I-69--BLOOMINGTON--GIVE SOUTHWEST INDIANA A CHANCE TO PROSPER

June 18, 2011

I-69—GIVE SOUTHWEST INDIANA A CHANCE TO PROSPER

I’m a newcomer to Bloomington, thoroughly enjoying the
idyllic setting, diverse culture, and myriad opportunities that having Indiana
University here presents and I’ve held my very strong views about Monroe
County’s fight against I-69 to myself. The story of the Flinns in today’s
paper, however, prompts me to speak my mind.

                Bloomington
is in the state of Indiana, and profits greatly from the education dollars
spent by the state (after, of course, collecting it from all Indiana citizens);
therefore, as the state prospers, so does one of Bloomington’s major employers
and its myriad of spinoffs-technical parks, IU research-based businesses, and
the growing technology community, to name a few. I wonder if the three beautiful
Flynn children, pictured in 1991, are working and living in Scotland, Indiana.
Statistically, the odds are great that there were no jobs there for them to
stay in their own home town. This is still the case in Petersburg (my husband’s
home town) and other idyllic small towns along the proposed I 69 route. One, or
even two of them, might, however, live in Bloomington.

One of the undeniable factors in
Bloomington’s success formula was the building of I-37 (again, with protests
from Bloomington citizens). When I attended college here in the early ‘fifties,
you couldn’t get here from my hometown, Evansville, without difficulty and,
though it was a shorter distance from Indianapolis to Bloomington, the old
Bluff Road route couldn’t handle heavy trucks, was always chuck-h*** ridden
with a dangerous, rickety old bridge to cross and the legislators were lobbied
heavily by Indiana University alums in favor of I-37 to increase the attendance
at football games—an undeniable part of Bloomington’s prosperity as well.

Monroe County, I would like to see
you acknowledge the important role you play in our state and in its southwest
region and stop your opposition to I-69. Though I sympathize with the Flinns on
a one-to-one level, the time is NOW to extend the opportunity of more
prosperity in the lower southwest region, and put the question to our growing
eco-community here as to how to live with it instead of prevent it. For
example, I can imagine a barrier of fast-growing trees to hide the interstate
at Flinn’s place. Help the southwestregion get on a fast-track of prosperity;
block it no longer.