WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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After accusing the Indiana Department of Transportation of hijacking city and county highway funds and holding both governments hostage, Mayor Mark Kruzan has rendered moot the issue of a “hardship buyout” of I-69 property at Tapp Road and State Road 37. Instead of succumbing to strongarm tactics and amending the local transportation plan to include the property as I-69 right-of-way, on Friday Kruzan announced that the city will instead buy the property itself. Where the state wants to put an interchange for I-69, the city will develop an affordable housing project, assuming the property owner accepts the city’s offer and the City Council approves the deal. This happened at Friday’s meeting of the Bloomington/Monroe County Metropolitan Planning Organization. INDOT representative Jim Stark said he believed the state was prepared to cut off $38 million in highway funds if the MPO again rejected the Tapp Road buyout, and that is effectively what happened Friday as the MPO voted eight to five to postpone the INDOT request indefinitely. Kruzan says now we will find out if INDOT’s motive really was to rescue a distressed homeowner. If it is all a power play to get the city to implicitly endorse I-69 by acknowledging it in our local building plans, will INDOT continue to delay unrelated local projects, like the Jackson Creek Trail? Hear Kruzan and commissioner Mark Stoops dissect the INDOT threat in this clip from Friday’s MPO meeting, a WFHB radio exclusive.
