| | Published March 12th, 2014
| Storm Drain Study Won't Get Local Sales Tax Funding
| | By Sophie Braccini | | |
Why fix a road only to have a storm pipe collapse underneath it? This common sense approach led Edric Kwan, Moraga's public works director, to send a camera in to explore the pipes under the streets that he plans to repair this year and to ask the Town Council on Feb. 26 for additional funds to assess the state of a large chunk of the rest of Moraga's storm drainage system. Existing data regarding what's under the roads is quite foggy. The Town Council agreed, but preferred to not use revenue from the local 1 percent sales tax to fund the study in order to avoid disgruntling residents.
"The $160,000 will permit the televising of about 45 percent of the town's pipes," Kwan told the Town Council. The chosen consultant, Schaaf and Wheeler (who was also Orinda's drainage consultant), will work with staff and an intern to document the Moraga Global Information System (GIS), an online multi-layer map that stores information about the local land, including the roads, ownerships, PG&E lines and storm drains. "At this time, we do not have a complete vision of where the pipes are and what their size and nature are," explained Kwan. "The first phase will gather information about the pipes, using existing documentation and observation. Then the consultant will visually determine which pipes are most likely to be in bad shape; those are the ones that will be televised during the second phase of this project."
All of the council members agreed that the town needs a precise inventory of its drainage system and were ready to support Kwan's request; he gave them the choice of the funding source. Bob Kennedy, who sits on the Audit and Finance Committee and is that group's representative to the Local Sales Tax Oversight Committee advised against using the 1 percent local sales tax money to fund the study. "I'm a little concerned with this method of funding," he said. "Measure K (local sales tax) was sold for use for roads... it might be wise, particularly for this non-construction part of the storm drain project, to fund it from something else."
Councilmember Michael Metcalf opposed the statement and said he'd rather take the high road on this issue, because assessing the storm drainage system under streets is an integral part of the maintenance of these roads. But Councilmember Phil Arth said that residents were not necessarily versed in construction concepts and that it was a perception issue. The Town Council decided that the storm drain study was a soft cost that would not be financed by the local sales tax revenue.
After the meeting Kwan said he anticipates the project to start in May, with televising of the pipes in July. "We will film about 45 percent of the pipes," he said, because "more recent neighborhoods may not require it yet, and most jurisdictions take on this assessment a piece at a time." Last year Kwan had the 23 road segments that he plans to work on this year televised. "These are roads that are not in good shape, the repair will be costly and we need to know what is under them before starting," he said.
The town has established a five-year rule for utility agencies - if they cut into a road that was repaved within the last five years they have to completely rebuild it. "We apply this same five-year rule to ourselves," explained Kwan. "If the report tells me that the pipe under a road segment may fail within five years, I won't touch (that road) now." Kwan said that after receiving the report, two road segments were removed from this year's paving plan.
"The last phase of the drainage system study will be to look at flow capacity and assess future needs in conjunction with planned development in town," added Kwan. This precise inventory will also permit the establishment of impact fees related to the storm drain system if it is found insufficient to support new residences and businesses.
"We will then define an action plan with priorities and funding needs," said Kwan, noting that most cities never have enough funding for drains. "There are sources of funding for roads," he explained, "such as the gas tax or measure G. There is none for drains."
Moraga was reminded in 2006 of the risks that could be hiding beneath its roads when a pipe broke at the intersection of Rheem Boulevard and Moraga Road creating a sink hole big enough to swallow a car.
Local Sales Tax Oversight Committee Gives Kudos to Town for 2013
The seven-member Local Sales Tax Oversight Committee presented its first annual report to the Moraga Town Council recently. Chair Larry Rosenberg expressed the committee's complete satisfaction with the use of the money that the town derives from the new 1 percent sales tax: it's been used only for roads and all of the projects were completed on budget and on time. Rosenberg also praised staff's accessibility and excellent record-keeping. He added that the group reviewed about 95 percent of the invoices; all of the big ticket items. When asked repeatedly if something could be improved from the committee's perspective, he firmly answered "no."
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA