Mid-States Corridor survey refusals turn into court summons
DUBOIS COUNTY, Ind. (WEHT) – A long-time battle over the proposed mid-states corridor project has now become a legal battle. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) is suing over 100 property owners after they say they refused to allow land surveyors to do their job.
Huntingburg resident, and owner of Ring Farms, Dave Ring is 1 out of 121 property owners on 70 individual properties being sued by INDOT. The department claims residents unlawfully prevented land surveyors with the proposed Mid-States Corridor to access their property. 'I mean, if they'd ask permission to get on your property, that would be a whole different thing,' says Ring, 'but they don't. They didn't.'
The suit says Indiana law gives INDOT the authority to survey any property and claims residents refused to grant access after attempts to call, mail letters, and visit door to door. Attorney Russ Sipes is representing roughly half of the 70 individual properties and says if INDOT wants access to properties they have to use the legal system.
INDOT suing Dubois County property owners
'We expect the surveyors to be able to get on the property,' says Sipes, 'but this way they do it with a court order.'
INDOT also claims surveyors feared for their safety and requested law enforcement to visit properties to inform owners of the law, but say residents refused to comply. The filing says residents 'are not entitled' to interfere with INDOT's survey process. You can read the full lawsuit in the viewer below. Addresses of defendants listed in the suit have been blacked out for privacy.
INDOT-v-LC-Bar-LLC-et-al-Veri_1742994560-1Download
'To say we don't have to ask permission or we don't, that fires people up,' says Ring. 'It changes the attitude of a lot of people.' Sipes adds, 'Right now there's just a lot of concern, a lot of anger, a lot of worry. People thinking about what they thought was going to be their life and their legacy, now thinking that it's going to be a four-lane highway that they can look at when they drive down it.'
A 130-acre section of Ring's three generation farm falls right in the middle of the proposed corridor. For Ring and numerous other farmers, it's not about the family history, but the livelihood they have built.
'This field right here is my plant,' explains Ring. 'Like Jasper Engines has a plant, OFS has a plant, furniture plant. You know, if you knock those plants down, you go somewhere else and you can build it. But this plant here, you cover it with asphalt, it's gone forever.'
Eyewitness News reached out to INDOT for comment. A spokesperson for the department replied, saying, 'INDOT does not comment on active or pending litigation.'
Mid-States Corridor survey refusals turn into court summons
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