By Zach Friend, Supervisor, Second District
As I begin each new year as your County Supervisor, I like to report back in this column on some of the things we’ve accomplished because of your partnership and communication of priorities.
The year 2021, like much of 2020, was remarkably challenging. With many in our community rebuilding from the CZU fires, students and teachers balancing the challenges of distance learning and reintegrating to school, hospitals and health clinics facing strains, nonprofit and faith partners seeing demand for safety net services increase, it’s clear many in our community have been directly impacted by the pandemic and will be for some time.
While the past year was a challenge, as a community we still accomplished a lot. Here is a very small overview of what was accomplished in our district in 2021 and a window into what we will continue to work on, together, in 2022.
Improving Mid and South County Access
The past year has highlighted significant inequities in access to services for residents of our district — in particular in the southern section of the county and the rural areas. This includes everything from a lack of reliable high-speed internet connection for school, remote work or tele-health and also poor cell coverage and capacity — but also a general lack of access to County services.
In 2021, we took steps to address these issues. First, the County purchased a new South County Service Center — in essence a new County government building similar to the one in downtown Santa Cruz. The new center, on Westridge Drive in Watsonville, is expected to open in about a year and will bring County services to residents in the southern and mid-county areas in ways never previously experienced.
This will save on commutes and provide direct access to health, human services, public safety and many other services.
On the connectivity front, the County approved a framework for a streamlining of local codes dealing with cell and wireless communication services — in order to significantly improve the coverage and capacity throughout our County.
While it will take some time for those advances to be fully realized, this is a major step toward improving cell service in our region. For improved internet service, the County allocated some of the Federal recovery funding toward expanding broadband to rural areas (with the build-out of those locations to be announced in early 2022) and we anticipate using additional funding from the infrastructure bill to do even more.
Local Roads
Measure D work continued this year on Pleasant Valley and some areas in Corralitos. Additionally, new pedestrian, ADA and speed mitigation improvements near Rio Del Mar Elementary have begun including new crosswalks and ADA upgrades, speed tables and more in the surrounding neighborhood.
Some new beacon crosswalks are planned with grant funding submitted for some in Rio Del Mar (near Deer Park), Seacliff and on Soquel near Rancho Del Mar Shopping Center.
Storm damage repairs have continued, including awarding the contract for the (long overdue) repairs to the fence over Highway 1 on the overcrossing (between State Park and Rio Del Mar Blvd). That work will require the closing of Highway 1 during the repairs but I know many in our community are looking forward to having that completed.
Additionally, storm damage work along Valencia and San Andreas continues and work on Cox Road, Pleasant Valley, Huntington, Green Valley and some on Trout Gulch was completed. With our securing of $107 million in State Congested Corridors funding there will be significant improvements on Soquel (for bike and pedestrians), the new Mar Vista bike/pedestrian overcrossing will become a reality and additional auxiliary lanes on Highway 1 (some of this work will begin this year).
Flood Control
Significant progress has been made on the Pajaro River levee project. 
In partnership with the State we successfully secured a $181 million investment from the State for the local share of the flood control project.
This is the largest investment, from any state, in a levee project like this one.
We’ve hosted regular visits from senior members of the D.C. Army Corps Headquarters and regional office, and met virtually with Congressional, White House and State partners essential to the funding of the project.
Additional federal funds were allocated this year to work on the design phase. This is without question the most progress toward levee construction that has been seen in nearly 60 years.
Parks
Even during the pandemic, significant investments in our parks continued. Safe and accessible parks are an integral part of community mental and physical health.
As part of a private/public partnership, and in honor of Jett Ramsey, we were able to remodel (and improve accessibility at) Hidden Beach Park.
Approximately 6,500 square feet of new turf was installed at Seacliff Village Park — part of generous contributions from the community to the County Parks Friends to create a community grass area at the park.
Additionally, we approved the purchase of 38.5 acres of land adjacent to the Fairgrounds — with the intent of turning it into a County park. This would be the largest investment in south county parks in a generation.
Community Meetings and Outreach
In 2021, we continued our virtual town halls and community meetings (with some in-person community meetings as well). Community and neighborhood meetings were held in Seacliff, La Selva, Rio Del Mar, Watsonville, Capitola and Corralitos.
In addition, I’ve written approximately 50 columns in local papers and neighborhood newsletters to communicate with our district about county happenings while maintaining social media presence to share information about our district.
Libraries
Major steps have been taken toward fulfilling the promises of Measure S.
The La Selva and Capitola Branch libraries reopened after a stunning remodels and the Aptos Branch has closed with construction expected to begin in the first quarter of 2022.
Moving Forward
The above is just a partial list of what has been accomplished this year and I know there is a lot more to do on all of these issues in 2022. As we continue to address the pandemic — and the social and economic challenges it has created — we continue to advocate to ensure that local businesses, students and our community in general have the help they need from our state and federal partners.
Additionally, we know we have a lot of work ahead of us to ensure those displaced by the fires have safe housing and the support they need to rebuild and that those impacted by the constant PG&E outages have more reliable power moving forward.
This past year we estimate that as an office we received over 20,000 emails and calls from constituents and the community-at-large, many with requests for service on COVID-related issues, road issues, neighborhood public safety concerns, storm damage, environmental issues, PG&E outages health and human services, technology services and more.
•••
As always, I appreciate your feedback. I’m maintaining regular updates on social media at www.facebook.com/supervisorfriend and you can always call me at 454-2200.