Los Osos sewer project will have easier time getting federal funds with waiver

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• Department of Interior grant will help coastal habitats

  Department of Interior grant will help coastal habitats

  San Luis Obispo County has received a grant of $610,000 to improve coastal habitats in Los Osos, Pismo Beach and the Guadalupe Dunes.

  The largest chunk — $300,000 — goes to the county to prepare state and federal environmental impact reports for the Los Osos Habitat Conservation Plan. It will protect endangered species in Los Osos from new development.

  Preparing the plan is required by the state Coastal Commission as part of its approval of the Los Osos sewer system. The plan should speed up the time it takes to get a building permit in Los Osos, said county Supervisor Bruce Gibson.

• Bill aims to ease Los Osos sewer costs

  Bill aims to ease Los Osos sewer costs

  The county and Los Osos Community Services District will develop a plan in upcoming months to implement a state law that would lift financial pressure from low-income homeowners when they receive bills for the new Los Osos sewer.

  John Waddell of the county Public Works Department told the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that officials will map out a program, including public outreach, to implement AB 1125, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law last week.

  Waddell did not give a specific timetable, but the law takes effect Jan. 1, 2012.

• Relationship between Paavo Ogren, Maria Kelly not a conflict of interest, official says

  Relationship between Paavo Ogren, Maria Kelly not a conflict of interest, official says

  The county’s top administrator said Tuesday that Public Works Director Paavo Ogren had not created a conflict of interest because of his romantic relationship with former Los Osos Community Services District Director Maria Kelly.

  County Administrator Jim Grant had been asked by the Board of Supervisors to look into allegations that Ogren and Kelly had been “conspiring to help push through a $200 million sewer project” in the seaside community.

  Grant said Kelly and Ogren have had “a dating relationship” since January and were friends before that for at least four years, with the friendship “revolving around their children, work and mutual friends.”

• Los osos sewer project may get a little cheaper

  Los osos sewer project may get a little cheaper

  State water officials will meet in Sacramento on Monday to consider lowering the interest rate on a loan for the Los Osos sewer project, a move that could shave millions of dollars off the price of the project, reducing the cost to residents.

  The State Water Resources Control Board will consider a staff recommendation to lower the rate on a $69.7 million loan from 2.6 percent to 2 percent. The county and Los Osos Community Services District are sending letters to the water board urging that the interest rate be reduced to zero in an effort to make the massive infrastructure project as affordable as possible.

  “The district board is wholly supportive of a reduction in the current interest rate of 2.6 percent to 0 percent, and we believe we speak for the overwhelming majority of the 12,500 residents affected by the project,” community services district board President Marshall Ochylski stated in a letter to the board.

• Report set on Public Works head

  Report set on Public Works head

  The county’s top administrator says he will release his investigative report on Public Works Director Paavo Ogren on Tuesday “unless something unexpected comes up.”