Opinion: I-67 will bring revenue and fight brain drain

In the next three to four months, a very important point in time will occur for Dubois County and our potential economic and individual growth.

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) will be evaluating future projects to improve Indiana’s transportation network and that includes the potential Interstate 67. This proposed Interstate would run from Owensboro KY to Washington IN through Spencer, Dubois, Pike/Martin, and Daviess Counties. It has been reported to me that the I-67 project is within the top ten projects that INDOT has identified as a high priority issue for the state of Indiana, but now we the people need to get involved to make it a reality.

We are suffering the same ‘brain drain’ all fellow rural counties across the USA are experiencing. The 2010 Census shows the urban areas across the USA are growing while rural America is shrinking. Even in low unemployment Dubois County, one of the reasons driving low unemployment is because our kids go to college and then they return in such low amounts employers struggle to find people to fill positions. Companies are forced to reach out throughout the Midwest and out across America to find qualified people willing to move to Southern Indiana.

This is why I am arguing for Interstate 67.

Interstate 67 would run through the counties listed as a direct north-south run whereas businesses can locate here and have access to a fantastic north-south and east-west transportation network. We all know about the east-west I-64, and the benefit that gives us. I-67, as it would be called, would give traffic another route to Nashville that avoids the traffic backups in the Louisville metropolitan area and the currently maxed out section of I-65 between Indy and Louisville.

That would bring revenue and new job opportunities to our area that should bring our kids back in larger numbers!

So what we need to do is contact all our State Representatives, State Senators, Lt. Governor, and Governor over the next few weeks so they can communicate this to INDOT. We must make sure INDOT knows you want new and different job opportunities, and that you want our area to grow so we become a viable alternative to the big cities for companies and our kids.

We must realize that to stay competitive, we must rise above the rest and fulfill the identified requirements of the next generation as an area willing to provide the infrastructure a modern society can deliver while retaining our wonderful rural feeling. Interstate 67 achieves a major piece of this objective and I ask you to join me in supporting the I-67 project.