When the public officials of two states appear on the same stage, and that stage is on the border between their states, the verbal jabs can fly. Thursday’s I-69 announcement was no different.
Officials from Kentucky and Indiana made the announcement about the latest addition to the federal interstate highway system in the week that system turned 60 years old.
But the speeches Thursday were peppered with comments about a practice much older than that. Good natured, cross-border trash talk. Henderson County Judge Executive Brad Schneider laid out the unique geography of this encounter. "It is a quirk of nature that we are standing on the north side of the Ohio River and we're in Henderson County, Kentucky. An early 19th century earthquake changed the course of the river and left this sliver of land still in Kentucky."
So let the games begin. Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke took the first shot-
“The Kentucky folks may not appreciate this, but I-69 northbound makes it a lot easier to get to Assembly Hall, in Bloomington easier than ever.”
While carefully supporting each other, Indiana Governor Mike Pence and Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin also took off the gloves about the other’s state in their remarks.
