Trinity County transportation director warns aging fleet, limited funds threaten road response and repairs

Panos Kokos, Trinity County director of transportation, told the Board of Supervisors that his department maintains 692 miles of county roads, operates transit and five general‑aviation airports and is facing mounting disaster repair needs, aging equipment and staffing shortages that limit routine maintenance and emergency response.

Kokos told the board the 692 miles include about 166 federal‑eligible centerline miles and about 526 local‑only miles; of the county network he said roughly 462 miles are paved and 230 are unpaved. He said the department also oversees 101 bridges, more than 5,000 culverts and transit routes that provide free rides for college students to Shasta College.

Why it matters: Kokos said the combination of limited discretionary funding, long FEMA and federal‑aid reimbursement processes, and new emissions rules for older diesel vehicles threatens the county’s ability to keep roads passable and to respond quickly to storms, landslides and wildfire‑related failures.

Kokos described routine operations, disaster work and funding rules. He said many county roads are thinly surfaced chip‑seal or gravel sections built on marginal subgrade; heavy trucks produce far more wear than cars. The department, he said, faces recurring emergency work: between 2016 and 2025 the department identified roughly 225 locations needing repair, which Kokos estimated could cost $150 million if fixed today. He said FEMA has deemed about $41 million of those locations ineligible for federal assistance.

Kokos outlined funding streams and constraints: some funds (RMRA and competitive grant programs) must be spent on specified capital projects and require project lists, schedules and post‑spend reporting to the California Transportation Commission; other funding sources are discretionary but smaller. He explained that FEMA public assistance usually reimburses up to 75 percent of eligible construction costs (with state and local matches) and that FEMA and Cal OES require rapid initial site reporting and extensive documentation before projects are eligible — costs the county must often pay up front.

Kokos urged the board to press state lawmakers and regulators on new California Air Resources Board (CARB) rules that will prohibit most vehicles older than model year 2014 from operation after 2028 unless replaced. He said the county lacks funds to replace older plows, graders and trucks and contrasted public‑works emergency responses with the exemptions given to fire and law enforcement for similar vehicles.

Board discussion emphasized maintenance priorities and limited county funds. Supervisors sought more detail on vacancies, hiring barriers and how district spending has been allocated; Kokos said pay and competition with larger agencies make hiring difficult and that district yards with greater miles and contractor costs use more of the department’s budget. The board and Kokos discussed a specific landslide that closed High and Palm Road; Kokos said the county is coordinating with the U.S. Forest Service to maintain an alternate forest‑service route using Good Neighbor Authority funds for repairs, but that plowing and long‑term operations would still rely on county discretionary resources.

Supervisors and other board members pressed Kokos on why some repeatedly failing locations had not been prioritized and whether funds exist to do basic maintenance such as grading and pothole patching. Kokos and multiple supervisors described tensions between limited discretionary funds used for routine maintenance and restricted funds required for capital projects. One supervisor said maintenance shortfalls have persisted for decades and pressed the director for a plan to improve safety quickly; another supervisor and staff warned that moving county general‑fund money to roads would require finding offsets in other county services.

Kokos described operational investments the department has made to do small, remote paving projects itself: a small county paver and a recently delivered heated asphalt patch truck, which Kokos said will help the county perform durable repairs in places where contractors will not travel for small jobs.

Kokos also described operational staffing levels and vacancies: he said the department is authorized roughly 48 road‑maintenance positions (with several vacancies), multiple engineering positions with vacancies, and several transit positions; he attributed part of the hiring gap to pay differentials versus larger nearby employers and a statewide shortage of engineers.

The director described geotechnical work and newly available LIDAR imagery for some South County slides that show whole mountainsides shifting; he warned some sites may not be stabilizable and that expectations for permanent fixes should be set accordingly. He also described challenges in dealing with FEMA inspectors and paperwork, saying some temporary contract inspectors lack experience with mountainous terrain and that the county spends time and money preparing appeals.

Board members thanked Kokos for the presentation and debated whether to reallocate general‑fund contingency to road maintenance or to seek other revenue sources; supervisors also discussed pursuing federal and state competitive grants and partnerships with the Forest Service to keep isolated communities connected seasonally. The presentation closed with board members and staff agreeing to use the department’s operating data to better prioritize work across district yards.

Next steps: Kokos asked the board to consider legislative outreach and local advocacy on CARB rules and continued pursuit of FEMA, Federal Highways and competitive grant funding. Supervisors directed staff to continue working with Kokos, Caltrans and the Forest Service on emergency bypass routing and to provide more detailed budget and district allocation information on requests for maintenance and staffing.

Kokos’s presentation and the board exchange highlighted the county’s constrained mix of restricted and discretionary funding, the technical difficulty of stabilizing mountain roads after wildfire and storms, and the administrative burden of federal reimbursement programs.