Douglas County Commissioners have a tough, divided road ahead of them.

After listening to more than two hours of public comment Wednesday evening about the future of U.S. Highway 59 between Lawrence and Ottawa, commissioners put off until Monday morning a decision on which alignment, if any, they will endorse.

“It’s hard to make our preference with the type of information we’ve had to digest,” Commissioner Jere McElhaney said.

About 18 Douglas County residents from a crowd of more than 40 expressed to commissioners and two Kansas Department of Transportation officials their arguments in favor of one route rather than another. Some advocated one of two alignments for a four-lane freeway proposed by KDOT in its draft environmental impact statement: either 300 feet east of the existing highway, at a 2007 cost of $210.3 million, or a full mile to the east, with a 2007 cost of $199.4 million. Others said they’d rather see improvements to the existing road.

Rural Lawrence resident Ken Lassman, member of the Franklin-Douglas County Coalition of Concerned Citizens, cited results of a survey the group had commissioned that indicated a majority of residents in both counties are interested in improving safety along the 18-mile stretch of highway, which is among the deadliest in the state. That could be accomplished, Lassman said, simply by adding safety features on the current alignment.

“The nature of Highway 59 is being changed with their (KDOT’s) proposals,” he said. “It’s being changed from a local, commuter route into something that should be part of the interstate system, and we’re not interested in that.”

Proponents of the eastern alignment said it would disturb fewer homes, businesses and farms and would save taxpayers more than $10 million. And it would accomplish the goal of improving safety along the roadway.

“I live adjacent to Highway 59,” Baldwin resident Kay Hartzell said. “I’ve seen these accidents. They’ve been within yards of my home.”

McElhaney and Commissioner Bob Johnson said Wednesday that they were in favor of a freeway option, although they couldn’t yet say which alignment they would prefer.

Commissioner Charles Jones said the draft EIS hadn’t adequately explored the option of turning the existing road into an expressway.

If he had to choose one of KDOT’s alignments, he said, it likely would be the western option because he believed it would pull more traffic off old U.S. 59.

“You sort of tear your hair about decisions like this because there’s so much pain no matter what you do,” Jones said.

Commissioners will discuss at their 9 a.m. Monday meeting whether they can agree on an alignment and whether they’ll establish a position at all.

KDOT won’t issue its final EIS, endorsing a single route, until later this summer.