City Council Annexes Pepper Ave./I-10 Interchange

The Colton City Council unanimously approved annexing a portion of San Bernardino County at their Aug. 18 meeting in order to have control over the maintenance and beautification of a new bridge at Pepper Ave. and the I-10 freeway. The I-10/Pepper Ave. interchange project includes the construction of a bridge with the city logo on both sides of the bridge and the city name below the logo. However, since the interchange is located within the County of San Bernardino, Colton would be unable to include their city logo and name on the bridge or have control over the beautification and landscaping of the area. By approving the annexation and maintenance agreement, the City of Colton will not be restricted in the aesthetics of the area and would be able to add the logo and city name to the bridge. Councilmember Isaac Suchil raised concern on whether or not other cities that completed their bridges had to go through the same process to do their maintenance and beautification. “I was just making sure that our city wasn’t singled out,” Suchil said at the meeting. “A lot of other bridges that have been rehabbed have city logos on them…were they made to do all the same stuff?” According to Public Works Director Amer Jakher, even though the other city bridges do have their city logo and city name, their bridges are located within the cities’ borderline. However, the I-10/Pepper Ave. bridge is located outside of the city, but is directly adjacent to the city’s borderlines. If the bridge was located further from Colton, then it would have been more difficult to have a maintenance agreement. A third of a mile of Pepper Ave. and a portion of Slover Ave. to the south will be annexed into the City of Colton. According to Public Works Director Amer Jakher, an estimated cost of $2,000 to $3,000 a year will be needed to do cleanup and repair. Jakher also said that within the next 10 years, an estimated cost of $100,000 will be needed to repair the road to the south of Pepper Ave.. According to Jakher, the County of San Bernardino received funding for various transportation projects in the early 1990s, but did not have enough funding to complete them. Approximately four years ago, the county went to the San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) to assist in the projects. Some of SANBAG’s responsibilities include developing efficient transportation systems and improving regional planning. The City of Colton’s share in the I-10/Pepper Ave. project is approximately half a million dollars. “Every city has to put in their fair share,” Mayor Pro Tem Frank Navarro said at the meeting. “Rialto put in an excess of $35 million of their own money into those projects to make them look as aesthetic as they are.”