Letter: How did we allow a select few to push the majority around?
by Laura Seger McAninch
Even if 10,000 taxpayers sign a petition against building a major highway known as the Mid-States Corridor, the RDA will not hesitate to push forward ??and build it – this comment was directly made by the RDA board to my father at their quarterly meeting on May 2nd, 2025. How does that make you feel to know a public majority opinion counts for nothing? It is okay if you don’t know what the RDA is, or even if you are unsure what the Mid-States Corridor is, we will get to that in a moment, but the fact you need to know is that the RDA is not comprised of elected officials, so how do they have authority over the people’s majority? They are saying your voice and my voice do not matter. Please join me as we try to understand this road topic together.
We are a county of less than 44,000 people. Once you research, you may come to the same conclusion that even if all of us in this county were to sign a petition, except for the politicians and a handful of businessmen and their lawyers, they will still plow us under and build.
Consider this – if we allow the politicians to ramrod and bamboozle us on a major highway subject matter, what else are they doing, or intending to do, on any other matter?
If you think this road topic doesn’t personally affect you or that it is only the landowners’ fight, then please listen and learn how it does affect you, and it has already had an impact on your life. Bold statements to make? Keep reading, please.
But first, we need to get on the same page, because these businessmen, the politicians, and their lawyers ARE our community, too. Conversion of hearts is where my heart is, and I will keep praying for them.
Let’s start this conversation by putting these words on our hearts to think about: “Three things I cannot escape: the eye of God, the voice of conscience, and the stroke of death. In company, guard your tongue. In your family, guard your temper. When alone, guard your thoughts.” Venerable Matt Talbot is attributed to those words.
Matt Talbot fought his flesh his whole life. He died rather simply, while walking along the street in the country of Ireland to attend daily Mass, but his body was found to have chains under his clothing – that’s how hard he fought his fleshly/earthly temptations and desires! May we all strive as hard as Matt Talbot to keep our hearts pure in order to see the face of God in the end – which is the only thing worth striving for in life.
I’ve requested prayer lines to pray for wisdom, cool heads, and listening hearts for the people of this county to best steward the land that is on loan to us from one generation to the next. After attending and witnessing first-hand the Dubois County courtroom’s hearing about the mid-states corridor on May 14th, I can no longer stay quiet and reserved (my natural state of being). True Faith takes a stand against injustices – and we are witnessing exactly this – with God on my heart, I am writing for justice to prevail.
The Holy Spirit moved on May 8, 2025, to install Pope Leo XIV. He chose the name Leo to follow Pope Leo XIII because of his focus on social justice and the rights of the workers – even if you are NOT Catholic, I think this should be deeply moving to everyone!! Therefore, even if your voice shakes, candidly describe how the world looks from where you stand, then there is a greater chance of not only being heard but of making a real difference. Pope Leo XIV is taking a lead, so we all should follow him.
How did we get here? How did we get to this point where, every other day, there are headlines about a mid-states corridor?
This “mid-states road stuff” is absolutely confusing, and guess what – unfortunately, that is the way they want it. They want us all confused so they can manipulate us. When we, the public, finally realize what’s been going on all these years, it will be too late, and that is how they, in power, want it. I am writing now to speak up and spread awareness because “the people in power” think they will overpower the “we-the people”. Regardless of what happens on this earth, God will remain on High – but we are called to help hold each other accountable in our journey to eternal life with God. We want our neighbors to do good for God. Let’s remind each other, please.
To candidly share my story, nearly twenty years ago, in April of 2006, I did my undergraduate capstone project at Purdue University on “The Proposal of U.S Highway 231 in Dubois County” and the land effects of the project. This was in Agronomy 585 with Dr. Gary Steinhardt. Dr. Steinhardt was also the Purdue Soils Judging Coach for decades, spanning the years my husband soils judged for Purdue (I was a Purdue Crops Judger).
I’ve not spoken up prior to now because I’m simply exasperated by the fact that this road business is still around after two decades. I am 41 years old now, and those older than me will cite much longer figures for how long this road has been a topic with WASTED MONEY SPENT. When I did my capstone research, I acquired a nearly 2-inch-thick Environmental Study from a company called Earth Tech. They worked with the US DOT & INDOT and completed their Environmental Study in 2004.
While the road itself has changed routes since my capstone, the exact names of people in power pushing for this road remain. What does that tell you? It means for 20-plus years, we have had the same people controlling and manipulating to get what they want. There’s a difference now, though; they’ve taken additional steps to get what they want. Please keep reading.
My research obviously needed objectivity to be credible. I fully admit that I went into my research thinking a new, faster road might be nice and a progressive way to think for businesses and infrastructure. There was also this lure of a faster drive because my husband’s family lives north of Purdue. An additional personal aspect for me was that some of the routes included my dad’s farm (spoiler, it STILL does). Ultimately, I wanted to be open-minded and be diligent on a capstone undergrad project. When looking at things from all angles twenty years ago, there simply was not enough need to justify any new road.
I will never forget how proud it made me feel when Dr. Steinhardt, whom I held in high regard, announced to the whole class that Dubois County is “on the map”. He said we have something very special: to have the state’s lowest unemployment rate and to be so highly ranked in agriculture. I was proud to represent Dubois County in that Purdue classroom twenty years ago. I cannot say the same today for what we have allowed to happen.
So, what happened between the ‘proposed 231 bypass’ twenty years ago and today’s ‘mid-states corridor’ major highway? The people in power have devised a schoolyard tactic to distract and manage us, their constituents. They divided themselves; they created new laws (LO 28, IN Code 36-7.6, HB 1408), and now they point fingers at each other in front of us so that we think they are not individually responsible. Guess what, they are all working together. I’ve been fooled long enough, sitting idle while they forge on, and I don’t want anyone else to fall for their shenanigans. As I said before, if they can concoct methods like this on a road topic, what overreach will they enact on other things?
Let’s discuss the RDA – which stands for Regional Development Authority. They are NOT elected people, and they should have no real “authority” over us. They are put in place by politicians to finagle and move money, your taxpayer money included, towards the projects that they want, specifically the one they can’t get passed through the due process swiftly enough with the mid-states project here in Indiana. RDA did not exist in Indiana prior to 2017. Read up on what RDAs are. It’s unbelievable to learn that in California, they saw the flaws of what an organized RDA could do. So the PEOPLE IN CALIFORNIA WOKE UP AND REALIZED THEY WERE MANIPULATED THROUGH GROUPS LIKE RDA. We need to wake up in Indiana, too!
RDA will point the finger at INDOT. Then INDOT will point the finger at Lochmueller (their hired agency), or at RDA or at the politicians. Then the politicians will lie and say they have no power over INDOT. You seriously get dizzy following this insanity, this schoolyard tomfoolery. While they point fingers, they are pushing everything through while we sit here confused and befuddled. They’re smooth, too smooth for me, and I did a capstone on this road!
Here’s another extremely important note for all of us as citizens in Indiana. As recently as last fall, Indiana created an Indiana FIRSST Task Force because they needed to find 1 billion to maintain roads. Do you know that the mid-states will cost 3 billion?! Where is this money coming from?
We should be aware that our taxpayer money has already been spent on road studies that produced flawed and erroneous results to influence the road. They are completely biased pieces of work with misconceptions abounding. How would you feel if someone tried taking something from you by citing inaccuracies as the justification? It’s called injustice.
Your taxpayer money has already been spent on road studies, which could have been spent – for a small possible example, to help get the YMCA built in Jasper. Why does Ferdinand have such a beautiful facility, and you in Jasper are so far behind? The City of Jasper has given 1.4 million dollars; the City of Huntingburg $350,000, and our Dubois County has given 1.75 million dollars for the Mid-States Corridor Tier 1 Study. And, there’s more than just these figures, as the money continues to flow for it, yet just this month, the City of Jasper is addressing the potential challenges of taking over US 231 when INDOT releases it.
Do you travel Highway 231? Do you see the horrific shape it is in? Hmm, I wonder, why? It is not coincidental that the road is purposely not being taken care of, as the plans are not to keep it under the current responsible party’s care.
This proposed mid-states road is a LIMITED ACCESS MEGA HIGHWAY. Drive through Spencer County on 231 because it is an example of a limited-access, 4-lane expressway. Do you see all those homes? Actually, many are gone, so you’ll have to look harder than you used to! But if you see what remains of homes located sporadically out there in the distance, with dead-end roads to them, how do you get to those roads to see those people? It’s LIMITED ACCESS. You don’t get to them very easily. Do you understand it now? Ambulances, fire departments, police, etc., so both the important and the regular traffic, will have limited access to get where we used to travel more directly in Dubois County with the new interstate road.
When was the last time you went to Dale? Guess what, Huntingburg, that’s similar to how you will feel. Remember the Stellar Project to rejuvenate downtown – you won’t be very rejuvenated when all the traffic is diverted AROUND AND OUT OF TOWN on a mid-states highway.
A completely contradictory thought is this – how is it fair that the State recognizes generational farms as Homesteads we should admire and value, while at the EXACT same time they are working to level and kill them? It is happening!
Property taxes – yours WILL be going up. All of ours will. Our farmers pay a lot of taxes, but when 1800+ acres are GONE (never to be returned again), so will their contributions.
As a parent of kids, a big issue for me is the increase in crime. Please do NOT say it won’t happen – because how could it honestly not? Are we oblivious to cause and effect?
The environment – goodness gracious, what on God’s green earth are we proposing to do to our land, our nature, our natural resources, and the air we breathe! We are already ranked #50 in this country for our natural environment public health, which measures water quality and pollution. How disgusting are we, Dubois County!?
So, back to the monetary numbers, which are hard to wrap our heads around. If our State has to come up with 1 billion to fund our current horrible roads, how can it keep funding this mid-states road project? Yes, through the RDA that we have discussed, but who is it from 20 years ago who was cited as a huge proponent on the road and who just so happened to move on recently from a State Senator to a US Rep – bingo, you know who you are. I think we, the people, need to have a town hall with our U.S Rep before he continues on this path we all know he’s on…. The path to get federal funds for a road that the petition numbers in this county do not want. Oh, and he’ll have our recently elected governor carving the way.
Call me meek and gullible, but I am still grappling with how our politicians can get our pro-life vote and then act so unethically on issues like the road dealings. I hold the position of pro-life to be a moral standard that should affect all areas of my life. Shouldn’t they? It’s simply unfathomable to me that grown adults can act like this, but it is not too late to convert a heart and for them to make the admirable step forward to correct the bad done. PRAY FOR THEM.
Back in January, I emailed every legislator in Indiana that I could to plainly point out that the funds needed for the upkeep of our current Indiana roads are found in the Mid-States Corridor. You get generic emails back; you always do. When confronted in person, the legislators will play the ignorant card until they are pressed and then respond with: ‘it doesn’t affect them’ – or they will hide by pointing fingers at the others by saying they have no say over INDOT. It’s NOT TRUE. They DO have power. Senator Jean Leising, from the 42nd district in southeastern Indiana, is an example of how a State Senator CAN act on behalf of the people! Notice, this is the ONLY NAME I will reference in this writing because it is of a positive nature to note.
This month of May 2025, the USDA has announced a policy agenda to support small family farms. It is very important to see that our federal guidance is supporting what our State is not supporting with their Mid-States Corridor agenda.
My dad’s small farm has a chunk of land that will ALL BE TAKEN by the mid-states road. It is my dad’s best bottom land, the best pastures, the best places to hunt, and it is ultimately the place my dad hikes and finds God in new nooks and crannies every time he is there. This humble parcel of land is the legacy of a hard-working, humble, ADMIRABLE man. He has carried it on from the generation before him and he intends to carry it on to the next generation. Dad stewarded it the best he could and now he is standing up for it – just like every farmer and landowner of the Property Rights Alliance.
This is the biggest point I want to make – look at the faces of your fellow community members who are affected. Matt Crane does a great job of posting pictures on the Dubois County Free Press site. They are some of the most genuine folks. They should be admired for bravely standing up for justice. In this day and age, it is harder and harder to find TRUE LADIES & GENTLEMEN. We don’t have examples in the media, so I want to highlight and point you to this group of fine people who are poised, intelligent, respectful, honest, and are self-sacrificing for a cause bigger than themselves.
A Benedictine monk said, “You must go out and be a witness of peace and stability to a culture that has lost its balance – to show others how to fill the emptiness…. You need to be a living witness to the power of quiet perseverance.” The Property Rights Alliance group is doing exactly this.
This letter aims to ignite the public to research how they have been manipulated and how they are being affected, both currently and in the future. PLEASE RESEARCH YOURSELF AND ASK THE NEEDED QUESTIONS – and do it before it’s too late.
Join us in praying for the conversion of hearts, cool heads, and wisdom for the people in power to LISTEN to the people. We, the people, need to come together to understand what progress actually looks like. We don’t need politicians deciding that the progress they want is somehow good for all of us.
I ask you to pray and I ask you take a stand against injustice. I’ll leave you with a quote from a Saint who did just so:
“The present form of the world passes away, and there remains only the joy of having used this world to establish God’s rule here. All pomp, all triumphs, all selfish capitalism, all the false successes of life will pass with the world’s form. All of that passes away. What does not pass away is love. When one has turned money, property, work in one’s calling into service of others, then the joy of sharing and the feeling that all are one’s family does not pass away. In the evening of life you will be judged on love.” – St. Oscar Romero.
Laura Seger McAninch, St. Henry, Indiana
