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Board weighs "road swap" to reprioritize county-maintained mileage; public-works director seeks full-season review
Summary
Mariposa County supervisors discussed a possible reallocation of county-maintained road mileage on July 8. Public Works Director Shannon Hansen said staff will not accept new roads that require immediate maintenance and recommended a full-season engineering evaluation before any swaps.
Mariposa County elected officials and public-works staff discussed a proposal known informally as a “road swap” on July 8 that would reassign some county-maintained road mileage to better match maintenance needs and resident access.
Director of Public Works and Transportation Shannon Hansen told the board she would not recommend taking on a road that would require immediate maintenance work. "I will not swap a road for a road that we have to immediately come in and do maintenance on," Hansen said, adding that staff plan to conduct a full evaluation over a full season — ‘‘January, through the full year’’ — to observe drainage and other seasonal conditions before making recommendations.
Supervisor John Poe (speaker listed as Supervisor Poe during the meeting) said he wants roads with multiple homes on them prioritized and gave examples of a road along the Tuolumne–Mariposa county line that has six or seven homes and has washed out repeatedly. Hansen said that roads taken in from new developments typically meet county standards; the board would have discretion but the director will base recommendations on engineers’ reports.
Supervisor Toso raised a separate safety issue about gates and cattle guards on private roads used for county access. Hansen said county road funds generally cannot pay for non-approved items on private roads and that she was not aware of grant programs for cattle guards; she said general fund money could be used if the board chose. Hansen also said that public-works crews are performing vegetation-reduction and other work while grant compliance for CEQA/NEPA is still underway.
Hansen told the board the department will present a heavier evaluation of candidate roads in October or during the winter, and staff will return with recommendations and the criteria used to select roads for work. The board directed staff to continue evaluating roads and to present a clear set of selection criteria and recommendations at a future meeting.
Ending: The board did not take formal action specific to any road swap at the July 8 meeting; the matter will return for further staff analysis and a future decision once year-long field evaluations and engineering reviews are complete.
