Fresno County towns to get $5M to improve infrastructure

$5 million from the federal government is headed to the Fresno County towns of Tranquillity and Cantua Creek for some infrastructure projects.  

$2 million will go to Cantua Creek for sidewalk improvements, and $3 million will go to neighboring Tranquillity for their complete streets project. 

Valley Congressman John Duarte along with Fresno County Supervisor Brian Pacheco helped secure the money. Duarte says this project will make a huge difference for people in these communities. 

“If you look at these communities today before these improvements, we’ve got children walking to school on muddy streets, choosing whether they go through a mud puddle to get to school or they set themselves out to traffic, to walk to school in the morning or in the afternoon, It’s very unsafe. It’s not the way most Americans expect their neighborhoods to work,” Duarte said. 

Duarte, who represents California’s 13th Congressional District, was at the Tranquillity Library in Fresno County on Thursday to sign and present the checks. 

“All kinds of community improvements for these communities that are so small with a very low tax base that really don’t see these kinds of investments unless we can make them as part of the community projects program out of Congress,” he said.

The money will help make better roads and sidewalks, as well as fix drainage issues, allowing these communities to better deal with flooding during rainy and wet winters. 

Duarte says Fresno County workers will get started on some of the projects this year, but they don’t know exactly when all of the work will get done. 

“It’s got to go through all these environmental reviews to put sidewalks in neighborhoods that simply need sidewalks to improve roads. So we’re hoping we can accelerate these environmental review processes. And that’s really the biggest hang-up. The county’s ready. They’ve got their own operations department. They believe they can lay these roads and sidewalk improvements fairly quickly once all the all the paperwork is done,” Duarte said. 

 https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/local-news/2-rural-fresno-county-towns-to-get-5m-to-improve-infrastructure/