We conservatives like to talk about government waste. I once again feel justified in calling myself a conservative based on the "which President are you" test on Facebook; I scored a Calvin Coolidge with Reagan compatibility. I was praying it wouldn't show up Clinton and scare away my measly 150 FB friends.Back to government waste. Well, here in Indiana we're set to spend hundreds of millions of dollars creating a new U.S. 31 bypass to bypass the original bypass that was created in the mid-50's. I can't fully blame Mitch, this was started long ago....but with all the stimulus and toll road money floating around these days, it's Mitch that got this puppy moving.
I won't argue that it will improve safety on the stretch between Plymouth and South Bend. But then, so would doing a number of other things on the existing road alignment. Maybe even enforce the speed limit....whoa, there's a novel thought. And I really don't see the economic benefit to this, except for crappy cardboard box service businesses that are sure to follow the new interchanges. Which, had they not permitted that in Kokomo, we wouldn't be talking about that $100+ million dollar bypass.
As I drove down 31 last week and saw the earth moving equipment out along the roadway creating overpasses, and the famous "Major Moves" signs.....I couldn't help but think how incredibly wasteful this is.....if you want to call me old-fashioned or non-progressive, go ahead, but if all these new road construction projects (shaving 15 minutes off my drive to Indy! yeah, buddy!) are all that they are promoted to be.....then why is it Indiana-the Crossroads of America-with an existing web of roadways that are fully functional-lags so far behind the rest of the country?
the c. 1885 Dr. White Farmstead in North Township, Marshall County, slated to be razed for the 31 bypassThe new roadway will be within eye-shot of my folks' house and border grandad's farm. The original 31 project displaced our family business forcing a relocation to a less than economically desirable situation. The new roadway will displace a multitude of homeowners and possibly put the final nail in the coffin of the small towns of LaPaz and Lakeville. It will wreck havoc on quiet farms, deplete tillable and wooded acreage, cause some 100+year old farmsteads to be razed and will cut off important emergency access from some homeowners. It relocates wetlands from Marshall County to Elkhart County and will create headaches for travelers into Plymouth....and the illustrious county commissioners are rolling over on these important issues with the far-fetched idea that an interchange 3 miles north of Plymouth will provide a much needed "beltway" around the little city of 10,000. Foolishness. Especially when you consider five miles of new roadway will have to be constructed by them.
But hey, we're all conservatives here, right? So some how, some way, we MUST be able to justify all this big spending in Indiana. Could someone justify this for me? Please?
2 comments:
Well, see, it works like this. We get our money from Foggy Bottom, so everything is free. Isn't it?
I think ultimately the plan will give us two east-west crossings of 31 in our county..So what? Uncle Milt, who lives across the highway from Aunt Susie could have an eight-mile drive to haul anything over to his sister.
just as Indiana and the Midwest are referred to as fly over territory by people on both the left and right coasts, Plymouth will become a "Drive By" by the Politicians both North and South on their way to the strip clubs in Kokomo! Our County Commissioners now who said they gave this any thought!
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