Government / Politics

San Juan Bautista City Council approves list of road repairs

City will combine Measure G and SB 1 funds for projects.
Polk Street near City Hall in San Juan Bautista. Photo by Noe Magaña.
Polk Street near City Hall in San Juan Bautista. Photo by Noe Magaña.
The intersection of Third Street and Muckelemi Street. Photo by Noe Magaña.

At its April 15 meeting, the San Juan Bautista City Council designated Muckelemi, Third and Polk streets as priority projects for pavement rehabilitation for next year’s budget. The council approved the list of repairs with a 4-0 vote. Councilman Dan De Vries was absent.

The list is required to be submitted to the California Transportation Commission by May 1 so the city can receive funds through the Road Repair Accountability Act of 2017, also known as Senate Bill 1 (SB 1). San Juan Bautista expects to receive about $46,800 for road repairs, according to the agenda packet. The agenda also stated that the road repairs would be completed by the end of the year.

Interim City Manager Ed Tewes said the list was drawn up by the previous council in reply to Councilwoman Mary Edge’s question about how the streets had been selected. Councilman John Freeman, who helped select the streets, said it was a subjective process.

“We just picked the ones that were the roughest and the worst,” Freeman said. “Which one did my car liked the least?”

Tewes said the city might not be able to repair all the streets on the list with just SB 1 funds, so it is likely they could combine some of the Measure G monies for the project.

In addition to SB 1 funds, San Juan Bautista expects to receive about $200,000 in the next fiscal year from Measure G. Over the next 30 years, the city anticipates it will receive 5% of the $216 million in estimated Measure G funds for local roads. Hollister and San Benito County are expected to receive 47.5% each.

The Third Street project will involve work from Tahualami Street to Muckelemi Street, encompassing over 600 feet of improvement, said Armando Fernandez, engineer with Harris & Associates. He added that the city will take advantage of the project to also do sewer, water and storm drain updates.

Tewes said the Third Street project will be “very significant” because in addition to all road work, the city will see if PG&E and telecom companies have projects they would like to conduct in an effort to only dig up the street once.

Aiming to maximize funds, Freeman said he has had discussions with Supervisor Mark Medina to collaborate on projects and share mobilization costs whenever possible.

“Whether you do 10 feet or 600 feet or 600 yards, there is a mobilization fee which looms over everything,” Freeman said.

 

 

Noe Magaña

Noe Magaña is BenitoLink Co-Editor and Content Manager. He joined BenitoLink as reporter intern and was soon brought on staff as a BenitoLink reporter. He also experiments with videography and photography. He is a San Benito High School alumnus with a bachelor's in journalism from San Jose State and a Liberal Arts Associate's Degree from Gavilan College. Noe also attended San Jose City College and was the managing editor for the City College Times, the school's newspaper. He was a reporter and later a copy editor for San Jose State's Spartan Daily. He is a USC Center for Health Journalism 2020 California Fellow.