Issues Facing District 3

Roads

Our roads are falling apart as our road departments push for roundabouts, bicycle routes, and new bridges to supplement the cost of county government. We need to put maintenance back as a priority. How can we continue to build more roads when we are not maintaining the roads that we have? It’s time to put the money back into maintenance.

Fire Prevention

We need to make sure we retain the best service and sound policies for healthy communities. We need to work with our fire districts to make sure they are healthy and can provide the services needed for our community. Our county should be proactive in getting those grants currently available to provide vegetation management along our county roads and properties. Our roads should be clear from hazardous vegetation. We need to develop evacuation routes that become well known by our citizens rather than sitting back and relying on folks sheltering in place. We need old fashion public alarm systems such as sirens that can be utilized rather than hoping our electronic devices will be working during a natural disaster.

Influx of drugs and transients

Transients are overrunning our businesses and property owners without much help or solutions coming from our leaders and service providers. This issue needs attention and a more proactive approach in coming up with solutions. We need to work with adjoining jurisdictions and the State with solutions that include accountability and assistance for those that have passed the point of helping themselves. Simply ignoring and moving people around without addressing treatment is not humane nor a solution. It is also not fair to the businesses and property owners that are constantly confronted with the impacts of this behavior. We need to return our public places back to environments that are safe for our children and our communities.

Water

With the amount of water rights our county has available we need to make sure our water is being used to retain our farms, healthy landscapes, and watersheds for the benefit and welfare of our citizens and our farmers. We need to work with our local purveyor to guarantee affordable water and stop the growing debt. It’s the Board of Supervisors that determine when the water purveyor must grow in order to keep up with the County’s demands. This is what causes the debt which saddles the rate payers and increases the cost of water. The practice of benefiting developers on the back of the rate payers has to stop. We need to start reducing that debt so that we can once again afford to use the water. Water put into the ground makes our land more fire resistant and our people less dependent. Water used will continue to recycle all the way down the hill and back into the air. We also need to respect the work of our generational families that provided our water system in the beginning and have contributed in keeping our county rural and economically viable. We need to keep our promise to them that water will continue to be affordable in order to protect that industry and in fact we need to reduce the debt so that water can be affordable for all. I have no doubt even with affordable water our people will always be respectful of that resource and use it wisely. But it makes no sense to conserve to the point we are suffering then watch our resource just roll into the ocean…. let’s use it on its way down.