In previous years, I have written about the year in review, however, since we are approaching the turn of the decade this coming year, it seems appropriate to have a decade in review. As many of you are already aware, the county has been busy at work over this past decade. There have been many different difficulties over these past ten years including the recovery from the “Great Recession”, the long drought, and the fierce storms of 2016 and 2017. Additionally, there has been much transition from 10 years ago, there has been many retirements and new faces added to the fold in the county. Needless to say, there has been much change.
Change can be difficult and can create many problems. Fortunately, the county has been resilient through these changes and made it through stronger and ready to face the next round.
In the past, we worked on fixing the river with a bench excavation that cleared out the river in order to prevent flooding. This was $15 million dollars of work to remove over three hundred thousand cubic yards of dirt. In addition we spent $2.5 million for flood prevention in the “2016-2017 storm” and provided protection at Riverside and Thompson road by dumping massive amounts of rock.
The County has expanded Veterans services to 4 days a week in Watsonville while hiring a new outreach worker for Veterans for an increase of 20 hours a week. Moreover, we worked on new health facilities totaling $7.5 million dollars and expanded services and care for the Homeless and those with Behavioral conditions. The Whole person care program is a roaming service to serve the indigent with disabilities and other debilitating infirmities. We must be careful to not suggest that assisting the homeless is the cause of homelessness. We must remember that these are people and that we are all vulnerable if we don’t care for one another.
Affordable housing is a priority and we have increased units in the south county. We have added 88 units at Schapiro Knolls housing located at Minto Road and Pippen apartments located near Atkinson lane for 46 units of affordable rental housing. We have worked with the county to make sure that we have met our fair share and have made sure that the rest of the county has added over 100+ units as well so as to not create an undue burden on the south county concerning affordable housing.
In terms of roads we have worked with our new public works director Matt Machado to find $384,000.00 per year more in the roads budget through STBG funding. This money will be redirected STBG funding for roads in the south county. This will serve the south county greatly in speeding up projects and supplementing other needs for roads services through potential offsets.
As you know, we recently got sidewalks on Eastlake avenue from Holohan road to Wagner road. This was a long time waiting and we are all happy to see it put in place. Furthermore, we will be getting a new intersection for East Lake, Holohan and College road with $2 million in funding this spring of 2020. In addition, Caltrans has improved Riverside road to highway 129 for a smoother ride from Watsonville to highway 101. The County Fixed a washout at Peckham and Carlton for 100 thousand dollars and installed a pedestrian light at Lakeview Middle school. We also replaced the bridge on Casserly road located at the intersection of Smith Road and fixed the washout on Paulson road that prevented a complete shutdown.
Previously, we worked to make sure that we overhauled the Freedom sewer and sanitation district with replacement projects. These projects will total $20 million dollars. This infrastructure improvement will significantly improve our sewer systems and assist with localized flood protection on the roads. It also provides indirect funding to repair the roads that sit over the sewers.
We have exciting times before us, and we have been working with our new County CAO Carlos Palacios on a Strategic plan to lead the county into the future. We have been working with local schools to assist with after school funding at Lakeview Middle school and to make sure there is a new pedestrian light at Watsonville high school. I am proud of the work that I have done over the last 10 years and I appreciate all who have worked with me to make our home a better place to live, work, and stay. It is together that we will move forward and take on any adversity in the future. The future is coming, and I believe we will be ready.
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Contact Santa Cruz County Supervisor Greg Caput at Gr********@sa*************.us . The thoughts and opinions in this entry are not necessarily those of the Pajaronian.
