Small business owner: “Adding tolls on the 65 bridge will wipe me out.”

Travel agent Lynn Rhodea (quoted above) sees the reality of tolling -- and then there's 1Si's interim head, Matt Hall, regrettably touting his organization's disregard for the welfare of Hoosiers:

"Like it or not, we have no choice but to build the bridges."

Hall's sad bit of Stemleresque parroting/parody aside, hearty congratulations to Irv Stumler for his comments (see excerpt below) at Thursday night's public hearing to discuss the recently released "predetermined results courtesy of your nearest oligarch" ORBP economic impact study.

Irv's much appreciated candor should give him something to talk about with "clean and green" partner Jerry Finn at tomorrow's NA beautification day.

Local residents call to stop downtown bridge construction; Integrity of economic impact study questioned, by Braden Lammers (N and T)

Local residents acknowledged the benefit the east-end bridge will provide to the region for the planned Ohio River Bridges Project, but called to stop the construction and the use of tolls on the planned downtown bridge.

The Indiana Department of Transportation and the Indiana Finance Authority held a public hearing Thursday night to present and collect comments on an economic impact study released April 16 ...

... Irv Stumler, former New Albany mayoral candidate and Floyd County resident, pointed to the Louisville-based conservancy group River Fields for adding unnecessary bloat to the project.

“They’re not conservationists, they’re obstructionists,” he said. “I’m a bit upset about the whole process. And I don’t think it’s necessary at this point to build a downtown bridge, especially redoing all of Spaghetti Junction and throwing all of that in and expect Indiana to pay because of what Kentucky should have done years and years ago.”