CLEAR LAKE RIVIERA — As county officials and residents in the Clear Lake Riviera subdivision consider how to fix roughly 25 miles of county-maintained road in the community, questions about how to do so are emerging.
Retired Public Works Director Jerry Shaul and Dist. 5 Supervisor Rob Brown told less than 10 percent of the area”s property owners at an April 6 meeting that the best way to address the problem would be to establish a benefit zone. There are 2,738 parcels in the community, making it the largest community in the unincorporated area of the county that uses county-maintained roads.
“We”re the cash cow, here. We”re the prize,” resident John Stoddard said. He thinks the county”s effort to establish the benefit zone is a double-taxation scam.
Public Works Director Brent Siemer said in the case of Clear Lake Riviera, the assessment would amount to $10 per month. If the majority of Clear Lake Riviera property owners vote to establish the benefit zone, road improvements would happen over three years. Property owners would pay the county back at a rate of approximately $120 per year, according to Siemer.
“Why should we ask property owners to vote on something they already agreed to pay for when they purchase their [vehicle] registration and gasoline? I find it hard to believe that suddenly we have to take a serious hit in the neighborhood,” Stoddard said.
A county evaluation last year found that the community roads were in poor condition, according to Siemer.
“If it was a class, there would be one B student, three C students, six D students and one failing. That”s not a good class. We see the roads crumbling before there is a failure. We”re telling you that in five years, it”s going to be gone,” Siemer said.
Stoddard disagreed. He said he thinks the roads are in good condition, and that the county should pick up the tab for any road repairs it deems necessary.
“If it took him (Brown) and the road department driving to Sacramento and sleeping on the doorstep waiting for our money, that”s what their job is. My job is to pay gas tax and registration. I”m not going to pay for the meal twice,” Stoddard said.
Brown said getting state money for Lake County”s roads is an ongoing struggle. “This board goes after the state every single year to try to get more money for our roads. Lake County belongs to the Regional Council of Rural Counties ? there are something like 46 counties in it ? and that makes up six percent of the vote. That”s the reason we don”t get state money. A third of the state legislators are in Los Angeles alone,” Brown said.
Siemer said of the $9 million needed to bring Lake County”s 600 miles of roads up to a standard of improving quality, rather than the state of deterioration they are in currently, his department has only $3 million.
The discussion will continue May 6 at the Riviera Elementary School in Kelseyville at 6:30 p.m.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
