Letter: Mid-States Corridor doesn’t make sense
As a member of the Property Rights Alliance, I attended the Dubois County Commissioners’ meeting on June 2nd in support of the group’s resolution presented to the Commissioners requesting no longer supporting the Mid-States Corridor project. There were several members there, and Commissioner Blessinger was generous enough to allow constituents to share additional thoughts on why this project is not needed or not wanted by the majority of the community.
What puzzled me was after all the people spoke, Colten Pipenger from Dubois Strong addressed the commissioners with a prepared statement he read from his laptop with more false claims that are unsubstantiated, including statements like “US Highway 231 has struggled under increasing traffic demands, failing to support the businesses and residents who drive our success.” And “Large tractor-trailers clog our streets, slowing commerce and making daily commutes more difficult.”
Really, increasing traffic demands, and tractor-trailers clogging our streets? Colten must have failed to read the Tier 2 preliminary study, which clearly states traffic is NOT an issue on US 231 through Dubois County. His entire prepared statement was once again an attempt to sell this project with salesmanship and buzzword verbiage. Colten also referenced the economic study commissioned by Dubois Strong, filled with unrealistic projections like doubling Dubois County’s population and substantially increasing jobs. Even INDOT has publicly stated that this independent study cannot factor into the Mid-States Corridor study.
Finally, Colten even tried to use Patoka Lake as an example of “progress,” which is like comparing apples and oranges with the proposed Mid-States Corridor project.
The real disappointment is how he insulted the intelligence of the group of people in the meeting representing the Property Rights Alliance.
People, it is time to ask for facts, for data that is backed up by sound information, because the only information advocates for this project are sharing are assumptions, projections, and hearsay.
Don’t let poor salesmanship fool you. This is NOT good for the overall community!
Carol Nowotarski
Jasper
