The Latest on Lewelling

Recently, not much has changed along Lewelling Boulevard—and that's the problem, residents say. 

Community members voiced their concerns—from current hiccups to future speed limits—with the much-delayed improvement of the San Lorenzo thoroughfare at Wednesday night's Unincorporated Services Committee meeting. 

"What’as taking so long?" griped resident Wulf Bieschke. "I’ve watched two overpasses being built in the time since they’ve started construction on this."

Public Works Deputy Director Stanley Fung explained that delays had resulted from conflicts with the department's many partners, among them the sanitary district and phone and utility companies. 

"Personally, I don’t like the project lasting longer than it should," Fung said. "Every day it lasts longer costs us more. Working with different agencies and given all the conflicts we saw, it took longer that we thought." 

The process of undergrounding utilities and moving the sewer lines had masked much of the progress that's already been made, he said. Still, months after the project was scheduled to have wrapped, the county estimates only 42 percent of the work is complete. They expect to finish the rest by the summer of 2012. 

The recent rain hasn't helped anything. Resident Doris Marciel reported seeing a large new pothole on Via Granada, as well as divots on Ashland Avenue and Meekland Avenue. 

"It was a washboard road," Marciel said.  "Nothing was done about it until I called and said ‘Are you going to take care of my wheel allignment and my shocks?'"

Many others said they weren't nearly as concerned with current progress as what would happen when construction was complete. In particular, many voiced anxiety about the future speed limit. 

The county had floated a 30 mile per hour maximum, but said that number could go up. Though residents have long advocated for a low limit, several county officials said making the maximum too low would render it unenforceable. In a terse exchange, several asked whether county counsel would weigh in on the matter.

"I’m going to wait until the street is complete and Public Works has done their job before we come back," said District 4 Supervisor Nate Miley. "I won’t be asking county counsel to (investigate speed limits) because I don’t think it’s a good use of their time at this point."

But the update wasn't all bad news. 

Late last month, we reported that Orchard Supply Hardware had suffered a 60 percent dip in fourth quarter sales over the previous year, information the county had shared at the Ashland Citizens Advisory Committee.

It now appears those losses were far less significant. OSH was behind in its bookkeeping, Eileen Dalton of the Alameda County Redevelopment Agency explained.

"Any construction project is going to be challenging for the business community," Dalton said. The agency has floated a small amount of money to help businesses with the PG&E conversion, but "it’s hard to plan for things if you don’t know if you’ll be around tomorrow."