CALIFORNIA
• In an effort to promote economic development along one of its east-west corridors, FRESNO COUNTY has entered into a partnership with six cities.
The project was awarded a $100,000 Federal Highway Administration grant to finance a transportation and economic development study. According to an article in The Fresno Bee, the agreement will look at issues that affect the county and cities such as economic development, telecommunications, and aesthetics.
This is not the first time Fresno County, where the Public Works Department maintains the largest county road system in the state, has collaborated with cities and towns within its borders.
While past projects have focused on beautifying specific roadways, the Manning Avenue project goes much further. This project will include modifying policies and procedures considered obstacles to the creation of industrial and commercial sites along the roadway; identifying development standards to give each community its own identity; synchronizing traffic lights and accommodations for mass transit; and improving rural transit.

• According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, about 50,000 property owners in southeast LOS ANGELES COUNTY will no longer be forced by the federal government to maintain flood insurance now that a $210 million restoration project along the Los Angeles River is complete.
The project, completed five years early and $154 million under budget, reduced the flood risk for property owners in 11 cities and unincorporated county areas.
Since 1998, about 250,000 property owners have paid an estimated $22 million for the mandated insurance. When the Army Corps of engineers said the lower river could not contain a so-called 100-year flood, FEMA maps were redrawn to indicate the risk and lenders insisted on insurance with annual premiums of about $400 a year.
Many policyholders considered the premiums a “flood tax” and constantly badgered politicians.
Championed by local politicians including County Supervisor Don Knabe, the restoration project called for raising the riverbanks, or levees, by four feet or more on each side. The work was conducted by the Corps of Engineers and workers from the county department of public works.

FLORIDA
It’s not every day a county department is faced with the “dilemma” of spending millions of available dollars on an assortment of projects, but that’s just what the BROWARD COUNTY Housing Authority is facing.
The $3.3 million available comes from federal allocations for Section 8 housing vouchers since the 1970s. The amount received by the county has surpassed the amount going to help people with housing. Now, with more than $13.3 million reserved, the Authority has approved spending a portion of the money.
Some of the proposed expenditures include central air conditioning for public units; landscaping improvements; handheld computers for managers and property inspectors; reading programs; and purchasing additional property after selling some properties to permanent tenants.

MICHIGAN
• The Michigan Association of Counties (MAC) is no longer meeting face to face with members from GENESEE COUNTY. Instead, with the help of the Michigan State University Extension’s videoconferencing system, the Genesee council was able to receive an up-to-the-minute legislative report in addition to an open question and answer session.
MSU Extension offices throughout the state received the necessary video conferencing equipment in an attempt to enhance technology and communication. The county department heads took advantage of the Extension office’s location across the street from their usual meeting location to include MAC in recent meetings.

• Armed deputies will soon replace unarmed security guards in several OTTAWA COUNTY courthouses. At a cost of $324,000 annually, five, non-certified officers will protect the courthouses in Grand Haven, Holland and Hudsonville.
Two deputies will replace the private security firm at Grand Haven working the entrance to the building and roaming the building. Two deputies will also be assigned to the Holland district courthouse and one deputy will split time between the Hudsonville and Fillmore Street complex courthouses.
Because the officers are non-certified, they do not have the power to make arrests, however, judges in the courthouse can instruct the deputies to make arrests.

NEW YORK
Recently, SUFFOLK COUNTY Executive Robert Gaffney and Presiding Officer Paul Tonna signed new local legislation that will toughen existing regulations against distributing free tobacco products in public places countywide.
The law prohibits the distribution of free promotional samples of cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, powdered tobacco, herbal cigarettes or other tobacco products to any person, adult or minor, within the county.
Tonna introduced the resolution in August after a tobacco company contacted the Department of Health Services regarding plans to distribute free cigarettes in county bars. The goal of the bill was to extend the county’s original 1990 ban to cover adults as well as minors in a more stringent manner. The only exceptions to the ban now are distribution at private, social functions and coupons redeemable by individuals in face-to-face transactions where age can be verified.
In his 2002 budget, Gaffney dedicated $3.3 million of the county’s share of the national tobacco settlement to the Department of Health Service’s comprehensive tobacco control program.

OHIO
• While many counties have increased the shifts of sheriff’s deputies to 12-hour shifts in wake of the terrorist events of Sept. 11, the GEAUGA COUNTY recently instituted 12-hour shifts as a way to save money.
When the county commissioners cut 5 percent from the budget, the department suddenly had to find ways to save $300,000. By changing the schedules to two shifts per day (5 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 5 a.m.), the department was able to eliminate part-time overlap help at a savings of $40,000.
And the deputies, who actually suggested the change in shifts, are enjoying the benefits their new working hours provide.
“I really enjoy it,” Lt. Tom McCaffrey told a local television station. “Although it’s a lot of work — 12 hours — you get a lot of time off, which I can spend with my kid.”
Currently, the idea is on trial and if, in six months the program is still working and creating savings, the eight-hour workday will be eliminated entirely.

• While the odds are great that many county employees were among the thousands who carried the Olympic torch on its way to Salt Lake City, HAMILTON COUNTY gave County News a heads up about one of its very own torchbearers. Lois Smith, administrative technician at the Millcreek Treatment Plant Central Maintained Facility, was one of the torchbearers for Cincinnati on Dec. 18 in the Salt Lake Olympic Torch Relay. Smith was selected based on her participation in numerous community activities and services.
Smith has always taken an active role at MSD (Metropolitan Sewer District) fund drives such as United Way and the Saint Nicholas Brigade. She walked for multiple sclerosis (MS) for the past 11 years and is one of the top 50 contribution collectors in the southwest region. This year Smith collected $1,800 of which she credits the majority to her fellow MSD employees.

OREGON
Farmers in KLAMATH COUNTY are concerned that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has not released an operating plan for the 2002 season despite a snowpack that is 131 percent of normal.
In early summer 2001 (County News June 18, 2001), a drought forced the Bureau to cut off irrigation water to 220,000 acres of farmland in the Klamath Reclamation Project irrigation system. According to the Bureau, there was not enough water for both irrigation and fulfilling the Endangered Species Act, which mandates the protection for endangered suckers and threatened coho salmon.
In a move that prompted the posting of federal police at the irrigation canal, protestors ignored federal no-trespassing signs and pried open the headgates.
Because the Bureau has yet to release the irrigation plan, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service cannot issue biological opinions. These opinions could begin a fresh battle between conservationists and farmers.
Klamath Water Users Association Executive Director Dan Keppen said he hopes the delay indicates that the agencies involved are taking a wider view of the implications of their decisions but that ultimately, Keppen said it’s hard to get a clear assessment of where they stand on this year’s water availability.
One thing is certain though; the Klamath county farmers now have the ear of President George W. Bush. On a recent flight on Air Force One, Rep. Greg Walden and Sen. Gordon Smith spent one hour of the two hours allotted with the president, discussing the water situation.

TEXAS
The EL PASO COUNTY Commissioners Court is considering giving disabled homeowners a break on their property taxes.
The proposed changes would raise the county’s residential homestead exemption for the disabled — not including those with military service-connected disabilities — from $15,000 to $20,000. These changes would make the exemption for the disabled the same as the exemption for homeowners older than 65.
Several commissioners appear ready to pass the changes, but County Judge Dolores Briones is worried how the changes may affect the local hospital and wants a legal opinion from the county attorney’s office first.
The county collects nearly $65 million in property taxes a year and would lose about $81,000 by raising the current exemption for the disabled to $20,000.

WASHINGTON
A new master plan for the Off-Road Vehicle Sports Park in THURSTON COUNTY that is intended to make the park self-sustaining in five years, could actually force some park-goers to stay away.
The plan suggests reducing the number of organized events by more than half as well as increase use fees, invest in improvements to the park and increase promotion to the park.
The park receives about $100,000 a year in state grants, but county officials worry, that in light of the current economy, the grants may be cut.
“We’ve been on the brink of closure, and that’s one of the things we want to address with this master plan process,” County Parks Director Michael Welter told The Olympian.
The proposed plan was met with opposition from many frequent users who said the plan would alter the character of the park and push away dedicated users who volunteer time to improve the park.
“We needed a master plan, but I’m feeling this master plan is not a good one,” said Angie Mareck, a member of the Pacific Northwest 4-Wheel Drive Association.
County commissioners will consider public testimony as they review the proposed master plan and whether to adopt it. In the meantime, park officials say they are holding off scheduling some events for the park this year.

(News from the Nation’s Counties is compiled by M. Mindy Moretti, senior staff writer. If you have news, please call (202) 942-4223 or e-mail mmoretti@naco.org.)