I believe it”s important for the county and the City of Lakeport to come together and pass the tax for the road improvement. It”s important for the whole county and the tourism industry. Everyone uses the roads daily to and from work, and everyone is automatically getting the benefit of what is being spent. I feel it is very important to limit the time on the tax increase. Over the years in the county and the state we have voted for new taxes but somehow it ends up in a general fund or somewhere else than what it was originally voted for.
For instance school fees, building fees taxes — look at our schools being closed for lack of funds. The lottery was set up for the schools and it went into the state funds. In the past in Lake County taxpayers voted on a tax that was passed and did not specifically go where the tax was designated to go. I feel at this time we should pass a tax and put a time limit. If the roads are repaired and the funds are put where they are supposed to be spent until completed, we could re-vote for an extension, if they are not they expire. That would be the way the taxpayers will have control. Lake County is flat on its back and everyone needs money including the person who is paying the tax.
Many years ago the county and the city of Lakeport had several shale pits all over. The county and the City of Lakeport owned its own gravel property in Scotts Creek. They hauled the creek run and shale to make a good road. The way we do roads now-a-days is from Sacramento, with an engineering staff that does not know about Lake County. Nothing works without the proper foundation. We need to use shale and creek run gravel to build up the roads because of the high water table we have in the winter time. Drive down most of the roads in Lake County in the winter time and the water is almost as high as the road.
The road is placed on top of dirt with four- to six- inches of base rock, which is not enough structure to hold the blacktop and the blacktop cracks from being wet underneath; the water goes into the blacktop and the road starts to come apart. You can see all the chuck holes from the newer roads, not from the older roads that were built many years ago. Some of the state roads when you come to a stop sign have buckled at the sign because when people put on their brakes the blacktop rolls up under the tires. Between Hopland Road and Kelseyville there were chuck holes in the overlay because the overlay did not stick, as the water was not sealed out correctly; got underneath the overlay and on top of the face of the original blacktop. That area was pear orchards with good soil.
The trees were taken out and the state built a road from Lakeport to Kelseyville right through the pear orchards. The taxpayers pay and we do and re-do constantly because the ideas come out of Sacramento from an engineers desk versus actually seeing what is going on at the job site. I can remember when the City of Lakeport tore up the concrete that we had, as the original foundation for Main Street in Lakeport, and base rock was put down. I remember going downtown on a Sunday and almost getting stuck in the base rock because of lack of compaction and being wet. Look at how many times we have fixed the streets in Lakeport since then.
Ron Rose
Lake County
