Point Reyes Light - October 25, 2001
Bolinas utility to remove some trees in roadways
By Patrik Jorgensen
Bolinas Public Utility District directors last week agreed to spend $15,000 to $20,000 in fiscal 2001-2002 to remove and maintain some trees growing in the rights-of-way of unpaved roads on the Big Mesa.
The utility district owns the roads, and Director Jack McClellan urged the board to annually earmark money for dealing with hazardous trees in the rights-of-way in Bolinas.
Road maintenance on the Big Mesa has been an issue since 1926 when The San Francisco Bulletin as part of a subscription drive subdivided the Mesa into nearly 6,500 lots, which the newspaper offered for $69.50 apiece plus a six-month subscription.
A downpayment of only $9.50 was required, with payments set at $3 per month thereafter. The ambitious scheme provided little in the way of basic services and left Bolinas, not the county, owning most of the town’s roads.
"The developers essentially super-imposed a map on a cow pasture," Director Jack McClellan previously said, "and there wasn’t much there until leading up to the 70s."
The combination of slow development, a 1971 moratorium on new water hookups, and a failed attempt for a town-wide sewage combined to ensure that the Mesa would be developed in a piece-meal manner; ultimately the majority of Bolinas’ roads were never paved.
After last week’s meeting, McClellan said that at present time, "BPUD is the only community agency in a position to do something about it [road maintenance]."
While it is unusual for utility districts to deal with road maintenance, McClellan said, "the district actually owns the stripes across the Mesa, and we should tax ourselves to provide for the maintenance."
It’s not just the roads and the trees themselves, McClellan added. The roads have to be maintained to provide routine utility district services. "In order to protect the pipes," he said, "we have to maintain the roads."
While noting there is no controversy over spending district money to deal with any problem on a BPUD road, said the director, if the problem is "on somebody else’s property, we can’t deal with that."