---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Thomas & Sandra Tokarski<[email protected]> Date: Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 8:20 AM Subject: Important--Time to Speak Out! To: Susan Sammis <[email protected]>
PLEASE FORWARD AND POST WIDELY: Dear Friends and Supporters, Please take a few moments and send a letter to the Herald-Times voicing your concerns about I-69 and the damage it will do to our communities: http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/letters/ Letters to the editor are limited to 200 words, but you can use information from the following: Here are some points you can make in your letter to the editor **INDOT and FEDERAL HIGHWAY are pressuring the MPO to include funding for I-69 in their TIP with the threat of withholding transportation funding for other projects. This may be illegal. Threats of extortion should be rejected publicly by the MPO. **Building I-69 creates significant costs for the City and County: decreased tax revenues, increased costs for public safety departments (police and fire). New personnel and equipment will be needed to respond to increases in traffic and to be prepared for a major toxic waste spill. I-69 will be a hazardous cargo route and illegal drug corridor. There will be increased costs for maintaining frontage and connector roads. Increased traffic will lead to unsafe highways and more air pollution which may lead to limits on development. Quality of life, one of the important selling points for Bloomington/Monroe County, will decline. **Building I-69 would result in severe environmental damage and safety problems for county residents. There is no money to build Sections 5 and 6. That means minimal or no upgrades to SR-37. To save money, there will be no interchange where I-69 connects to SR-37. There will only be a stop light for the foreseeable future. **There will be massive karst impacts resulting in altered drainage, water well changes, damage to homes from heavy blasting, many wildlife impacts. Increased erosion of steep slopes into sinkholes and caves will cause major problems. Environmentally, I-69 would be an unprecedented disaster for Monroe and Greene Counties . **Once I-69 is in the TIP, local officials will have little to say in how the highway is actually built. INDOT does not understand the concept of cooperation, their word cannot be trusted. INDOT has made it clear that they are not bound by local ordinances. **There is no legal requirement to build Section 4 through Monroe County and Greene County . Each section of I-69 has independent utility (Section of Independent Utility, or SIU) i.e., each is studied and funded independently of the others. SIUs were a tactic used so INDOT would not have to show all of the costs and impacts for the whole route. This, again, is a deception, but it is how the process is set up. By INDOT’s own rules, Section 4 does not have to be built. ** I-69 should not be in the TIP unless it is fiscally constrained i.e. reliable funding sources have been identified and verified by an independent source. This has not been done. InDOT and FHWA have demonstrated they are not trustworthy in regards to funding for I-69. Section 4 is not fiscally constrained. Section 5 and 6, from Bloomington to Indy, are also not funded. **There is overwhelming opposition to this project within this MPO region. The MPO should be accountable to, and serve, the citizens within its jurisdiction. It was not set up to be a pawn of the state. This is a political move to force I-69 on Bloomington . Governor Daniels stated: "They're going to get it whether they like it or not." What happened to our democracy? Local control? ** Monroe County is doing better economically than the rest of the state. I-69 will do nothing to advance the economy of Bloomington , Monroe County or the rest of the state. The state is not able to maintain the roads and bridges it has now. For more information about the November 4, 2011 meeting, go to the CARR website: http://carri69.org/ Thank you again for your years of support. This meeting is extremely important! Please attend and bring your family and friends. Thomas & Sandra Tokarski I-69 follow-up response <>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<> Thomas & Sandra Tokarski CARR PO Box54 Stanford, IN 47463 [email protected] 812-825-9555 800-515-6936 ============================================================ Greg Buck [email protected] (gets much more attention than the spottily scanned [email protected]) Individuals & Organizations: Please endorse "Position on Economic Growth" www.steadystate.org/PositiononEG.html Recommended: www.storyofstuff.com www.myfootprint.org www.ecocitybuilders.org Agriculture that works with nature http://www.permacultureactivist.net/ Sustainable Footprint Community http://directory.ic.org/20729/Sustainable_Footprint http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Simple_Living_Indianapolis Clearinghouse for Actions Against Interstate 69 in Indiana http://groups.google.com/group/clearinghouse-for-actions-against-i-69-in-indiana “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…” Declaration of Independence , 1776 – today. We the People http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVAhr4hZDJE -- To join RichsRants, send email to: [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/richsrants?hl=en
