LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday considered ending a local emergency for the Lakeside Heights subdivision but in the end took no action to do so, even though it appears that the county can expect no state or federal emergency declarations.
The county's leaders have worked for three months to find a core cause of the landslide that began to manifest in late March and has since resulted in about seven homes being red-tagged and several more being voluntarily evacuated in the 29-home hilltop subdivision, located off of Hill Road.
In April, the board passed a proclamation declaring a local emergency, a necessary step in seeking state and federal emergency assistance, as Lake County News has reported.
At the same time, Lake County Special Districts – which oversees the sewer and water facilities for the subdivision – has moved forward with studies and engineering work in an effort to relocate endangered infrastructure.
After waiting for two months for a state emergency declaration, the county has been informed that one isn't coming.
County Administrative Officer Matt Perry told the board that last Tuesday, June 18, the county was contacted by the California Emergency Management Agency assistant secretary, who informed them that Gov. Jerry Brown was declining their emergency proclamation request.
“There's probably no surprise there,” said Perry.
Perry said staff prepared a resolution for the supervisors' consideration that would terminate the local emergency declaration.
In considering whether or not to take action on that proposed resolution, the board heard an update from Special Districts Administrator Mark Dellinger.
“There is still measurable movement in a lower part of the slide that we've noticed just in the past week,” Dellinger told the board.
Meanwhile, Dellinger did have some good news to report. He said the county is receiving $59,700 from the State Water Resources Control Board for the sewer infrastructure relocation and $46,886 from the California Department of Public Health's emergency water fund, which will help the county with work on the water side, including reimbursing it for $17,000 in geotechnical work, $16,000 for the compound master water meter and vault, $4,000 for labor and monitoring, and $4,000 for two of the four leak tests.
Dellinger said he had authorized the county's geotechnical contractor to get going on the necessary work that must be completed to receive the funding.
Dellinger told Lake County News later on Tuesday that he's not sure how much money the infrastructure relocation in Lakeside Heights will cost, as the project hasn't been designed yet.
He told the board that time is of the essence when it comes to moving the subdivision's water and sewer facilities. The work must be moved by wintertime.
“I need to be able to move quickly to get that work done,” said Dellinger.
The local emergency allows Dellinger to bypass the bidding process, which he said is necessary in order to meet the project deadlines. He said he wants to use the same team he's been using for projects such as the emergency pump station and bypass in Clearlake a few years ago.
“That will allow us to get this work done as quickly as possible,” Dellinger said.
Dellinger estimated that the design and geotechnical work on the water and sewer infrastructure relocation projects could be done by the end of August, with construction to take place as quickly as possible afterward.
Supervisor Denise Rushing asked if the recent rains will have an impact on the conditions at the subdivision.
Dellinger reported that he hadn't seen any new impacts. He said the movement that he had seen and reported earlier in the meeting was noticed before any recent rain had occurred.
County Public Works Director Scott De Leon, the county's incident commander on the Lakeside Heights emergency, said the county is now looking at winterization options for the subdivision's infrastructure. “October's going to be right around the corner.”
Dellinger said he's trying to do as much with grant funds as possible and not use a $350,000 loan the board approved from the county's infrastructure fund to help with the work.
Concerns about lifting the emergency
Supervisor Anthony Farrington, whose district includes Lakeside Heights, was concerned about lifting the local emergency while there was still land movement and uncertainty about how the landslide might act. He said the landslide still posed a health and safety issue, with damaged structures still to be abated.
He asked about what the downside would be of keeping the emergency in place.
“This is fact driven,” said County Counsel Anita Grant, explaining that the emergency ultimately depended on the board's determination. If the board believed the circumstances were still urgent but not an emergency, the county could still continue to take action.
What the law requires, Grant said, is that emergencies not be continued beyond the point where an actual emergency exists.
Farrington said when he looked at the potential for the unknown and concerns for what is ahead, it seemed to him in an emergency situation still existed.
He suggested the county needed to have an additional meeting with homeowners to give them a status update. Farrington said some of the subdivision's homeowners had communicated with him about their belief that they had lost property value and security. He said the geotechnical consultant might be able to help address residents' ground stability concerns.
Board Chair Jeff Smith suggested that, since the county had been turned down for funding for this particular emergency, that it might be best to end the emergency status and reopen a future emergency if necessary. He also pointed out that the county can continue to address issues of the subdivision without the emergency status in place.
Rushing said she would defer to Farrington's judgment on the matter, noting she could go either way, with the still-moving ground and recent rains complicating the matter.
Dellinger said county staff would continue to actively monitor the Lakeside Heights landslide and return to the board if anything happened.
Farrington asked that the emergency status be kept in place until the county's geotechnical contractor completes a report on the subdivision landslide.
The board ended up taking no action to change the emergency status. Smith said the next discussion on Lakeside Heights is scheduled for July 23.
The board also approved a request from Mark Tanti, a partner in Argonaut Properties LLC – which owns several parcels in the subdivision – to transfer seven water meter connection from several parcels in the subdivision to three other parcels within County Service Area No. 21.
Supervisor Rob Brown recused himself from both discussions, as his daughter and son-in-law own a home in the subdivision.
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