Though it has suspended a $3.8 million grant to overhaul San
Juan Bautista’s water system, the Economic Development Agency will
still give the city and the San Benito County Water District until
2008 to begin construction on the project before considering taking
the money away.
San Juan Bautista – Though it has suspended a $3.8 million grant to overhaul San Juan Bautista’s water system, the Economic Development Agency will still give the city and the San Benito County Water District until 2008 to begin construction on the project before considering taking the money away.
That was the deadline in the original grant, but it has not been clear whether the Mission City would lose the money sooner because of the grant’s suspension. But EDA Director of Communications Matt Crow said Tuesday that San Juan still has two years to get the project going.
“The grant has been suspended. The recipients have until February of 2008 to begin construction. If they haven’t by then, it will most likely be taken away,” he said.
Outgoing City Manager Jennifer Coile says the city isn’t worried about the deadline and is prepared to pursue the overhaul of San Juan’s leaky water works without the water district if necessary.
“The water infrastructure improvements project is on schedule and the city is not concerned about the 2008 deadline because we will be under construction later this year,” Coile wrote in an e-mail statement. “Grant deadlines are in the grant award documents from February 2005.”
While any applicable deadline may have been part of the award agreement, at least one city council member was surprised when the information was made public that the $3.8 million grant could be lost if the city fails to begin construction before February 2008, just over two years from now.
“I was shocked, I hadn’t heard anything like that before,” said City Councilman Chuck Geiger. “So I guess it’s too early for me to have a real opinion on all this.”
No other city council members returned calls for comment.
The $3.8 million grant in question was awarded jointly to the city of San Juan Bautista and the San Benito County Water district, with the agreement that the water district would help fund the rest of the project with additional grants and loans. After a series of disagreements between the two agencies over control of the project, Water Board President John Tobias wrote a letter to the EDA stating that San Juan was not abiding by the terms of the grant, causing the feds to suspend the grant until the two could come to an agreement.
“I don’t think it’s feasible that this project will move forward unless we’re able to sit down and come to a managerial agreement,” said Tobias Tuesday. “We are both partners in the grant, and it won’t move forward unless we’re both on the same page. It seems pretty black and white to me. I don’t see a whole lot of room for interpretation.”
Negotiations between the two parties officially resumed in October, but San Juan officials are looking for possible ways to fund the project themselves.
“The San Benito County Water District actions indicate that they are not interested in participating in San Juan Bautista’s project,” wrote Coile. “They have refused to schedule a substantive meeting since June 2005….”
Recently, the City Council has come under scrutiny for sending two council members and Coile to Seattle to meet with EDA representatives and discuss the status of the grant without voting formally on the issue first. That prompted District Attorney John Sarsfield to investigate the city for possible Brown Act violations at Geiger’s behest. While the City has taken steps to retroactively disclose the purpose and cost of the trip, the DA has yet to close his investigation.
Those who have been following the state of the water grant, however, say they are not surprised by recent developments.
“There’s no question that there’s been a lot of miscommunication between these two agencies,” said County Supervisor Anthony Botelho. “Of course there should be a deadline on this sort of thing or nothing would get done … I just wish the two parties would roll up their sleeves and get to work, and forget about what’s happened in the past.”
Coile has said in the past that construction on San Juan’s dilapidated water system could begin in spring of this year.
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or
ds****@fr***********.com
