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Commissioner Bowman advised that she has letters from everyone of those agencies saying that Alternate #3 is by far the most detrimental to the environment. Commissioner Scurlock wished to know why are we looking at Alternative #3 if it is the most damaging environmentally and the most expensive. Director Davis informed the Board that most of the public's comments at the meetings conducted by the DOT favored #3. He believed that their policies have softened over the years towards the public side of the project to where public comments have become paramount in their decision making process, much more than even the cost of the project, and if there were to be a major change in the community's position regarding the alignments, it probably will totally baffle the DOT after they have gone through all the public hearing process. Commissioner Scurlock inquired who spoke at those meetings. Director Davis reported that there were 40/50 who spoke at the meeting held at the High School auditorium with probably a couple hundred in attendance. The City Council Chambers were full at the meeting held there, and probably 15/20 people spoke at that time. Chairman Wheeler noted that he attended the public hearing at the City Council chambers, and practically everyone was in favor of #3. However, that meeting was the first time he had seen anything about this, and he believed possibly not everybody who would have been an adversary of #3 was aware of the preplans. He asked Director Davis if that was correct. Director Davis advised that he attended two meetings at City Hall, and at the first hearing there was a very detailed presentation by the consultant which went into weighing all the factors, environmental, commercial, etc. He got the impression that everyone then knew the issues, and it was evident there would be a major impact on businesses because of the widening of the causeway which would eliminate parking. ,SEP 5 'R989 41 °� � ,._ Poor l IIA16E 0 t