There was nothing standard about Wednesday's regularly scheduled joint meeting between the Pine Grove Community Council and Civic Improvement Club.

Advertised to local residents as an opportunity to address the Amador County Transportation Commission and California Department of Transportation about recent Highway 88 widening decisions, more than 130 concerned members of the public were in attendance.

Despite being a subject that has attracted increased scrutiny in recent months, the room full of concerned or confused residents arrived with questions about how their tax dollars were being spent and when they would be allowed to participate in the decision-making process.

Pine Grove Council Chairman Andy Byrne relied on his experience as chairman of the Amador County Planning Commission to navigate almost 30 residents to the panel of ACTC executive director Charles Field, Caltrans District 10 representative Dan Brewer and Grace Magsayo, a Caltrans project manager, for answers.

Public inquiries to the panel ran the gamut. Some wondered if the project's goal was merely improving travel time to Kirkwood. Attendee Krista Clem asked whether an outside consultant would be hired to address the implementation of Assembly Bill 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which requires a statewide reduction in carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

The Pine Grove corridor project, as it's become known, has elicited concern regarding a proposal to widen Highway 88 to five lanes, which residents say will irrevocably alter their town.

The meeting, which was also attended by county supervisors Ted Novelli and Louis Boitano, the lone transportation commissioner in attendance, was intended to solicit community input on that and other options.