Before I go into bad news, I have to say that you are amazing! I’ve been working with leaders of the local safety net programs to make sure that critically important basic needs programs continue to feed, clothe, and house the increasing number of people impacted by the depressed economy. The Sonora Area Foundation came to one of our meetings and based on what they heard, put together half a million dollars (including $250,000 in matching funds). These went directly to some key providers to supplement their strained budgets. Now that’s more like it!

Back to ballet slippers. As I write, ATCAA is scrambling to put together a grant application for major stimulus bucks to provide computers, training, and jobs in our county. A major broadband grant was awarded to a local internet service provider. In addition, a project I have been trying to get funded since elected is on the ATCAA list likely to be funded by the federal government: live streaming video of Board of Supervisors meetings AND software that will make it possible for you to download staff memos and attachments to Board agenda items. Before meetings you will be able to read everything the Board has in front of them and afterwards, you will be able to listen and replay exactly what is said and done by every supervisor and every staff member. This will be a great advance of transparency in county government.

Meanwhile back in the soup kitchen, we approved a draft budget in June – that was good, but it wasn’t all good. In order to do that, significant cuts were made in some existing services. As the economy fell, we reduced the budget accordingly. By the end of June, we had cut over 100 positions (in the last year, both vacant and filled, including privatized services like Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice). That’s a lot of local jobs and services and we’re still not down to where we will have to be to maintain a balanced budget when the state passes its budget. After we learn the extent to which the state will take local revenues, we’ll be able to adjust again and adopt a final budget. The news from Sacramento is not good. We anticipate a raid on your tax dollars that now go to Roads and other general fund departments, not to mention reductions in all the Health and Human Services departments.

The Library Department in District 3 alone took a huge hit. The Pinecrest and Mi-Wuk Village library branches have closed and it is only due to the commitment and generosity of community members that Mi-Wuk will re-open their building on a limited basis as a community center/private lending library for the next year. For now, the Tuolumne and Twain Harte libraries are safe. The WOW bookmobile’s time on the road has been cut and its regular driver’s position eliminated. We are looking into reinstating her ½ time as a result of interest from several service clubs in keeping that service going. Amazing! Our draft budget keeps Recreation programs functioning until the end of September. We’re figuring out how to keep youth centers open beyond then and reopen pools next summer. Talks are proceeding in Tuolumne and Twain Harte with community members and groups who are interested in helping that happen. That’s amazing too.

The Board is mindful of the priorities many of you expressed in my Listening Sessions: Public Safety and Roads. We haven’t cut a single filled Sheriff’s Deputy position and hopefully will not. Fire services are intact at last year’s level now, but as you know that isn’t saying a whole lot. Solving the Fire coverage issue is on our list of serious issues to address when we get the budget approved. Public Works’ Road budget is at risk to be raided by the state, perhaps by as much as $1.5 million a year. If that happens, the funds the state takes are the ones available to fix potholes and do snow plowing. Not good.

On the bright side, as the state is taking away money, the federal government made stimulus funds available (no matching dollar requirements) for us to purchase two new transit buses. These trolley buses, purchased with the federal government’s money, were looked at by some as a very frivolous expenditure in the present economy, but they were actually a better deal than regular buses. They cost slightly less than regular buses, cost the same to maintain, and will replace two of our aging fleet that needed to be retired. All that and tourists are supposed to like them better too! Ballet slippers again.

Incredibly, the state government at the time of writing, has not approved a budget. We’ve reduced the county budget significantly in anticipation, cutting whatever we can in advance and steeling ourselves for what is inevitably to come. From everything I have heard, “local government” will bear the burden of most of the cuts. I beg to differ. Local government will survive – it’s real people who will suffer. And that’s a pity.

Please call if you have questions or comments about the necessary budget cuts we will be making. You can contact me at 533-5525. I may not have a lot of good news for you, but if you’d like to meet with me in your community, my District Office Hours are:

August

• Weds., Aug. 5, 2009, 10:00 – 11:30, Tuolumne Museum, Carter Street, Tuolumne
• Weds., Aug. 12, 2009, 10:00 – 11:30, Twain Harte Community Service District, Twain Harte Drive, Twain Harte
• Weds., Aug. 19, 2009, 1:00 – 2:30, Mi-Wuk Village Community Center and Private Lending Library, next to the Post Office

September

• Weds., Sept. 2, 2009, 10: 00 – 11:30, Tuolumne Museum, Carter Street, Tuolumne
• Weds., Sept. 9, 2009, 10:00 – 11:30, Twain Harte Community Service District, Twain Harte Drive, Twain Harte
• Weds., Sept. 16, 2009, 1:00 – 2:30, Mi-Wuk Village Community Center and Private Lending Library, next to the Post Office

Like you the county is dancing in new ballet slippers, but still hungry. That’s just wrong.

Dear Thomas (SMT Editor) and Marv,

I just finished reading the article in the SMT, ATCAA Fast Internet?… NOT! First, let me say that I am glad Marv is back in the SMT – we’ve missed him! Second, I am hoping you will print this in its entirety, Thomas, so folks get a little more info. 

What ran in Byte Me about ATCAA’s efforts to expand Broadband here was technically correct, but could use a little “rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to say, for the benefit of SMT readers and historians in general. 

When the county first began to look into expanding Broadband with Broadband advocates in 2007, it was clear that we had an information gap on where Broadband existed, who was using it, what expansion capabilities were, etc. While a number of us were pursuing the company that initially came and made a presentation on one expansion concept, there was resistance from private ISP companies and from county staff. The private ISPs didn’t want the county to take on the expansion – they felt the private sector is the appropriate vehicle – and county staff (rightly so) advocated for getting answers to the info gaps listed above before beginning to build. 

Superimposed on these was the announcement that the California Emerging Technologies Foundation (CETF) grant program had opened and was offering rural areas the opportunity to expand Broadband networks over multi-county regions. ATCAA was applying for a grant to expand their Info-Net system and the county was pretty well occupied with other pressing concerns at the time. The county couldn’t devote staff time to take on the Broadband project, but we had been talking to CETF about funding a Broadband expansion project here. So CETF asked ATCAA to expand their Info-Net application to do the necessary study and evaluation of the gaps with the informal understanding that implementation dollars would “quite likely” follow at the end of the study period. 

ATCAA graciously agreed, assigned Michelle Shelton to the project, and she formed a 5-county work group to help. Funds were received to begin the study – called the aggregation of information study – in the first months of 2008. The county joined that work group and the torch for leading the Broadband expansion effort was passed to ATCAA. We continued speaking of the effort as the “expansion of Broadband” because although the ATCAA grant was for a study, it has always been understood by work group participants, ATCAA, and the county that the building phase would follow. 

Shortly after the study funds were received by ATCAA, the California Public Utilities Commission announced an offering of $100 million in grant funds to communications companies to expand telecommunications and Broadband services in underserved areas. Local ISPs and other telephone companies applied for these funds to expand their networks. Michelle was helpful to them in putting together information and applications, although the ATCAA study was still in the early stages. In the meantime, Michelle began leveraging other opportunities – including getting folks trained to teach others to use the Internet – and watching for new funding to expand the Broadband system. 

In the sense that local ISPs have been participating in the ATCAA study work group and Michelle has continued looking for implementation dollars for them we have continued to refer to the effort as an “ATCAA effort to expand Broadband.” However, the private sector’s efforts to expand Broadband in the region have really taken off as a result (see the list below). Since the announcement of the availability of stimulus dollars for Broadband, CETF has turned to ATCAA and Michelle for a list of “shovel ready” expansion projects that can be taken on right away. In the last few weeks, ATCAA has worked to encourage a number of different ISP and technology folks to put together a list that is supported by the CETF and, if funded by the federal government, could bring Broadband expansion to the 5-county region and – importantly to District 3 residents – up the Hwy 108 Corridor from Twain Harte to Strawberry! 

Off the top of my head, here are some of the private sector Broadband expansion efforts now in process or planned: 

• Mother Lode Internet – California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) application submitted, June 2008, multiple areas in county;
• Golden State Cellular – California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) application submitted, June 2008, multiple areas in county;
• AT&T, multiple areas in county;
• Wild Blue satellite services (Phoenix Lake area);
• Throckmorton Enterprises (Lake Don Pedro and other areas);
• “Nameless entrepreneurs,” Hwy 108 Corridor, seeking stimulus funds;
• Open Range Communications, Phoenix Lake and Cedar Ridge areas, using funding from the USDA’s Rural Development Utilities Program (RDUP); and
• Comcast, existing system upgrade by December 2011 is likely to provide bundled packages of expanded cable and high speed internet service.

 Had the original Broadband group (those who began meeting with the consultants in 2007) not advocated so strongly and had ATCAA not stepped up to take on this study, I don’t believe we would be seeing such a strong demonstration of interest. My confidence (and county staff’s as well) is that the ATCAA study will result directly and indirectly in the expansion of Broadband (much sooner than any of us believed possible due to the availability of state and federal funding). Importantly and appropriately though, that expansion will be accomplished by various private companies, not by the county or ATCAA. The number of companies pursuing Broadband expansion in this area will encourage competition among companies and benefit customers.

 So to summarize, Marv wrote a good article that is technically correct, but a conclusion that Broadband expansion won’t happen for a long time and that no one is leading the charge is not a complete picture. ATCAA has been and will continue to be a lightning rod to attract additional state and federal investment in our region. Michelle Shelton has been the catalyst to move the effort forward and we at the county are very grateful for her leadership. 

How about when the grant and stimulus dollars are awarded, you do a follow up on where Broadband will be expanded, by whom, what ATCAA’s role was in advancing the projects, and what the timelines are. I think SMT readers will be surprised and pleased. Thanks for helping me get out “the rest of the story!

Teri