By Mark Bennett
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE
June 03, 2009 10:17 pm
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In another part of the country, some political spin master could pluck a few key words and have a field day.
It’s not hard to imagine an indignant talk-show pundit muttering, “Want to know how your federal stimulus money is being used? Well, get this — Team Obama is spending $3.3 million on a ditch in Terre Haute, Indiana. Can you say, Ditch to Nowhere?”
Hopefully, the roar of earthmovers will soon drown out such cynicism.
The debate over President Obama’s plan to modernize America’s infrastructure (roads, railways, bridges and watersheds) can go on and on like the old Miller Lite commercials — “Sounds great” … “Less spending” … “Sounds great” … “Less spending” …
But the bottom line is this: A flood-protection plan, which Terre Haute folks need and have been working on for decades, will now get finished. By 2011, six miles of true floodwalls along Thompson Ditch will shield hundreds of homes and businesses from a 100-year flood. The ditch was carved through Terre Haute’s south side nearly 40 years ago to improve water drainage, rather than to specifically control flooding. It is, well, a ditch. Its limitations were exposed on June 7, 2008, when the city experienced its worst flood since 1913.
On Tuesday morning, Obama’s secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, stood on the burm of the ditch and announced that $3.3 million in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act would be used for the long-awaited completion of the Honey Creek-Vigo Conservancy District Watershed project.
That’s a lot of words. In a nutshell, Terre Haute will be a drier, safer place. That’s a good thing. Period.
Craig McKee, the attorney for the conservancy district, turned to Vilsack and said the commitment was “very good news, Mr. Secretary, not only for the protection of people in southern Vigo County, but it’s good news for the local economy.”
He’s exactly right. The heart of the Terre Haute economy — the new Crossroads of America, as McKee put it — lies within that district. The intersection of U.S. 41 and Interstate 70 is a local “gold mine,” he said, containing Honey Creek Mall, Terre Haute Regional Hospital, Terre Haute South Vigo High School, hotels, restaurants, salons, a bowling alley, car dealerships, strip malls, health-care facilities, stores, golf courses, houses and apartments. A news release distributed by Vilsack’s USDA staff said 390 homes and 190 businesses are located in the 1,300-acre area. But those numbers were compiled when the conservancy district was planning the project in the early 1990s. The number of residences and businesses in that part of town has grown immensely since then.
Last June, the impact of flooding became harshly clear. High waters ruined belongings, homes and businesses. Once the water receded, drenched family photos, clothes, mattresses and appliances were piled up outside people’s front doors.
To be sure, the 2008 flood packed unique force. It surpassed the 100-year level, and earned the rare label as a 500-year (or more) flood. The restructured Thompson Ditch — even with its six-mile system of earthen and concrete dikes — is designed to withstand a 100-year flood, but not a 500. Still, when it’s done in two years, residents and shop owners can sleep more peacefully when long stretches of heavy rains hit.
That’s what good government should help provide — reasonable safety.
And, in this brutally long recession, the construction jobs involved in the project will benefit local contractors in the short run, McKee pointed out. In the long run, the projected benefits generated by its completion will be $1.97 million annually, or $98 million over its 50-year lifespan.
Vilsack was correct when he said, “This is the kind of project we need to do more of in this country. We have not reinvested in our infrastructure.” He vowed it would be carried out with fiscal transparency.
This project perfectly fits the concept of the economic recovery plan — a shovel-ready, one-time undertaking that will have lasting value while also putting people to work. It should look just as good to Texans or New Yorkers as it does to Hauteans. Of course, that often is wishful thinking. It’s human nature to be skeptical of anything benefiting the other guy, rather than us.
“We all know that when we look at the expenditure of tax dollars, tax dollars that are spent in somebody else’s state for somebody else’s project are always boondoggles,” McKee aptly noted. “And federal dollars that are spent on projects that meet local needs are the federal government at its best. That’s just real life.”
Fortunately for Terre Haute, this project will become real very soon.
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
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