KBUU NewsScript Fri Nov 19 – Caltrans Gives Malibu 2 Choices: Loud Construction Noise for 141 Nights, or Major Daytime Delays For 322 Days?

=.  Red Flag Warnings likely Sunday and Monday … but no power cuts planned in Malibu.

=. 14 employees are fired by the Santa Monica Malibu School District ,,, vaccine refusal suspected. 

=.  A Malibu lawyer may short circuit the school district independence drive,.

=   Kevin Shenkman files a petition to give Malibu a voting district ,,, but still within there Santa Monica school district. 

=.  Malibu has to make a choice … and Caltrans wants to know what you thin …

=.  Major PCH delays for a year … or keep Big Rock beach residents awake at night for half that time. 

Malibu’s Only Local Daily News … from Radio Malibu  …. F-M 99 point 1 K B U U. Good morning … I’m Hans Laetz reporting.

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Pick your poison.

Caltrans has a huge project coming up that is going to affect every single person in Malibu.

The state highway department has a chunk of highway that has been undermined by wave action.

This is just east of the Big Rock traffic signal… In eastern Malibu.

Waves have washed away the beach and undercut the bench that supports the highway.

Not just the pavement … but also natural gas supply lines and the power poles that deliver electricity and communications are in danger.

It’s going to take the state about a year to install a vertical steel and cement wall to protect the highway.

But before that heavy construction can begin … the gas company needs to move the pipe that supplies natural gas to Malibu across the highway … inland and away from the waves.

Same story for the power lines and communications fiber optic lines … up on the poles.

Caltrans needs to put them underground on the other side of the highway.

And here’s where the picking your poison part comes in.

If that utility relocation project is done at night… It will take 141 days and nights… and it will be quite noisy.

But if the utility crews work during the day… It will take 311 days… more than double…

And during much of that longer time period … traffic will be scrunched into very narrow lanes with a 25 mile an hour speed limit.

So the choices are two …  delay traffic daytimes for 311 days … or keep neighbors awake for 141 nights.

The state will take a survey … an online poll … to see if Malibu residents would rather have the big traffic delays for 311 days to do the work in the daytime … or do the the very noisy work in half the time at night.

Caltrans project manager Bart Gunter hosted a community outreach meeting last night.

NEWSCART 73895 CALTRANS BART GUNTER

“When this project is complete the stretch of PCH will no longer be at risk from erosion damage from the high intensity waves. The community’s gas lines and overhead lines will then no longer be overhead and at the same risk of erosion damage. In the coming days Caltrans plans to launch a community survey to determine community opinion regarding night work and they work from the utility relocations.”

So the survey will be … make noise at night for 141 nights … or put up with a daytime traffic jam near big Rock for 311 days.

Pick your poison.

 

An approaching weather system is going to be much stronger than originally thought… And we may get red flag warnings in two days.

There is a fire weather watch in effect beginning Sunday morning for Malibu and the Santa Monica Mountains.

Northeast winds between 35 to 55 miles an hour may hit our local area humidity will be very low down around 10%.

 red flag conditions are likely in Los Angeles County beginning on Sunday morning and lasting Monday afternoon.

PS PS warnings are up for some areas north of Malibu … but no intetnetiojnal power outage warnings have been issued for this side of the hill.

Southern California Edison says they may cut the power in Camarillo and Simi Valley if the winds reach predicted speeds Sunday and Monday.

Fire danger will be extreme.

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14 employees of the Santa Monica Malibu school district were fired last night.  Story posted separately.

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A Malibu lawyer with a history of throwing a wrench into local politics may have done it again.

Kevin Shenkman wants to split the Santa Monica Malibu school district into seven voting districts. Story posted separately.

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A Cal-OSHA board is holding off on requiring workers in large California companies get vaccinated or regularly tested for the coronavirus, citing the court’s recent ruling temporarily blocking a similar proposed federal mandate. 

California has now reported 5 million coronavirus cases, a sobering total that underscores the pervasiveness of the COVID-19 pandemic during its nearly two-year rampage through the state.

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In news from up the coast … local native Americans want the nearest Spanish mission to Malibu to commemorate the estimated 3 thousand graves of Native American buried beneath a church office building.

This is at Mission Basilica San Buenaventura … 30 miles up the coast from Malibu … in downtown Ventura.

Spanish Franciscans documented the deaths of the Chumash and others … an estimated 3,000 were buried on mission grounds.

The Ventura County Star notes that 

But visitors touring the 239-year-old Mission Basilica San Buenaventura in downtown Ventura today can see no evidence of their graves. A church office building sits on top of them.

“I feel sad that they went unmarked, that they went unrecognized,”said Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, a Chumash tribal leader and chairwoman of the Barbareño/Ventureño Band of Mission Indians.’

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The Santa Monica Mountains are overrun with more than 300 non-native, highly flammable, invasive plant species that are pushing out native vegetation. 

You can thank the Woolsey Figure for that.

Tomorrow … you have the chance toheklpf plant trees to to combat the spread of non-native plants.

Also … to help prevent future fires and preserve the fragile ecosystem in the Malibu region. 

The Malibu Foundation and the National Park Service, will join forces with a skin care company called Clarins …

Have a project tomorrow. 

It’s

for the second annual community Replant Love event at Paramount Ranch from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm on November 20, 2021. 

The mission: to advance biodiversity by replanting more than 5,000 native trees and plants lost in the Woosley Fire in 2018 on the day of the event, and 5,000+ in the months to come.

Evelin Weber, chair of the Malibu Foundation.

She says “The Woosley Fire had a major impact on our Malibu home, and the biodiversity of the area. We look forward to working with the Malibu community to replenish native trees, plants and seeds that will help reduce the carbon footprint, restore native vegetation to Malibu’s mountain range, and protect the area from future wildfires.”

The Monarch Butterfly, a local species, has also taken a toll from the wildfire devastation. Replant love will create butterfly way stations, a diverse set of plants, including milkweed, that support the survival of the species.