Although there was plenty of loud anti-monorail invective at the public hearing at West Seattle High School, the Seattle Monorail Board heard more encouragement than derision.

Thirty-four speakers urged the board to continue working on the monorail, 22 people recommended killing the project, and a half dozen speakers seemed to be both for and against it.

This was the third and final public hearing originally scheduled months ago to review the proposed contract between the Seattle Monorail Project and the Cascadia Monorail Co. However, news broke recently that the $1.5 billion monorail system was going to cost about $9 billion alone in interest payments. The public uproar resulted in the July 4 resignations of Fauntleroy resident and chairman of the monorail board Tom Weeks and Joel Horn, executive director.

Kristina Hill, acting chairwoman of the Seattle Monorail Project board of directors, said the board had officially rejected the controversial $11 billion financial package. New financial arrangements will be proposed and Hill promised more public hearings prior to adoption of a new plan.

The board is searching for a replacement for Weeks as well as a new executive director.

But last Thursday night belonged to the people, mostly self-proclaimed West Seattleites, who lined up from 6:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. to speak their mind. Many were blistering in their criticism and rewarded with hearty applause.

"You struck out before you started," said Jim Day, former chief financial officer of Pope and Talbot Lumber Co. He was referring to miscalculations from the Washington Department of Revenue, about how money would be collected from the motor vehicle excise tax. The revenue estimates turned out to be about 30 percent too high.

He also chastised the monorail board for pursuing the largest public works effort in Seattle history with just one bidder.

"My suggestion is to shut this project down," Day said to loud applause and cheering from what appeared to be a majority of the audience.

Liv Finne said there just isn't enough money to build the monorail and accused Weeks and Horn of "actively misleading the public" when they repeatedly said the monorail could be built for $1.6 billion.

Lots of people complained about the motor vehicle excise tax. Several advised the monorail board to hunt for additional sources of money.

"I voted for the monorail project but I've fallen out of love as time has gone on," said Ed Hansen. The motor vehicle excise tax is "a license to steal," he said. He also thinks the monorail won't be nearly as aesthetically pleasing as promised.

Bob Venezia found irony in the motor vehicle excise tax being the monorail's source of money.

"It's tied to the thing you're trying to eliminate," he said.

"People riding in cars are not interested in riding the monorail," said John White, so instead of the motor vehicle excise tax, put more taxes on cigarettes and alcohol "or a tax to flush the commode"

Tracy Burrows was another person who previously voted for the monorail but had a change of heart.

"I feel a sense of betrayal and disappointment," she said. When monorail officials discovered the tax revenue was coming in a third lower than forecast, they should've either looked for more money or pared down the length of the Green Line, she said.

Burrows also criticized the decision to defer construction of the Avalon monorail station, proposed for 35th Avenue across the street from West Seattle Stadium. Passengers will have to go to either the Junction station or the Delridge station instead. The Avalon station had been projected to have about as many passengers as the Junction station, and triple the number of passengers at the Delridge station, Burrows said.

"Having no Avalon station will make my commute longer," said Jon Stier. He also criticized using a single-beam guideway on portions of the Green Line and supporting the guideway will be "big, ugly, clunky columns."

The changes amount to an "irrevocable breach of faith," Stier said.

Although the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce supports the monorail, the organization criticized delaying construction of the Avalon station. People will have to use the Junction station instead, which means more parking pressure on West Seattle's main shopping area, said Executive Director Patti Mullen.

"This is the ultimate bait and switch," said Sherry Richardson. "It's not what we voted for."

She recommended the monorail board cut its losses and focus instead on rebuilding the Alaskan Way Viaduct and seawall.

Monorail supporters had their say at the public hearing too. Some of the anger expressed at the meeting by monorail opponents cooled when Jim Smith defended the Monorail Board.

"Isn't this a wonderful country, that we can come out here and yell at these people?" he asked.

Smith suggested selling Bill Gates, Paul Allen and other wealthy local residents on "adopting" a monorail column to help pay for the monorail system.

"We need rapid transit that competes (in travel time) with cars," said Steve Lorentzen as he recounted Seattle's missed opportunities to build a mass transit system.

"Go ahead with this thing and do whatever is necessary," he said.

Alice Enevoldsen said living in Boston for three years showed her how a mass transit system can help people get around a city.

"Seattle is way too based on cars," she said.

Grant Cogswell got applause when he said the monorail is necessary to stay connected to the rest of the city.

"We have to have the monorail up to not have West Seattle become an island," he said.

Kate Titus agreed.

"We do not need to be forced into isolation by people who say 'stop,'" she said.

"I hope we don't just kill this," said Phil Clum. "If this dies, I don't think we'll get another crack at it for 20 years."

Plenty of other brickbats were chucked at the monorail too.

"You keep saying we won't get stuck in traffic," said Stuart Reiss. "But we'll get stuck at the single-track switches. Only a double-track system is acceptable."

The price tag for the monorail is too high, considering it will simply replace Metro buses and "serves only two of Seattle's neighborhoods," said Michael Godfried.

"It lumbers like a giant into West Seattle's residential setting," he said to a roar of agreement.

Krista Camenzind of the anti-monorail "On Track" group, said there are 68 people working for the Seattle Monorail Project and 20 of them earn salaries in excess of $100,000. She also criticized the Monorail Project for spending $70 million buying property for the Green Line.

The Monorail Project should never have agreed to pay for the cost of moving various utility lines to make way for monorail construction, said Amanda Lee.

She also said only 18 percent of monorail riders are expected to be people who'll get out of their cars to ride the Green Line. That's proof parking is needed around monorail stations to attract more motorists.

Most monorail riders are expected to be people who currently use buses, said John Vilkovich. But only 5 percent of Seattle residents even use mass transit.

"It's a lot of money for that," he said.

"You keep saying we won't get stuck in traffic," said Stuart Reiss. "But we'll get stuck at the single-track switches. Only a double-track system is acceptable."

Art Martin accused board members of fraud and threatened to file a lawsuit under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

Gary Pepple said he'd worked on the monorail recall campaign and considered the motor vehicle excise tax ludicrous.

"I'm happy that you people have been stopped," he told the monorail board. Then he pointed slowly at individual board members saying, "Someone's gonna be doing time behind bars."

David Goldberg said the monorail doesn't connect Seattle's urban villages or serve residential areas.

Buses and light rail would work better downtown, he said.

"Having no federal or state money is unheard of for a transportation project," Goldberg said.

More supporters of the monorail spoke later during the public hearing.

"I think there's a little bit of denial going on when it comes to oil prices," said Paul Loeb. Depending on thousands of single-occupant vehicles to solve our transportation problem is shortsighted. "What happens when we hit $5, $6, $7 a gallon for gas?" he asked.

Crude oil prices are going up, said Jack Zisler. "The day of unlimited car use will come to an end," he said.

Sound Transit's light rail train is too big to cross the Duwamish River on the West Seattle Bridge, said Vlad Oustimovitch.

He voted against the monorail in 1996. "But I've come to believe the monorail may be the only transit system for West Seattle," he said.

As for including interest in the total cost of the monorail, Oustimovitch said, "I have yet to hear anybody talk about the value of their house in future dollars."

A woman urged the monorail board not to give up.

"Complainers don't have solutions," she said. "Keep it going."

Rob Hayes asked mockingly if he could get some money back from the government.

"Can I get a tax refund on what I paid for police and fire last month?" he asked. "I didn't use their services."

Consider paying for the monorail as an endowment, suggested Paul Cezmat.

"We're investing in our children's inheritance and investing in our property values," he said.

Tim St. Clair can be reached at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.