HomeMy WebLinkAbout4.13 - John Stonebraker - Magalia Dam - Magalia Dam Public CommentFrom:Clerk of the Board
To:Clerk of the Board; Connelly, Bill; Cook, Holly; Cook, Robin; Durfee, Peter; Jessee, Meegan; Kimmelshue, Tod;
Kitts, Melissa; Krater, Sharleen; Lee, Lewis; Little, Melissa; Pickett, Andy; Ritter, Tami; Stephens, Brad J.;
Sweeney, Kathleen; Teeter, Doug; Zepeda, Elizabeth
Cc:Pack, Joshua; Simmons, Katie; Nuzum, Danielle
Subject:Public Comment: FW: comment re: 4.13 Magalia Dam
Date:Tuesday, September 30, 2025 10:08:14 AM
Please see Public Comment
Sharleen L Krater
Administrative Analyst – Supervisor
(530) 552-3353
Butte County Administration
25 County Center Drive, Suite 200, Oroville, CA 95965
Restorative*Woo*Belief*Adaptability*Connectedness
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-----Original Message-----
From: John S. <john@upperridge.info>
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2025 9:10 AM
To: Clerk of the Board <clerkoftheboard@buttecounty.net>
Subject: comment re: 4.13 Magalia Dam
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attachments, clicking on links, or replying..
This has been a long time coming. PID was well into designing seismic retrofits for Magalia Dam and a replacement
for the deficient spillway before county staff expressed willingness to consider facilitating improvements to Skyway
thereby. This is a once in a lifetime window of opportunity. The dam has existed as is with its soggy core for more
than
100 years, and the planned buttresses should hold for another 100 years or more. But PID's task of making the dam
safe and restoring its full storage capacity does not necessarily require widening the dam crest.
PID is offering us the chance to make future Skyway improvements feasible by modifying their already submitted
60% designs and getting the environmental out of the way. They are also being quite generous in fronting the cost
for the roadworks portion of the design, only asking to be repaid when funding becomes available to construct the
new roadbed.
Skyway across Magalia Dam is currently unsafe, especially for bicyclists and pedestrians. Old Magalia residents
trying to get to the Holiday or Paradise Pines residents trying to get to the food pantry must cross the dam and the
narrow spillway bridge. The Upper Ridge Community Plan calls for improving the shoulders of Skyway down to
Pentz Road and for improving the evacuation route as currently one disabled vehicle can bottleneck traffic. For these
improvements to become feasible, the possibility must be incoporated into PID's ongoing redesign.
Thanks to director Marc Sulik for bringing this issue to light at the March PID board meeting, to Blaine Allen for
being frank and forthcoming with his board, to Kevin Phillips for keeping lines of communication open, to Josh
Pack for hustling to get aboard this moving train, and to both agencies for bringing electeds into the September 15
meeting to hash out this agreement in principle.
I wholeheartedly support this letter of intent.
John Stonebraker
Upper Ridge Community Council
Magalia, CA