Sewer Financial Aid Article In The Trib!

Read the article off this link!

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2015/02/26/3509839_los-osos-sewer-financial-aid-costs.html?rh=1

Sign Up For Sewer Tour!

Click link then look below this banner to find the info for signing up to go:

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/PW/LOWWP.htm

March 31, 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. 

Be there or be square! 

The Drone Movie Was Awesome!

If you missed the Sewer Forum Wednesday, you missed a lot. Which other sewer plant under construction gets its own movie shot from a drone? Seriously, it really gave you an idea of how this project was progressing, and it gave it to you with a musical score cool enough to download off iTunes!* 

Here's what the room looked like (click images for a larger view):

It was so jammed, the standing room was squished at the 4:00 p.m. session. It was almost full at the 6:00 p.m. session. The parking lot was full, the street parking was full, and the parking at the end of the playing field was full and sprung a leak from a broken water line. People were asked to move their cars, but fortunately, that was at the end of the 4:00 p.m. session. 

The audience was fairly calm, just few grumblings and one booming yell from a man at the beginning of the 6:00 p.m. session demanding to get the show going, it was 6:06 p.m. and a tad late starting.

OK, here was the program—sorry for the creases, but I was too lazy to Photoshop them out, it got squished in my notebook, I was writing and standing at the back of the room.

We met our new Public Works Director Wade Horton for the first time at the program introduction. He's been on the job only two months and of course missed all the fun sewer events starting in 2007. I suspect that he is glad to have missed them....or maybe he took the job having heard no stories? No, that is not possible, they even know who we are in Washington, D.C.. I wish him all the best!

The presenters were: Bruce Gibson, District 2 Supervisor, PW Director Wade Horton, Project Manager John Waddell, PE Robert Ruiz, and Kate Ballentyne, Environmental Resources Specialist (the Snail Lady, more below).

As the County will post a lot of this stuff I will only hit the highlights. If you want to go on the second tour of the new plant, you will need to sign up to be able to attend. They will post this soon, probably on the wastewater Web page, with a number to call. Save the date, Tuesday, March 31, 5:00-6:00 p.m..

The hook-ups will begin a year from now and it will be done in phases over a year's time. There was a nifty map where you could find your street and see what group that you would be in, there were three. You will get a notice in the mail and then you will have 6 months to hook up, which means all your plumbing stuff needs to be up to the project's specific requirements and you will have to, or you will have to find a contractor to, dig your trench, hook up the house pipe to the pipe coming from the street, clean out your tank, etc..

There will be a list posted by the County of qualified contractors to call closer to the hook up date. Call many, there will be a lot of competition, so find the best price. These contractors will have special environmental training to work in Los Osos and will be licensed and bonded. A permit will be required. Contractors can do an e-permit online, but owners, called owner/builders, will have to go to the Planning Department counter in person with some sort of drawing of what you intend to do and your work will be inspected. There is a fee (yet to be determined) to get the permit, but this cost might be absorbed by the project, so stay tuned on that, it will be up to the Supes.

Another look-up of your property was to see if they had found Morro Shoulderband snails on your property. They do have a list, by address. Only the Shoulderband Snail is on the Endangered Species list. If you are on that list, and 390 of you are, prior to trenching, you will be visited, free of charge, by the super nice Snail Lady to remove them for you. Sadly, many might have been already squished, which is common for with anyone with a garden. They are kind of cute actually (I have seen them at Sweet Springs, they are shaped in a sort of flat spiral like a cinnamon roll), and they DO NOT EAT your plants even! (The Chorro Shoulderband Snail did not have any examples on this display.)

They also know who has cultural artifacts on their properties and these homes will be visited by an archeologist, free of charge, to deal with those.

Here are some of the cards that they had on easels around the room which were also on the slides in the presentation:

The average cost on the laterals and decommissioning is figured to be $3,000. Those needing a grinder pump, about 200 of you, and you probably already know who you are, you got a letter about this a year ago, sorry, I forgot to write down the average cost on this, but prices will range between $3,000 - $9,000.

There was a nifty SLO Green Build handout that showed you some ideas on what to do with your septic tank after you have hooked up. There will be several workshops starting this year and into next year explaining how to do this. LOCAC will get a presentation as will the Supes.

Streets will be resurfaced! Five miles of overlay on some and micro surfacing on almost all the rest, starting in June or July, 2015!

The monthly project cost is the same as the last time we heard about this—$165 for the average home. The price for mobile homes went down though. 

There is a LOT of financial help upcoming for low-income people, and it is just too complex to enumerate here. What to do will be posted on the sewer Website in the future. There will be individual counseling and guidance with figuring out if you qualify to filling out the paperwork.

Also, the County is seeking to reduce the interest rate on one of the loans, we will be notified if that happens.

Next big overview meeting, around a year from now.

(I missed getting a large cookie which was being served out of oversized boxes at the entrance, so thanks for saving me from the extra calories whoever all of you are!)

*When I get the name of the piece, I will post it!

Sewer Forum Wednesday!

Don't forget the date! Hope to see you all there! Read this article from The Tribune

Forum on status of sewage plant planned in Los Osos

Bay News' Neil Farrell Tours Wastewater Plant

The latest addition of the Bay News came out today and our sewer-to-be got a front page article! OK, it was below the fold and apparently didn't rate high enough to have the featured, giant, above-the-fold, awesome photo spot, but it was better than nothing!

http://tolosapressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/BN-02-19-15-p.pdf

There are no photos in the paper or digital edition, but Farrell mentions that there are photos somewhere on the Tolosa Press site; I noodled around for at least five minutes and could not find them. 

While I personally don't agree with Farrell and think the delay to getting this thing built was a good thing (considering how that stymied addressing the severe water supply issues that we have due to the bankruptcy) and that spending $19 million more to put it out of town is worth it, nonetheless, I learned a LOT of new stuff from his article. Please read it off the link above or get a paper copy at one of the usual spots.

Public Forum Postcard For February 25 Sewer Meeting!

This just arrived today! Hope that you all can attend and if so, see you there!

(There are a few mystery blobs from who knows where in evidence, front and back.)

December 2014 Project Update

I am so late to the party! Somehow I missed this posting. Sorry about that readers! I hope you took a look on your own.

The photos are amazing, take a look!
http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PW/LOWWP/PM+Monthly+Update+Dec2014.pdf

More Los Osos In County Budget!

My quick read yesterday of the County Budget failed to locate this info on the Los Osos Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP). Much stink was made the around the last sewer project about it's not having an HCP! Are we in danger of that again? NO (well, this being Los Osos, PROBABLY no)!

What is the HCP and why do we need it?

Approval of this HCP is also tied to one of the conditions needed prior to operations of the public Los Osos sewer system currently under construction.

Read the full HCP scoopage off this link:

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/planning/environmental/EnvironmentalNotices/LOCHCP.htm

There is a map about three-quarters of the way through the power point that shows the area that the HCP covers. It is a boundary OUTSIDE the Urban Reserve Line:

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PL/environmental/Los+Osos+Communitywide+Habitat+Conservation+Plan/Scoping/LOScoping.pdf

Our HCP is not yet ready, but then neither is our sewer, so we are OK. The HCP is in the works however, it is at the Fish & Wildlife agency review stage, and here is some info on it:

See the bottom of page 3 of 6:

http://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/agenda/sanluisobispo/4342/SXRlbSBEb2N1bWVudCAoUHVibGljKSA=/14/n/40118.doc

Also see the gray box toward the bottom of page 11 of 26 on this linked document for the timing information:

http://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/agenda/sanluisobispo/4342/RXhoIEFfcHJpb3JpdHkgbGlzdHMtVGJscyAxLTZfRmViIDIwMTVfZmluYWwucGRm/12/n/40112.doc

There is other Los Osos stuff to look at too, if you scroll down further.

Los Osos In The County Budget

Next week (Tuesday, February 17) the Board of Supervisors receives and files the county budget. Naturally, the Los Osos sewer is still a very prominent feature. Take a look:

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/GS/CIP/2015-16+CIP/Appendix4.pdf 
(Here you will find listed all the Los Osos projects; click the links off this page to see the detail pages.)

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/GS/CIP/2015-16+CIP/Project+Sheets/115.pdf
(Go directly to the wastewater project page.)

Check out page 16 of 60 off this link for Los Osos on a pie chart (and check all the pages for a ton of other interesting, non-sewer stuff):
http://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/agenda/sanluisobispo/4344/QVRUQUNITUVOVCAxIC0gRlkgMjAxNS0xNiBGaXZlIFllYXIgQ0lQIFBsYW4gd2l0aCBBcHBlbmRpY2llcyAxIHRob3VnaCA5LnBkZg==/12/n/40399.doc