As was anticipated, the City of Montesano received a hefty dose of public input during the city council meeting on May 9.

The council has been discussing a potential roundabout on Main Street at the Highway 12 offramp. The city could receive funding from the state for the project. Also in discussion is a potential rest stop at the current Park and Ride.

In recent weeks, the city has changed the narrative from using the word roundabout to the less-specific “traffic revision” or entry project. However, draft designs of a roundabout have been provided to the city council.

For several weeks, large signs near downtown have urged the public to attend the May 9 council meeting and voice their opinions about the potential projects. The Vidette also had received several letters to the editor in the past several months about both potential projects.

Several concerns have been expressed to the council during previous council meetings and through letters to the editor. Those concerns include the roundabout impeding semi truck traffic, and the potential for trains (at the crossing south of Pioneer Avenue) backing up vehicle traffic into the roundabout. Concerns about the potential rest stop are centered around costs — would the city generate enough extra revenue through visitor traffic to pay for rest stop maintenance?

Leading the charge of opposition have been former mayors Ken Estes and Doug Iverson. Both attended the May 9 council meeting and reiterated those concerns.

“If you build a rest area through the old Park and Ride and funnel traffic downtown in hopes of more tourist trade for merchants, you could wind up with traffic jams and fewer opportunities for those very merchants,” Estes said. “I would suggest recruiting a small manufacturing plant or a small sporting goods store like Dick’s to either purchase or lease the property, bringing in more serious shoppers to town than a rest area and at no cost to city tax dollars.”

He also noted that building a road through the “Gateway Park” to a rest stop would remove a park used by children athletics programs for practice, and it would remove a city park that currently impedes marijuana businesses.

“Adding a roundabout for aesthetic reasons would create objection from a vast number of city residents, create harder navigation for larger trucks and create a major traffic snarl when a train comes through,” Estes said.

Additional concerns stem from the perceived lack of public involvement. Critics have said they have not had the opportunity to comment on the project, however the project was introduced in 2016 and several council meetings have been held since.

Iverson also spoke in opposition to the projects and lack of public comment.

“For the past several weeks (Estes) and I have been here requesting a public meeting and it’s fallen on deaf ears,” Iverson said during the public comment portion of the council meeting which is open to the public. “It was refreshing to hear another citizen make the same request. If we could ever get that, I would be glad to enlighten you (Mayor Samuel) on how your numbers are way off. Fiscally, it’s a disaster.”

Former councilman Pat Herrington noted his concern that a rest stop would divert police resources away from neighborhoods.

Former mayor Dick Stone pointed out that the comments were being received during a public meeting.

“This sure sounds like a public meeting to me,” Stone said. “People are able to raise questions and enlighten the council with the numbers if they have them. There’s some research that shows that people are 30 times more likely to speak out when they’re against something than when they’re for it, and so I think you have to weigh this idea that because some people show up at a meeting — while they may be people with good ideas and a lot should be listened to — that somehow that’s always representative of the broader population.”

Stone spoke in favor of the city considering a rest stop.

“Lots of little things are all going to come together to make (a city) work,” Stone said. “The rest stop is worth considering. I don’t know that it’s going to pencil out when you’re all done with it, but you have to do the work and due diligence to find out if it’s going to work.”

And he was supportive of a roundabout.

“I think the roundabout is a great idea,” he said. “That area is congested and it needs something to make that intersection better, and I think a roundabout is a good way to do it. The idea that somehow it’s going to clog up when a train comes and the current system doesn’t, I think is nonsensical.”

“We need to be thinking about new ideas and trying something because if you don’t, you’re never going to have the revenues — they’re going to keep going down and you’re going to get buried in expenses,” Stone added.

More than 10 people spoke. Eight people spoke against the projects, and two people spoke in favor of the projects. One person asked for some type of vote but didn’t specifically state opposition to either of the projects.

The opposition also supplied a petition against the projects with more than 230 signatures. A quick glance of the petition shows duplicate signatures, and the petition does not include addresses that would verify residence. The city of Montesano has a population of about 3,900 people.

At the end of the May 9 council meeting, Mayor Samuel said she had had several conversations with both former mayors.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve emailed and discussed the traffic revision with both Mr. Iverson and Mr. Estes,” Samuel said. “Any question that’s ever been posed by email or by phone, anything, I think they get pages back. Information is key. I can’t, however, make people listen. I can just give them the information that we have.”