CLEARLAKE— Thursday's guest at the Judge's Breakfast in Clearlake was Clearlake's Public Works Director Addy Leyba presenting on the city's rising pavement index offering and giving a historical recap on Measure V, the tax initiative that made it all possible.
Leyba discussed the city's pavement management program and pavement condition index or PCI which rates road conditions from 0-100 based on the severity and extent of distressed observed on a pavement surface. In this system, roads ranking 70-100 are considered in good condition, 50-70 is fair, 25-50 is poor and less than 25 is a failed road. The pavement management program is utilized by the public works department in order to make cost effective decisions answering four main questions - what streets does the city own/maintain, what condition are they in, what repairs are needed and when, and how much funding is needed to improve or maintain streets.
Currently Clearlake ranks at 51, higher than the county average of 37 and just under the state average of 65. This is an 11 point increase from 2018. According to Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora "The 11 point jump almost never happens." Flora further shared that although the PCI only measures roads considered to be paved, the city has converted 16 miles of unpaved roads to paved roads included in the index. This year the city will continue work on this project and is planning to complete several more miles. Flora explained that it has been challenging having to constantly grade roads that are unpaved, but once they have been chip sealed, crews eliminate that annual grading and can focus on continued improvement.
The city has a projected 10-year plan that would improve the current PCI by another 10 points, requiring a total budget of $25,800,000, 15 percent more than the current 10-year budget of $22,000,000. Most of this funding comes from Measure V, a special tax initiative that added a $0.01 tax which passed in Clearlake in 2016 and expires in 2036, but the department also receives grants that have totaled seven million so far according to Leyba.
District 2 Supervisors Bruno Sabatier noted the importance of this special tax stating, "It's very specific what you can do with it. You're stuck with what the voters said yes to." Leyba elaborated on the projections. She said, "Our impact to the current annual budget of 2.2 million will increase the PCI to 60 in 10 years, deferred maintenance will decrease because we will have new roads, less grading will happen, and more than 50 percent of the network will be at good condition."
Clearlake City Council Vice Mayor Russ Purdock mentioned two issues faced by the city in these efforts, which are private vehicles and property blocking roadways they are actively working on, as well as the issue of private roads not being maintained. These issues have to be resolved on a private, neighborly level in which people work together to clear construction zones of vehicles and campers to allow work to happen, while the issue of private roads is a bit more complicated. If the neighbors cannot self maintain the road, they can apply for their street to become a city street. This happens if more than 51 percent of neighbors agree and the road is up to a minimum standard. More information on the pavement management project and the process of converting private roads to public can be found on the city's website at clearlake.ca.us.
The Judge's Breakfast is held weekly every Thursday at 7 a.m. in the Clearlake Senior Center. The breakfast is open to all and purchase is not required for participation.
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