DALTON GARDENS — Most of the 220 people who turned out for an open house meeting in Dalton Gardens to learn about a projected Fourth Street improvement project held firm.

There was more protesting than learning going on, Dalton Mayor Jeff Fletcher said.

“I don’t know if they knew what an open house meeting was for,” Fletcher said.

The meeting was meant to show residents that the $4.5 million improvement project would widen the city’s main north-south street, increase safety by adding bicycle and walking lanes while still keeping the speed limit at 25 mph and possibly adding roundabouts at the northern and southern end of the 1.5 mile improvement project.

According to the hand-tallied responses collected by the city, 80% of the residents and property owners who showed up to the Sept. 10 open house, which included engineers, city planners and council members to engage the public, were against the proposal. Only 20 percent supported the project.

The 220 people in attendance represented about 11% of the voting public, Fletcher said.

But many of those in attendance balked or argued against the project instead of listening to the experts.

“It wasn’t well received,” Fletcher said.

He wants the rest of the city to understand that Dalton Gardens can reject the grant money and pay for Fourth Street improvements through tax increases, or it can move ahead and fashion improvements according to the options proposed in the plan.

“If we don’t take the grant, it’s going to cost each (property owner) to fix it on our own,” Fletcher said.

The consensus at the open house, council member Jamie Smith said, was status quo.

“People I talked to said they wanted to keep (Dalton’s) rural feel,” Smith said. “I think we all want that.”

She understands that the Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization foresees a lot of growth during the next decade and traffic on Fourth Street will increase regardless of whether the street is refurbished.

She hoped that more than 11% of the public would turn out for the open house.

“It was a really great opportunity to ask questions and get answers,” she said.

The City Council at its Oct. 3 meeting will discuss the feedback from the open house and hear from residents who did not attend.

Smith said the best alternative would be to have the street refurbished with a lot of public input into the new design,

“My hope was to be able to negotiate a way to design the road the way the community would like it to be, and be able to keep the grant money with the design we choose,” she said. “It doesn’t appear that’s going to happen.”