To the Editor,

On October 22, 2025 INDOT, the Lochmueller and the Mid-States Corridor RDA will host another Open House to present their latest report on the Mid-States Corridor project. They call these events “Open Houses” because this way they don’t have to address or answer the publics questions as they would if it were a Public Meeting.

The iron is heating up and it’s time for the striking to begin. All good, civic minded residents should attend this meeting and make their opposition known. You will not be alone as there will be many opponents on hand to keep INDOT, the Lochmueller Group and the RDA honest. Their report is chock full of nuances, distortions, innuendos and in some cases plain old lies. They are hoping no one will have read or even understand what they are doing.

This latest report, once again, fails to make a conclusive need for the Mid-States Corridor. They distort and exaggerate the travel time savings; and, then use these distorted numbers to make several other time and cost related calculations. Thereby making all of the calculations wrong. In a glaring admission, they failed to include the travel time to access the Corridor, an average of over 7 minutes, into their travel time savings. (They did this by making a separate chart.)

They continue to state there will be 7,000 new jobs created but fail to mention that over 5,000 will be temporary construction and construction related jobs. They include a vague, and dubious, set of data that indicates if one is willing to commute 40 minutes one way, there will be an additional 5,000+ people available for employment. What this data doesn’t tell us is, is this available workforce in Dubois County, or are willing/wanting to commute to Dubois County, or are they in Dubois County and willing/wanting to commute out of the county.

What is said is that the Mid-States Corridor is first and foremost a truck route. They say a truck route is needed; but, they won’t say how many trucks per day will be removed from our city and county streets. They do not address the toll of getting truck from facilities in town to the Corridor. They address OFS and Meyers Distributing wants to have immediate access but do not address the needs of the residents.

All in all the report is another justification for the Cabal’s Vanity Highway; and, it’s time for the civic minded to loudly oppose the project. I say civic minded because this means those who put the needs of the community first, those who want the people to know their names, those who want a better future for everyone’s children. Are those private and secret donors to the Mid-States Corridor really civic minded? I know that Hank Menke thinks he is civic minded. I saw him say it as he stood in front of the Huntingburg City Council back in July and tell everyone how much he donates to the community. To me it was a veiled threat, not civic mindedness.

Let’s all strike the iron while it’s hot. Make arrangements to attend the October 22nd INDOT “Open House”. You will have plenty of company to support your questions and concerns. We can beat City Hall.

Jim Arvin

Rutherford Township

Martin County