For going on three* years L.A. County and Kern County each said that the other is responsible for repairing the degraded roadway at the border between the two counties;  then they said they were going to fix it together. Here’s the latest chapter in the “Hot Potato Pothole Caper”

By Patric Hedlund

In September 2014 Supervisor David Couch’s office wrote to constituents about their frequent calls to report dangerous potholes at the intersection of Peace Valley Road and Frazier Mountain Park Road, which is also a boundary between Kern and Los Angeles Counties.

On December 10, 2014 Mark C. Salvaggio sent “our Friends in the Mountain Communities” a letter from Nydia Rivas and Bob Holmes of L.A. County’s Department of Public Works to Ryan Shultz saying [as written]: “The portion of Frazier Mtn Pk Rd that is between Motocross Rd and approximately 1880’ west of Peace Valley Rd is scheduled for reconstruction in 2016. The project is currently in the design stages and will be a joint project between Los Angeles County and Kern County.”

Twelve months later, on September 17, 2015 another “Your Supervisor David Couch and staff continue to work at doing some improvements in your communities” letter from
Salvaggio said: “We have not forgotten the bad road condition at the intersection of Frazier Park Mountain Road/Lebec Road/Pearce [sic] Valley Road. We intend to fill in the numerous cracks and holes and put some asphalt over the top. Please be patient with us, as County Roads is behind on its other road projects due to spending the past 8 weeks dealing with storms….”

On January 26, 2016 Salvaggio wrote, “Please do not think for one moment that your Supervisor David Couch will not fight to get the Frazier Park Mountain Road, Lebec Road Peace Valley Road intersection blade and cheap [sic] sealed in the Spring.” He added that “Funding will be cut from County Roads to the tune of $10 million but fixing this intersection is a high priority for us and you.”

Nancy Rogers’ campaign

Nancy Rogers is a personnel manager who commutes from her home in Pine Mountain to Los Angeles, passing the intersection at least 40 times a month. She called L.A. County first thing Monday morning, March 28, 2016—19 months after Salvaggio’s first PR letter to Mountain Community constituents—to see if the two counties are on track for that promised spring 2016 repair project. Then she called to ask if The Mountain Enterprise would follow up. We did.

Los Angeles County’s Position

On Tuesday, March 29 we received this letter from Steven Frasher on behalf of L.A. County’s Public Works Department:

“The status of Frazier Mountain Park Road is unique. Portions of Frazier Mountain Park Road near Lebec are in both L.A. and Kern counties.

“An L.A. County Board of Supervisors resolution (Ordinance 11508) adopted March 31, 1977 transferred the portions of Frazier Mountain Park Road within L.A. County to Kern County, to ‘improve and thereafter maintain’ Frazier Mountain Park Road between the Golden State Freeway (Interstate 5) and the Ventura County line.

“Kern County obtained and holds the right-of-way for the road. Essentially, the portions of the road that are within the boundaries of L.A. County are nonetheless owned by Kern County.

“This agreement wasn’t necessarily known by persons undertaking early work on the intersection. The status of the road was made clear during routine research of ordinances applicable to the road.

“Results of early studies conducted by L.A. County Public Works engineers were forwarded to Kern County Road Maintenance when it was discovered that L.A. County doesn’t have jurisdiction over Frazier Mountain Park Road.

“The road is the responsibility of Kern County.”

Frasher went on to reply to Nancy Rogers’ question about revenues, saying gas tax revenues are distributed by a formula based on miles of county-maintained road. Each county reports this mileage to the state annually. “Changes in status are reported and fund distribution is adjusted,” L.A. County’s Frasher reported.

We asked Kern County Supervisor David Couch to comment. You can see his reply here.

A full 32 months later, it appears the hot potato pothole caper is back to square one.

*NOTE TO OUR READERS: This has actually been going on since 2013, according to a new search of our archives, so the problem has been bouncing between Supervisor David Couch’s office and L.A. County for over 32 months—going on three years. This update was added on April 16, 2016. Please also see an update story on this subject, with comment from Suprvsr. Couch, which was published on April 14, 2016.

Photo captions:

Potholes are reaching epic scale near Flying J in Lebec at the intersection of Peace Valley Road and Frazier Mountain Park Road

For two years L.A. County and Kern County each said the other is responsible, then they were going to fix it together. Here’s the latest chapter in the “Hot Potato
Pothole Caper”

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This is part of the April 1, 2016 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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