Lots of e-mails on Road 16 > Rexroad.com

Over the last several days I have gotten probably a dozen e-mails from people opposed to an application to abandon part of Road 16.

The area in question is somewhere few people drive. The way to get there is to go out the River Road (Main Street) and turn left just after you pass the Elkhorn Exit for I-5 North. You turn left and go up to where the old Elkhorn Ferry used to land and then head north and drive along the levee for several miles.

Road 16 runs East/West between the Sacramento River levee to an area out near the Freemont Weir.

Actually - not too far from there is where Freemont was established - the first community in Yolo County.

The people at Wildlands, Inc. own all of the land on both sides of the road and all around the area. They bought the land from Layton Knaggs' estate.

Bird watchers, people who fish, and hikers want to access the Fremont Weir area. They argue that this is the easiest way to access this property from the east. True. It is the easiest way.

The people at Wildlands see a road that runs through their property. They have problems with people stealing and destroying farm equipment. They also point to problems with people with questionable activities in the area.

I drove out there myself about two months ago. As I was approaching the levee at the west end of the road I noticed a small Honda that was lowered. It was on top of the levee. Four adult males were standing around the car discussing things using the hood for a table. They saw me coming and got in the car. As I approached the levee they waited to see what side I would go up and they immediately went down the other side. These four men probably were not bird watching.

Here is the issue for me. We have 794 miles of road the county maintains. You can read about it here. This is the staff report for an item on the agenda on Tuesday. If you really get into it you can see a document with supporting information on the county website too.

794 miles of roads. I am guessing that some of these miles are serving only one land owner. For example -- I think the county maintains the road going out to Conaway Ranch. Why do we want to use taxpayer dollars to provide a nice road for the people of Conaway Ranch to drive on? I really don't. I want to focus the resources on roads we all drive on.

I am guessing that this effort to abandon this road will not pass. However, we need to look at getting some of these road miles off the books if possible.

Some people will argue that we need to keep as many public roads as possible to provide access. At some point we need to decide that if you really want to get out to a certain location you might actually need to walk out there without being able to drive right to the point you want.

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