LAKE COUNTY ? The price of road improvements will be discussed at the Tuesday meeting of the Lake County Board of Supervisors.
Supervisor Denise Rushing is asking the board to adopt guidelines for accessing county funds to aid communities whose citizens can”t afford road improvements. Benefit zones are created when property owners in an area in need of road repair agree to pay a set amount per year to reimburse the county for the cost of the repairs.
“The 2008-09 budget includes amounts set aside to aid communities who agree to form a road benefit zone or service area and contribute to that zone, but whose improvements exceed the community”s ability to pay,” Rushing said.
The average household income in the community requesting county funds would need to be less than $35,000 annually, according to Rushing”s suggested guidelines. Other guidelines include at least a 40 percent contribution by property owners and at least a $120 annual contribution per property owner for 10 years. Property owners must vote to establish a benefit zone.
In the case of Clear Lake Riviera, the county found the community”s roads in need of repair in a 2007 assessment. The Lake County Public Works Department uses its equipment and staff to make the repairs. The money for the repairs comes out of the county”s general fund up front. The assessed amount appears on the property tax bill for each lot in the area after the work is done.
In other business, the board will receive information from the University of California, Davis (UCD) about mercury contamination from the Sulphur Bank Mercury Mine and its impacts on Clear Lake.
During a 15-year study at Clear Lake, UCD scientists produced research papers that were published in the December 2008 special issue of Ecological Applications and in the January 2009 issue of Water, Air and Soil Pollution, according to a memo from Public works Director Brent Siemer. The publications are environmental journals.
The December 2008 special issue of Ecological Applications is available online at www.esajournals.org/toc/ecap/18/sp8.
The board will also consider adopting criteria to select which properties and projects should be promoted in an effort to develop a marketing strategy to attract commercial and resort investment to Lake County.
The board directed county staff to develop the criteria in a Feb. 27 meeting, with the intention of bolstering existing businesses and drawing more businesses to the county.
One of the proposed criteria is that a project must create or retain a minimum of 20 full-time jobs.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
