| | Published March 28th, 2012
| Roads Orinda's Number One Concern
New Capital Improvement Plan draft underway
| | Laurie Snyder |  | | Repairs to an El Toyonal roadside drainage ditch have been added to the City of Orinda's updated Capital Improvement Plan for 2012-2013. Note the aging corrugated metal pipe (CMP). Estimated price tag: $30,000. Photo provided
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"Roads are our number one concern," said City Manager Janet Keeter at a Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) workshop conducted by the Orinda City Council March 14.
Attendees at the workshop received a sneak peek at drafts of the latest CIP planning documents, which are not yet publicly available via the City's web site. Those documents include a revised version of the Capital Improvement Plan FY 2011-2015, which was adopted by Council in September 2011. Updates to the CIP are being made as part of the ongoing CIP planning process by the City's staff, and will be formally presented at a future Council meeting.
Several new projects have been added to the existing CIP while others are being moved out to future dates in order to better address Orinda's pressing drainage and slope stabilization issues.
The Camino Pablo Pavement Rehabilitation Project, slated to improve Camino Pablo between Bear Creek Road and Moraga Way, has now been moved to an, as yet, unspecified future date. Initially projected to cost the City $130,349 and $600,000 in fiscal years 2011 and 2013, respectively, the project's estimated cost now stands at $1,785,545. Completion at this juncture is dependent upon receipt of State funding.
Other major ticket items projected for the next several years include: $1,019,815 (2012) and $762,003 (2013) for the Annual Pavement Management Program, $1,319,915 for the Glorietta Storm Drain Improvements Project plus a new $100,000 outlay for the Oak Springs/Candlestick Road Stormwater Improvements Project (both in 2013, the latter of which may be required as a result of pending litigation), and $495,600 (2013) and $1,630,260 (2014) for the Manzanita Drive Bridge Replacement Project, among others.
Despite the gloomy forecasts of increased expenditures immediately ahead for the City, Council members noted that there is, in fact, actually good news. The City is spending more now in order to head off potentially larger and more expensive problems that would likely crop up down the road if the City opted to not deal with its aging drains, bridges, and other critical infrastructure areas in the timeliest manner possible.
Occupied Orinda?
Orinda City Council's CIP Workshop got off to a bumpy beginning when a small group of protestors blocked the entrance for several City Council members and staff to the City Hall community room prior to the start of the March 14 meeting.
The protestors - students from higher education campuses around California - were in attendance not to learn about Orinda's aging infrastructure but, instead to encourage Governor Jerry Brown to support what has been termed "the millionaire's tax." By meeting face to face with Mayor Steve Glazer, who is both Brown's political advisor and a member of the Board of Trustees of the California State University system, students hoped to persuade Glazer to convince the Governor to reverse the trends of increasing tuition and decreased State funding for California's universities and community colleges.
The students, according to City staff, did not follow the proper procedure to request that they be permitted to speak during the public forum portion of the meeting - as had a smaller, different group of students protesting at the City Council's "roads poll workshop" on January 11.
Council allowed this latest and more vocal group to have its say, recessed briefly so that the students could be encouraged to depart peacefully, and then resumed without disruption for the remainder of the CIP workshop.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA