By Zach Friend, County Supervisor 2nd District
As I begin each new year as your County Supervisor, I like to report back in this column on some of the things we’ve accomplished because of your partnership and communication of priorities. Here is a small overview of the work our office did in 2015:
Community Meetings: In 2015, we’ve held 86 open office hours in Aptos, Corralitos, La Selva Beach and Watsonville and held or attended over three dozen community and neighborhood meetings in Seacliff, La Selva Beach, Aptos, Watsonville, Capitola and Corralitos. In addition, I’ve written over four-dozen columns in local papers and neighborhood newsletters and sent another twelve e-newsletters from our office to communicate with our district about county happenings.
Parks: This past year we were able to finalize funding, and then construction, of the first new park in Aptos in over a generation. Seacliff Village Park opened in December with a children’s play area, public art, seating area and ADA walkways and parking. Additionally, we secured funding in this budget to begin construction of new permanent restrooms at the Polo Grounds. We are in the permitting phase and expect construction to occur in spring.
Local Roads and School Safety: We secured a grant through the state Active Transportation Program through to fund radar feedback signs and other safety improvements around a number of schools in our district. Amesti Elementary, Aptos High, Aptos Junior High, Bradley, Calabasas, Mar Vista and Valencia Elementary schools will all see safety improvements and speed mitigation devices as part of this program.
These school projects mark one of the largest investments in school safety in our district in quite some time. Meeting with traffic engineers, school district staff, law enforcement and parents we felt that investing in speed mitigation would be an important first step toward improving safety in school zones. Work is expected to begin in the early spring.
Additionally this year, the long-planned Rio Del Mar Roundabout was completed and a significant amount of El Nino preparation work was performed. Culvert repairs, drainage improvements and vegetation removal in advance of the projected storms were done on Spreckles, Rio Del Mar Blvd, Aptos Beach Drive, Cliff Drive, Townsend Avenue, Sumner Avenue, Dolphin Drive, Seascape Blvd., Eureka Canyon Rd, McGregor, Seacliff, Buena Vista, Larkin Valley and more.
Public Safety: For the first time since the beginning of the Great Recession the Sheriff’s Office is back at full staffing. We added six Deputy Sheriff positions in this budget cycle to complement the seven added last year. Bringing the Sheriff’s Office back to full staffing improves coverage for the greater Aptos area. Additionally, in order to address growing concerns of crimes against seniors in our community, we added positions to the District Attorney’s Office to specifically help with crimes involving elder abuse, privacy issues and various forms of fraud against seniors.
Economic Vitality and Reserves: Building on the last few years’ work on improving our local economy, we continued to look at ways to help streamline the county planning process, modernize County Code to improve business retention and expansion, improve our technology infrastructure and assist our agricultural sector. I’ve been working on improvements to broadband access and expansion (high-speed Internet) that have already lead to expansion in some areas in our district and improved speeds. Additionally, in December the Board of Supervisors approved the Final Map for the Aptos Village project. This ministerial element was the last formal approval needed before the project could begin.
Lastly, during the budget hearings we voted to significantly increase our County reserves over the next 7 years. As a result, the County’s bond rating improved, which will lower borrowing costs. The increased reserve helps protect against economic uncertainty and is smart public policy. This year, the state budget provided one time reimbursements for some prior expenditures that they had mandated that the County outlay. We took $3.5 million of this one-time funding and placed it into our reserves.
Moving Forward: While the above is just a partial list of what we’ve done this year, I know there is a lot more to do on all of these issues in 2016. In 2015 we estimate that we addressed over 500 direct requests for service to our office on neighborhood public safety concerns, road issues, winter storm preparation, environmental issues, infrastructure concerns and more – all from your emails, visits during office hours and calls to us.
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We’d love to continue to hear from you to prioritize what we do. Call us at 454-2200 and have a great New Year!