Published: March 15, 2009 12:42 am      

LETTERS: March 15, 2009

Indiana and 2016



How seriously does Indiana want improvements in transportation? How seriously does Indiana want to come into the 21st century?

Like so many, I have attended scores of “feel good” meetings and workshops, out of which some action toward moving Indiana forward would result. More often than not, it did not.

Through intense documentation, the 10th annual Golden Spike Seminar on Thursday and Friday will create a white paper formula for making transportation projects — in particular, passenger rail projects — in Indiana and the Midwest possible. The state needs this impetus and document.

In 1916, Indiana’s 100th anniversary, innovation on the largest scale was already in place. The state was then home to the largest passenger rail network in the world and to some 250 automobile designs. In 1896 and 1897, Indiana gave birth to credible flying machine models that inspired Orville and Wilbur Wright to accomplish their feat. Has Indiana lost site of what it is like to be a state of transportation innovators and innovations?

Innovative entrepreneurs are abound in Indiana. All are to be congratulated. But the state’s larger grand scale designs are bogged down by Indiana’s parochial attitudes and politics, and by a broken, outdated bureaucracy that holds serious innovation at bay. All we get is a library full of project studies.

Over the past 15 years, $15 million has been spent on the study of proposed projects in Northwest Indiana alone. The only ones making money are the consulting firms. Isn’t it time Indiana spends money on the companies that can supply the products needed to implement the people moving systems and to bring the state into compliance with the transportation realities of the 21st century?

The year 2016 – date of the Olympic Games proposed for Chicago and Indiana’s 200th anniversary — offers Indiana that potential. The year sets the stage for serious transportation projects to be a reality. But the Hoosier state mindset about transportation needs a major overhaul for that to happen. Indiana must document a realistic plan that brings us back into an era of transportation innovation and leadership. With the federal stimulus and recovery package, there is this opportunity. With Indiana being the Crossroads of America, our neighboring states are counting on this state to assume its anointed role. A set of younger citizens is looking to Indiana for this leadership. Some of us are doing are part.

At the Radisson Hotel in Merrillville on Thursday and Friday, serious-minded transportation innovators will set the stage for Indiana and the Midwest to move these projects forward and to re-establish, by 2016, Indiana’s leadership and innovations in transportation. The seminar is open to anyone who wants to make a critical difference in Indiana.

Contact: 219-887-1351.

— W. Dennis Hodges, founder of the Indiana High Speed Rail Association, Merrillville



Reader: Cody must be held responsible for ‘dangerous’ decision



I want to thank Dr. William Smock for his letter in The Tribune on Thursday. Having attended Monday’s BZA meeting, I understood this application for a billboard has been pending since 2004. Also, I understand that Floyd County Circuit Court Judge Terry Cody recently ruled that the Indiana Department of Transportation must issue a permit for this billboard at U.S. 150 and Buck Creek Road after INDOT twice denied the billboard permit on grounds of safety. Judge Cody must also be held accountable for future victims of this dangerous intersection.

Our Floyd County ordinances are law and should not be ignored. Another example of Judge Cody’s disregard of these ordinances was to recently rule that the Floyd County Plan Commission must sign a plat from 1992 for Section 2 of Cedar Pointe subdivision, located behind the bank in Galena, saying the plat had been given final approval in 1992. If that were so, why did then owner, Dan Page, request a hearing before the plan commission for conditional approval on this same plat in July 2000?

Mr. Page failed to appear, maybe because he realized that Wastewater One LLC had no available capacity to serve this plat. According to testimony before the IURC in June 2008 by Wastewater One manager Steve Tolliver, this plant still has no capacity for further tap-ins. Judge Cody chose to disregard this testimony.

Another example is Judge Cody’s ruling in January upholding the plan commission's approval of a subdivision, Lafayette Ridge, located on narrow Fertig Creek Road near Scottsville Road. Our subdivision control ordinance clearly states that this subdivision’s lots must have 80 feet of road frontage and 56 of the 224 lots, or 25 percent, do not meet this requirement. Neither does the SCO allow for ignoring a failing traffic control point, such as the one at U.S. 150 and Stiller Road, in this case.

Republican County Chairman Dave Matthews also had a letter in The Tribune on Thursday regarding how well the GOP is doing locally. Hopefully, the GOP can find a viable candidate to run in our next election, if Judge Cody is also a candidate.

— Carol Lamb, Floyds Knobs



Let’s ‘Love New Albany’



I just read Roger Baylor’s Opinions column in Thursday’s edition of The Tribune, “It Shan’t Happen Here.” I was a little depressed at first, then I thought, yes we can!

He said that there is a lot of negativity in New Albany. I can’t argue with that, but I don’t think the majority of our people are negative. The loudest voices are the ones that are heard, that is why he hears “It just can't be done here — and you are a fool to even try.”

He says we, New Albanians, hate ourselves. I respectfully disagree. I’m not wanting to start a battle, but I don’t believe the majority of us are self-loathing naysayers. Call me “Pollyanna” if you want, but I believe the majority of us do want to improve our city. Look at the number of neighborhood associations that have been started in the last four or five years.

Let’s start an “I Love New Albany” campaign. Let’s clean up, fix up, plant some flowers in our yards.

Let's have a few festivals this summer, even if they are small. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.

— Shirley Baird, New Albany



Health Dept. thanks council



The Floyd County Health Department would like to thank the Floyd County Council for appropriating $16,000 to complete the funding for the Maternal & Child Health Clinic.

This was a wonderful vote for the entire county. The money will allow us to continue providing the essential prenatal care that benefits us in many ways, including reduced infant mortality and decreased number of special needs births.

The council should be commended by the voters of Floyd County. The council also approved line item transfers, including a $25,000 Bioterrorism Public Health Preparedness Grant from CDC and a $25,000 appropriation for indigent and professional services from the Local Health Maintenance Grant.

The $16,000 completed the replacement of the $70,000 lost in Title V and Title X grants. Grants from the Horseshoe Foundation of Floyd County and Floyd Memorial Hospital Foundation also helped to restore the deficit and allow the clinic to continue providing care to Floyd County residents.

— Dr. Tom Harris, Floyd County Health Officer