Letter: Democrats need to offer solutions on Mid-States Corridor, not rhetoric
To say that the local Republican party does not want to participate would be disingenuous. The party engages with Democrats all the time. Both parties participated in the: Cultural Center, The Parklands, Low Income Housing, Criminal Justice System, Cabby O’Neil Gym and Park.
I could go on with the list, but I need to cut to the chase. So far opposition to the Mid-States Corridor is it is not needed, and it will require a lot of landowners to give up their land to eminent domain. The opposition is not offering any solutions to the problems that need to be solved.
Major employers like Kimball, OFS, Jasper Engine, Jasper Group, Master Brand, Farbest, need better access to our national highway system to compete. These businesses employ tens of thousands of employees and those employees and businesses pay lots of taxes that the city and county use to operate. It would be devastating to our local economy if one or two of them would relocate.
Another issue: how to protect our city streets from 1200+ trucks daily, weighing 35,000-70,000 pounds from destroying our streets as they cut through our town? I moved here in 2006 and it has taken to 2020 just to get Newton Street drivable. To leave things as they are, the streets will be back to their old condition in no time.
Another issue: How to help Memorial Hospital maintain a position as a regional hospital, so we can have a high quality of care? “Annually, the hospital’s staff provides medical care for approximately 6,600 inpatients, 250,000 outpatients, 29,000 emergency patients, and 950 newborns.” The profit margins for hospitals are in the single digits so it requires a certain volume of patients to keep coming through the door. Lose a few major employers and their volume could drop and hurt the quality of care. It might be a safe bet to say that COVID-19, has hurt the profitability of Memorial Hospital.
To say eminent domain is evil would be to ignore the fact that every road in the county, at one time, was sold to the county or city via eminent domain. The house you live in is on a street taken by eminent domain. Patients come from multiple counties and further flood our streets. Quicker access to Jasper might even save lives.
I do not have a dog in the hunt. My family does not work here, we just live here. We love Jasper and Dubois County, and we will probably be buried here.
So, if you want the Republicans to engage, start offering solutions instead of opposition rallies. Jack Newton ran for office in 1964 because the Democrats would not offer solutions to growing businesses in the City of Jasper. He said, “the Democrats were apathetic.” He is arguably the greatest Republican in the City, not because he was a Republican but because he was a great problem solver. Since 1964, Jasper has had 4 Republican mayors and 2 Democrats. I can guarantee you that all of them were problem solvers.
Daryl Hensley, Jasper
Sorry to have to nitpick, but…
It’s EMINENT domain, not “imminent” domain.
Otherwise well thought out, as all of your letters/comments are.
Agreed 100%. To say the Mid-State Corridor is not needed is not really “correct”. A bypass around Jasper and Huntingburg IS needed… As you stated, heavy trucks are rolling through the hearts of Huntingburg and Jasper, slowing traffic for citizens and slowing productivity for truck drivers and companies, Messing up roads, etc.
To me, the cities of Huntingburg and Jasper need to discuss making their own bypass from the North side of Walmart, to the south side of Huntingburg. Then focus on widening 231 on the north end of Jasper on up to I-69.
I do have a dog in the fight (potential land being taken) and I still feel for truck drivers that have to drive through downtown Jasper and Huntingburg, spending a lot of costly time being they can only drive 11 hours a day.
The cities of Huntingburg and Jasper need to come together to develop their own bypass road… One that is created on the local level, doing their best to keep costs down and pick the best spots to go through.
Folks who oppose the mid-state corridor do not necessarily oppose any solution that offers a bypass. That rally was in protest to the current mid-state corridor project.
Your solution could be a good one. We will never know unless the current project is stopped.
“So, if you want the Republicans to engage, start offering solutions instead of opposition rallies.”
I think this quote demonstrates the exact problem with the Republican leadership.
This Road project was started by legislation from Senator Mark Messmer and then State Representative Mike Braun in 2017 at the State Legislature. There may have been discussion at the State level with other legislators, but no one, particularly the ones most effected, have been consulted, asked, invited to the table, received a phone call or even an invitation to the many meetings held everywhere but here to decide this thing was going to happen. The idea of this road has been “out there” for decades as a sister project to I-69, and many people have tried to make it launch, but the perfect combination of legislators in the Statehouse and an election that put one of them in the US Senate has propelled it to the front of the line. Many people, from elected officials to regular folks have offered up ideas to the public, at information meetings, posting on social media and in letters to the public officials involved, but none of that has been taken in to consideration or has effected the trajectory of this road. To say that “Democrats, or any person or group for that matter, have not offered ideas, suggestions, examples, or solutions is completely false. Those opposed to this road have offered up lots of ideas and solutions, but the political leaders pushing for this to happen do not want to listen and in fact, have firmly planted their feet in the ground and have told constituents, to “just get over it.” This is a $19.5 million per mile road project that could take decades to complete. The wounds from 69 are still fresh and the taxpayers will not willingly fall for the whole “we have to build a hi-way for the economy,” argument again. We do need to do something about truck traffic, but the amount of traffic from large trucks has been significantly reduced because of the reduced production in coal mines and trucks using 69 as a better route than 231. This road project should be scrapped so that the people under the threat of losing everything if they are in the path can get on with their lives, while more people are brought to the table for a discussion of new ideas and solutions.
Finish 69 first and then see what we need. Manufacturing today will not be the manufacturing of 20 years from now and Indiana has known it for sometime and is preparing for it.