The state’s budget crunch could force the delay of $7.9 million
earmarked for needed infrastructure projects for the City of San
Juan Bautista.
Officials with the San Benito County Council of Governments said
the California Transportation Commission (CTC) has delayed the
allocation of approximately $133,000 in State Transportation
Improvement Program funding, also known as STIP funds.
The state’s budget crunch could force the delay of $7.9 million earmarked for needed infrastructure projects for the City of San Juan Bautista.
Officials with the San Benito County Council of Governments said the California Transportation Commission (CTC) has delayed the allocation of approximately $133,000 in State Transportation Improvement Program funding, also known as STIP funds.
The funding, which COG receives as a portion of the state gas tax, was targeted for San Juan Bautista to use as its share of federal matching funds. The matching funds would entitle the Mission City to receive $3.8 million in federal grants. The remaining $4.1 million would be provided by a combination of the City of San Juan Bautista and the San Benito County Water District, San Juan Bautista City Manager Larry Cain said.
Because Gov. Gray Davis borrowed money from the state traffic relief program and the traffic congestion program, with the promise the state would pay the fund back, the CTC held back distributing the $133,000 to San Juan.
However, COG transportation planner Lisa Berg said the outlook was good that the CTC will eventually approve the disbursement of the STIP funds that San Juan Bautista needs to get the federal grant.
“It’s not a question of if but when the allocation will be made,” Berg said. “We just need to let them know how important this project is for San Juan Bautista.”
Cain said, “The project includes replacing a number of the curbs, streets, gutters, storm drains, sewers and water lines. The city has a very old system that is in need of repair.”
With the exception of a few repairs and pipe replacements, the city’s water and sewer system has not been replaced since it was installed in the late 1930s.
The project, which city officials have been working on for about five years, includes a new and expanded water delivery system.
“This is in order to give citizens in San Juan Bautista a good, clean source of water,” Cain said.
He said the city’s major concern about the delay in receiving STIP funds is that it is trying to meet a July 2006 deadline imposed by the state’s Regional Water Quality Control Board.
“If we don’t meet the requirements of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, we will be in serious trouble,” Cain said.
Although SJB has one of the most modern and state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facilities in the county, it has experienced problems with releasing treated water with higher than permitted amounts of chloride.
“We do have a problem with chloride,” Cain said. “But the improvements to the water lines will help reduce that, and we can then use the reclamated water for other uses.”
