Speakout

November 20, 2006 04:42 pm

— Editor’s note: On Nov. 10, we asked for your thoughts on the Indiana Commerce Connector. The 75-mile connector would start at Interstate 69 near Pendleton. The toll road would run south to Shelbyville, east to Martinsville, and connect with Interstate 70 near Mooresville.
Here’s what you had to say:

Yes, I’m for it.
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I think it sucks.
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No, it’s not needed. It just takes you completely out of your road. You got more money to spend on your gas and everything else. Unless you’re going down 65 or going south coming in on 70 or 74, it doesn’t help you at all.
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I think the toll road would be benefit to Madison County. It would open Anderson up to a more direct route and besides me being from southern Indiana it would probably cut off a half hour of my travel time. And having to miss all the Indianapolis traffic would be a big plus.
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I don’t think it will make any difference, and we are going to stop this governor because we are not going to have any ground to plant corn.
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I think that connector road would be an absolutely great idea. We have a son that lives in Indianapolis and the hassle of 465 will sometimes drive you crazy and a lot of time if I am headed Louisville or south or to Cincinnati or wherever I have to drive all the way around there or many time I take 9 all the way down to Columbus to pick up 65. I think is would be a wonderful idea.
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I don’t think its a good idea. We already have that stupid toll road up there that Mitch sold to foreign people, and I just think it’s a heck of a lot of money going into that road that going to take family land and people’s houses.
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Yes, the proposal that has been advanced by the governor is a real breath of fresh air and a great solution. As I have contended as an Anderson resident for many, many years that we should establish a a closer connection to Indianapolis rather than becoming in competition or isolated from Indianapolis. Reality is that Indianapolis is growing our way, and we can connect in with that in a great way with this program. I’d say that Indiana has not established its proficiency in maintaining and operating a toll road. I think the solution to have a private government partnership is an excellent one, and I would like to see it go forward as soon as possible. The connection from I-69 in the Anderson area seems to me best at the Martin Luther King Exit 22 intersection.
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I don’t think you can make ethanol out of toll roads and houses being built all over farm land. You only have a certain amount of land and you can’t get enough bushels per acre to fuel all these ethanol plants that Mr. Mitch Daniel claims to be a leading indication on replacing the foreign oil. The key is building houses over thousands of acres and build a toll road over thousands of acres. I guess we’ll be importing our corn for the ethanol plants.
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I like the idea Democrat Tim Lanane had with the railway system to relieve the pressure on I-69 and around Fishers. I think a subway or a transit system like they have in Chicago would be more efficient, less polluting and would not be uprooting families and destroying more farmland which is going to be short anyway because of the housing additions, shopping malls and everything that is being built around central Indiana and I think they need to look into something like that because what they don’t need is more pollution and stuff with the ozone deteriorating we need to look into something more efficient.
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Yes, I think the road would be great for Madison County
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Yes, my opinion is that it is a good idea, they should start on it now. Most other big cities comparable to Indianapolis have already done it. So it is a good idea.
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No.
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Good idea.
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Well, I’m Robert Hoover. They have a road around Fort Wayne, and it’s not a toll road, it’s a bypass of Fort Wayne and I just don’t believe we should go back to the pioneer days where every time you turn around you have to pay a toll. I’m against toll roads because we do pay federal tax on our gas and state taxes on our gas, and I think any road that should be built by the government, because they simply get the benefits from the taxation. I just don’t believe we ought to have a toll road. I think the road around Indianapolis would be a fine idea. I do believe it goes around and cuts back north to 70 straight from east to west to 70 and goes south out of Pendleton or around that area, it ought to go just straight east or west to get to 70 instead of going down south and coming back north to 70. I don’t why they would want to do that.
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We don’t need that darn toll road, and we don’t need 69 going from Indianapolis to Evansville, all they want to do is set 69 to the Mexican border to bring all that junk from Mexico up here. So we don’t need any of these darn roads; we have enough.
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I’d like to vote no on that. I don’t think it would be beneficial to our county, I think it would take up more farmland. That is my response.