Special Loan for Water District Backed

SACRAMENTO — The Senate Local Government Committee voted 4-0 Wednesday to make a $15,000 emergency loan to the Jacumba Community Services District for repairs to make the desert community’s water system meet minimum standards for fighting fires.

Saying the southeastern San Diego County community did not have enough water to fight fires last summer and faces a similar predicament this year, Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista) told committee members the loan is “like an insurance policy.”

The newly formed community service district plans to take over and improve the badly deteriorated investor-owned Jacumba Water Co. when it receives a $200,000 appropriation under legislation approved last year.

But that appropriation was conditional, coming from money the state hopes to get from the federal government as revenue from off-shore oil leases. However, the settlement is stalled while Congress tries to balance the federal budget.