Bolinas residents are pleased that the right to hook
into the town’s severely restricted water supply was awarded last
week to a longstanding member of the community, rather than a speculator
or wealthy weekender.
Some feared that the exorbitantly priced water meter
– the high bid for which was originally expected to be on the order
of a half-a-million dollars – would be unaffordable for locals.
In the end, the meter was still costly: the high bid,
of the four received, was $310,000. But the bidder, Steve Hodge, is
a nine-year resident of Bolinas who says he hopes to raise a family
in the house the water hookup will allow him to build.
"The fact that it went to a local guy is making
everybody satisfied where previously there was controversy," said
Bolinas resident Don Smith. "It feels a lot better than having
some out-of-town speculator buy it."
Realtor B.G. Bates of Bolinas, who managed the auction,
called Hodge "the perfect candidate."
Hodge, a mason, has a four-year-old daughter, Ella,
who attends the Stinson Beach preschool. In a letter accompanying his
bid, he said he has lent his hand to several community volunteer efforts,
including the construction of the stage for Bolinas’ Labor Day
barbecue for the past four years.
Surfer, hero
An avid surfer, Hodge helped rescue Bolinas resident
Lee Fontan from a shark attack off Stinson Beach in 2002. Following
the attack, Bolinas fire chief Kevin Hicks praised Hodge in a letter
for his "literally heroic efforts" paddling Fontan to shore.
At press time, Hodge could not be reached for comment.
The meter was sold by the Bolinas Community Land Trust,
which will use the $310,000 raised by the sale to construct
affordable housing units in the downtown Bolinas building
now shared by the gas station. Land Trust treasurer Don Deane said another
$200,000 to $300,000 is needed to complete the work.
The premium on water use in Bolinas springs from a
moratorium on new connections to the town’s water supply that has
been in place since 1971. At the time, Bolinas Public Utility District
directors decided that the town was subject to an emergency water shortage.
At present, new hookups to the town’s water supply
only become available when houses served by old hookups cease to be
inhabitable. The meter sold to Hodge was once attached to a house that
decayed and eventually collapsed in a lot on the corner of Alder and
Juniper roads. A second meter bought up by the land trust came from
a house that fell off the edge of a cliff on the mesa.
Water and meters in short supply
Bolinas’ water shortage has left the town in
a strange position: utility district director Jack McClellan said that
landowners without water hookups now outnumber landowners with water
hookups. The former are waiting for access to the water system before
they can build on their land.
When he heard that the water meter was sold last week
for $310,000, McClellan remembered when he bought his own water hookup
more than 30 years ago, the week before the moratorium was put in place.
He paid $250 for the hookup, he said. The clerk in the utility district
office asked him if he didn’t want to get another water meter,
in the event that he bought more property. McClellan declined, but today
can’t help musing on what might have been.
"I wish to hell I had [bought another meter],"
McClellan said. "I could be a millionaire."