WHY FACTS MATTER!

by: Dan Barton, Publisher Of The New -Harmony Gazette

As one of our Nations founders and its second President, John Adams, once said, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

What follows are the names of towns in Indiana and Illinois that have been put forward by supporters of the Chapter 17 Town Ordinance change in the past New Harmony Town Plan Commission meetings. These towns were meant as examples of “small towns” that have turned themselves around because of supposedly stronger ordinances prohibiting first-floor residential uses in their business districts.

But these examples have carefully ignored some very stubborn facts. Though some of the towns mentioned no doubt have zoning restrictions similar to what the New Harmony Town Plan Commission advocates, others do not. This is not a standard that attests to either the success or failure of any of the towns mentioned. In any case, neither of the speakers who brought these examples up in the Commission meetings ever presented any supportive evidence to back their claim.

However, what is interesting is how different the examples were to the specific situation we have in New Harmony. Of the six mentioned towns, four were County Seats, like our own County Seat, Mt. Vernon, just south of New Harmony. County Seats seem to always get the lion’s share of the State funds for rehabilitating their downtown shopping areas and river parks. They also employee scores of public workers who live and spend within their town’s. These towns, held up as examples, had populations that ran between a low of 2,893 to a high of 19,384. New Harmony has only 763 residents. What’s more all of these “little towns” have Wal-Marts, they have hospitals or medical centers, Schools in the town limits, doctors, and dentists. There is no fair comparison.

All of the towns mentioned by the supporters had bridges that were open: Not closed – like The Harmony Way Bridge in New Harmony. Many of the example towns were near large population centers. They had major highways or interstates running just by them or through them. New Harmony has been bypassed and now cut off from major traffic for years. All of the towns presented, as examples that New Harmony should emulate, have a median age population of between 27 to 44. New Harmony’s median age is 55.

The information put out by David Flanders and Jim Spann, supporters of the amendment is an unfair comparison of the situation being dealt with by New Harmony. The amendment to Chapter 17 of the Town Ordinance was passed by the Plan Commission in December but was

withdrawn from a Council vote by Flanders at his request. He is in the process of re-writing it and will submit it to the Plan Commission for another vote. The Town Council voted in January to reject the original amendment as a procedural motion.

The comparisons that follow testify to the faults in the data that was presented. Especially since our town’s only link to population centers in Illinois, The Harmony Way Bridge, was closed in 2011. If we’re going to do comparisons, then let’s do comparisons that make sense and follow some kind of logic.

We’ve already heard enough unsupportable data from those who want to put restrictions on Commercial Property owners in New Harmony’s Business Historic District. We need to focus on getting the bridge open to the 300,000 automobiles per year that is missing from the real equation. Our real and most visible problem. We need to stop drifting off into non-important diversions.

GALENA, ILLINOIS, POPULATION 3,429, COUNTY SEAT DAVIESS COUNTY, HAS COUNTY FAIR, BRIDGE OPEN OVER GALENA RIVER, MANY BUSINESSES HAVE CLOSED, MEDIAN AGE 44;

GENESEO, ILLINOIS, POPULATION 6,586, 20 MILES FROM THE 500,000 POPULATION QUAD CITY, LIES AT INTERSECTION OF INTERSTATES 80 AND ILL RT. 82, MEDIAN AGE 41;

DELPHI, INDIANA POPULATION 2,893, COUNTY SEAT CARROLL COUNTY, 6 BRIDGES ALL OPEN, LIES ON INDIANA 65 AND RT 421, MEDIAN AGE 35;

GREENCASTLE, INDIANA, POPULATION 10,508 COUNTY SEAT PUTNAM CNTY, 50 MILES FROM INDIANAPOLIS, LIES NEAR IS 70 AND RT 40, HAS DEPAUW UNIVERSITY, WHICH EMPLOYEES 625, AND IVY TECH. WAL-MART EMPLOYEES 800, MEDIAN AGE 27;

SEYMOUR, INDIANA, POPULATION 19,384, LIES ON RTS 240 & 231 RUNNING THROUGH & NEAR INTERSTATE 70, ONE BRIDGE AND IT IS OPEN, MAJOR EMPLOYERS LIKE CUMMINS DIESEL, WAL-MART AND MANY MORE. MEDIAN AGE 35

WABASH, INDIANA, POPULATION 10,666 COUNTY SEAT, TWO OPEN BRIDGES OVER WABASH RIVER. LIES ON HWY 24 AND 15, MEDIAN AGE 37;

———————————————————————————————————————— NEW HARMONY, INDIANA POPULATION 763, NOT A COUNTY SEAT, ONE BRIDGE OVER WABASH CLOSED FOR ALMOST 7 YEARS. NO HOSPITALS, DOCTORS, DENTISTS, IN TOWN SCHOOL OR SUPERMARKET, MEDIAN AGE 55;

MT. VERNON, INDIANA POPULATION 6,687, COUNTY SEAT OF POSEY COUNTY – BIG INDUSTRY PORT OF INDIANA. SABIC, VECTREN ETC. MIDWEST FERTILIZER. G.A.F. COUNTRY MARK, SITUATED ON THE OHIO RIVER AND BRIDGE OVER WABASH OPEN TO ILLINOIS, MAJOR RTS 62 &69 RUN THROUGH. MEDIAN AGE 40;

Compare New Harmony with the towns named by supporters of Commissioner Flanders’ Chapter 17 change. Most are County Seats with populations far greater than New Harmony.

They also lie on major traffic routes. These important differences have been overlooked by those who presented these other towns as examples of towns that have turned themselves around. Also, their median ages are 15 to 20 years younger than New Harmony.

Council members should think about the accuracy and relevance of the facts they are being fed by the advocates of the Chapter 17 change. Pablum. Over and Over and Over. Let’s get the facts straight!

FOOTNOTE:  The City-County Observer has posted this letter without opinion, bias or editing.