LAKE COUNTY >> With the approval of a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), the county is looking to put around $5.2 million of the remaining $5.5 million in recovery money towards infrastructure projects and programs.
The county used $2 million of their initial funding for the Anderson Springs Sewer Project. A groundbreaking event for the beginning of this project will be on September 30.
Other projects under consideration are Cobb Mountain Water District improvements, that include Rainbow Bridge and Anderson Springs road landslide fixes.
The county consulted with Jeff Lucas, who put together recommendations for the leftover funds, giving priority to those most beneficial for the county.
“The cost of those priority projects is about $4.5 million. More could be spent there but that would be one project that we recommend the folks consider,” Lucas said.
The county increased the recovery budget to the approved amount in order to provide a cushion to be sure the current projects are completed.
County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson said creating these projects and making sure they can be used with CDBG funds will take time so the deadline for Housing and Community Development (HCD) approval has been extended to next year in August.
“Writing for these projects is a sizable workload and requires a lot of detail and so the original date was September of 2017 but they (HCD) have given us another year so we can actually write these projects up and hopefully have them approved,” Huchingson said.
Both District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown and District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon agree that getting infrastructure with these funds is the best option for recovery efforts. The two supervisors had their districts affected by the fires and received the most input from their constituents on what the community needs.
“It really is 50/50 as far as the impacts and the influence in our districts,” Brown said. “We can’t experience economic development up there without the infrastructure that’s needed when repairs take place so that’s going to be the top priority for me.”
Once the projects are approved, Huchingson said they will need to go out for bid.
While using these CDBG funds to help areas that were affected by the Valley and Butte Fires, the county is applying for another CDBG this year to get money for disaster recovery for the Clayton Fire.
The deadline for this grant they are applying for is December 1 of this year and the project the county is looking to do with these funds will cost an estimated amount of $1.3 million. The project will provide clean water to low and moderate income neighbors by connecting the Lower Lake Water System to other surrounding systems.
The county will be making a list of other projects that might be needed in the community that was caused by the Clayton Fire as they conduct feasibility plans for engineering, design and cost for this project.
