residents in the process.
He also voiced his dissatisfaction with the idea of tolling, as he agreed with Fetter who said more than 60 percent of the tolls will likely be paid by Hoosiers.
“I don’t think it’s just, I don’t think it’s right,” McLaughlin said.
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