Meeting: December 17
Martinsville Public Library
7:00 pm

Although new-terrain routes are opposed by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, the Bloomington City Council, the Vigo County Chamber of Commerce, the South Bend Tribune, and the majority of affected Hoosiers, including over 154,000 who signed petitions and letters, INDOT remains committed to ripping an asphalt gash through the heart of rural Indiana.

News Release

Contacts:
John Smith: (812) 327-6142;
John Braun (317) 889-0029;

COUNT US! sees the choices narrowing for the I-69 route. Support continues to erode for the most expensive new-terrain routes as environmental concerns have become mainstream with federal government comments from the EPA, Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture.

A potent political movement organized around the new-terrain I-69 highway is the only force on earth that can kill outright this massive political and economic fraud being perpetrated upon the citizens of Indiana by Bayh-O'Bannon Democrats, former Hoosier Environmental Council Director Jeff Stant said in Bloomington last week.

Federal highway officials gave new meaning to the phrase "distorting reality" when claiming last week that a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement is not required for the so-called "hybrid route" for the proposed Interstate 69 highway through Southwestern Indiana.

News Release: Organizing a Political Movement Around I-69

Former Hoosier Environmental Council Executive Director Jeff Stant will deliver a speech on the subject "Organizing a Political Movement Around I-69" at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Monroe County Public Library Auditorium. This nonpartisan discussion on political strategies to stop new-terrain I-69 will be free and open to the public.

News Release: HEC, CARR, ELPC, Andy Ruff

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a written clarification of its position on the routing of I-69 in Indiana. In recent weeks, the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has been touting a "hybrid" route for I-69 as being backed by EPA.

That hybrid route was not included in INDOT's draft environmental impact statement, and in fact was announced 6 days after the close of the official public comment period for the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for I-69.

A few years ago, it was hard to see how they could win.

A strange-bedfellows coalition of environmentalists, farmers and taxpayer groups had organized in opposition to plans for a new terrain I-69 highway. They were taking on Gov. O'Bannon and business interests intent on building the road, no matter how many family farms, wetlands and tree-huggers were in the path. Surely, it seemed, power and money would win out, and the new terrain highway would be built.

When the reverend Bill Breeden asked everyone gathered in the St. Thomas Aquinas School a couple blocks from the Governor's mansion in Indianapolis to form a circle, it took awhile. There was barely enough room in the elementary school cafeteria for them stand side-by-side around its perimeter. They had to squeeze.

The turnout for Saturday's Pre-Thanksgiving Pitch-In Lunch/I-69 rally had, as Breeden and the Hoosier Environmental Council's Andy Knott noted, exceeded all expectations. The group included Hoosiers from across generational, geographical, and political spectrums. COUNT US! had filled a chartered Rural Transit bus to carry Bloomington citizens to the event.

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 - ...

Last week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional office in Chicago sent comments to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) that are highly critical of INDOT's preferred alternatives for Interstate 69. EPA's letter is significant for three reasons: