LIVE OAK, CA (MPG) – With the political season gearing up, Live Oak City Council was asked to address the issue of regulating campaign signage.

Last political cycle, the City of Live Oak encountered many issues regarding political sign postings throughout the city. Current city coding ordinances do not establish any regulations for sign posting and defers to State regulations. Live Oak Planning Commission asked the council to consider imposing a limit to signs of a specific size, per candidate or measure, throughout the city. The Planning Commission also pointed out that a temporary sign permit would be required, changing the City’s current policies and potentially requiring more staff time. In contrast, the City would be able to charge fees and assign responsibility of maintenance and removal to the posters.

At this time, the congestion due to the Hwy-99 widening project, continuous construction and overall changing state of the main drag through Live Oak, improper placement of political signage could potentially cause more issues. Among some of the issues the City of Live Oak experienced during the last political cycle, was that of larger campaign signs reportedly blocking the views of vehicles. Letters written to the candidates asking them to reposition the signs yielded no results. Safety during the construction is of highest import to the City.

Ultimately, the Council voted against imposing new sign regulations. State regulations will still apply to the postings, but the City does not feel it is in their interest at the moment to make major ordinance changes to regulate placement and numbers.

Second topic of major concern was the City’s lift stations.

Council heard a report from City Engineer Bill Lewis and received a written evaluation of his findings from Director of Public Works, Ron R. Walker Jr.

Upon touring the stations and conducting visual inspections of the waste-water lift stations, 2 stations were in need of complete replacement – P street and Pennington; 1 in need of major rehabilitation – Peach Street; 1 in need of moderate rehabilitation - Ash Street with the 3 other stations being of less concern.

The report from City Engineer Lewis found that the stations at P Street and Pennington have exceeded their life-span. P Street currently does not have an emergency lift station and should its main pump go down, the City would have a big problem on its hands. Other concerns were that the Pennington Lift station needs to be relocated as it is currently located next to the middle school. None of the stations in the city can currently meet peak flow if one of the pumps on an individual lift station were to fail. Lewis estimates that the total cost for replacement, repair and maintenance of the lift stations would be around 3.5 million dollars.

Mayor Ghag stated that the information was a lot to digest and that the council was not aware of the lift station issues. The Council intends to follow up on the issue in later meetings and discuss their options.