Parking, showing support for residents over tourists, and Central Coast Blue were the big topics at an Oct. 10 League of Women Voters forum in Pismo Beach, where the two mayoral candidates squared off.
Incumbent Mayor Ed Waage said that during his time he led an effort to approve both a new fire station and police station that will reduce response times by 90 seconds, worked on projects that helped repave a third of the city’s streets, and finished construction on new playground equipment at several city parksāand he wants to continue that work.
Waage’s running against newcomer Kevin Kreowski, a retired U.S. Border Patrol agent, who said that he has similar experience to a city manager because he used to supervise a team. The only difference, he said, was that “all my personnel had badges and guns, so it added a little extra flavor.”
“If you’ve seen me at your door, then you’ve heard me tell you that I want to spend more time and attention on our residents and our businesses,” he said. “We put enough money downtown; it’s time to spread the wealth. I also want to tighten up our litigation, and I want to clarify and figure out what we have going downtown with regards to parking.”
Both agreed that parking, especially downtown, is one of the biggest problems facing Pismo Beach.
Waage said that as soon as construction on the fire and police stations is done, the city can use the temporary spaces that currently hold each department as new parking lots.
“I think, additionally, we need to find out how we can entice more of our residents downtown,” he said. “We have a beautiful downtown, and one thing we’re trying to do is remind them that we do have a parking pass for residents that’s $35 a year and it allows them to park in certain lots for the rest of the year.”
Kreowski said that one thing that’s equally important to downtown parking and congestion from visitors is the city’s constant litigation battles.
Tightening up litigation, he said, would free up funding to focus on other problems like shaping up Shell Beach’s abandoned buildings and beautifying parks because the city is currently “losing millions.”
Residents who attended the forum asked Waage where the Central Coast Blue (CCB) recycled water project stands now that Pismo’s two partner cities pulled out and whether he wants to continue moving forward with it.
Waage said that while he doesn’t anticipate Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach will rejoin the project anytime soon, an active environmental lawsuit against SLO County over Lopez Lake could potentially mean a reduction in Pismo Beach’s water supply from the lake.
“I think the city can certainly look at a scaled-down version moving forward for now,” he said. “The droughts aren’t going away. We certainly need to look forward to ways we can scale it back, we’ve gotten like 80 percent of the design documents done, and the studies tell us what we can do and what will work.”
Kreowski said that new potential council members in Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach could mean that the cities would want to get together again on this project.
“I want to see us stop increasing rates until we get that plan put together,” he said. “I think the residents deserve not to be paying more for something that is not happening. … So, CCB is viable, and I think there’s other things that we can look at as far as water to put into that aquifer, but let’s see what happens at the election and go from there.” Ī
This article appears in Oct 17-27, 2024.