With new hope, calmer nerves, water district and city of San
Juan resume negotiations over co-awarded multi-million dollar water
grant
San Juan Bautista residents could be enjoying better water
quality, sooner rather than later.
Abiding by recent recommendations made by the San Benito Grand
Jury, both sides in the stalled San Juan water project saga have
put aside their beefs and resumed negotiations. A closed meeting
was scheduled for Thursday between the agencies involved
– a meeting of the minds that hasn’t happened since former City
Manager Jennifer Coile became embroiled in the matter when she was
hired last July. Coile resigned her post in January.
With new hope, calmer nerves, water district and city of San Juan resume negotiations over co-awarded multi-million dollar water grant
San Juan Bautista residents could be enjoying better water quality, sooner rather than later.
Abiding by recent recommendations made by the San Benito Grand Jury, both sides in the stalled San Juan water project saga have put aside their beefs and resumed negotiations. A closed meeting was scheduled for Thursday between the agencies involved – a meeting of the minds that hasn’t happened since former City Manager Jennifer Coile became embroiled in the matter when she was hired last July. Coile resigned her post in January.
“We’ve come up with a proposal that would allow for the use of the water district funds,” said SJB water project manager Mark Davis, who was instrumental in obtaining the federal grant for the Mission Town. San Juan’s water system has been in dire need of improvements for decades.
The city of San Juan Bautista and the San Benito Water District were co-awarded a $3.8 million water infrastructure grant from the federal government a year ago, but shortly after the hard-earned windfall, disputes broke out between the two entities. The impasse also stymied a $3.1 million matching grant once promised by the water district, taxpayer money that was earmarked for the project. The Economic Development Administration, the grant-givers, suspended their promised funds in September warning both sides to settle their differences or face losing the $3.8 million in federal grant money altogether.
At a San Juan City Council meeting Tuesday night, Davis announced other good news regarding the future water improvement project. Davis said he had received phone calls that day from representatives of San Benito Bank who apparently assured him that a $500,000 line of credit would be floated to the city – perhaps within a week. It means city officials could soon launch construction of the ambitious project, even though hassles with the water district are not exactly ironed out yet.
“I was authorized to say things look real good,” Davis told the council and audience in the City Hall chambers.
On any given day, San Juan city workers are busy on the streets of the historic town, repairing pipes that flood streets and front yards and broken water mains. Parts of the piping system are so ancient, rags and old 1920s-era tires have been discovered serving as patches to leaky underground lines, resulting in unreliable water pressure for residents and the occasional “boil water” order from City Hall. The new water infrastructure plan would help provide a new wastewater treatment plant for the town, a reliable water supply and distribution system, land for a new municipal storage tank and overall improvements, including a new sewer main and drainage pipe replacement.
Grant money awarded from the EDA was a coup for former City Manager Larry Cain and Davis, who worked diligently on getting the grant since at least 1999. But it wasn’t long before officials from the water district expressed their dismay in San Juan officials’ insistence in handling the project money. Another contention between the two grant recipients involved setting up a fee structure for higher water and sewer rates. The city recently upped those fees for residents, in most cases doubling the cost for the services, as the fees had been stagnant for years.
Councilman Chuck Geiger, who has been the lone critic of his own council for their seeming steadfast refusal to play ball with the water district, said that it was important to heed at least one of the many recommendations made last month by the county’s Grand Jury.
“The Grand Jury report is online,” Geiger said. “And it said ‘the City should not attempt this project on its own.’ I just want that said for the record.”
Davis acknowledged the input. But Councilmember Art Medina couldn’t resist resurrecting some of the old rancor that has typified the bickering between the council and the water district for nearly a year.
“Good luck at the meeting,” Medina said. “I hope they show up.”
Officials of the water district, once again, did not respond to phone messages.
The closed meeting will be attended by the council’s water project subcommittee – Council member Priscilla Hill and Mayor Dan Reed – Davis and City Manager Jan McClintock. Various water district officials, including water district President John Tobias, will represent the other side.
Davis said he will report what happens at the meeting to the public at a special San Juan City Council meeting, to be held at the town’s City Hall on Second Street on Tuesday, March 28, starting at 7 p.m. The special council meeting will be immediately followed by a Town Hall Meeting, where elected leaders and citizens can discuss two items on the agenda: the water infrastructure project and the controversial widening of Highway 156.
