i-69 meeting shut down: blow to bribery and the planning process!

  • Posted by i69news on August 23rd, 2007 filed in Resistance

Activists Drive INDOT Out of Town
by Steve Higgs
The Bloomington Alternative

Bloomington activists shut down an Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) “Community Planning Program” on Wednesday, Aug. 21, after vowing to never let I-69 be built in Bloomington.

After a brief verbal confrontation with INDOT officials and their multi-million-dollar Evansville consultants, about 15 banner-carrying activists walked to the front of the Bloomington High School North cafeteria and brought the dog-and-pony show to a halt.

City and state police converged on the scene and marched to the side of the room, where they huddled with the meeting’s organizers. After extended discussion, INDOT’s Stephen Smith announced the meeting over about an hour after it began.

The audience was sparse, with no one from any of the leading I-69 opposition groups in attendance. City Councilman Andy Ruff showed up 40 minutes after the meeting began, saw what was happening and retreated to the hallway to engage in private conversations. He did not speak to any of the protesters.

The protesters were a mixture of local and EarthFirst! activists, who have been engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience along the I-69 route and in the Bloomington area to call attention to Gov. Mitch Daniels’ ongoing assault on the Indiana environment.

One activist was arrested this week at a tree-sit protest in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest against Daniels’ plans to increase state forest logging by 400 percent for short-term, private-sector profits.

After the I-69 meeting, police followed some of the EarthFirsters to the parking lot, where they said they were investigating a theft during a recent action in Petersburg and demanded identification from each protester.

Also at the meeting were officials from the Evansville consulting firm Bernardin-Lochmueller & Associates, which has received 10s of millions in INDOT contracts on I-69 and has a long history of contributing 10s of thousands to state politicians from both parties.

for pictures and original article
http://www.bloomingtonalternative.com/articles/2007/08/21/8592

Also, Chad from WHFB captured some of the meeting shutdown here: http://news.wfhb.org/news/archive.php?id=721


2 Responses to “i-69 meeting shut down: blow to bribery and the planning process!”

  1. jared Says:
    September 27th, 2007 at 3:14 pm

    I was actually one of the few who attended the meeting that was not rich and wearing a suit or an activist. I am new to this town and it seems that we have some major enviromental issues to take action against.

  2. Mordi Says:
    October 4th, 2007 at 9:48 pm

    Keep it up, your persaverance keeps my spirits high for better days and inspires me to keep strugling in my town.

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