POLSON — Jeff Key, a transportation planner with the firm CDM in Helena, spoke to a packed house at the Polson City Library meeting room last Thursday night. Key came to town for the first of several community involvement meetings regarding the Polson-area corridor and transportation studies, which will be ongoing from now until next July.

Key and his staff were available for a two-hour open house prior to the start of the meeting where he said he “wanted to get a flavor of some of the public’s ideas and concepts.”

“We heard a lot of good ideas and comments,” he said. “We don’t want to wait until the last minute, we want to get you involved right off the bat.”

During his 35-minute presentation, Key addressed the differences between the two simultaneous planning-level studies.

“They are very complementary,” he said. “You can’t do one without the other and the time is right to do both.”

The corridor study will focus on U.S. Hwy. 93 and defining its purpose. Key’s team will seek to identify a range of cost-effective improvements, including the feasibility of an alternate route.

“You have a lot going on in that corridor,” he said. “There is a long, long history there and I know the alternate route weighs heavily on the minds of everyone who walked in the door tonight.”

The study will take a high-level look and strive to be sensitive to natural, cultural, economical and historical aspects of the area.

Key called the transportation plan a “community-based transportation document” that looks 20 years into the future. Sixteen roadways are currently being studied, as well as the major intersections at peak hours during the day. Everything from downtown parking to emergency service needs and law enforcement components will be examined in depth.

“The transportation plan will boil all these jurisdictional goals into one document,” Key said. “U.S. 93 is the life-line of your transportation system. I can look at an aerial and immediately see improvements that you can make.”

Emotions were sparked during the public question and answer session after Key’s presentation, due largely to the history of complicated debate surrounding this issue. In 1995, the Evaro to Polson Draft Environmental Impact Study was met with significant public opposition and no consensus was ever reached, Key said. In 2001, a re-evaluation excepted out that 3.8-mile section north of Polson, but a commitment was made by the partners to continue to work together and find a solution.

“We’re looking at this through a fresh lens,” he said. “We have new tools available to us that we didn’t have before and sound, technical analysis will be the foundation.”

One of the new tools Key references is called Quantm Software, which transportation professionals use to align route alternatives. MDT, the tribes, Lake County and the City of Polson will combine efforts to complete the study and “either keep plugging ahead with the alternate route, or put it to rest once and for all,” Key said.