Wednesday, May 28, 2008

MDOT Highway 35 Meetings

The Highway 35 meeting Friday May 16 at Yellow Bay Clubhouse provoked strong interest and good discussion. About 85 people took part, with most comments supporting restrictions on truck traffic. The consensus statement at the end favored routing through-traveling commercial truck traffic to Highway 93, or in the alternative routing hazardous materials and trucks hauling pups or perhaps only long-tongue pups to Highway 93.
Alex Strickland from the Bigfork Eagle attended the meeting and wrote a good account. For those who didn't see it, follow the link below:http://www.bigforkeagle.com/articles/2008/05/22/news/news02.txt Dwane Kailey, Montana Department of Transportation administrator for the Missoula district, attended to hear issues and concerns. He gathered questions to be investigated prior to the MDOT public meetings in June.
Those meetings will be Wednesday June 4 at the White Oak on Highway 93 in Somers, and Thursday June 5 at the KwaTaqNuk in Polson. Both start with open houses at 6:30 p.m. and presentations at 7 p.m. Note that this is a change from my earlier email. Preliminary word I had received from Helena indicated that the locations would be reversed.
Please be sure to attend one or both sessions, to make your voices heard. Past efforts to deal with traffic issues on Highway 35 suffered because folks who felt strongly about it were unable to attend key meetings. If you cannot attend either session, email comments to MDOT at the following link:http://www.mdt.mt.gov/mdt/comment_form.shtml.
If for some reason this link doesn't work, let me know as soon as possible.
You can also mail comments to Dwane Kailey, MDT Missoula District Office, PO Box 7039, Missoula, MT 59807-7039.
Comment deadline is July 7, 2008.

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