Newsletters

June 3, 2019

May 30, 2019

John’s Soapbox

Heritage Roads-Flight of Fancy?

I spent many years going out to remote areas of Northern California to build water and wastewater systems for small communities. One of the very few “fun” parts of those projects was “diving into” the local history and how those communities got started, how they survived, and how did their past history shape their future. As an example, when Kirkwood Bly got a project to upgrade Garberville’s sewer system, I not only ran the project but read several local books on why Garberville (a guy named Garber in 1853 settled there and decided to name the town that sprung up around his property after himself) was founded and what economy of that little town was founded upon, and what it has morphed into now (the first “Cash Crop” was tan oak, then the economy switched to Redwood timber harvesting and finally to Marijuana). I knew nothing of Tan Oak and how important that product was to the tanneries who used the bark from ok trees in the leather tanning process. As early as 1814, tanneries in Stockton and San Francisco were using tan oak bark in their process needed to supply the world with inexpensive leather goods in the 1800’s. The area around Garberville and Weott, California, was home to these tan oaks that were used and that created opportunity for folks to go in and harvest the bark and then transport it by wagon, rail and schooner to the tanneries further South. I loved reading about how the Highway 101 got built in the 1960’s and what roads preceded our “modern” roadway that we are familiar with today? The Avenue of the Giants was created using convict labor from San Quentin Penitentiary from 1910-1918. This road mainly followed the South Fork of the Eel River and not the main fork because the railroad had secured the right of way along the main fork. To read a short article on this road history, click on this link—

I know, this is way more info than you wanted to know about early Humboldt roads but I am writing about it to illustrate the topic of this Soapbox.

Maybe it is just me, but I like musing about how Sonoma County’s rural roads came to be. So how did Sonoma County’s 1384 miles of unincorporated roads become roads? For example, back in the early history of Sonoma County, what prompted anybody to travel over Coleman Valley Road? How did the Petrified Forest Road come into being? This column is too short to answer those questions, but I suggest the history of local rural roads is at least as fascinating as Humboldt County’s early roads history. I suspect many of you enjoy an occasional drive on your Harley or in your car on those old roads to go wine tasting, or just get out and enjoy the beautiful environment that marks Sonoma County as unique. I know my sons, who have settled in the Central Coast area that is part of Southern California, enhance their return trips to Sonoma County by taking a leisurely drive on some of the back roads.

So why all the historical chatter about our roads? This past weekend, an article by columnist Gaye LeBaron in the Press Democrat, presented the topic of “Heritage Roads” of Sonoma County-to read the article, click here—

Here is a crazy idea to help preserve these roads and add an historical plaque to them: what if the ECA led an effort to coordinate with the Sonoma County Transportation and Public Works Department to formally list roads that could be categorized as “Heritage Roads” and protect their alignment and nature?

Perhaps, bit by bit, an historical marker could be constructed that told the modern traveler of the origins of the paved road they were travelling on.

Flight of fancy? Or a solid idea? Wouldn’t it be a nice way for the road building community of members to give something back to future generations?

That’s All Folks!

May 23, 2019

Soap Box 5-23-19

Jobs Jobs Jobs

Here is some recent News that is important to our ECA members:

1. County got denied $21 million for FEMA funding to fix roads damaged during the fire fighting and subsequent cleanup. Our Supes are appealing this decision with the help of Congressman Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman. My guess is that we will prevail on at least part of that funding.

2. State Senator Mike McGuire, Congressman Jared Huffman, and State Assemblyman Jim Wood have “teamed up” to get the final $40million funded to do the environmental work on a permanent fix in Del Norte County for the Last Chance Grade repair. Once designed, that will be a big project! link

3. Sonoma County just voted to award $14.7 million to Team Ghilotti and Ghilotti Construction Company for fixing roads in Sonoma County

4. Sonoma County just voted on allocating over $36 million for their Pavement Preservation Program for 2020/2021 construction season to fix over 50 miles of County roads. This makes the County expenditure on road repair in the years 2013-2021 nearly $150 million!! link

5. The County just landed the first $10 million for a Sonoma County Airport expansion with another $10 million “promised”. link

6. SMART is seeking $194 million to get the rail line 5 miles across the Russian River from Windsor to Healdsburg. Another $170 million will complete the rail line the 17 miles to Cloverdale as originally planned. link

I have long been explaining why the ECA is important to our industry as far as establishing relationships with the County Supervisors that have done an outstanding job since 2013 in funding our roads. As several of our local politicians have moved on to Sacramento, those relationships between the ECA and our Supes and the Supes and McGuire/Dodd/Wood have really benefitted our “oxygen supply” of funding for our roads and slide repairs in Sonoma County.

I urge you to keep this successful advocacy going when you receive your Dues invoices in the next week or two and please increase the amount you pay for our asked for Political Action funding. Money is necessary to form these bonds with the Politicians, and we have done a great job in fostering those relationships that have benefitted our firms and our community in the last 6-10 years.

We may not agree with all that our elected representatives are doing, but it is hard to argue with the $131.7 million listed above in items 1-5 for roads and airport work with another possible $364 million to extend SMART all the way to Cloverdale.

Jobs Jobs Jobs folks!

That’s All Folks

John

May 16, 2019

ECA Newsletter

5-16-19

John’s Soapbox

Expensive Neighbors

It is estimated that we in Sonoma County need 30,000 housing units in the next 10 years or so to make up for decades of slow growth. Many of you probably are feeling the housing shortage and cost of living “pinch” when you try to retain your young talent or attract new talent to grow your operation. It is tough because it is costly to live around here.

Having enough housing units are important to the ECA member firms partly because our livelihood is linked to the infrastructure that supplies those housing units, and partly because our employees, our children, and ourselves need a variety of housing units across the spectrum from low cost housing to luxury housing. We need housing that is simply not available right now. As ECA members feel this lack of housing, so do the larger employers.

Many of the large employers like Medtronic, Kaiser, Kendall Jackson and others have formed the Employer Housing Council to deal with the acute housing shortage we face. Those firms, and others, are seeing employees reject their offers and positions are going unfilled because of the lack of housing and the high cost of housing.

Let me give you a short list of why housing starts have been lagging for decades around here:

1. Cities and Counties have not done their best at approving housing starts for decades because they have added lots of cost to the permitting and entitlement process

2. Environmentalists have succeeded in putting regulatory permitting requirements in place that arguably “protect the environment”, and without question, substantially raise the price of local housing.

3. Businesses have not done a great job of dealing with the shortage of housing units. They hire and expand, yet do not turn out to support new housing projects nor build housing for their own workers. This puts a strain on exiting housing stock and makes living costs more expensive then if we just built more housing.

4. Folks that already have their houses have done a great job at protesting projects that would bring others into their neighborhood partly because their home values go up if less housing units are built, and partly because they play on the fears of others that new housing units will deteriorate their area and their neighborhoods.

In summary-that short list #’s 1-5 describe our very expensive “neighbors”. We need to make them less expensive.

Substantial progress towards that end has been made in a very short time. Ironically, the fires of 2017 have put a renewed focus on our housing issues and we should never “waste a good disaster” right? Cities, Counties, and employers all realize we need housing. There is energy behind this movement. There is experience behind this movement. And there is substantial money already being put into this movement.

The Employer Housing Council will soon be making some major announcements as to the funding I mentioned in the previous paragraph. In the meantime, they are setting up shop to do some very necessary work in the short term:

A. Addressing the accountability issue of Cities in our area building enough housing within their jurisdictions. The number of units, the cost of permits, and the time of gaining entitlements for those housing units all need to be monitored and these Cities that are not doing their fair share, will have some problems (hey Marin County, can you hear me?).

B. Hiring a full-time person to advocate for projects that are in, or going into, Planning, and helping to mobilize emails, phone calls, and in person public comment supporting those projects. We as an industry have been terrible at this, so we recognize the need to put some resources to the task so we can have YIMBYs at the meetings instead of NIMBYs.

C. Financial assistance for funding affordable housing. There is some big money coming in locally and from nearby that will “move the needle” on helping employees get into housing they can afford.

All this is happening fast. On Tuesday, May 21, 2019, I will be asking our Exec and our Board of Directors to make a contribution to a group that is doing a study of the California Tiger Salamander and other endangered species in order to come up with better and more workable solutions than the existing $1 Million per acre that is keeping about 50% of the approved housing starts from moving forward right now. The system is broken, and the ECA will be asked to join forces with some powerful allies very soon to make a difference. We need to so something about our very expensive “neighbors” like the salamanders and wetlands and NIMBYs.

We can do this. We cannot do this alone. For many years, I have been explaining that one of the main benefits in keeping the ECA healthy and viable, is to strengthen our relationships with other like-minded organizations.

We have done so.

The payoff is happening now. Thanks for your support in the past, and your continued support into the very bright future!

That’s All Folks!

John

May 7, 2019

May 2, 2019

ECA Newsletter 5-2-19

John’s Soapbox

KUDOS to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors!

Have I gotten mellow in my view of elected officials? It is possible. This Soapbox is going to compliment the existing Supervisors in office in Sonoma County. I know-if I wanted to I could find some things to gripe about, but fair is fair-let’s honestly look at some of the accomplishments the existing five have been able to get some credit for.

I want to start with Shirlee Zane’s unabashed support of building 14 tiny homes for veterans on Russell Avenue. Look-we all know the overall homeless problem is too complex and too varied to have some easy solution. However, in Sonoma County there are several hundred homeless veterans and I personally believe this small “slice” of the big problem is solvable. In 2015 the opportunity for this project was presented and the Supervisors appointed the Community Housing Sonoma County to manage the project. Paula Cook worked tirelessly to get this project built on County owned land. Shirlee Zane supported, cajoled, spoke in favor of, and provided the impetus to get 14 tiny homes built on a small parcel of land on Russell Avenue, just north of the County jail and just south of Kaiser Hospital. To see an article on this, click here—

The location is ironic as it is entirely possible, that without these tiny homes providing safe haven for these guys, they could end up either in the jail, or in the hospital. Instead, they have a tiny home with a roof over their head, neighbors with common interest and shared history, and a door to lock that all combine to instill purpose, hope, security and pride in lives that might otherwise have none of that.

Kudos to Shirlee!

We all know what a traumatic series of events Mother Nature has dumped on our County (and others). No budget could have anticipated and had coverage for the massive commitment of resources the County of Sonoma had to put out to overcome the Tubbs and Nuns fires as well as the floods of the Russian River in 2019. The ability of the County Supervisors to get emergency funding to cover much of those costs is unprecedented. It is a tribute to their relationships with Congressmen Thompson and Huffman, as well as State Senator Mike McGuire, and State Assemblymen Jim Woods and Bill Dodd. Those relationships enabled trust and communication which led to getting emergency funding that might not have been available otherwise. It is a tribute to the character and hard work of all five of our County Supervisors that our Sonoma County budget, although stretched and frayed from the emergencies, has held up and continues to fund public safety, transportation infrastructure, and health and human services to a large extent, as it did before the emergencies.

Kudos to Susan, James, David, Shirlee, and Lynda!

Transportation infrastructure has been addressed by this group of Sonoma County Supervisors for the past 6-7 years in a healthy and productive manner. They all get the benefit of regular maintenance of our roads being good practice to safeguard the underlying structural integrity of our 1384 miles of roads in unincorporated Sonoma County. The plan that was put into action several years ago to repair our roads has so far reconstructed or resurfaced over 500 miles of our County roads. Sonoma County has been spending more General Fund dollars on roads than any other County in California for several years now. To go back to 2017 and the repaving of 170 miles in one season, click on this link from the North Bay Business Journal— link

Despite the pressure the emergencies put on the County Budget from the fires and floods, the County still intends to vote on May 21, 2019 on a planned road improvement funding that has not been reduced. The floods of 2019 caused another $23 million in damage to County roads due to washouts from high water that will get funding separate from the May 21, 2019

Supervisor vote. Emergency funding for those roads damaged in the floods is currently being sought by the Supervisors and I have no doubt they will be successful. Thanks for fixing our roads!

Kudos to David, Lynda, James, Susan and Shirlee for fixing our roads!

The 2020 elections will see Lynda Hopkins, Susan Gorin, and Shirlee Zane run as incumbents for re election to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. Slated for ECA Board action on May 21, 2019, will be whether to support and endorse the incumbents or not. This will be a Board decision, not a John decision. If you want to state your opinion on whether we should endorse these incumbents, please let me know and I will share your opinion at that Board meeting.

That’s All Folks!

John Bly

April 25, 2019

ECA Newsletter 4-25-19

John’s Soapbox

An Ounce of Prevention

About 15-18 years ago, when I still owned Kirkwood Bly, Inc., we received a notice from the Department of Labor that there was a labor claim against us on one of our projects. This was a shocker as we prided ourselves in trying to take good and fair care of our employees. Here is the short version of what the violation was claimed to be:

We were building a stormwater handling facility in Arcata, CA (approximately a $17 mil project) that had a single lane driveway/road that was about 300 yards long that accessed it from our laydown yard. There was no room at the site for parking so workers had to park at the laydown yard and hike up the 300 yards to the site. At our safety tailgate meetings, one of the guys asked if there was a better way for us (the workers) to get up to the jobsite at 7am to start work other than walking up the hill with their tool bags. The Project Manager did what he was supposed to do and called the home office to see what options were available. After doing some research, the following was suggested:

1. Workers could get dropped off by their spouses, girlfriends, or buddies at the top of the hill to go to work, or

2. Workers could walk up the hill after parking below, and the 5 to 10-minute walk was on their own time, or

3. One of the workers with a pickup could give the guys a ride up the private driveway by them piling into the back of his truck (not a company truck) and then the driver would drive down, park his truck, and walk up.

4. The Project Manager was to make it clear that none of these were a requirement, the only requirement was the guys showed up at the job site ready to work at 7am.

Well, as sometimes happens, the message got muddled and a labor foreman with a company pickup made his truck available at 6:45 am and gave the guys a ride up to the worksite. The home office did not know, and the PM thought he was doing the right thing because he had all the guys sign a form that said they understood they were riding up for their own convenience and were not required to ride in the company truck.

All was well until layoffs at the end of the project began. Some enterprising business agent called one of the laid off workers (we were non-union, of course) and suggested he could get some back pay if he filed a claim for back pay for riding in the truck. The worker did, and there was the claim to the Labor Commissioner.

To make a long story short, we paid back wages and fines in excess of $350,000 for that little misunderstanding.

I bring this to your attention so that the attached memo from our legal friends at Smith Dollar will have more meaning than otherwise. Sometimes an employer thinks he/she is doing the right thing, but the devil is usually in the details. I suggest you all review how you are paying your crews for the “questionable” times like when they pick up something from the yard, when they stop off and pick up a fitting at the pipe supplier or when they go buy a few fittings at the home depot for use the next day. Your employees are usually not disgruntled and going to sign a claim until such time as they are laid off.

An ounce of prevention?

Click here for Smith Dollar PC’s article.

That’s All Folks

John

April 22, 2019

April 18, 2019

ECA Newsletter 4-18-19

John’s Soapbox

Let’s Do Our Part

How many times have you been forced to either remove someone from your Facebook friends, or maybe wonder and question a certain person because of what they are posting? The era we are in is one of being judgmental and it seems the entire country has judged and pigeonholed each other into deeply divisive categories.

We see things differently. I think the Mueller report is coming out today or tomorrow, but it won’t end what people think. If you are an anti-Trumper, you believe he colluded and if Mueller did not conclude that, then Mueller is in on the sham as well. If you kind of like some of what Trump does but dislike his style, you probably are quiet on a lot of issues. If you are a supporter of Trump and do not have any tolerance for the seemingly “socialist leaning” Democratic party, you resent the emphasis on Trump’s actions because you want Hillary to be investigated for wiping her servers clean and deleting 33,000 emails.

When we try to have a discussion with someone who thinks differently, we usually wind up frustrating each other and decide to stop the “debate” without really challenging our own beliefs. I know it has happened to me several times, and I am sure you all have experienced it as well.

So what do we do? We need to understand what the issues are. We seemingly cannot rely on newspapers or any media to provide accurate and unbiased factual news anymore. Are we simply going to swear at each other and dig in deeper into our own positions?

I hope not.

I am providing a link to a Northbay Business Journal interview with Brian Sobel, a very experienced political analyst and expert in which he talks about the need for being more civil with each other. To read the interview, click here–

It is my opinion that some college campuses have had their “freedom of speech” attitudes compromised by this deep division in how we view our issues in the good old USA. I can understand why some conservatives are concerned about changing the “Freedom of Speech” we have in this country, to “You are Free to Speak If Your Views Fit Mine” speech attitude. That is not ok. From Antifa to AOC to Pelosi to Trump to Fox News, don’t you think we have taken it to a point where it is going to be hard to get back to a place where we can debate the issues instead of calling each other names and walking away?

Let’s do our part and try-ok?

That’s All Folks

John

April 11, 2019

ECA Newsletter 4-11-19

John’s Soapbox

Taxation or Fee? I Don’t Care! Oxygen is What I Call It!

When the ECA came out and supported the passage of RM3 in June of 2018, we basically were supporting charging ourselves to build infrastructure that will relieve current transportation problems and build long lasting projects that future generations will benefit from. You all know that I am not usually a “tax and spend” guy but I also recognize that transportation infrastructure has been woefully underfunded for decades and just in the last 5-6 years is getting the funding needed to fix our roads and bridges.

RM3 is a fee that raises bridge tolls (all Bay Area bridges except the Golden Gate Bridge) and tolls started being collected a few months ago. The Howard Jarvis folks filed a lawsuit challenging the bridge toll hike as a tax rather than a fee and their lawsuit made many of us nervous as to whether the RM3 dollars would actually be collected and allocated to our North Bay region ($800 to $900 million worth!!).

Last week, Judge Ethan Schulman dismissed the lawsuit which effectively frees up the RM3 toll increases to fund (to the tune of $4.5 billion) much needed projects around the Bay Area. Judge Schulman agreed with the drafters of RM3 that the toll increase is a fee, not a tax. I cannot believe I am applauding a local Judge’s ruling around here, but I am!

This is great news for all of us that need to travel, and at least partially, make our living from road and bridge construction projects. Between this good news and the defeat of the Gas tax repeal in June, this solidifies our income stream needed to fix our roads and bridges. link

What does this all mean to our local firms whether you bid on those projects or not? It means that local Agencies will now be able to count on tax help from fuel tax and toll help from the bridge toll increases to get some of their City and County roads fixed. Also, we have a tremendous list of bridges that are in need of repair in Sonoma and the Contiguous Counties and those tax and toll funds will enable local Public Works folks to prioritize and start getting some of them repaired or replaced. By funding transportation projects, the Cities and Counties can focus on much needed housing projects. None of us want to see our beautiful area changed by “sprawl” of housing developments, but we all recognize the need to build 30,000 plus homes so our young workers have a place to live rather than drive from Lake and Mendo and Solano Counties.

Highway 37 is one of the main roadways that has had its share of problems recently. Between high rains, the lack of a comprehensive levee program, and the increased commuter loads, this road between Novato and Vallejo is a problem searching for short term and long-term solutions. With the “smackdown” of the Howard Jarvis lawsuit, both short term and long-term solutions should get designed and out to bid very shortly. At the recent meeting of Solano, Marin, Napa and Sonoma County Transportation Authorities, the group made several important decisions but none more important than assigning responsibility and authority for the three main segments of Highway 37.

A new memorandum of understanding assigns responsibility for overall project management coordination to the Bay Area Toll Authority (which is the group that collects the bridge tolls) with local transportation authorities having a role for the road portion in each county.

• Segment A: (Highway 101 to SR 121) assigned to Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA), Caltrans, Sonoma County Transportation Authority (SCTA) and Transportation Authority of Marin.
• Segment B: (Sears Pt. to Mare Island Bridge) assigned to BATA, Caltrans, SCTA, Solano Transportation Authority and Napa Valley Transportation Authority.
• Segment C: (Mare Island Bridge to I-80) assigned to BATA, Caltrans and SCTA.

Segment B is the most critical section by all accounts. As I have reported to you earlier, an interim solution being considered would employ a movable barrier system and one additional lane to be utilized heading West in the morning hours and heading East in the afternoon. It is estimated this could relieve up to 75% of the waiting time for commuters. This work should come out in 2019 and be completed in 2022.

Relief is on its way!

To read more about this, click on the link –

To me, the “oxygen” is actual projects that will enhance safety and relieve congestion. The defeat of the Howard Jarvis lawsuit provides that oxygen. That is why I do not care if you call the bridge toll increase a toll, or a tax-it is oxygen to me!

That’s All Folks!

John

April 4, 2019

ECA Newsletter 4-4-19

John’s Soapbox

Fish Volition

Nope-I did not spell it wrong.

I have tried to think of another issue that can affect more people than “volition” and I cannot think of any. Before you send the padded truck with the nice men in white to get me and take me to the nice place, consider this:

Because of “volition” on the part of some fish, there is a strong possibility that Lake Pillsbury could cease to exist in a few short years.

Because of “volition”, the water diverted from the Eel River through the Cape Horn Dam and tunnel to Potter Valley and on to the Russian River that was built in 1908, might stop being diverted. If that happened, Lake Mendocino would be severely impacted and so would the Potter Valley farmers as well as the Alexander Valley wine growers. Sonoma County Water Agency estimates that without the diverted water, Lake Mendocino would go dry in 60 of the next 100 years.

Because of “volition”, the water supply of Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Hopland, and Ukiah could be severely impacted. Cloverdale, Hopland and Ukiah get 100% of their water from “underflow” of the upper Russian River. Healdsburg gets 80% of theirs from the same source. If the water stops going through the diversion tunnel at Cape Horn Dam and into Potter Valley, those cities will have to develop other water sources because it is likely summer flows will not sustain the “underflow” those Cities need now.

Okay, maybe John’s not certifiable yet, but we still do not know what “volition” even means.

A small power plant provided electrical power to the City of Ukiah in 1900. It was costly and not able to provide enough power to a growing City of Ukiah. The original power plant needed to be replaced. To view some of the history, click on this link—

San Francisco native ww Van Arsdale helped create the Eel River Power and Irrigation Company that later morphed into the Snow Mountain Water and Power Company. Van Arsdale was smart enough to recognize and know that the Eel River was 475 feet higher than the Northern point of Potter Valley (which are also the origins of the Russian River, but the Russian did not have enough water or “fall” to power the hydroelectric turbines he needed). All Van Arsdale had to do was build a dam on the Eel River and blast an 8’ diameter tunnel through a mile of bedrock mountain to get some of the Eel River water to “fall” the 475 feet and spin the turbines to be installed in Potter Valley to the south Van Arsdale had his plan.

In 1900, the project started and a small concrete and earth filled dam was built that held back the Eel River flow, and more importantly, diverted it into two streams: the main one being a “North flowing Eel River” and into a much flow split off and sent south through “at grade” pipe and a new tunnel that brought the water to a small powerhouse in Potter Valley. The 475-foot elevation difference between the Eel at Van Arsdale Dam and the head of the Potter Valley, allowed the energy needed to spin two turbines that produced 2,000 kilovolt amperes of power that started being produced in 1908. After flowing through the turbines, the diverted Eel River water combined with the headwaters of the Russian River and flowed south.

Things worked great except the Eel River tended to dry up in the hot summer months and not enough water flowed through the power plant and tunnel to keep the turbines running and producing power. A second dam was constructed 12 miles upriver called the Scotts Dam and it held back the water that then created Lake Pillsbury. Problem Solved! By controlling the flow out of the Scotts Dam, the operators of the Snow Mountain Water and Power Company could regulate the flow all summer that sent water through the pipes and diversion tunnel to the south to turn the turbines and supply the Ukiah need for power.

The added benefit of the diverted Eel River water quickly became obvious to landowners in Potter Valley. The summer months dried up the Russian River in their valley but the diverted flow from Lake Pillsbury and the Eel River through the tunnel made it possible to farm and ranch the once very dry Potter Valley area. And so, they did!

The system worked well enough (other than some downstream flooding) for several decades. To alleviate the flooding, the Army Corps of Engineers decided to “make it better” and built Coyote Dam in 1959 which in turn created Lake Mendocino. Now the lower stretches of the Russian River had ample summer flow and some control over flooding that enabled the Alexander Valley to become one of the finest wine growing regions in the world.

And now for the problem: The Eel river that flowed north out of the Van Arsdale Dam, was one of the finest fisheries in the world due to salmon and steelhead being able to enter the river from the Pacific Ocean at Fortuna, and make their way all the way up through the Van Arsdale fish ladder to spawn in the perfect environment of the Eel River watershed. But the Scotts Dam was built with no fish ladder, so the fish hit a “dead end”. The fishery probably would have been just fine if not for the massive cannery that was built along the Eel that needed lots of netted fish to operate. And the sports fishing also went nuts and overfished the river too. Much of the salmon and steelhead were fished out from the 1920’s to the 1960’s.

What did not help the fishery was when a financier named Hurwitz (and Milken via Maxxam) bought the Scotia Lumber Company with junk bonds and in order to fund his purchase, he decided to go crazy and cut down the old-growth redwood trees on the tributaries with little or no regard to the Eel River below. In the process, he ruined many of the fish spawning streams and creeks that the Eel River needed for their salmon and steelhead spawning grounds. The “perfect storm” of overfishing and over cutting of the forests fed the environmental movement and lots of attention was focused on preserving what was left of the Eel River fishery (a great documentary can be viewed called “A Rivers Last Chance” by Shane Anderson on streaming video).

PG & E took over the power plant and ran it for decades. PG & E filed bankruptcy in 2019 and the renewal of the FERC power license became very much in doubt. To read about that impact, click here

As it stands now, Jared Huffman and some very influential environmental groups would like to remove the Scotts Dam and restore the Eel River to a more natural state. At a recent Town Hall Meeting in Ukiah, Huffman talked about his respect for new Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and his support of the New Green Deal, which would lead one to believe that Jared Huffman would probably lean towards taking down the Scotts Dam and stopping the traditional diversion of water from the Eel to the Russian River. Although not Huffman’s call to make that decision, he wields some influence.

Admittedly, this is complex, and uncertain as to the outcome of both Lake Pillsbury and the Eel River diversion water that is much needed to sustain the Russian River flows that Sonoma County, Marin County, and Mendo County all need to meet their water needs. The main concern is one of the fish-they cannot get past the Scotts Dam so there is a need for a $90 million (very uncertain!) fish ladder to be built, or an estimated $71 million to take Scotts Dam down. Either way, it is likely whatever gets decided will revolve around allowing fish to get past Scotts Dam.

I asked the question: why not just leave Scotts Dam in place and pick up the pregnant fish at the Van Arsdale fish ladder (easy choke point) and transport them above Scotts Dam into the tributaries up there? PG & E did a nice study on this method that you can read here–

The answer is “that won’t work” because the fish’s volition will be compromised. The fish, according to the “powers that be” say the fish need to make their own choices as to where to spawn. Maybe that is right as they instinctively know how to go from the Pacific Ocean to their spawning grounds. I do not know. I like wild and scenic rivers too, but I also recognize that a lot of people depend on the water that flows from the Eel to the Russian. Maybe it is ok for the fish to make their own determinations to get to the fish ladder at the Van Arsdale Dam and get picked up and taken to above the Scotts Dam to spawn? Maybe. That is my suggestion.

There you have it folks. Is it absurd? The fish need a choice. The fish need to have “volition”. For them to get “volition”, people are going to be hurt. That I can assure you.

And you thought I was nuts?

That’s All Folks

John

March 28, 2019

John’s Soapbox

ECA Newsletter 3-28-19

CASA Compact – It Is Not Going to Go Away

Please bear with me for a very brief “background” to the CASA Compact:

1. Housing has been a very “hot topic” (excuse the pun please) for many years. The fires aggravated an already depleted supply of housing units that were needed in the North Bay region. Since late 2017, any number of meetings, workshops, proposed solutions have been discussed, hashed over, and reported on ad nauseum. One group that is part of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission put a group of developers, financiers, elected officials, and housing experts together to come up with some ideas to spur housing starts in and around the Bay Area. What they came up with is called “The CASA Compact”

2. To view the background info on the CASA Compact, click here–

3. To view the actual CASA Compact document, click here–

Okay-now for the fun stuff. Many of the smaller cities loath the idea of the CASA Compact because they interpret it and fear it. Although some of our friends are supportive of parts of the CASA Compact, and my “opinion here” may rub them the wrong way, when have I ever been worried about that? Here is my short and sweet opinion piece on the CASA Compact:

A) Small cities feel bigger cities have created the most jobs and the least housing. Why should smaller cities have to be taxed to fix the problems created by the big cities? The cost and the requirement should be borne by the bigger cities and to a lesser extent, the smaller cities but not the same ratios should apply.

B) Small cities do not want to relinquish land use control of their available building sites and they presume they may lose it if they do not build enough housing to hit their “quota”. They are possibly right. Do we want someone else telling our local government how many houses and what size to build? This is complicated. If the local City has consistently been “no growth” and caused a strain on our roads by forcing workers to commute in from outlying areas to get to their jobs, I say yes-force them to build workforce housing.

C) Many of the industry leaders question whether rent control and just cause evictions will put a “wet blanket” over any interest developers and investors might have had to build apartments and smaller affordable rental units because their income stream is being tampered with. Read CASA Compact #1 on Just Cause Eviction and CASA Compact #2 on Rent Control. I personally think they are contrary to “incentivizing” a developer/investor to put up their dollars on a project.

D) Providing legal assistance to renters who are being evicted for not paying their rents make landlords cringe and throw up their hands in despair. The word on the street is if CASA Compact #3 is adopted, most of the landlords I know will sell their rental units thereby taking many rental units off the market rather than creating more rental units. Read CASA Compact #3 on Legal Assistance to renters. I hate this one.

E) There are some good things in the CASA Compact and many I have spoken to some who like CASA Compact #4 on removing ADU regulatory restrictions. ADU stands for Affordable Dwelling Units or (Granny Units as they are sometimes referred to). One out of four “isn’t bad”.

F) Zoning changes near transit terminals makes some sense to me but it always scares me cost wise) when I read about “Labor Standards” as it relates to subsidized housing costs. To me-that means union labor will be required when I (and others) are not sure the cost to build these units “pencil out” now and certainly will not if labor costs to build them go up. CASA Compact #5 is about zoning changes and I can see the developers who are getting pressure to build and have too few labor forces to draw from. Perhaps the time has come to use all the tools available to us-union labor and non-union labor. I cringe when regulations force one or the other out of the picture though. I am reluctantly thinking ok on this one.

G) Figuring out the actual cost of impact fees and inclusionary costs (how many “affordable” units need to be included in a project is the simple way to express what CASA Compact #6 is about). This is too complex for me and others to digest. I defer to my friend Bob Glover of the BIA who says this is a good thing to enact. Ok on #6 because Bob says it is good.

H) CASA Compact #7 is about expedited approvals for some housing. Hell yes. Get the approval process 100% out of the equation as far as I am concerned. Let the market dictate and let the Contractors and Engineers be responsible for code compliance. This #7 is the best one yet!

I) CASA Compact #8 is about making public land available to build on. If one district is not providing enough land for residential zoning to keep up with housing demand, make them. I like it.

J) CASA Compact #9 is about the cost to “Joe Q Public” to pay for all of this. I suspect once I look at this in more detail, I will hate it. Always about the taxpayer having to bail out the government who has neglected infrastructure and housing needs for decades. Now it is a crisis. Do we say “No” or hold our nose and “Pay”?

K) Finally-CASA Compact #10 describes a new agency to oversee everything. I hate this one the most already.

The CASA Compact is a 15 year “guideline” but do not think it is benign. State Legislators are hard at work with over 50 Bills being cooked up right now to satisfy some of the CASA Compact items.

This is not going away.

That’s All Folks!

‹ Previous
1
…
27
28
29
30
31
…
39
Next ›

About

Find Us

Important Links

Follow us