LAKE COUNTY — Lake County hired a new director for its Public Works Department after former director Gerald “Gerry” Shaul retired in December 2007. Shaul filled in until Siemer took over the post April 1.
Siemer came from the City of Eureka, where he was a city engineer for nine years. Before that, Siemer said his work in the City of Arcata gave him experience with redevelopment. His first engineering job was with Pacific Gas and Electric, working Lake County”s pump station at the Geysers.
“I”m really excited about working with him (Siemer). He”s got some tough shoes to fill with Gerry leaving. But he”s already hit the ground running. Even with the tough times ahead, I know Brent will be very helpful getting where we need to be with the limited resources we have available,” County Supervisor Rob Brown said.
Brown added that Siemer”s experience in Eureka familiarized him with issues facing rural counties when trying to get state funding.
“What we”re finding more and more is that the state of California is finding creative ways to retain sales tax and a portion of the gas tax in order to balance its own budget, and not give it to counties and cities. We have been struggling with that for a number of years ? it”s the same in the City of Eureka,” Siemer said.
Gas tax collected by state and federal agencies make up roughly $3 million of the county”s budget for road maintenance, according to Siemer. Lake County”s cut of the taxes is determined based on the fact that it is home to .04 percent of the state”s registered vehicles, Siemer said.
“A lot of the money goes to state roads, and then there are programs that will offer some of it back to cities and counties. They might be safety projects, congestion projects or air quality projects. With our glorious air quality, none of that is coming back for us,” Siemer said. He added that when Lake County does get state funding for special projects, it comes with tight controls on how it can be used.
Siemer said the condition of county”s 600 miles of road is troubled and declining. Working on the department”s budget since his first day, Siemer estimated $9 million would bring the roads up to standard.
“We need three times the amount of money we have available, if we were to slowly improve the road system,” Siemer said.
Deciding to lighten his first Lake County Board of Supervisors meeting on April 8, he gave each supervisor a chocolate replica of a banana slug in a clear, plastic box that held a cocktail umbrella in place over each slug”s head.
“I expect that a banana slug is not something you”re going to see in Lake County. It represents me moving from one climate to another. I put a little parasol on it, because I need shelter from the sun. I wanted to let the board know that since I”m moving from the Humboldt fog to the Lakeport sunshine, it”s going to take me a little while to acclimatize,” Siemer said.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com. To comment on this story or others, please visit www.record-bee.com.
