Ron Hamilton, Shelbyville News staff writer
MORRISTOWN - A standing-room only crowd of nearly 350 interested citizens crammed into the Morristown High School cafetorium Thursday night to hear arguments opposing the proposed Indiana Commerce Connector toll road.
After three public meetings this week, a grass-roots opposition group appears to be gaining momentum.
"We had 125 at Monday's meeting at Mount Pisgah Baptist Church; nearly 170 came to Tuesday's meeting at Triton Elementary; and more than 300 showed up here at Morristown tonight," said an excited Andy Sumerford. The Flat Rock resident is a practicing attorney and spokesman for the Shelby County Community Preservation Group, or SCCPG. The organization was formed by nearly two dozen concerned citizens on Feb. 15 at Mount Pisgah Baptist Church on Blue Ridge Road.
Steve Bonney was the guest speaker at all three meetings this week. Bonney is a well-known West Lafayette farmer who led the losing fight last year against the privatization of the northern Indiana Toll Road. Bonney will speak again at 7 p.m. Monday at the Methodist church behind the fire station in Milroy.
"I've been very pleased with the response this week," Bonney said. "It just keeps growing every night. It's important that people learn about the potential effects of this toll road."
After a brief introduction, Bonney immediately went into a PowerPoint presentation explaining why residents should say "no" to toll road construction. His recurrent theme Thursday night was "rust never sleeps." According to the 67-year-old activist, toll road promoters are just like rust, "working day and night, nonstop and out of sight and earshot of public scrutiny."
Bonney prefers to call the proposed Indiana Commerce Connector the "Indianapolis bypass toll road."
"Because that's exactly what it is," he said. "If you've been following this thing from the beginning, you can see that the purpose of this road is to generate toll money to build Interstate 69. If this road goes through, we'll be paying for a highway that most of us won't use."
According to Bonney, the rural and agricultural character of the Shelby County community is at stake. He insists that the toll road would forever and irrefutably destroy the small-town flavor of the surrounding area.
"The Indiana Department of Transportation already conducted a study on a proposed outer belt three years ago," Bonney said. "It was decided then that a new road would not significantly reduce traffic congestion, nor would it generate significant development. Now Governor (Mitch) Daniels is calling that study flawed."
Before an attentive audience, Bonney listed some of the social costs of building the road, including cut-off local roads, the disruption of school and church routes and the disruption of emergency services and water drainage.
"This road will separate neighbors, divide farms and destroy family businesses," he said. "It will increase air, water and noise pollution and increase the crime rate."
According to Sumerford, many people believe wrongly that the road will present an increase in highway business.
"This will be an elevated highway," he said. "Concessions, gas stations and restaurants will be up on the road. Hundreds of acres of prime farm land will be removed from the tax base. Historic homes and homesteads will be taken away by eminent domain and demolished."
Bonney is also convinced that if the road is built, there would be very few access points and interchanges along the way.
"Interchanges cost money," he said. "And the purpose of this project is to make money for the Interstate 69 project. I don't know why the state doesn't just do the simple, logical thing and improve I-70 and U.S. 41 going west and south."
Bonney and Sumerford suggested that people sign petitions, send letters, e-mails and phone calls to their elected state representatives. Sumerford noted that Johnson County already has more than 1,500 signatures on a petition to halt the road.
Former state Rep. Luke Messer, R-Shelbyville, has been hired as a consultant by the Morristown Chamber of Commerce. His position on the toll road, as stated earlier this week, is that a true debate cannot take place without more information.
"I support a feasibility study by INDOT," Messer said. "How can any of us form an educated opinion on the road without more information. Right now, everything is speculation."