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SYRACUSE - Three hundred families who live beyond the Eli Lilly Road, Syracuse, would rather not see the road relocated, according to attorney Dick Green.
"I wouldn't say I was heading up the opposition to the Eli Lilly Road (relocation)," Green said Friday. He said he represents a committee of nine who are part of 300 families who live beyond the road. "Our position is that we are strongly in favor of (the road) remaining where it is. There's nothing wrong with it."
Two weeks ago, county commissioner Brad Jackson said, "From the commissioners' standpoint, there is a proposal to relocate the road but there has been no formal proposal."
Jackson said two different options are being proposed for consideration, but the project is in the early stages. For the old road to be vacated and the new road to be built, the petitioners must get approval from the county commissioners.
At the same time, Kosciusko County Highway Superintendent and Engineer Rob Ladson said, a resident is willing to pay for the road and right of way relocation at no cost to the county.
In option A, Ladson said, a new road would be constructed from Warner to Bishop Road, just south of the railroad crossing. The existing Eli Lilly Road would be closed and the county maintenance vacated. Residents would still be able to travel on the old road, but it would be privately maintained.
Under option B, Ladson said, a road would be constructed in the middle of Eli Lilly Road and would travel north to the railroad, stopping at Bishop Road.
Phil Beer II, with USI Consultants Inc., Indianapolis, is working with the petitioners on the preliminary proposal. Though he would not confirm it on Nov. 3, there is some speculation that Beer's clients include Peter and Ginny Nicholas.
Beer said there are specific reasons for the relocation, including eliminating or reducing the amount of traffic in front of the lakefront properties; minimizing the amount of development; reducing the housing going in; and reducing the environmental impact to Lake Wawasee and the area's watershed. There's also a safety concern about the road because it's not up to current standards.
The approximate cost of building the new road, he said, is $1.5 to $2 million and he said the petitioner would pay for the complete cost himself.
"By no means is our client going to force this," Beer said.
Green said that when the issue first came to light, no engineers, public officials or newspapers asked the area residents what they thought about it.
"Nobody had bothered to contact us. We are the ones who use that road constantly. They were going to change the road and not ask us," said Green.
He said the group is not against Nicholas and his associates getting a road they may need, but "we just don't want Eli Lilly Road not to be county maintained or vacated."
The road, he said, has been that way for decades. It was put there, approximately in the 1920s, because "grandfather Lilly though it was a good place for it," he said.
The group hopes to have its input into the situation before the issue goes before the county commissioners and when the commissioners consider it. However, the group has not yet talked to a commissioner.
A committee of the neighbors was formed, Green said, when the neighbors began talking about the proposed road after the initial story was in the newspapers. The neighbors decided the best way to address the issue was to form a committee.
A letter was sent to Beer indicating "we'd be very anxious to talk to him to see if anything can be worked out," Green said. Again, he stressed they are not against a new road being put in as long as it doesn't involve the destruction or relocation of the current Eli Lilly Road.
"You'd be wasting a terrible resource," Green said, if that stretch of road is relocated or eliminated.
