Letter: Mid-States Corridor necessary for financial future of county
To all in the area affected by the Mid-States Corridor,
I am writing in response to the letter in newspapers which posted a list of only exaggerated negative impacts regarding the Mid-states corridor
I would hope everyone understands that several of our LOCAL businesses in DUBOIS COUNTY are no longer LOCALLY owned. The owners of some of our industries are now the stockholders and their boards of directors who could move their plants to other areas near highways which could better serve them in both the delivery of raw material to their plants and the delivery of their finished products to customers.
Most important is the fact that these industries NOW located here NEED assistance when it comes to HIGHWAYS. Better highways would also be a Godsend for the truck drivers who now need to navigate the current roads with large trucks.
Stop for a moment and think of what DUBOIS COUNTY would be like tomorrow if Kimball, Masterbrand, Jasper Engine, OFS, Best Chairs, or ANY of our “BORN IN DUBOIS COUNTY” manufacturers would decide to move elsewhere.
We try to entice our young people with good-paying jobs and many benefits which Dubois County industries offer them to remain or return home. To do this we need to be aware of the needed infrastructure required to serve these industries. Believe me, there are communities here in the State of Indiana that will spend millions (and build roads) to get plants to re-locate to their communities.
In all areas of Dubois County we are safe and secure, we have great schools, great recreational opportunities, great small businesses in all of our cities, towns and communities, and, we have great Industries which provide the bulk of employment necessary to allow us to live in this great environment.
I am not a business owner who will benefit monetarily from the Mid-States Corridor and I am not a politician. I have no personal motives for efforts to obtain the Mid-States Corridor other than to assist the industries who have benefitted ALL of us and, hopefully, will continue to provide a great future for our families.
Thank you,
Gene Hostetter, Jasper
…you forgot one more “I am not” in your letter….”I am not living in the path of this road and will lose my home and everything I have worked for my entire life.” But if you were in it’s path you wouldn’t be writing your letter.
Exactly what I was thinking . Be forced to give up your own home and then I will listen to your opinion .
You would be compensated well over your home’s value. Think positive.
Good paying jobs for a few at the top. The people pushing this corridor built their companies from their sweatshops and on the backs of the hard working people in this county. Maybe you should have spent your life in one of these factories. Now they want to bulldoze the homes and steal the land of the very people that built their little empires.
Factory workers make a living, not millions. Hard work goes a long way. Getting more for our community means give and take. Think positive.
Where are all these good wages? Everyone knows you won’t find good wages in Dubois County. Most of the companies you listed have grown because of the low wages they paid over the years .
I worked previously at one of the companies you mentioned while I lived in Jasper. I was only adjacent to supply chain while I lived in Jasper but it is a focus of my career now and I spend more time than I care to admit following ocean vessels, airplanes, and trucks carrying the needed cargo.
In my personal review of the corridor project, I found that from the three main “ports” of Evansville, Louisville and Indianapolis. The most ideal route proposed so far would save the driving time to Jasper from those cities about fifteen minutes assuming perfect driving conditions. As it stands now from a corporate point of view. A highway would be a “nice to have” thing. It could very well lead to greater growth potential in the distant future.
The key word there is potential. Each company listed is not struggling in the slightest and has probably outperformed expectations. My previous company has had record profits year over year and has done that every year except one going back ten years. The share price has nearly tripled. Your argument be more compelling if those companies where hanging on by a thread but they aren’t. All a highway would do is that instead of making a lot of money, they could make even more money. Does that justify the damage posed by the highway to the people and it’s surroundings? Personally I don’t think so.
Which leads into why I find your letter, to be honest, completely terrifying. Not at the prospect of those companies leaving the county to the vultures but rather who you think holds the power in local communities and by extension: America.
If the local companies want to find a reason to leave, they will leave. The people of the county can give up their homes, their businesses, their first borns all in effort to keep those businesses here but the reality is that they are more than willing to bleed the county dry and the minute a line on an impossibly complicated spreadsheet turns red, off they go to greener pastures.
I’m sorry Gene but I have to break this to you: but corporation’s don’t love you. They don’t love Dubois County despite where they came from or who the shareholders are. You are grossly overstating what a corporation contributes to the social well being of the communities they stay in. Throwing a few thousand dollars to charities every so often doesn’t change this. The minute a business leaves the “small business” class they owe the area nothing. Every business is only interested in the pursuit of profit and maximizing those profits. Whether you think they ought to be not is based on your worldview.
Therefore, the people shouldn’t owe the corporations anything either! Except the labor they are (hopefully) properly compensated for. Instead you are suggesting the people should sacrifice on the altar everything they hold dear so that some CEO can get a larger bank account number or else the community will be left to rot. The word to describe that is a hostage situation! Or some bizarre type of neo-feudalism.
So I ask you Gene. Who owns Dubois County? Who should own Dubois county? Shouldn’t it be people like your friends and neighbors, your peers that can vote and campaign for changes in community. Your letter seems to suggest that we ought to be grateful to our noble benefactors who might give us some bread crumbs in exchange for pounds of our flesh.
I ask you to reconsider what kind of community you want to live in Gene. A place where there are people who value stock prices more than the well-being of their neighbors is nightmarish.
Bravo. The two biggest pushers of this road own trucking companies in the county.
From reading your comment, you are from Dubois County. Not like live here, but born and raised for generations. It’s new families to the area that is growing the population because the infers don’t want to stay and the outsiders are what makes the businesses thrive.
Open-minded people are the ones going places and making gains in life. Be like them. Change happens all the time. Repeating history hasn’t gotten anyone anywhere. This county is dying down and needs revitalized of the small businesses want to stay open and have longevity.
Honest question… how is the county “dying down”? What does that even mean? You do realize that the county has had positive population growth every single year, correct?
You’re right, those wanting 50 restaurants to choose from, 15 golf courses, 20 acre parks, skyscrapers, etc. will need to go elsewhere. And they do. Yet this county has kept a strong, positive population and workforce that has kept local manufacturers and businesses running for decades.
Not only is your backhanded assumption uncalled for it’s completely wrong about me.
I moved to Jasper on my own in 2018 specifically for a job opportunity. I have no family in the area. Believe it or not I didn’t have to ford rivers and climb mountains to get to Jasper. All things considered the move was pretty easy.
I enjoyed my time in the area but moved out last May. Mostly because I received a job offer in my desired position that paid more and offered more responsibilities while the company in Jasper kept stringing me along on that goal. Not helping matters was a local populace that seems to think basic human empathy is communism or somehow infringing their “rights”.
Most importantly the lack or presence of a highway had nothing to do with what brought me to Jasper and what made me leave Jasper.
Change is worth it if it’s a necessity or leads to progress that is more beneficial than not doing it. Like I said before, the corridor does neither. The area has had no problem growing without the highway and I’ll echo the question of concerned citizen: what metrics show the county is “dying” at all? Everything I saw while living here indicated the exact opposite.
My family moved to Dubois County in 2020. We came to visit a relative that moved here in 2018, and liked the area so much that I quit my job and moved here to look for employment. Thanks to the high demand of labor I found one almost immediately. And at a higher income than the one I left! I’ve had friends and family visit since then and they have also expressed interest in moving.
We all come from a “more developed” area of the country where spiderwebs of asphalt have claimed all of the land that can be feasibly claimed. The highways make for ugly landscapes, pollution, quick access for thieves into your community, and increased taxes. We left all that behind for a County with beautiful land, low taxes, fantastic job opportunities, pleasant people (the community has been amazing), clean air…really the list goes on and on. This will dissappear under the guise of “progress”. But if it is progress to turn this area into the area I came from, it is progress toward a cliff.
If the companies around here are struggling it is to find more people, not a tiny savings on shipping. And the reason they don’t move away is (beyond the massive cost of moving millions of dollars in equipment) the work ethic of the people who live here. One person in this area outperforms an average two from the north east.
Dubois County has been an absolute dream come true for my family. I detest the thought that my grandkids may grow up and need to look for a good life elsewhere because of the crime, corruption and smog that come with paving over life giving crops.
Hoosierdaddy and JK, you are both absolutely right. For all the people that are using the “good paying jobs” mantra, I would ask; over the last 30 years, how much have wages gone up in our county? Specifically, factory job wages? The answer? Not much at all. Lot’s of reasons for that, but two come to mind… #1.) They’re not going to pay you when they don’t have to. #2.) Business owners colluding with each other in the labor market.
As was previously stated, which business in our county is hurting due to this road not being here? As JK said, these corporations don’t love you. You’re a means to an end. And I’m not saying that is or isn’t the way it should be, but when it comes time to drum up support to beef up an already large bottom line, don’t expect people in this county to rally behind while these corporations give a BS excuse how it’s “good for everyone”… And I love the submissive responses of “These companies could leave if we don’t get it!” These companies are in this county for one reason; an extremely hard working, populated workforce. And they ain’t leaving any time soon… Think help is hard to find here? Good luck elsewhere.
Everyone should ask themselves a simple question. If this road comes in (to the benefit of Meyer Distributing, OFS, etc.), think the employees will see a nice wage increase or bonus? Don’t think so.
Now, here’s where I’m going to break apart from a few people…. Dubois County needs a bypass road. We really do. Not the midstate corridor, but a bypass. Why can’t we use 231, improve it, widen it, etc. Give money to Jasper and Huntingburg to create their own bypasses. Huntingburg can start by I-64 and 231. Jasper and Huntingburg can work to create a road around each town that hooks back up north of Walmart on 231. Each town has a better feel for where the road would benefit the people of the county… And better yet, the people of this county would have more say, being able to talk with local politicians and officials as opposed to this ridiculous committee.
Driving a semi through each town on 231 is timely and does a disservice to about everyone. The 162 bypass road by Jasper Rural King was a HUGE benefit… A bypass road around Jasper and Huntingburg could do the same. And doing it at the local level would be better for everyone.
Several years back, someone decided that US 31 should be “improved” to a limited-access direct-route type highway south of South Bend. Granted, the existing road needed improvements…new pavement, signage, etc. Before this happened, there were several small towns that 31 went through, with thriving businesses and restaurants. Now, most of these towns are practically ghost towns. The businesses that thrived on tourism and transitory traffic are going or gone. A bypass, perhaps. Bypasses come with their own drawbacks, but if properly maintained and policed are a much more sensible way to keep through traffic out of town. Nobody wants huge semis running past their doorstep. Nobody wants to lose their home and heritage to a ribbon of concrete and clouds of diesel smoke. Sorry, Gene, you need to do better research!
Interesting that Mr Hostetter didn’t mention citizens or farms in his second-last paragraph. We have a great environment outside of the cities and towns, too, in our forests, on our farms, in our open land, in our rural homes. Why is it that those who would benefit least, would have the most forcibly stolen from them? If the cities and businesses need a solution to their problem, then the cities and businesses should sacrifice the most.
20 years. That’s how long some of these areas have been proposed routes. If you have not made plans for the inevitable highway, that is poor outlook on your part. Go ahead, write a sad story about your fictional family farm. Tell me how you built/bought your dream house in the middle of a proposed highway route. Heck, write a full page communist manifesto. The highway is coming. Good or bad, it is coming. Frankly, I am tired of being reminded of how a hand full of wealthy farmers is the reason this road is not already built.
Wanting the highway built out of spite isn’t a take I’d thought I’d read. What church do you go to every Sunday to get this kind of worldview?
Just a few brief comments to add to this conversation.
1. The Mid-States Corridor is NOT a done deal.
2. The few that are proposing and pushing this highway are selfish for their benefit and really don’t care how it affects people in Orange County or even outside the Jasper/Huntingburg area.
3. Yes there are better opportunities to design truck routes around Jasper and Huntingburg improving existing roads.
4. The people opposed to the Mid-States Corridor are not anti-progress. We believe in economic development, but smart, sustainable economic development while at the same time preserving all the positives we have plus preserving and growing our small entrepreneurial locally owned businesses.
5. Gene, please don’t mistake what you term as negative rhetoric but as another comment stated, do your homework to understand the facts then weigh the positives versus the negative impacts.
Seems to me, regardless of if you are for or against , we have more pressing issues than this road.
If you are going to comment on or write letters to the editor please use your real names .
As a former resident of Dubois County, Ferdinand and Jasper I once called home, I’m not certain more 4-lane limited access roads are necessarily needed for continued growth in Dubois county. The areas outlined for the Mid-States Corridor are beautiful areas of rolling farmland with generations of families owning these farms. I’m reminded of the rather useless Ferdinand Bypass built a couple of years after I left the area. When I visit Ferdinand nowadays, I rarely see it being used as designed for over-the-road truck traffic and other bypassing drivers.
I now live in suburban Atlanta and the sheer amount of families “selling the farm” (20-50 acres) to corporate subdivision developers (Has Lannar or Pulte Homes visited DuCo yet?) to pack in 300 homes in the same tract of land is purely disgusting. The amount of duplication of stores, restaurants, and gas stations is nauseating. Quiet back roads become filled with rush hour-type traffic backups due to these roads never once being designed for the extreme amount of traffic. All to live in condensed harmony out in the country…
I would hate to see Dubois County become the next suburbia; where towns have no boarders. Most times when I visit Dubois County, I take the back roads intentionally between towns because the linear concrete 4-lanes are vapid reminders of Atlanta metro’s finest overdeveloped highways. Plus, the smell of turkey and hog manure can’t be found here in Atlanta!
Where are your local politicians to lobby when you need them most? It’s been working for decades in Georgia…
Why are we going spending money on a road that they will never fix just like 231 between Jasper and Huntingburg
Gene is right on many of his points. Some of the companies he listed are already moving good paying jobs away from the community at every opportunity. There is nothing coming in to replace these jobs and there never will be without infrastructure. If you think this area will stay prosperous without updated infrastructure, you are dreaming. We are already on the downhill slide, but few can see it. Hold on to your farms, your homes, and your land, but when the good paying jobs are gone, what will you do? I don’t think everyone can be a farmer.
Gene, Gene, Gene, ……
He forgot to mention that he actually does have his fingers in many of the companies that he mentioned. Several that he didn’t mention too. He does and will benefit. He also has rental property, several restaurants, and other investments that has his fingernail scratches on!
To all those people who said to give up your farmland to help the economy in our area. How about you give up your house and move and let us build a parking lot right where you’re at so a business can park their cars there. This needs to be stopped so tired of the politicians always getting what they want instead of listening to the citizens of this county