City-county cooperation good to see

Sometimes, a tight deadline is just the ticket to produce the best work.

If it seemed like the fix was on when the Del Norte Local Transportation

Commission took mere minutes Thursday to choose which city and county transportation projects would go to the top of the list for federal stimulus money, that’s because it was.

City Public Works Director Jim Barnts and county Director of Community Development Ernie Perry met in advance of the commission action and agreed on a plan to winnow a $1.1 million wish list of county and city projects down to the $626,000 the federal government was immediately making available for Del Norte transportation work.

Maybe it helped that Barnts and Perry were classmates at Del Norte High School, where both graduated in 1966. No doubt of greater assistance was the fact that local governments had to act fast and come up with eligible “shovel-ready” projects by Friday or risk losing the federal money intended to give the economy a quick shot in the arm.

Whatever the reason, the effective city-county cooperation was a thing of beauty, and left us hoping for more.

These are turbulent times for local government leaders, who risk whiplash as they try to deal with massive and contradictory forces that are mostly out of their control. Deep spending cuts in Sacramento are occurring at the same time as an unprecedented splurge in Washington, D.C. To come out ahead, or at least break even, city and county officials need to be nimble and watch each other’s backs.

Roadwork isn’t the only area where city-county cooperation might pay off in the hunt for newly available federal dollars. The region as a whole also has a shot at money for bus service and airport improvements, among other things.

At the same time, the looming cuts in state funding could severely impact services that are crucial to Del Norte’s well being. We’re all in this together, and county-city cooperation is essential to stretch the state dollars we do receive.

It’s notable that one of the projects approved by the Transportation Commission for federal funding is the installation of bicycle/pedestrian lanes on the northernmost stretch of Pebble Beach Drive. It’s hard to imagine a better example of a regional asset that is the responsibility of both the county and the city than the incredibly scenic oceanfront road meandering from Fifth Street to Washington Boulevard.

If we are to realize our potential for developing a tourism-based economy, we have to pay attention to areas such as Pebble Beach Drive. People are drawn to the roadway perched above sea stacks. They want to walk it, bicycle it, even skate it, but some stretches are narrow enough to endanger those who wish to share the scenic route with motor traffic.

The section selected for federal stimulus money happens to be in the county’s jurisdiction. Moves are afoot to widen the other two sections of Pebble Beach Drive as well, one in the county and the other in the city. We’ll need ongoing city-county cooperation to make the entire length safely traversable and thus improve one of Crescent City’s signature attractions.

In many cases, the structure for such cooperation is already in place. The city and county are partners in joint powers agreements for the airport, solid waste and economic development.

When police or fire departments cross jurisdictional lines to assist a neighboring department, they call it mutual aid. Reimbursement isn’t required, just an understanding that someday the assistance will go the other way.

Now more than ever, the concept of mutual aid should be embraced at all levels of Del Norte government.