The complete text of Supervisor Wilson's speech
Fourth District Supervisor - Roy Wilson laid out a plan for "making lemonade out of lemons" during his speech at the 8th Annual All-Valley Legislative Luncheon Friday, Sept. 21. Wilson was one of several area legislators to speak, including U.S. Representative Mary Bono, State Senators Denise Ducheny and Jim Battin, Assemblyman John Benoit, and fellow Supervisor Marion Ashley of the Fifth District.
The complete text of Supervisor Wilson's speech:
Good afternoon,
I am going to use my time today to explain to you how we are attempting to turn lemons into lemonade here in the Fourth district of Riverside County.
As you are well aware, Riverside County is the fastest-growing county in the state and we are projected to become the second largest county in this state in the future. We are currently the fourth largest.
Also, as you, the movers and shakers of this valley know, our economy--especially our booming housing market--is in recession. An over-building of homes along with some overly-creative efforts by some in the mortgage industry has temporarily slowed our economy.
Our growth may slow some with the reversal in the housing boom, but this situation is only temporary. Riverside County must continue to prepare for its growing population by providing the needed infrastructure to accommodate this growth.
As a result of this reversal in the in the housing construction market, we have contractors looking for jobs and construction workers looking for work. And that is how we are going to turn lemons into lemonade.
We know that we have numerous infrastructure projects to build to keep up with our growing population. We know that the construction industry is in a temporary lull. thus, my staff has given direction to the various county departments that we work with to advance these infrastructure projects to a super-duper fast track status. We are going to bring these projects to bid as quickly as humanly possible so that we can stretch our available dollars to the maximum with VERY competitive bids.
Already, in a recent bidding of some major street and drainage improvements in Bermuda Dunes by our Transportation Department, we saved over $800,000 from the original engineers' estimates.
We are fast tracking and bringing to the bidding process in what we hope fill be the very near future the following projects:
* A new 77,000-square-foot Sheriff's facility in Thermal to serve the Cities of Coachella and La Quinta along with our growing unincorporated communities in the southeastern Coachella Valley. This facility adjacent to the Jacqueline Cochran Airport will have an air and educational component to accommodate the sheriff's helicopters and fixed wing aircraft and facilities for Boys & Girls Club educational activities.
* A major street-widening project for Airport Boulevard that will include new sewer and water line expansion.
* A New 75,000-square-foot Sheriff station in north Palm Desert to serve the Cities of Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells, along with the unincorporated areas in the western and northern Coachella Valley.
* New fire stations in Mecca, Thermal and Thousand Palms.
* A fire training center in Thousand Palms that will be a cooperative effort with College of the Desert's Public Safety Training Center.
* New or expanded park facilities in Mecca, Thermal, Thousand Palms and Bermuda Dunes.
* A new Community Center in Indio Hills.
* A new public safety/community center in Bermuda Dunes.
* A new Boys & Girls Club in Mecca.
* A new Public Social Services building in Indio, and a complete remodeling of the downtown Indio Administrative Center that will become a Criminal Justice Building.
* A new bridge and street-widening on Miles and the unincorporated areas of Miles and Clinton in Indio.
These are all new projects that are in addition to the construction that is currently going on in Palm Springs, Thousand Palms and Mecca.
In addition to these activities, we are working with landowners and developers on the new general plan amendments to accommodate anticipated growth in the Vista Santa Rosa, Thermal, South Valley, Oasis and Mecca areas.
We are also working with CVAG and the various cities and the Building Industry to remove barriers to the development of workforce housing. We are also working with low-income housing developers to speed up the development of this housing stock while the market is soft.
If you want more information on what's happening in the 4th District, check out our website at http://www.rivco4.org
I'd tell you more, but my "stop talking" cards are beginning to flash, so let me just conclude by saying I believe we are going to have a great big delicious pot of lemonade when we are finished.
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