Update - $8 Million Restored to Road Funding for 2013
Sonoma County released a supplemental budget package (click here) late on June 6 that restores the $8 million in budget cuts for roads (see PDF page 9).
Proposed Budget to be Considered by Supervisors on June 10
Here is an extract of the budget proposal to be considered on Monday, Jun 10th at 8:30 AM at the Board of Supervisors meeting to be held at 575 Administration Drive. We hope you can attend.
For the full story, please read the article in our latest newsletter: "Proposed County Budget Guts Road Work" and please note that here is the working link to the 2013 Planned Construction Projects Map (it was broken in the newsletter).
International Wire Service, Reuters, Discusses Sonoma County’s Road and Budget Problems
The serpentine strip of asphalt known as Sonoma Mountain Road wends its way through a bucolic landscape 50 miles north of San Francisco, curving past rows of grapevines, dipping into redwood groves, rising again through rippling hills.
It's a beautiful ride. But it is also a bumpy one.
"You get pothole patch after pothole patch," groused Craig Harrison, a local resident and attorney who is part of a grass-roots campaign to fix the crumbling roads of Sonoma County. "We're going to be a test case of what a county does with a completely failed road system."
Read the full article: In California wine country, bumpy roads tell tale of fiscal woe
By Jonathan Weber and Tim Reid
Reuters - 5/29/2013
KSRO interviews SOSRoads’ President Craig Harrison
Harrison talks about the results from the road survey conducted in March. The survey had over 600 responses on what people think about the condition of county roads and how to pay for fixing the roads.
Listen to the Interview:
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Click here to see the complete survey results with all respondents' comments.
Funding Plan for 2013
Below are various documents related to the plan the Board of Supervisors approved on October 23.
Map of road surfacing in 2013 - This is a map of the roads the county plans to resurface in 2013.
Board Agenda Item for Road Plan - This is the official board agenda description for October 23 Dept of Transportation and Public Works presentation to the supervisors.
Table of roads to be resurfaced in 2013 - Tables describe which roads to be resurfaced and source of funding.
Map of repairs to recreation and tourism roads - This is map of the roads being repaired using a one-time allocation of $6.5 million in general funds for roads important to tourism, recreation and/or agriculture.
Gas Tax Running On Fumes
Gas tax is a broken system for road funding. The Wall Street Journal wrote a special report on has the primary mechanism for road funding is in steady decline and needs to be replaced or overhauled.
This is an excellent overview of the problem with road funding and possible ways to fix it.
Click here to read the whole WSJ article.
Supervisors Meeting on Roads Report
The report from the Ad Hoc Committee on Roads was presented at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday June 19 at the county administration center.
Click here to read SOSRoads initial assessment of the Ad Hoc Report on Roads and for a link to the full Ad Hoc report. Highly recommended reading for anyone concerned about Sonoma County roads.
The Long and Unkempt Road
Read Bob Andrew's excellant article "The Long and Unkempt Road" from the June 2012 issue of the North Bay Business Journal.
SOSroads member Mike Windsor's Guest Opinion "A modest proposal regarding rural roads" was published in the Press Democrat June 1, 2012.