Commentary By Donna Westfall – February 8, 2024 Last month, on January 14th, the hillside on Pebble Beach Drive between 7th and 8th was looking bad. A 75 foot section of the bluff slid down to the beach. Vehicles and pedestrians are prevented from accessing that area due to safety concerns. This week, it's worse. The road is a mess. It is breaking apart due to the most recent downpour. Picture By Doug Westfall At Monday night's Council meeting February 5th, City Manager Eric Wier gave a presentation by starting out with, "This remains a top priority project for City staff as well as obviously the community." Later on in the meeting they addressed this problem through Agenda Item 12 by declaring an emergency due to continuous slide activity and the failure of Pebble Beach Drive. The report prepared by City Attorney, Martha Rice and Director of Public Works, Dave Yeager went over the background dating back to the storms of December 2016 when evidence of road cracks and loss of road foundation appeared. At this point in time, the project is estimated around $30 million for a permanent fix. Funding is a real concern. This week, Dave Yeager had a meeting set up with the geotechnical engineer as well as with a contractor. Yeager is keeping up communications with Cal Trans and Coastal Commission. Close up They have submitted the damage estimate and Emergency Opening (EO). Work would have to be completed within 270 days, and it could be 100% reimbursable but that is only for the emergency work. If you want to watch the YouTube videos, it's in two parts. And Part two had a technical problem for about the first seven minutes. There was no sound and no ZOOM.