County to build Nisqualli

VICTORVILLE • It’s official: San Bernardino County’s transportation board SANBAG will take over building the La Mesa/Nisqualli interchange.

After more than two decades of planning, that means crews should break ground on the project this fall and drivers should be able to access Interstate 15 at La Mesa and Nisqualli roads by late 2013.

Victorville’s City Council agreed to hand the project over to SANBAG on Tuesday night in spite of words of caution from staff and opposition from two council members due to the risk the deal poses to the city’s finances.

Per the approved agreement, Victorville will have to immediately deposit $10 million into a joint escrow account to help kick off construction of the $59 million project.

The city will use 20 percent of the cash it has in all of its pooled funds to make that payment, even as staff is proposing layoffs and cuts to services to close an $8 million operating deficit. Victorville will also have to once again borrow restricted funds from itself — a move auditors have repeatedly cautioned against.

The Council also agreed that, if the city doesn’t bring in enough development impact fees to meet required deposits into that escrow account until the project is paid off in seven years or so, Victorville will forfeit all of the $3 million in Measure I tax revenue it receives annually through SANBAG to help maintain local roads.

Deputy City Manager Doug Robertson said he’d analyzed projected revenues and expects the city will be able to get through the project “without dipping too far” into its street maintenance fund or having “a material affect” on the city’s ability to keep up its roads.

For more on the county's takeover of the interchange project, see Thursday's Daily Press. Get complete stories every day with the "exactly as printed" Daily Press E-edition, only $5 per month! Click here to try it free for 7 days. To subscribe to the Daily Press in print or online, call (760) 241-7755, 1-800-553-2006 or click here.