Community members from Athal, now known as Unidos Por el Agua, and Fuller Acres attended the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday to ask for funding for a drainage basin.
Abby Power, a policy advocate with Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability, stated the communities deal with extreme flooding during the rain, and it prevents children from being able to walk to school.
“Highway 184 also becomes flooded, causing students to walk onto the shoulder of the highway to avoid the standing water. While the county has done a good job of responding to pump water out, only a drainage system will address the problem throughout the community. In the long term, the community also hopes to see curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and a fully proper drainage system,” said Power.
According to Power and community member Irene Sanchez, Supervisor David Couch has been helpful in getting the project started for sidewalks by working with the Kern Council of Governments to install sidewalks, but they want to make sure the project is not impeded by the lack of drainage.
“Caltrans is currently doing a rehabilitation project right now on 184, and they didn’t include sidewalks on that highway. One of the reasons that they said that they can’t put in sidewalks at the moment is because they need a drainage basin to be constructed first because if they just put in sidewalks but there’s no proper way for the water to drain, it’s going to cause more standing water on the shoulder of the road,” said Power after the meeting. “So, we’re asking the county to set aside some funding so that this process can get going because we know it’s going to take a while and we don’t want it to be impeded again.
Sanchez explained that the community needs sidewalks because they are on the side of a highway where people are speeding and not always looking out for pedestrians.
“They don’t see sidewalk. They’re not looking out for people. They’re just going over 60 because to them it’s whatever. And there’s been many incidents. From what I remember in the past like five years, four people have been hit. And that’s a lot. It’s one person per year,” said Sanchez.
During public comment for the budget, community member Alicia Hernandez expressed that their community has been abandoned.
“We are requesting to be included in the budget for public lighting. Also, we lack drainage, and we lack sidewalks. It’s a very small area; we feel abandoned, and we are not listened to. We are ignored. In that area, the water is very contaminated,” said Hernandez.
The contaminated water Hernandez mentioned is in regard to the 1,2,3 TCP that is in their drinking water.
Although the money was not set aside before the budget was approved as they hoped, Power stated that they plan to continue working with the county to get funding.
“We’re going to keep trying to work with them, but we were hoping that they could set aside some of that money. They have a funding source called the Community Development Block Grant, and that is a funding source that could be used for these projects,” said Power.
