Eighty-three-year-old Pauline Oxby has lived in her rural Oakland City home since the 1950s. She is among the first I-69-route property owners to be abused by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT).
As INDOT began construction on I-69, the Daniels administration used eminent domain to take portions of Oxby's property for the approach to an I-69 interchange on S.R. 68. Contractors working for INDOT have already destroyed three homes and have another one to take down. They also destroyed trees that have stood in front of Oxby's home for a half century or more.
Oxby negotiated with the Daniels administration, only to have the agency refuse to buy her home. Instead, the state took most of her front yard, and she will live out her life faced with an INDOT fence, whose location is indicated by this stake 20 feet from her front door.
After felling Oxby's trees, the agency will eventually bulldoze her yard. Oxby gave neighbors permission to dig up and save her flowers.