- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Clearlake officials report on Measure V road work; tax revenue projection increases
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council received an update on work being done with proceeds from the city’s Measure V sales tax at its meeting last Thursday, and the news was good – from more projects on the horizon to higher-than-anticipated revenues.
Voters passed Measure V, a dedicated one-cent sales tax to generate revenue for road repairs and improvement, by a supermajority vote of 68.8 percent in November, as Lake County News has reported.
On Thursday, city Finance Director Chris Becnel and Public Works Director Doug Herren updated the council on the work that’s under way or already has been completed.
The discussion starts at the 4:09:51 mark in the video above.
Becnel said that, so far, 3.2 miles of dirt streets have been graded with 1,200 yards of grinding material used.
He presented the grading logs so far, which showed grading has taken place on 28th Avenue, Highlands Avenue, Victor Street, Marin Street, Oakland Avenue, Alvita Avenue, Utah Street, Hale Avenue, Spruce Avenue, Victor Avenue, Highlands Avenue, Manzanita Avenue, HIll Road and Vallejo Street.
There also has been tree trimming on Lakeshore Drive, Meadowbrook, College Avenue and at Pomo Elementary, pothole patching on San Joaquin, Lakeshore Drive and Golf Avenue, and some sign and street maintenance on College Avenue and at Pomo Elementary School, Becnel said.
He said the work is next set to start in the Avenues, and that work will continue while the weather remains good.
On the financial side, Becnel said the city started collecting the revenue from Measure V on April 1.
After paying some expenses out of that, they had about $320,000 left in fund balance that has not been spent yet. They have some plans to use that for equipment.
He also has next quarter’s estimate for revenues, which he’s projected out for the current fiscal year.
During the campaign for Measure V, the estimate of annual revenue from the tax had been $1.6 million. Becnel later raised that to $1.7 million.
However, at the Sept. 28 meeting Becnel said he needed to revise that number still again, thanks to sales tax revenues being a little better at the end of the 2016-17 fiscal year than originally anticipated.
Now, Becnel said he expects the city’s Measure V sales tax revenues for the coming fiscal year to be just under $2 million. “Which is really good.”
Herren told the council that the city has a pavement management plan developed through the Lake County/City Area Planning Council. Every other year a company comes in and assesses the city’s roads and creates a pavement condition index.
If the city follows that program, in about 10 years it will be in a good spot and they can then start looking at forming assessment districts to pave dirt roads, he said. Measure V sunsets in 20 years.
In this first year’s phase, Herren said they were working on streets including Highlands Harbor, Lakeshore Village, Harbor Village, Pine Street and Country Club.
He said the response from the community has been positive. “We’re getting good reviews,” he said, noting that Curt Giambruno, a former councilman who now heads up Measure V’s citizens' oversight committee, also is getting good feedback.
Herren credited his Public Works superintendent, Mike Baker, with doing a phenomenal job on the road projects.
Councilwoman Joyce Overton said that she felt other roads in areas like Clearlake Park should have been done first because of their very poor conditions. She recalled trying to deliver a meal to a senior’s home and finding a road impassable.
Herren said they are working on a lot of roads, and have met challenges in getting the work done, partly due to economic factors well out of his and the city’s control.
He said with all the money and road construction projects going on all over the state, he’s struggled to get equipment, and had to fight to get the two pieces of equipment he managed to acquire. “Everything is gone.”
As a result, Herren has started looking to purchase out of state, finding that such equipment doesn’t meet California’s emission standards.
It also has been a challenge to find staff, he said. During the discussion with council, it was noted that he had five staff positions and still had one vacancy.
Then there is the demand for concrete. With major repairs under way to the Oroville Dam, which required about one million yards of concrete, Herren said he can’t compete with the big companies that are purchasing large amounts of concrete for jobs.
As a result, he said the cost of concrete has nearly tripled statewide.
He said he was going to hold back some projects for bid but has been told by people in the industry up and down the state that he needs to put them out as soon as possible because prices are going to continue to go up.
Councilman Phil Harris said he’s taken a ride with Herren and noted the great road improvements taking place around the city. He said people are taking notice of the work.
He said the city is showing that it’s sticking to its word and plans to do what it said it would with the roads. It also constitutes “a huge change in direction.”
Herren said Measure V has been a game changer. For so long all his staff heard from him was “no” when asked to pursue projects. Now, because the city has the funding, he says his response is, “Absolutely.”
Vice Mayor Bruno Sabatier said he was concerned that, by that point, the city had only graded 3.2 miles of the 49 miles of dirt roads.
Herren said his staff was getting up to speed on grading. He had not been able to find a contractor who would do the work for $500,000 – he said it was estimated to be up to three times that amount – so his staff is doing it.
They have about $1.5 million in materials at the corporation yard to use for the projects. Processing the materials has taken them time, so they are now hiring a company to process their materials at a cost of $60,000. That will save his staff large amounts of time, as he’s had to dedicate a staffer and a backhoe to going out and breaking up the materials, Herren said.
He said they are still learning and will have a much better push in the next year.
Herren also reported that, at that point, they had likely graded more like 10 to 12 miles of dirt roads, and that some of what they had done wasn’t recorded in the report.
City Manager Greg Folsom said he also had asked Baker if they would be able to grade all 50 miles of dirt roads next summer, and Baker had told him that as long as they had equipment he believed they could.
Sabatier questioned the amount staff had set aside for equipment, totaling about $150,000.
Herren said he and Becnel had met the previous week and that they had about $300,000 set aside, and would have more when Measure V funds along with gas tax funds for that purpose.
He said he’s chosen to buy equipment rather than rent it, and also has borrowed equipment from the city and county of Lakeport when possible, but added those jurisdictions also are busy with projects.
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