The removal of a pair of traffic signals in the Fair-Mont-Egan area has some residents concerned about safety, especially for parents driving their children to and from Fair-Mont-Egan School.

On the evening of Oct. 29, the Montana Department of Transportation removed the traffic signals from the intersection of Montana 35 and Fairmont Road.

The signals were installed in April 2008 to help manage additional traffic after the Old Steel Bridge was closed and a new bridge was being built across the Flathead River . When the new bridge was completed in September, the signals no longer were needed, according to a transportation department study.

"Before we took it out and the bridge was reopened, we did a study" to determine whether the signal should stay there permanently, Kalispell area traffic engineer James Freyholtz said. "The study showed that the traffic signal was not warranted and justified at that location."

Some residents in the area, including parents and staffers at Fair-Mont-Egan School, disagree.

"We've got 171 kids coming and going, so it's a huge safety issue at this point," school clerk Susan Clanton said.

Clanton said she struggles every morning trying to reach the school, located on Fairmont Road, from her home on Columbia Falls Stage Road.

"Even turning right from Columbia Falls Stage, then trying to turn left onto Fairmont, you don't get a break" in oncoming traffic, Clanton said. "You can't leave at 7:30 or you'll never get out."

She said she has heard similar comments from people turning from Helena Flats Road and Panoramic Drive onto Montana 35. Clanton said she carefully times her departure from home to avoid the heaviest traffic.

"I feel like I take my life in my hands every day without that light," Clanton said.

School begins at 8:30 a.m. at Fair-Mont-Egan, but there is an "early bird" class that starts at 7:45 a.m. Parents who drop off their children at that time and then try to head toward Kalispell on Montana 35 often get stuck at the intersection looking for an opening onto the highway.

"Sometimes it's minutes before they can turn [left to drive] into town," Principal Christine Schmidt-Anthony said.

Department of Transportation Director Jim Lynch acknowledged that the wait can seem long during peak traffic times. But "the frequency of the cars is not a lot during the daytime," he said.

That is especially true when comparing Fairmont Road to Montana 35's intersections with Montana 206 or Montana 82, Lynch said. Those intersections have more traffic than Fairmont and neither has a signal, he said.

But at Fairmont, the safety problem is worsened because there is no bus service in the school district, so nearly all parents drive their kids to school, Clanton said.

With one student in school half a day and the other there a full day, Kristin LeClercq drives to Fair-Mont-Egan School three times a day to drop off and pick up her children. That's three left turns from Montana 35 onto Fairmont Road, she said in an e-mail to the Inter Lake.

"I watch my rear-view mirror and cringe every single time, praying that those behind me will at least see me and slow down before they blow past me on the shoulder," LeClercq wrote.

Parents in Fair-Mont-Egan know all too well that getting rear-ended on the highway is a distinct possibility. In April one of their own, a mother with two children on her way to the school, was struck from behind at the intersection of Montana 35 and Montford Road, just east of the Fairmont intersection.

Robin Cini and 3-year-old Bayden escaped with injuries. Hanna, age 6 and a first-grader at Fair-Mont-Egan, died one day after the crash.

"I happened to be in the classroom that morning wondering where the sweet little girl I had placed in a car the day before could be," Fair-Mont-Egan resident Tracey Pixley wrote to the Inter Lake. "I happened to be in that same classroom in the days and weeks that followed that dreadful day, and I know first hand how many innocent lives were affected."

Several Fair-Mont-Egan residents have signed a petition and given it to the Department of Transportation, Freyholtz said. But the department also has heard from people who are glad the signal is gone.

The mixed response prompted the department to study whether the signal, intended as a temporary way to accommodate detoured traffic during work on the bridge, should remain at the intersection permanently.

The Department of Transportation uses national standards to determine whether a stoplight is warranted at an intersection, Freyholtz said. Of eight possible criteria an intersection could meet, it only has to meet one to demonstrate the need for a signal.

According to the study, Fairmont Road and Montana 35 didn't meet any of the eight possible standards, Freyholtz said.

The study did, however, suggest that a left-turn lane might be useful at that intersection, he said. The Department of Transportation also intends to leave the speed limit at 55 mph, at least for now, on Montana 35 through that intersection.

"We're going to follow up with a speed study to determine if [55 mph] is still appropriate," Freyholtz said.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com