Moraga 'Speakers Bureau' to Address Infrastructure Needs

The town of Moraga is putting out the word to community groups about the need to .

“We will be setting up a ‘Speakers Bureau’ consisting of people from the community and staff who will be available to speak to residents about the infrastructure issues,” said Jill Mercurio, Moraga public works director.

The speakers bureau will be able to use a Power Point presentation prepared by Mercurio, Bob Kennedy of the town’s Revenue Enhancement Committee, and other town staff and volunteers. That report makes the case that many of the town's roads "are living on borrowed time."

Here are a couple nuggets from that Power Point presentation that illustrate the dangers of deferred maintenance.

• with road condition labeled “good,” the repair is a slurry seal at an approximate cost of $4 per square yard; that cost rises to $12 per square yard when the condition is “fair,” requiring a cape seal; that cost is estimated at $33 per square yard when the road condition deteriorates to “poor” calling for an overlay, or $133 per square yard when the condition is “very poor/ failed,” requiring a complete rebuilding.
• at the current spending level of approximately $500,000 a year, the town estimates that in 10 years 49 percent of the town’s road will be “very poor,” 7 percent poor, 8 percent fair, and 48 percent good.

At a Feb. 23 meeting, the Town Council unanimously authorized staff to execute two contracts, not to exceed $50,000, for community polling and testing to evaluate the support for what level of spending for a revenue measure, such as a parcel tax or a community facilities district, potentially in 2012. The contracts are with the Lew Edwards Group and Leptien, Cronin, Cooper, Morris & Poore, Inc.