From recreation and public works to farming and construction,
it’s all a soggy mess
Call it the great work stoppage of 2006.
No, there’s no labor revolt or worker lockout. The culprit
bringing many operations to a grinding halt in South Valley and San
Benito County is none other than the world’s most famous woman.
Mother Nature.
From recreation and public works to farming and construction, it’s all a soggy mess
Call it the great work stoppage of 2006.
No, there’s no labor revolt or worker lockout. The culprit bringing many operations to a grinding halt in South Valley and San Benito County is none other than the world’s most famous woman.
Mother Nature.
The nonstop rain that drenched the region for 26 days in March and is continuing its fluid pace in April is taking a toll on operations that would normally be in high gear by this time of year.
The start of Gilroy’s $2.5 million downtown streetscape project has been delayed from its original start date of April 3, and many homebuilders are sitting idle waiting for the rains to stop and the soil to dry out enough to bring in crews and equipment. In Hollister crews are behind with the routine maintenance of parks, streets and fresh coats of paint on buildings.
Agriculture operations from Morgan Hill to southern San Benito County are waiting on the rains to subside, and area golf course managers are looking at the skies and wondering when it will clear enough to get nine holes in, let alone 18.
And we won’t even mention the bevy of disappointed Little Leaguers standing in their doorways with ball caps on just staring glumly at the heavens.
“The rest of winter has not been bad, but the last 30 days have been,” said Hollister Community Services Director Clay Lee. “It hasn’t been the quantity of rain, rather the consistency of it. The ground is so saturated that we can’t get in to mow parks or other turf maintenance, and we haven’t been able to do any street striping or building painting.”
Hollister has been rocked with a double whammy, in that its public works crews have been hit hard with the flu, so that when there are a few hours of sun, there hasn’t been sufficient staffing to go out and play catch-up to the degree Lee would like. Hollister’s financial troubles – triggered by the state-mandated building moratorium until sewer upgrades are completed – have kept it from launching any grand capital improvement projects, so the rains have been more of a nuisance than a calamity.
Carla Ruigh, Gilroy’s operations services manager, reports the same frustrations on the north side of the Bolsa.
“It is affecting our day-to-day operations,” she said. “Things like grass not getting mowed, legends on streets not getting painted and weed abatement – you can’t spray for weeds in the rain.”
But it’s the bigger projects that have city crews wondering when, exactly, Hollister, Gilroy and Morgan Hill turned into Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia.
Bill Headley, Gilroy streets and parks engineer, said the city’s lavish new sports complex that is under construction is jokingly referred to around City Hall as the “sports puddle.” Crews need windows of dry weather to pour concrete and so far have been stymied for most of the past six weeks (See Sports for an in-depth update of construction).
“Is this what life in Seattle is like?” Headley quipped.
Meanwhile, crews are able to conduct only minimal work in tearing out the old streetscape along Monterey Street in the heart of Gilroy’s downtown. About the only work the rains have afforded work crews is demolishing the old center divide, said Gilroy Traffic Engineer Don Dey.
“The rain doesn’t allow contractors to get in with machinery to do digging because it creates a situation where there are some safety concerns,” Dey said. “It’s just not a good idea while it’s raining.”
Crews were scheduled to close Monterey Street and begin construction on April 3.
“So even if we are able to get started by the 17th, we’ve lost two weeks,” he said.
Contractors are given a specific number of days to complete a project, so any rain delays will translate into a later completion date. While Dey said there are no financial ramifications to the delay, the project requires that most of the central core of the downtown is shut down to traffic, and any extensions of that closure will undoubtedly make downtown merchants nervous.
After the storm that hit the area Friday, the National Weather Service Forecast Center in Monterey has pegged the early part of this week to continue with chances of rain – 40 percent Monday and tapering to 20 percent by mid-week.
But tapering precipitation is not what crews need. They need the rains to stop, and a long, sunlit stretch to dry out all the soggy construction sites. With the high clay content in the soils in the local area, it will take the soil longer to dry out than more sandy soils. Soil particles are much smaller in clay soils and inhibit airflow that dries the soil, Headley explained. So in addition to the drying effects of warm sun light, the region could use some accompanying dry winds to spur the process along.
While the Hollister moratorium has put the kibosh on most residential building, Gilroy’s so-called “northwest quadrant” is bustling with activity – or it will when the rains stop. What’s holding up construction are both the inability to bring in heavy equipment as well as concerns over soil erosion.
“Too risky for them to disturb soil, because they are liable for that,” Headley said.
Construction crews must erect silk fencing to keep sediments from washing down into channels and then into waterways and bays.
“It’s a matter of protecting our streams from silts, which harm biotic life – insects, plant life – it’s all impacted by silt,” Headley said. “The state levies hefty fines for failure to maintain silt fences.”
So, until the threat of erosion passes, construction crews are on hold.
Last rainy season crews working on the new Gilroy Police Department had to pump out trenches and filter the sediments out before releasing the water into the storm-drain system, Headley and Dey noted.
But work isn’t the only activity dampened by the monsoons. Golf courses, which are normally dotted with eager golfers are conspicuously uncluttered.
“Definitely March and so far in April were bad months,” said San Juan Oaks Golf Club General Manager Scott Fuller. “Usually most golf courses in March increase their budgets as days grow longer.”
But this year budgets were increased without the corresponding increase in revenue.
“Usually this time of year rains are intermittent but this year it’s day after day after day, and the courses don’t have time to dry out,” Fuller said.
There are exceptions, such as the diehard players who will play in any weather conditions, as well as tournament groups who also will play in the rain. In addition to battling the actual rainfall, Fuller said they are also fighting the weather reports. If players hear that it’s going to rain, they don’t plan on spending an afternoon on the links, whether it actually rains or not.
This past Tuesday weather forecasters were calling for a significant storm to roll in across the Bay Area, but the day turned out to be overcast and windy with barely a drop of rain.
“Golf course mangers always talk about how the weatherman is killing us,” Fuller said.
For local growers, it is the actual rain that is killing them. Tractors and other farm equipment are hard pressed to get out into the fields. But unlike the construction trades, growing seasons have specific windows, and the rains have tightened those windows by up to six weeks, said Andy Mariani of Mariani Farms in Morgan Hill.
“This was totally unpredicted,” Mariani said. “People with row crops are a month and half later than normal.”
For fruit growers like Mariani, with the extended rains come threats of fungal infections. Cheery orchards are right in the middle of the spring bloom, requiring growers to spray fungicides more often to prevent the blossoms from rotting. Modern fungicides are much safer to use, but they also are more expensive.
“That is if we can even get in to spray with all the mud,” he said.
