The citizens march against the new-terrain I-69 highway continues this weekend with a Pre-Thanksgiving Pitch-In Lunch to honor and give thanks for the farmland that grows our food, some of which is threatened by a new-terrain I-69. Details and pleas for support from Andy Knott and Jeff Stant follow.
A bus will carry Bloomington citizens to the event. For more information, see the COUNT US! Web site - www.i69tour.org
When: Saturday , November 23
Where: Saint Thomas Aquinas School Gym
4600 North Illinois (Northwest corner of 46th and Illinois)
Indianapolis
Please gather at noon on the 23rd to help set up tables, chairs and food. We will then give thanks for the land that feeds us and then break bread together. Rev. Bill Breeden of the Unitarian Universalist Church will preside.
Why: This is a pitch-in lunch. We want to honor the land that feeds us, especially the land threatened by the new-terrain I-69. Please bring a covered dish. If you live on one of the proposed new-terrain I-69 corridors, please bring a dish made with food grown on your land (This pitch-in is open to everyone who cares about the I-69 threat, not just people along the routes). We will invite Gov. and Mrs. O'Bannon and Lt. Gov and Mrs. Kernan to join us in honoring the land that feeds us, and ask them to cancel the new-terrain I-69. If the O'Bannon's do not attend, we will walk one block to the Governor's mansion to deliver plates of food that comes from land threatened by the new-terrain I-69.
Please Bring:
- A covered dish and your own place settings
- Appropriate outerwear for a one-block walk to the Governor's mansion
- "Stop the New-Terrain I-69" signs
- A glad heart and a positive attitude - we can win this thing!
Please RSVP by Thursday, November 21 by calling Hoosier Environmental Council at 317-685-8800 or e-mailing or by calling John Loveland at 812-829-4270.
This will be a peaceful and unique event. Please help us make it a success.
Andy Knott, Air and Energy Policy Director
Hoosier Environmental Council
317-685-8800 (phone)
317.686.4794 (fax)
John Loveland (812) 829-4270
The struggle to save the most genuinely rural part of our state left in southwest Indiana from major industrial development and sprawl brought on by a proposed new terrain I-69 interstate has gained tremendous momentum in the past two months. Public testimony in four hearings on the proposed highway attended by more than 2,000 people, ran more than four to one against building this interstate across new terrain and in favor of using existing highways. More than 17,000 post cards and letters and 138,000 petition signatures were received against any new terrain highway in a brief public comment period allowed by the Indiana Department of Transportation, INDOT.
Our senior U.S. Senator, Richard Lugar, has objected to one proposal to cut his farm in half by the highway. Congresswoman Julia Carson and a number of state legislators have urged the interstate be built on I-70 and US 41 to avoid dividing any more communities, and the US EPA has asked the INDOT to reexamine this option of upgrading I-70 and US 41 to extend I-69 to Evansville.
Yet INDOT's latest pronouncements are still downplaying the overwhelming public sentiment against tearing up more open space and indicating that the Administration of Governor O'Bannon and Lieutenant Governor Kernan is focused instead on a revised version of a new terrain route that will go through the forested hills and farms west of Bloomington!
So our job is not done. Below is a short announcement about an important lunch to come to next Saturday, Nov. 23rd at the Saint Thomas Aquinas School Gym one block from the Governor's mansion to meet many others fighting this battle, give thanks for what unites us, and enjoy a good meal. It will be a pitch-in featuring food grown from farms that will be destroyed by the new terrain interstate. Bring a covered dish if you can, but if you're pressed for time, don't let this request keep you away. We want as many folks there as possible. Please come and bring your family and friends!
Jeff Stant
phone 317-359-1306
fax 317-359-1307
