The State - News from Oct. 5, 1988

City officials in Fremont cannot believe that the state’s transportation agency just got around to billing them $11,000 for some roadwork performed during the 1970s. “How would you like to get billed for something that happened 12 years ago that you can’t even remember?” City Councilman John Dutra asked. What has Dutra and other officials upset is that it was a state error that resulted in the bill’s never being paid, and auditors in Sacramento are taking the expected hard line--pay up or lose state gas-tax revenues. Under contract with the city, Caltrans widened several Fremont streets and intersections and did a few other jobs in 1974, 1978 and 1979. The city was to have reimbursed Caltrans, but apparently never did, and nobody at the agency bothered to follow up. The situation is not unique. Statewide, there is about $1 million worth of unpaid bills Caltrans is trying to recoup.