The central coast is preparing for winter storms that could hit as early as this week, but Santa Cruz County is still working on road repairs from years past.
After heavy rains last December, a culvert failure along Glenwood Drive in the Santa Cruz mountains led to a sinkhole. While leading a tour of road repairs, County Public works director Matt Machado points out where the damage was.
“An inch of rain is massive,” he said, "and then you get a night where you get six inches of rain, and that's when things like this just come apart."
The county repaired the road and many others like it. They spent around $80 million completing 122 storm repair projects last year. But 100 others haven’t been touched yet.
County officials say funding is the biggest holdup. They’ve been working with the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Machado says FEMA’s reimbursements have been extremely slow.
“It feels to us that it's, by design, complex and complicated,” he said. “Mostly because they're so strapped for money.”
The county matches about 20% of federal funds with fuel tax dollars, but those fuel taxes also cover routine maintenance.
“If you have to choose between repair and maintenance, it becomes pretty difficult,” Machado said.
County administrative officer Carlos Palacios adds storm damage repair is already jeopardizing the county’s financial health, and things could get worse.
“We're very concerned with the new administration and the threats they've made about not reimbursing some of the FEMA costs to California,” he said.
In the long-term, the county is considering some sort of parcel tax increase to help cover future repair costs.
For now, they’re crossing their fingers for a dry winter.
