19 Mar San Bernardino County’s Exuberant Spending Trend Continues
In the County of San Bernardino, in the unincorporated area of Wrightwood, there is a small spring that starts at the base of Wright Mountain and seasonally flows through the town. The small spring is called Sheep Creek, due to the many bighorn sheep that used to frequent the steep cliff walls, near the source of the creek. Occasionally, when snow is still on the top of Wright Mountain in the spring, and Wrightwood gets a warm monsoon rain, the wash can experience debris flows. To avoid flooding and damage to lives or property the creek was straightened and dugout, so that the flow would safely pass through Wrightwood. The creek crosses under two roads while passing through the unincorporated community of Wrightwood. The creek first passes under Lone Pine Canyon Rd. and finally passes under Highway 2 before it makes its descent down into the desert below. So what is the issue? Why are we talking about this?
Recently the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors approved a three million dollar reconstruction of the Sheep Creek Canyon road that passes over the small creek. Now, there was nothing wrong with the previous road that passed over the creek and many would argue that this was a humongous waste of money. Historically the 220-foot section of road would be closed for a couple of hours each year while a tractor quickly cleared the road from debris. Like we mentioned previously, this only happens when a monsoon rain lines up with late winter, and only blocks the road for a couple of hours per year. For the residents of Wrightwood, a town without a police station, without modern plumbing, heavy mineral-laden water, no mailboxes, no sidewalks, no middle school, or high school, this is the least of their problems. Yet, the County Supervisors awarded the Vance Corporation $2.6 million and a $260,000 contingency to redo the small 220-foot section of road. The people of Wrightwood had no participation or say in this exuberant spending.
The County could have purchased Wrightwood a $60,000 loader, which could have been used to clear the debris from the wash as needed and assist in snow removal throughout the community during the winter. This would have saved the County $2,825,556 and helped the community of Wrightwood immensely. However, that is not the true savings as the County has previously dumped millions more into this wash with no improvements. The County Board of Supervisors approved a $3.64 million project in the exact same section of the Sheep Creek Wash in Wrightwood. The aim of this project was to reinforce a half-mile section of the wash upstream from the Lone Pine Canyon Road section crossing the channel. The Granite Construction Company installed rock/cement terraces in the creek bed, which were said to strengthen the slopes on the channel. Like the recent project to fix the road crossing the channel, the residents were left uninformed and uninvolved in the planning process. This entire project proved to be a flop as the same infrequent flooding problems persisted. The most cost-effective solution to managing this channel, is for the community of Wrightwood to have a loader available, to clear debris immediately after an event.
If we add both County projects together, we are in excess of $6.5 million dollars which could have been solved by purchasing a $60,000 – $80,000 loader for the community of Wrightwood. These projects also closed an important road, for 6 months. There are 4380 hours in 6 months. If the channel averaged only being shut down for 24 hours in a year, it would have taken 182.5 years for the residents to experience that amount of closure and it also cost the people of San Bernardino County $6.5 million.
Another clear look at the pointless and runaway spending taking place by our County Board of Supervisors. While the 2021 proposed budget for Orange County is down $3.2 million from the previous 2020 budget, The County of San Bernardino wastes another $3 million on the Sheep Creek Wash. A problem that could have been solved by purchasing Wrightwood the equipment needed to manage their own water channels and snowfall. Buying Wrightwood the equipment to manage their own weather would “not only” have saved millions from the previous construction projects but also saved the County countless millions moving forward. Unfortunately, we can not change what has been done and spent irresponsibly by our County Supervisors but we can elect individuals who will represent us and use common sense when utilizing our tax money the improve the County. Look out for Red Brennan Candidates in each of the upcoming County Supervisor elections.