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80 North Fork residents attend town hall meeting

Brian Wilkinson

(Updated: Thursday, February 25, 2010, 1:25 PM)

Additional county budget adjustments and reductions will be discussed during a board of supervisors public budget workshop April 1 in Madera.

Steven Rodriguez, county administrative officer, encouraged the public to attend during a town hall meeting last Thursday in North Fork hosted by Supervisor Tom Wheeler.

After a $9.6 million loan from the county road department and mid-year layoffs, furloughs, early retirements and department sweeps totaling $4.1 million in reductions, it is estimated the budget is short $9.2 million from being balanced for the 2009-2010 fiscal year that ends June 30.

Rodriguez said he is looking at making adjustments to balance both this year's budget and the budget for 2010-2011. The final budget number for both years is $154 million.

"Our goal is to balance this year's and next year's budgets by the end of June," Rodriguez said.

Madera County Sheriff John Anderson, who will run for reelection this year, told the crowd of 80 that he just released his annual report for 2009 and that overall, crime was down in Madera County.

He said construction is on schedule for the new mountain division facility on Highway 49 in Oakhurst. He explained that in 2001, the state began awarding $500,000 grants to sheriff's departments in counties with a population of less than 200,000 people. The grants continued for eight years and the decision was made to bank the funds for a construction project, rather than spend it each year on equipment or operational expenses.

Anderson said the mountain division is currently spread out in three separate and inadequate facilities and the consolidation of the three facilities will make the department centrally located and more efficient. He anticipates moving into the new facility in May.

Wheeler said, although slow, progress is being made on the new North Fork Volunteer Fire Department.

An innovative, three-party agreement signed May 12, 2009, by Madera County, the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians and the North Fork Community Development Council paved the way for the new fire station on 2.6 acres at the old North Fork Mill Site.

The new facility will provide housing for the firefighting equipment of the all-volunteer North Fork Fire Department and Fire Department Auxiliary but will not initially include space for sleeping.

The tribe will contribute up to $496,000 from federal funding to the project and the county will contribute up to $400,000 from its Capital Improvement Funds. The North Fork Community Development Commission will donate approximately 15 acres of the old Mill Site to the county, which will deed most of the land to the tribe for the fire station and social services facilities, and part of it back to the CDC for future development

Madera County District Attorney Michael Keitz, also up for reelection this year, discussed a number of successful prosecutions his office has handled this past year.

"I have been a member of law enforcement, both as a reserve deputy sheriff and as a prosecutor for 30 years," Keitz said. "My aim is to promote justice and protect the people of Madera County by aggressively prosecuting those who violate the law."

Johannes J. Hoevertsz, county road commissioner, said Phase II of the improvements on Road 200, including a new bridge over Find Gold Creek, should go to bid in April with construction to begin in July. The project will provide widening the existing road to 12-foot-wide lanes in each direction and two 8-foot-wide paved shoulders from Leprechaun Lane to Find Gold Creek.

Hoevertsz said funding for the project was aided by $1 million in federal stimulus funds and $500,000 in state funds. The county acquired a portion of nine different properties to accommodate the widening of the road at a cost of $233,000.

Hoevertsz, who was praised by Wheeler for aggressively getting road projects completed within the county, announced that the county received additional federal Transient Enhancement Funds to replace 20 North Fork street light wooden poles with steel poles.