Pulling in and out of a driveway may not seem difficult but it is a constant battle for Dos Palos residents, Cindy Enriquez, who lives on Marguerite Street. For the past three months, Enriquez has appeared for public comment in council meetings to advocate for her street’s repair — her advocacy did not go unheard.
On Oct. 21, the Dos Palos City Council updated and approved the local Measure V street projects, tabled at the last Sept. 19 council meeting. Measure V is a half-cent sales tax that helps maintain transportation and improvement projects across Merced County. The council came to a consensus to update the Measure V list from 2017 and changed Marguerite Street from 10th on the list to 1st.
Previous List from Oct. 17, 2017:
Bank & Bubbles Downtown Sidewalk Project estimated cost of $82,200
Center Avenue North Area Project estimated cost of $936,000
East Blossom Street Area Project estimated cost of $2,488,310
Center Avenue South Area Project estimated cost of $360,000
Frank Avenue/Elementary Area Project estimated cost of $320,000
Downtown Sidewalks estimated cost of $2,007,480
Almond Avenue at Cemetery estimated cost of $380,000
Virginia Avenue estimated cost of $390,000
Marks Subdivision estimated cost of $370,000
Marguerite Street estimated cost of $500,000
The list was updated to the following:
Marguerite Street at 872ft. estimated cost of $872,872
Blossom Street (from Elgin Ave to General Ave) at 10944 ft. estimated cost of $1,095,094
Frank Avenue (from Valeria St to Almond) at 1072 ft. estimated cost of $1,073,000
Center Avenue (Blossom to City Limits) at 2144 ft. estimated cost of $2,146,144
According to the Merced County Association of Governments, Measure V allocates about 44 percent of its funds to separate regional projects and out of that 17 percent goes to the Westside share. From the project list only East Blossom Street and North Center Avenue are eligible to receive funding from this separate funding source. This ultimately became a factor for the council when prioritizing the street projects.
City Manager Dewayne Jones estimated that all current regional Measure V funds are spoken for until 2032. Although it is still unclear when the city will obtain the money, there is a possibility that regional Measure V funds may be available before the other Measure V funds.
Mayor Katy Reed recommends that projects eligible for regional funding be deprioritized, “I do think if any projects that can be done or qualify for regional funding, we should automatically not put them in priority of our own budgeting and planning,” she said.
Council began the reprioritization list by focusing on the top four street projects that needed the most attention and then doing an in-house cost estimate that accounts for street, sidewalk, curb and gutter, based on costs of the East Blossom Street project. In order to benefit the most people, council gauged road usage by accounting for nearby businesses and schools near projects where street traffic in theory would be higher.
Enriquez expressed a misconception she noticed with council’s gauge regarding the listed projects around schools, saying that council can’t gauge car usage around schools and must take into account the number of homes because residents use those streets multiple times a day, all year round.
“Unless you go, and you look at how many times we go in and out of our driveways, there’s no way you can gauge usage,” Enriquez explained. “You cannot gauge it just because it’s a school of 180 days that maybe only so many parents are dropping off their kids at,” she said.
The council will be bidding all the projects at once so they could start one project after the other – but it still takes multiple years to begin. The cheapest project, priced at $872,872, would take about four years for the city to raise enough funds, let alone build the project. Keeping in mind that the cost is not fixed for any project, as other infrastructural issues underneath streets and inflation over time can make a difference in the project price changes.
When it came to prioritizing Marguerite Street, the council knew that this street was up for discussion for multiple years. Councilmember Marcus Porter and Mayor Reed both felt that they should prioritize less expensive to most expensive projects so that the community can see changes.
“This street has been a topic of discussion for many years as it has deteriorated and deteriorated and deteriorated and deteriorated,” Reed said. “For me, you go with what you can raise first, and then you then you continue on. That’s how I see it, because we want to show that we are active in getting things done for the community,” she continued.
During public comment, Enriquez also brought up a concern about what the council will do to help out diminished streets as they await funding. “If we’re not getting our street fixed, somebody needs to come up with another plan for us to sustain because unfortunately, having a street sweeper come in and sweep a street that doesn’t exist makes no sense to me,” she explained.
Some solutions to maintain projects as the city awaits Measure V funds are to pull from other funding sources or find new ones. Assistant City Manager Manuela Sousa explained that there is separate funding that allowed them to slurry seal Blossom Street, which the city gets every year. As the council finds ways to maintain areas, they will be more transparent about where their funding sources are from.
The reprioritization of the Measure V project priority list does not guarantee fast changes, but Enriquez’s request to have Marguerite Street prioritized was finally heard.
