Good News, Bad News at Healdsburg City Council's First 2012 Meeting Tuesday

Expect Tuesday night's first meeting of 2012 to be packed with triumphs, new beginnings and the continuing snafu over redevelopment funds.

The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at , 401 Grove St.  Click here to see the agenda.

In late December, . Although the issue is absent from the agenda, Healdsburg city officials have not yet said publicly how the ruling, issued in the last week of December, would impact Healdsburg. City offices were closed after Dec. 23 for the holidays.

Meanwhile, among the new beginnings -- although the agenda also doesn't mention it -- a first order of business is likely to be the swearing-in of and Vice Mayor Susan Jones. Both are former staffers -- Plass a retired police sergeant and Jones a retired Healdsburg police chief.

Plass, who was Vice Mayor last year, will take the gavel from Jones was

Elsewere, in the triumphs department, council will elaborate on exciting news last month that the state has approved money to rehabilitate

That was after months of ups and downs during which time the state OK'd money for the bridge's seismic retrofit, but then balked at the rehabilitation project, saying the aging span was

of the grassroots group Friends of the Healdsburg Memorial Bridge that was instrumental in saving the bridge from destruction in September 2010, said he believes the original estimates on annual maintenance costs for the rehabilitated bridge are too high.

said that the rehab money was conditioned on a city commitment to spend between $160,000 to $200,000 annually on maintenance.  Amato said the city's maintenance schedule  showed it was closer to $134,000 annually (see agenda item for Tuesday night).

He said some of the future expected maintenance projects actually should be classified as rehab work and thus could be eligible for new grant money reimbursement instead of city expenses.

"The proposed detailed maintenance schedule actually adds up to $134,000," Amato said in his comments posted on Healdsburg Patch.

"In my view, the (maintenance cost) is overstated since it includes a major painting recoat in 20 years and 40 years at $500,000 each," Amato said. "It also includes a stripping and recoating of the complaete painting system in 60 years at $1,900,000.

These are all at today’s costs and are assumed to increase at a rate of 2.75 percent per year," Amato added.

"The proposed annual cost (sinking fund for future maintenance) would also increase each year at the same 2.75 percent rate," he said.

"In my view, these two major tasks are actually not maintenance but can be considered as rehabilitation tasks in year 21, year 41 and year 60," he said. "They comprise 53 percent of the claimed annual maintenance costs.

"Since they are major rehabilitation tasks, federal grants could be applied for in years 21, 41 and 60 so that the actual annual maintenance costs would be much less," Amato added.

An article in the Press Democrat says the total Healdsburg Memorial Bridge restoration cost is in the area of $12 million to $13 million. To see the article, click here.