Update:
      Evansville Police put up temporary fencing for Wednesday's private groundbreaking ceremony for the Interstate 69 extension. It's scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at The Centre. Police want to discourage more protests at the site after a series of recent incidents. Protestors have put themselves in trees and beaten on office windows. And Monday, many of them were arrested at Gohmann Asphalt in Haubstadt.  Fifteen protesters were taken into custody after chaining themselves up and lying on the ground to block the entrance of the plant that has a contract for the interstate extension. Friends of the protesters are accused of tying up phone lines at the Gibson County Sheriff's office while the group was being booked.





























































Report 7/14/08:
More protests, more arrests, and no sign of anyone hitting the brakes as the groundbreaking for the Interstate 69 project nears. The demonstrations continued today... for a second time at Gohmann Asphalt in Haubstadt. In the past few weeks, protestors have also climbed into trees and broken windows ... all in opposition to the interstate extension between Evansville and Indianapolis. It's a fight that has been going on for a while and will likely continue down this new road. There were songs. There were signs. And, there was the sheriff. "Folks have chained themselves together," explained Guy Dobyns. "They've blocked the entrance to Gohmann Asphalt for a while until they were brutally dragged by the police off it." Dobyns is one of the protestors. He was wasn't chained up, but he's still very much against the project. "Because it is evicting 450 families, because it is being built completely contrary to the democratic process," Dobyns said. "Because it is destroying thousands of acres of farms, because it will bring the rest of our manufacturing jobs south of the border to Mexico." The Gibson County Sheriff's office says it made 16 arrests. Some might argue the protestors are expressing their first amendment rights. INDOT disagrees. "This is not an issue of the first amendment," INDOT Communications Director Andy Dietrick said. "If it were that, then we would have more people taking advantage of a place we have put together - a little space on the construction site or adjacent to it for that kind of public voicing of opinion." Dietrick says for years lots of people have expressed concerns legally. "What we've seen more recently are some of the more radical and some of the more dangerous elements coming out, who are doing things that are not part of the process.They are, in fact, illegal. They are trespassing, they are vandalizing private property and state-owned property." Dietrick says in-dot will continue to work with law enforcement to handle any problems that might lie in the way of Wednesday's groundbreaking. The sheriff's office says the 16 protestors are still in Gibson County Jail at this hour. Booking has been difficult for deputies because only about half of them have identified themselves.