For a group formed just 40 days ago, Citizens Against the Privatized Illiana Toll Road certainly seems to have gathered momentum. The organization's next step is to coordinate a convoy of area residents to Indianapolis to attend the next House Transportation Committee hearing on Senate Bill 1. The hearing is tentatively scheduled for April 4.

Senate Bill 1 would allow Gov. Mitch Daniels and the Indiana Department of Transportation to pick the route of the Indiana Commerce Connector in Indianapolis and Illiana Expressway, and to recruit firms to build and operate them as tollways under long-term state leases, CAPIT members said.

CAPIT President Dave Ahlberg told nearly 500 people who gathered Thursday at Westville High School the bill allows for no actual legislative oversight. Daniels and INDOT will have exclusive control over privatization of the road and its route, he said.

Each person who came through the gymnasium door received a packet of six prewritten letters to address to their representatives. Most addressed and sealed their letters at the meeting, leaving the postage to CAPIT.

Residents lined up to view maps of the proposed highway and to donate $3 for yard signs or T-shirts to state their opposition to the Illiana.

Ahlberg said that he should know by the end of the week whether the hearing will be held April 4.

"This is the opportunity for the public to voice their opinion," he said. "Even if they reject it in the House of Representatives, it could pop up again as an amendment. We have to be very vigilant."

CAPIT's opposition to the highway, which would run from Interstate 57 in Illinois to Interstate 94 in LaPorte County, is mapped out on its Web site, www.no-illiana.com. It states that the highway would destroy thousands of acres of farmland, pollute the environment, increase urban sprawl and harm the economy.