Butte Chico Camp Fire Continuous Coverage
Paradise was awarded nearly $200 Million, Butte County was awarded just over $72 Million and Chico was awarded just over $12 Million.
BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. - A major boost for Camp Fire rebuilding and recovery is here in Butte County. State and local leaders announced hundreds of millions in new funding through the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
Paradise was awarded nearly $200 Million, Butte County was awarded more than $72 Million and Chico was awarded over $12 Million.
The money has already been awarded to help with damage from the Camp Fire. Each entity will just have to get each project cleared. The projects can only be used for infrastructure.
That means it can be used for roads bridges, sewer systems but also for fire prevention.
Action News Now asked Chico City Manager Mark Sorensen if these funds could be used for fixing previous homeless camps it has cleared out, such as covering the fixes for the irrigation issues at Comanche Creek. He said it could not be used for that.
Each entity that received money, already submitted project proposals, and will just have to select the ones to move forward on, based on importance.
"We're very grateful that they listened to us and we had so much success, and indeed the efforts of the people of Paradise and others in the Camp Fire area with keeping the story alive," said Rep. Doug LaMalfa U.S. Congress.
Each entity that received money also submitted project proposals for more funding than received. Paradise asked for $850 Million in funding and Chico also asked for more too.
"We identified something around the order of $80 Million in infrastructure needs, so this will go a long way to helping out," said Sorensen.
Chico plans to use these funds specifically for road and sewer projects. The county is looking to do road repairs, but also trying to help the Oroville sewer system and even bringing a behavioral health location to Paradise.
"All the edges of all our country roads are worn off and we didn't have the money, so that'll be great help there," said Butte County Supervisor Bill Connelly. "Fire mitigation is what we can use it for, so we'll probably look at that because if we don't start right now taking care of our forests, then it will come back and burn again."
The town of Paradise will use the money to fix roads and help towards the new sewage system project, but the town has a particular focus on improving evacuation routes.
"We're re-doing Skyway," said Paradise Mayor Steve Crowder. "Skyway will be reconfigured where it's going to be two lanes down and one lane up, parking both sides, center turn lane so the bouts will be gone. There will be full access where we can use it in a contraflow manner to get everyone out of town."
There's lots of construction on Skyway right now, but people in Paradise say it shouldn't focus on just the primary roads.
"I know a lot of the smaller roads in Paradise and up the hill into Magalia definitely need to be re-done," said Magalia resident Ryann Pinnegar.
The recent construction and signs of rebuilding have some very hopeful of Paradise's future.
"I know that before you couldn't see anything, but now that I'm seeing it the outline and the picture, you know you see there's tons of work going down every day," said Brianna Franklin who is married to a construction worker.
Some people on the ridge tell Action News Now, they hope other communities devastated by the Camp Fire, don't get forgotten with these projects.
"We're really grateful that Paradise gets the money because Paradise is kind of our center of commerce," said Pinnegar. "There's a lot of people in Magalia that don't go all the way down to Chico. If Paradise gets better, that benefits us up in Magalia, but there are a lot of things that need to be taken care of and because we are not incorporated, we do often feel overlooked."
Redding and Shasta Lake also received money for Carr Fire relief.
Work towards these projects will start immediately and some county leaders say construction work could begin in as quick as 6 months.
Here is a full breakdown of money awarded through the Disaster Recovery Funding:
▪ Butte County, $72,722,679.61
▪ City of Chico, $12,388,409.65
▪ City of Malibu, $47,276.93
▪ City of Redding, $22,563,043.51
▪ City of Shasta Lake, $6,326,184.69
▪ Los Angeles County, $3,788,157.86
▪ Town of Paradise, $199,592,735.75
Source: https://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/hundreds-of-millions-of-fire-recovery-funding-awarded-to-paradise-chico-and-butte-county/article_034fedd6-2287-11ed-9ba6-3352a590772a.html
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