We’re all well-aware of the County’s “interesting” approach to pavement maintenance. Around here, pavement repair is something that happens when there is a golf tournament or when someone other than the County - street restoration as part of a Sacramento Suburban Water District water meters project, for example - pays the bill. Recently, increased gas taxes and vehicle fees (Senate Bill 1 of 2017) have provided a new way for counties to get money from the state to fund road repair projects. Sacramento County has received $28.3M so far from the program; it is on course to receive an average of more than $24 million per year over the next 10 years . That will certainly help chip away at the County’s $700M backlog of road maintenance projects. However, when you look at the list of projects the County intends to fund with those dollars, you won’t find work proposed for the roads above Arden in the immediate vicinity of Kaiser Hospital. Kaiser is our community’s ONLY hospital and it is one in danger of slipping away. Kaiser has announced it will build a new hospital in the Railyards. Though that new site might be in the floodplain, is in an area where the City of Sacramento has already invested money on good roads. Kaiser hasn’t said what the plans are for the Morse Avenue facility. One would hope the County would seek to retain the jobs and important health care services at stake there. Given how the pavement around the hospital, particularly at it’s front door, has been allowed to deteriorate, is it a surprise that Kaiser has signaled its dwindling interest in our community?