SANTA PAULA : Council Cuts Budget for Street Projects

The Santa Paula City Council decided Monday to trim more than $166,000 in street maintenance projects after state officials relaxed a rule requiring cities to provide a certain level of funding.

In a unanimous vote with two members absent, the council agreed to delay a storm drain project on Harvard Boulevard, halt the purchasing of two trucks and reduce the street repair budget by nearly $19,000.

At the same time, the council approved adding funds for street striping, tree trimming and designing a storm drain project for Santa Paula Street.

The decision will help make up for $250,000 in state funds that the city lost during the state’s budget crisis last summer, City Administrator Arnold Dowdy said.

“This gives us the breathing room to make other budget cuts or to raise revenues some way or another,” Dowdy said before the vote.

The spending cut was approved after the state Legislature suspended a rule for three years that had required cities to pay an amount for street maintenance equal to the average spent in the 1987 through 1989 fiscal years.

In the case of Santa Paula, the city was obliged to spend $347,233 each year, said Norman S. Wilkinson, who heads the city’s Public Works Department.

“It’s a temporary relief to the permanent problem” of state-mandated spending, Wilkinson said.

With the suspension, Santa Paula could save up to $1.04 million over a three-year period, Dowdy told the council.