Ruiz funds, talks about infrastructure with Pass area leaders

Congressman Raul Ruiz (D-La Quinta) visited Beaumont last week following a recent procurement of $10 million for infrastructure-related projects in the San Gorgonio Pass area.

On March 25 he joined city leaders from Banning and Beaumont at Beaumont city hall to get feedback on the cities' intentions, following the March 9 finalization of allocations from the House Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed last November.

Among 10 projects championed by Ruiz include $1.25 million for Banning to fund improvements at their wastewater treatment facility, and $1.5 million for Beaumont's efforts to widen Pennsylvania Avenue.

Loma Linda University Health center received $1 million to fund construction of its 8,000 square-foot federally qualified health center in the Coachella Valley; the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition was earmarked $500,000 to rehabilitate and renovate their service center; and the Coachella Valley Water District receives $2.7 million to fund the Avenue 66 Clean Water Project's new water transmission line.

Beaumont Mayor Lloyd White, a candidate for county supervisor, and Councilman Mike Lara joined Banning Mayor Pro Tem Colleen Wallace and City Manager Doug Schulze in chatting with Ruiz as he affirmed where his funding was headed.

White explained in more detail as to how the city wants to add an on and off ramp to the Interstate 10 freeway along Pennsylvania Avenue, since ramps currently only exist on the east side of the street.

The widening of the street and addition of ramps would alleviate congestion on Highland Springs Avenue, White said.

"We started the design; this frees up a good deal of funds for other projects," White said. "We're hoping to start construction at the end of this year and complete it in about 18 months."

For Banning, Schulze explained that the city would use its allocation for an equalization basin adjacent to its existing wastewater treatment plant, which is currently at-risk to overflow in heavy inclement weather.

The city, Schulze explained, wants to avert an environmental disaster should such an overflow affect nearby Smith Creek.

"It's not one of those sexy projects," Schulze joked.

"We're talking about wastewater — there's really nothing sexy about it," Ruiz, who is a medical doctor, chimed in, "but it's very necessary to help prevent a public health emergency and reduce the likelihood of gastrointestinal issues."

Schulze said that his city's project is shovel-ready and, after going out to bid, could probably be finished within six to nine months.

Ruiz told city representatives "I like to hear how it's going to change and improve lives. This will avert a public health crisis," and as for Beaumont, funding "will help with a safety issue and give the city the ability to relieve congestion. We all know how terrible it is to sit in traffic, especially when you're trying to get to a meeting," a jab at the fact that traffic caused him to be several minutes late for his meeting at the civic center.

It was also important to the congressman that reducing congestion would also help reduce air pollution, noting that freeways tended to go through poverty-stricken segments of communities, affecting Black and Hispanic communities.

Mayor Pro Tem Wallace asked Ruiz's opinion on warehouses, in light of her city's recent nod to the Banning Point logistics center across the street from the Sun Lakes Country Club retirement community.

"The community needs to have input of what they want in an area," Ruiz said. "There's a lot of pristine land people want to retire to " in the Pass area, "and we want to make sure warehouses are not near residential areas to add noise and pollution and add to everyday commutes, or be near schools, " he said. "No doubt the I-10 corridor is a major artery for transportation of goods, but we need to be smart and look at logistics in the area, and address those risks: make sure they are green facilities" whose environmental impact is mitigated, with options for electric energy stations, for instance, and a reduction of risk for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease associated with air pollution.

"We have a major infrastructure problem in the U.S.," Ruiz said, since the country needs to not only "get us up to current standards, which requires a lot of resources, but we need to plan for the infrastructure of the future, 15-20 years from now. We're playing catch-up to other countries, and we don't want to tie them. We want to beat them."