Huta hoop?
Should we fix Airport Road, and if so, who gets the bill?
Like the Mammoth-Yosemite airport, but not too keen on the road leading to and from it? There’s a lot of that going around lately. The Mono County Board of Supervisors took up the question of the road’s maintenance during its regular meeting Tuesday.
Acting Public Works Director Jeff Walters said the road, constructed in 1984, provides access to the Mammoth-Yosemite Airport (as well as a nearby U.S. Forest Service gravel pit). Mono County currently maintains all 1.4 miles of its length including crack sealing, pothole repairs and other related activities, funded out of the Road Department’s maintenance budget.
“The current condition of the road is rated a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) of 79 by our pavement management system,” Walters said in his staff report, which places it on the rating scale between Good and Excellent.
Walter noted that Hot Creek Hatchery Road, just off U.S. 395, which provides access to Airport Road, is also maintained by Mono County and has a PCI of 71.
In the staff report, Walter detailed several issues with the road, including cracking, along with photographs of potholes and various types of isolated degradation. The questions that Board Chair Hap Hazard raised almost immediately: 1.) Is this a real County priority, and 2.) Is the County obliged to pay for it?
As Hazard related its history, the Town was to have installed its own airport road. “But it opted to spend that money on a bike path. Now, the Town has decided the existing road is too ugly for its’ liking,” he observed.
“Perhaps the Town has additional dollars through other funding streams (i.e. Mono’s Local Transportation Commission outlets) for regrinding or overlay, but it’s a Town [of Mammoth Lakes] funding issue, not a county one,” Hazard said. “In terms of the county road system, from where I sit, this road doesn’t jump up on the list of priorities.”
One of those “other funding streams” could be in the form of a rumored windfall of extra money — perhaps as much as $1.2 million — that could be realized from the Highway Users Tax Act (HUTA), which is derived from gas taxes paid at the pump. The windfall is based on recent reports emanating from NaCo, the National Organization of America’s Counties, but the reports couldn’t be confirmed at press time.
Indeed where the alleged windfall might come from is a good question with speculation mentioning several possibilities, including potential repayment of previous borrowing from HUTA by the legislature.
Lawmakers can “borrow” HUTA money as much as they want, as often as they want, but are required to pay it back within three years time at zero percent interest.
Mono County Finance Director Brian Muir said the County is taking a wait and see position on the HUTA money, particularly when it comes to the ever-evolving budget negotiations in Sacramento. “The budgets that typically get passed by the state often look nothing like even the May or June revisions,” Muir said, adding that the County drafts its budgets accordingly and isn’t going to make any premature budget estimations based on potential, extra HUTA money.
*FYI, on Thursday, Governor Jerry Brown rejected a budget crafted by state Democratic legislators, saying it creates too much debt and uses too much creative accounting.
Meanwhile, District I (Mammoth-based) Supervisor Larry Johnston saw the upkeep as part of Mammoth’s giving back to the county, pointing to recent road projects such as repaving in Paradise and Swall Meadows, as well as current work being done in Lee Vining. “The Town contributes a lot of property tax dollars and this is the least we can do. Maybe we can qualify for other funding sources, but it’s important we cooperate with the Town, which is challenged for resources at the moment for obvious reasons.” The airport is a priority, he suggested, and the County’s contribution would be relatively small.
The Board opted to wait for more feedback from the next LTC meeting, and directed Walters to outline options, including ballpark estimates of the project’s cost.
