Letter: County leaders should make roadwork a priority

EDITOR,
As much as I want to believe that Tom Burke is correct in that Nelson Road is one of the worst roads in the county (“Nelson Road residents suffer county’s neglect,” Letters, Dec. 2), I feel the need to chime in on this issue.
Nelson Road is not the only road with these problems, and to fully place the blame on the county public works department simply shows how little Mr. Burke has actually researched this issue. Does he not see that only $56.14 of his annual property taxes go to the county for roads? That (other than federal assistance) the gas tax is the only other funding for public works for roads?
Add in the fact that we are driving more efficient cars, and where does all the money come from to pay to fix our roads? We certainly are not footing the bill for our roads, as Mr. Burke assumes in his letter.
The real problem in Santa Cruz County’s roads lies with the county board of supervisors and the transportation commission, which have failed to act on the fact this county has 600-something miles of aging roads and only about $9 million a year to fix them. The people who are supposed to be representing us seem to find Highway 1 or a Santa Cruz-to-Watsonville railroad more important and “steal” all the available funding for those projects, instead of taking care of the real issues.
I believe the county’s priorities for roadwork (when they actually have any additional funding) is to address only the major problems on the “feeder” routes, such as Bear Creek Road and Graham Hill Road. Other than that, those of us who live on non-feeder roads have been told the only way to pay for road repaving is to create a county service area. Creating a CSA means having an additional property tax assessment on all of the locals in the area to fix so-called county-maintained roads.
Personally, me and my fellow home and condo owners in a portion of Boulder Creek are already paying too much into a CSA for a sewer system the county allowed to be built years ago that was not properly maintained and regulated by the county. We don’t need another tax.
The county board needs to reevaluate its general fund priorities and fund the public works projects we need now. Property taxes need to support what the majority of the people in the county use — roads and infrastructure.
I, for one, will be looking forward to the next elections for county supervisor in my district, as well as state assembly; I will look for candidates who are like-minded regarding our infrastructure. I believe Eric Hammer is one such candidate who understands our problems. Let’s also find someone for state government who understands this dilemma, as well. I am not certain any of our current representatives (or former representatives now running for office again) have their priorities straight, especially if they live outside the San Lorenzo Valley.
Gregg Schlaman, Boulder Creek