CVRA Interview: Steve Jesberg

Gina Velez, CVRA Capitola Village Residents’ Association

As of late, Steve Jesberg’s work days have been consumed by the “new” lower Pacific Cove parking lot that begins construction October 1st. Steve is not directly involved in the General Plan, but his position does have some cross-over involvement.

Who is Steve Jesberg? He is the Director of Public Works here in Capitola. Native born, graduating from the University of the Pacific, Steve has served our beautiful community for 12 years. His basic job fundamentals include working on continuous city improvements (public buildings, transport infrastructure, public spaces/services), overseeing the daily maintenance (city lights, graffiti management), reviewing schedules, reports and of course; managing his e-mails.

I asked Steve, “Where do the funds come from for these projects?” The answer is the “General Fund”. Yes, some are grants, but no consistent dedicated funding besides some small gas and hotel taxes that just about cover the maintenance and operational expenses. However, now with the recent passing of Measure “O” last November we are now seeing funds to pave roads! This is quite a change from the lack of budget having paving needs with no schedule or funding, which we’ve experienced in the past.

There is always more information available at the Public Works site at www.cityofcapitola.org/general/page/public-works-home

Now, what about undergrounding of utilities I asked, and to my delight there are funds allocated for our city at PG&E under 20A. What is 20A? 20A is Electric Undergrounding for areas of a community that are used most by the general public. Under 20A designed and constructed by PG&E, we expect plans starting at Bay/Porter, near Gayle’s Bakery, followed by a few blocks of Bay/Monterey. It can take up to 3-5 years for the entire scope to be completed

Now for all of those interested residential homeowners that wish their power was underground, we fall under 20B which are usually completed with larger developments. In the end the majority of the costs are paid by the developer or the applicant over the selected term agreement and can be safely estimated at $500 a linear foot and if you have 1,000 linear feet that’s a cool ½ million, so for those curious it really will take some work on your part as well as an overall YES consensus from your block, just image adding some dollars to that existing 20 or 30 year home loan! Looking at my block, it’s about $17,000 per person. There’s even a 20C that allows the individual to burden the complete expense.

You can find more undergrounding information at www.pge.com/myhome/customerservice/energystatus/street construction/rule20/

I want to thank Steve Jesberg for his time and his service to our community!

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www.CapitolaCVRA.org