Feds won't resolve S. Ind. I-69 section dispute

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A federal agency is saying it won't settle the dispute between state and local officials over a hotly debated section of the Interstate 69 extension in southern Indiana.

The Federal Highway Administration says in written responses to questions from the Bloomington-Monroe County Metropolitan Planning Organization that state officials need that group's backing to spend federal money on a 1.75-mile section of the highway near Bloomington.

But The Herald-Times reports that federal officials also upheld the state's right to withhold federal money for road projects in Bloomington if the planning group doesn't back the I-69 project.

Meanwhile, the Evansville Courier & Press reports that Indiana's two senators and seven of its nine congressmen have sent a letter to Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan seeking his support the project.