Submitted by Mayor Richard Bailey
How important is local control? All you need to do is look at the medians on Orange Ave and compare them to the medians along the Strand. The medians on Orange Ave are maintained by the City of Coronado – people that work directly for you. The medians along the Strand are maintained by Caltrans.
Last month I sent a letter to Caltrans requesting they expand a Delegated Maintenance Agreement with the City of Coronado to allow us to utilize our available resources to maintain the vegetation in the toll plaza area and the medians along the Strand. This type of agreement gives the City permission to do the work ourselves and send Caltrans the bill.
Previously, our requests were met with unsatisfactory results after long delays at best and outright denials at worst. To be fair, Caltrans is in the business of moving people, not landscaping. However, I believe our residents expect and deserve an entrance that reflects our community standards – not four-foot-tall weeds greeting us as we enter our city.
This agreement would change our relationship with Caltrans by leveraging city resources to complete maintenance in a timely manner that meets our expectations.
Improving the appearance of the entrances to Coronado is a major priority of mine and our city council. If you want a job done right, sometimes you need to do it yourself. Greater local control gives us that option.
Richard Bailey
Mayor
[email protected]
