By Peter Ciancone

Tribune-Star

Wabash Valley residents made their point loud and clear to officials from the Indiana Department of Transportation: Cost and the environment are more important than travel time from Indiana to Evansville.

"If we build the cheapest [route for the proposed Interstate 69], we get to save forests and farmland, too. That's a pretty good idea," said Kary Dangler of Indianapolis.

She was among about 120 people attending a public meeting in Terre Haute South Vigo High School on Monday evening about the proposed interstate project. INDOT released its draft environmental impact statement July 30 on the route choices, rating the cheapest and least environmentally disruptive route -- upgrading U.S. 41 and Interstate 70 --

as the lowest in their chosen performance goals.

That route choice was tagged "non-preferred," raising the ire of many who attended the meeting. They came from Indianapolis, Daviess, Owen, and Monroe counties as well as Terre Haute to tell INDOT what route they preferred. They told INDOT that cost, farms and forests were more important than travel time from Indianapolis to Evansville, freight hauling and personal accessibility to transportation and higher education. All but two of about 35 speakers preferred U.S. 41/I-70.

"It amazes me that during a budget crisis, that cost is not a core goal," said Kay Connelly, who traveled from Bloomington to make her point. "We do not want public officials and their appointees ignoring us."

Jim Gilooley, a Daviess County farmer, told INDOT, "Any excuse you use to destroy prime farmland is unacceptable."

Jane Gilooley said their Daviess County farm sits in the middle of four of the five preferred routes. She likened the battle to prevent I-69 from going through her land as fighting a bout of West Nile virus because it, " ... caused headaches, nausea and [is] caused by pests trying to take over my back yard."

Tony Ballas of Shelburn was among the few who did not support upgrading the existing route. He said people along U.S. 41 would be greatly inconvenienced if the highway is changed into a limited-access highway. He blamed the media for not airing accurate information about that factor of the study.

While U.S. 41/I-70 is the least expensive and least disruptive to farms and forests, it rates highest in disruption to existing businesses and is among the highest in displacing existing homes.

INDOT Commissioner J. Bryan Nicol said no single factor would determine the final choice of the route, a choice that he said will be made by INDOT before the end of this year. Once made, the Federal Highway Administration will submit a "Record of Decision," that federal officials said was generally an endorsement of the state's study findings.

Robert Dirks, an environmental engineer with the Highway Administration, said the federal government's questions have been answered as study has progressed.

"By the time we get to the final environmental impact statement ... we're not going to be overturning anything," he said.

That understanding seemed to be on the minds of many of the speakers.

Vigo County Council President Turk Roman said INDOT was ignoring the economic needs of this area as it tried to make a case for building up others.

"We've been on the tail end of consideration for years. Give us a break," he said.

Dana Nixon of Indianapolis said the study demonstrated INDOT's unwillingness to accept overwhelming public sentiment in favor of using existing roads.

"They're not listening to us," she said.

Calling the study "fatally flawed," Andy Knott of the Hoosier Environmental Council said, "It ignores fiscal responsibility. It ignores farms and forests. It ignores democracy."

Nicol has said the final decision will not be put to a vote, but would be based on the transportation needs of the state. All statements made by the public, either at a meeting or submitted during the public comment portion of the study, which ends Nov. 7, would be part of the record and would be addressed by INDOT as part of the study.

The meeting was interrupted for several minutes by officials and police trying to remove a sign brought by an Owen County woman.

Cathy Crosson carried a yellow sign saying "Save our Farms," and was asked to take it out of the auditorium. She refused, and was asked to leave. She refused that request, too, and brought the meeting to a halt by claiming INDOT was stifling her right to express her opinion.

"You don't want the media showing people's opinion," she said. "You're disrupting the meeting. I'm not disrupting the meeting."

After several minutes of discussion, Crosson was told she and the sign could stay if she didn't use it to block others' view of the meeting. The meeting ended without further incident.

Speaking near the end of the meeting, Ralph Cutter from Terre Haute summed up what many people tried to say throughout the evening.

"I hope this isn't a farce, us being here," he said.

Copyright 2002 Tribune Star