Stockton engineer takes flood-control gate fight to public
By Alex Breitler, The Record, Stockton, Calif. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
While
Gulli, a
Instead of the gate, Gulli wants to improve the levee on the north side of the canal from the
"I'm probably stepping on a lot of toes," Gulli said at a lightly attended public meeting he organized Thursday. "I don't know why I'm doing this. My mentors say, 'Let it die, let it die. Don't be involved. It's not your battle.' But I always felt there was a need."
Gulli is a late arrival to the
But Gulli warns the gate will be "ugly" and will cause problems for a small number of residents in the Atherton Cove area, near the mouth of the canal. The gate would harm water quality in the cove, he said, and create an "aesthetically displeasing" structure that will probably attract graffiti artists. He warns of problems with fish, exotic weeds, and the difficulty of acquiring rights-of-way on particularly expensive properties.
Gulli calls his campaign "Save Dad's Point," referring to the spit of land at
Gulli declined after Thursday's meeting to say how much he is spending overall. Asked if anyone else was involved, he said, "It's just me."
The publicity comes at a sensitive time. Officials who have worked to refine the gate proposal for at least six years are pursuing state funding. They say they're worried Gulli's campaign might create the impression the community is not unified on a solution.
And that means mandatory flood insurance for thousands in surrounding low-lying neighborhoods.
After a string of public meetings about the gate idea, residents last year grudgingly agreed to assess themselves to raise money to build it. Paying for a permanent fix would be better, many homeowners felt, than paying flood insurance for decades to come.
With their approval, the
Instead, the
Giottonini, formerly the director of Public Works in
"You think you're never going to be surprised, and then you get surprised," Giottonini said Friday. "I just hope the agreements we have with everybody to move this thing forward don't come unwound. We could save Dad's Point and stop the gate, but 8,000 homes would stay in the flood plain."
He said any perceived uncertainty about which solution is best could make it more difficult to secure state funds, which the plan relies upon in addition to money from property owners.
Meanwhile, Guilli's idea of bolstering the north levee poses problems of its own.
Gulli would basically build a wall on the water side of the canal. He would dredge the channel and fill in the space behind the wall with the dredged material, making the existing levee wider.
But he admits it's difficult to get permits to dredge.
Also, residents have boat docks up and down
And as the levee grows, the canal itself would become more narrow, which boaters might not like.
But perhaps the most serious issue, Giottonini said, is that improving the north bank does nothing about the south bank of
"I don't know what he gains by fixing just the north levee as opposed to the south levee," Giottonini said. "Everybody seems to get that. Dominick doesn't get that."
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