Hey! Can anybody give Grover Beach $15 million to fix up its sewer system? Anyone? No? Well, damn, because some of its lines are old and at or near capacity, and with future planned development, the lines will be over capacity. Sounds like a potentially shitty situation, amirite?
According to Grover’s Public Works Director Greg Ray, sewer pipes should be flowing between 50 and 70 percent of capacity to work efficiently, and some of the city’s pipes are operating at more than 70 percent, with some between 80 and 89 percent.
“With newer development in progress or process right now, they will go to over 100 percent,” Ray explained. “We’ve got to catch those ones first.”
And if Grover does nothing? Sewage backing up on the streets, people! From Grover City to Grover Beach to Guano Streets.
How did Grover Beach get into this quandary? Depends on who you ask. As far as the City Council and staff are concerned, they’ve been hamstrung by Measure G-24, a 2024 ballot initiative that reduced water rates to 2021 levels. G-24 was a reaction to proposed water rate hikes to fund the water reclamation project Central Coast Blue.
G-24 was spearheaded by the citizens group Grover H20, which succeeded in squelching the reclamation project but also cut off essential funding for capital improvement projects and maintenance.
On the other hand, if you asked the folks behind Grover H20, the city’s problems are entirely self-inflicted.
“Stop trying to raise our rates,” Brenda Auer threatened. “Don’t make us go back with the signs again.”
She admonished the City Council to “never blame G-24. … G-24 saved the residents, and that’s a good thing.”
“The city is taking from the poor and giving to the rich,” Debbie Peterson claimed. “Robbing the poor to pay for the developer’s development.”
Brand new Mayor Kassi Dee sure has her hands full. She campaigned on being transparent, so she pushed back, asking City Manager Matt Bronson whether the city was letting developers skip paying fees. Absolutely not, Bronson said. The city doesn’t have the ability, although it can defer fees until developments are complete.
Dee ticked through a list of other accusations, and none had apparent merit.
“The reason why I’m doing this is just to show transparency,” Dee explained.
Maybe instead of being corrupt, the city is merely underfunded by a citizenry that doesn’t want to pay for essential services. Staff is recommending a rate increase and issuing bonds to pay for the upgrades.
You know what they say about shit sandwiches? The more bread you’ve got, the less shit you’ve got to eat, and right now, Grover Beach is $15 million short with a shitstorm brewing.
Speaking of brewing storms and impending crises, it’s no secret SLO County has a dearth of mental health facilities, so it seems like odd timing to close the crisis stabilization unit (CSU) on Johnson Avenue in SLO.
The county’s Behavioral Health Department announced on its Instagram and Facebook pages that the unit would be closed starting Feb. 22, but the county’s webpage says it’s been closed since Jan. 1. Department spokesperson Caroline Schmidt told New Times the unit “temporarily” closed last fall and winter. What?
“The department, Health Agency, just looked at our other service priorities at this time and decided to close the crisis stabilization unit just so that we can focus on enhancing the mobile crisis efforts,” Schmidt said.
The passage of Proposition 1 might have had something to do with it. The proposition aims to strengthen California’s behavioral health system, but it also means that money that was going to local programs will shrink.
Cue the losses!
It costs about $1.8 million a year to operate the four-bed CSU, and according to Schmidt, the facility was underused.
“We were averaging just under two clients per day, and only for a few hours, when we would need to serve nearly three or four per day to meet costs. Some of that is also due to the fact that our county has a lower Medi-Cal reimbursement rate for crisis stabilization than other counties,” Schmidt said. “The county will be able to use the funds that would have gone to the CSU to support other programs with higher utilization.”
Being a rural county is lame! Well, except for the ruralness. If we had higher Medi-Cal reimbursements would we be able to keep this place that there’s clearly still a need for? It’s not like no one is using it.
Trinity Berguia, a licensed marriage and family therapist in SLO, was astounded by the closure, as she had clients who used it frequently.
“The CSU closure was a surprise because it has been a helpful resource to the community,” she said. “There’s very little information, if any at all, about why the closure happened.”
Interestingly, no one’s talking about Paso Robles resident Elina Branco, 19, who died at the facility on May 18, 2024, while under a 5150 involuntary hold as she awaited transfer to a drug rehab in Tarzana. Her mother, Linda Cooper, has filed a federal lawsuit alleging neglect since the unit appears to have falsified records of wellness checks for her daughter. The lawsuit claims Branco died eight hours before the CSU called for medical help. Δ
The Shredder could also use a hot cash injection. Send ideas to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Weddings 2025.
And there it is… the truth, as clear as day. The “Brain Trust” of Peterson, Auer, and Storton have successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of Grover Beach voters. They lied to you. Their plan? Simple: “Who doesn’t want to pay less for services? Let’s want to be so right about Central Coast Blue (even though the project is dead, and we already got our way) that we’ll gladly blow off our big toe to win.”
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I watched the circus from the comfort of my home (with a flushing toilet, no less), as they went to town lying to the community. I saw the staff reports warning that street projects — already funded and planned — were about to be axed because, oops, the necessary sewer pipes and valves couldn’t be fixed. All of this over what, like $2 a month? Brilliant. Truly. What a bunch of crap (get it?).
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It’s a shame, really, for the good folks of Grover Beach who fell for this carnival act. If your street needs rehab under the K-14 program, be sure to send a thank-you card to this crew for ruining your day (and quite possibly your property value). It’s time to hit the mute button on their circus and get to work fixing the mess they’ve made.
Cant have it both ways. If housing on the CC is unaffordable, water is an aspect of affordability. How much is the average water bill for a family of 2 in GB? I’d like to hear from some families themselves because I’m sure that City Govt will have a mystical number claiming that as the average that we know is not true. And I get tired of the overuse of “transparency.” Tell us the truth. That’s an age old concept.