Santa Cruz County Middle Management Association

As holidays approach, take this time now to get prepared for the next disaster. Make sure you have a family plan, build an emergency kit and know your evacuation routes. https://bit.ly/2t95zEE

Today the City and County of Santa Cruz honored our employees who served in the military. Thank you for service, then and now. #VeteransDay

The MMA Board of Directors election survey has been emailed to members. Please fill out your survey and make your vote count.

UPDATE 10/30/19 PG&E announced this morning Santa Cruz County will no longer be included in the latest outage. UPDATE 10/29/19 PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff... Information Santa Cruz County is still scheduled for a second Public Safety Power Shutoff event beginning tonight. It would impact 5,400 customers in the Davenport, Bonny Doon, Boulder Creek and Castle Rock areas. The commencement of the PSPS has been moved up to 10 pm. Santa Cruz County OES has arranged for a supplemental community resource center to be located at a Highlands County Park, 8500 Highway 9, Ben Lomond. The resource center provides power and charging services, refreshments and information. It will be open from 8 am-8 pm tomorrow morning and stay open until further notice. This replaces a resource center in Scotts Valley, and we expect other resource centers to close shortly. PG&E expects to give the all clear for this event early tomorrow morning. It could take up to 48 hours or longer to restore power. PREVIOUS: PG&E has announced a Public Safety Power Shutoff that will impact Santa Cruz County. The shutoff is expected to begin at 5:00 p.m. tonight (October 26th) with the re-energization process starting Monday afternoon. The weather is expected to be very conducive to wildfires, so please use extreme caution. Before restoring power, PG&E must inspect all equipment for damage and make necessary repairs. They cannot make those repairs until the severe weather has stopped, meaning power will not turn back on immediately after the severe weather subsides. The shutoff is expected to impact roughly 45,000 customers throughout Santa Cruz County. Three community resource centers have been announced and will be operating from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Sunday. Those locations are: Siltanen Park 141 Vine Hill School Road Scotts Valley Costco 220 Sylvania Ave Santa Cruz Twin Lakes Church 2701 Cabrillo College Dr. Aptos To check if your home is expected to be impacted follow this link: https://www.pge.com//na/wildfires/public-safety-event.page Here are some reminders in the event your power is shutoff: Stock up on non-perishable food and water supplies, plan for medication needs, and update or restock emergency kits. Fully charge necessary electronic devices, and backup batteries. Consider checking on the elderly, young children and pets during the outage. When driving, remember that some intersections may not have functioning traffic lights, treat those intersections as a 4-way stop. Please do not use generators, camp stoves, or BBQ grills indoors. The carbon monoxide fumes can make for a deadly situation. Additionally, using a gas stove or oven to heat the inside of your home is not advised. Please do not call 911 and ask when the power will be turned back on, we want to ensure the emergency lines are available to those who are in need. Even if your home is not expected to be impacted, we urge you to be prepared.

Current statewide fire map as of 8am this morning showing location of active fires. For the latest fire information check out the Cal Fire incident website: https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/

This week, the County of Santa Cruz was honored with a Challenge Award and two Merit Awards by the California State Association of Counties. The Merit Award, f...or our Zero Waste program, recognizes the County's leadership role nationally in reducing waste and pollution in the environment through policies and practices that have been replicated across the U.S. The Merit Awards recognized our efforts to increase housing supply through the ADU Toolkit, as well as our efforts to address mental health and homelessness with the Hopes Team. Congratulations to our staff who made the programs a success on behalf of our residents.

Do your part and report illegal dumping.

COMPLETION OF SOQUEL DRIVE REPAIRS The County of Santa Cruz is pleased to announce the restoration of Soquel Drive at Aptos Village to two lanes beginning late... Friday, February 2. One of the County's priority storm repairs following the winter of 2016-17, the project took several months to complete as the County and contractor, Watsonville-based Granite Construction, worked to repair a large slipout at Valencia Creek that impacted traffic following severe winter storms. Repairs include installation of a retaining wall, road regrading and new guardrail. The road will be restored to two lanes by evening commute hours on Friday, with mop-up work to continue over the next 1-2 weeks. Primary funding for the emergency project was provided by the Federal Highway Administration, with supplemental funding by Caltrans. Local funds to complete the project were provided through SB 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017. The impacted road precedes the construction of Highway 1 and was originally built in the 1930s as part of the old Santa Cruz-Watsonville Highway.

It is not always this easy to find. During a probation search at a local motel room for Chris Desmet and Teresa Diana, Deputy Hop and Deputy Cummings made quite... the find. Deputies found a motel serving tray covered in approximately 6 ounces of methamphetamine. They also found a small amount of heroin, more than a dozen Xanax pills, drug paraphernalia, and over $8,000 dollars in cash. Both Desmet and Diana were arrested for possession of narcotics for sales and booked into jail. See more

DPW DIRECTOR JOHN PRESLEIGH TO RETIRE The County of Santa Cruz announced today that Public Works Director John Presleigh, who led the County through multiple c...ycles of storm recovery and was a key statewide advocate for local transportation dollars, will retire in April. Presleigh joined the County in 1991 as a senior civil engineer. Under former Director Tom Bolich, Presleigh was promoted to Assistant Director, overseeing surveying, development review, road design, operations, road engineering, redevelopment, and other functions. In 2009, he was made Director of the Department of Public Works. "For nearly three decades, John has been an ally to the people of Santa Cruz County, advocating on their behalf to improve local transportation infrastructure," County Administrative Officer Carlos Palacios said. "The County family will miss his experience, wisdom and passion, and we wish him the best in his retirement." One of the County's largest departments, the Public Works Department oversees public infrastructure including transportation, solid waste, sanitation, parking, drainage, recycling programs, County Service Areas, and special districts. It is responsible for maintaining the County's 600-mile roadway system, including planning and engineering, maintenance, bridges, drainage, encroachments, signalization and bikeway projects. Presleigh guided the County through recovery from multiple natural disasters. During the winter of 2016-17, storms caused more than $122 million in roadway damage in the unincorporated area alone the costliest winter in County history. To speed recovery, Presleigh fast-tracked a number of projects, brought in storm recovery experts and hired outside consultants to process as many repair projects as possible in the shortest possible time frame. The Department's work was recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives, California Legislature and Board of Supervisors, and was granted a 2017 "Community Hero" award by the Aptos Chamber of Commerce. A staunch advocate for infrastructure improvements and local road funding including Measure D, approved by local voters in 2016 -- Presleigh is also the immediate past president of the County Engineers Association of California (CEAC). Presleigh headed that organization during debate over SB 1, which raises $5 billion annually for California roads, bridges and transit. Thanks in part to Presleigh's leadership, Santa Cruz County will see an additional $115 million in new local streets and roads funding over the next ten years. Presleigh was recently awarded a distinguished 2017 "Circle of Service Award" by the California State Association of Counties. "I'm particularly proud of all that John's accomplished, especially his key role with CEAC. Thanks to John's tireless efforts in working with our State representatives, and lobbying on behalf of the citizens and motorists of our County, there is finally hope that our local road roads will receive the attention they deserve," Bolich said. "I know the County of Santa Cruz will continue to benefit from John's legacy. I'm sure that John will enjoy his retirement and that he will make very good use of all the time he can now spend with his family. E moe i kahi wehe, e ka hoahnau! ('Hang loose, bruddah!')." I was lucky enough to work closely with John during a momentous year for California transportation funding, said current CEAC president Jeff Pratt, Director of Public Works for Ventura County. His work rallying the troops behind SB 1 and getting locally elected leaders across California to support local roads and infrastructure will not soon be forgotten. We own John a debt of gratitude. His retirement is well-deserved. Presleigh has undergraduate degrees from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo and the University of California-Davis. He also has a master’s degree in Civil Engineering from San Jose State University. Prior to joining the County, he worked for the City of Sacramento, the California Department of Water Resources, the California Water Resources Control Board, and a private engineering firm.

Today, Santa Cruz County, along with the city, joined a growing chorus of communities standing up for their residents and businesses as they face mounting finan...cial, environmental, and public health costs tied to global warming. We have filed suit against 29 oil, gas, and coal companies over the impacts of climate change -- not just for damages associated with sea level rise, but also for changes to the hydrologic cycle caused by greenhouse gas pollution from the companies’ products, including more frequent and severe wildfires, drought, and extreme precipitation events. With miles of coastlines and steep, forested mountains, Santa Cruz County is particularly vulnerable to impacts from climate change, County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty said. It's time for Big Oil, who chose profit over people and the environment, to be held responsible. It's time for oil companies to pay for the damage they've caused, rather than ask local residents to pick up all the costs associated with protecting us from sea level rise, increasing fires, and severe weather. You can read the complaint on our website, www.santacruzcounty.us.