A non-injury car accident outside Cosumnes River Elementary School last week triggered safety measures at the school and ended a summer of silence about what's delaying plans to build a new school.
The reason for the delays -- water.
"We are working hard to get a school built and keep getting obstacles thrown up one by one by one. ... Water is the main one right now," said Elk Grove Unified School District Board of Education member Brian Myers.
Paul Frank, the owner of the Stonehouse Road property proposed for the school, has been critical of relying on ground water to meet the school's needs. The other day, he recalled telling one district official, "My experts are saying there's a very good chance you could build that school and it could be useless, uninhabitable, because there's not enough water."
Both Frank and the school district, negotiating the sale of the property, have been pushing the Community Services District to deliver water service to the land.
"We're still in dialogue," CSD General Manager Ed Crouse said this week, "but I think that's about all I can really say."
He's not the only one being tight-lipped. The school district, which began a series of community meetings on the school last year, has gone silent since May. Repeated requests for school progress reports, or plans for the next community meeting, have yielded nothing.
Last week's car accident brought a spotlight to the school situation once again. Safety barriers were placed along the school's Jackson Road fence, and patrol cars sat outside at the beginning and end of the school day, slowing the commuter cars that usually rush past.
When there was no word from the school district after test wells were drilled on the Frank property in June, many wondered if it meant the water was lacking.
That wasn't the case, according to Myers. He said the test well results confirm there is enough water to meet the school's needs.
What brought things to a standstill, he said, were allegations that the testing adversely affected neighboring wells, including the well for the Franks' home, which is located at the opposite end of the 220-acre property from the school site.
"Paul Frank alleges that the district damaged his well when we drilled for four days and we pumped for four days, and he says that there's eight other people who also suffered some damage for their wells," Myers said. "We've not been able to verify any of that, but that's an important issue legally. ... He was on the front page of the River Valley Times standing in his bathroom with a dirty bathtub saying, 'Look what the district did to my water.'"
After the complaints were reported, the school district turned to the CSD for water. But it's not simply a matter of requesting service, because the property is outside the CSD service area. Additionally, the CSD water treatment plant is at capacity and requires a multi-million-dollar expansion to accommodate new customers.
"We asked the CSD to please put us at the top of their list and we haven't been able to get an answer from them in four months," Myers said. "Ed Crouse keeps saying, 'Sure, we'll hook you up,' 'Sure, we'll hook you up,' and we keep saying give us the paperwork, give us how much, tell us when, where and all that, and we don't have an answer still in four months. ... You're not going to buy a piece of property if you can't build on it, if it doesn't have water access either by drilling or by hookup."
For his part, Crouse says the CSD is not in a position to make "a hard and fast commitment" to have the facilities in place on the school district's timetable for the school. "We said we would try to work with them given the limitations of our plant capacity and our water rights," he said.
If the CSD is to provide all the water for the school, "it would require us to petition the state Division of Water Rights to expand our place of use to include the school site," which could take years, Crouse said.
"When we first started talking to the school district three or four years ago, the development projects were imminent, and once that happened they were going to be coming with hard money to build an expansion of the water plant," Crouse said. "But now, who knows if and when those projects will be kicking off ... It just may not occur, given the economy. ... I'm not sure there are such things as certain dates any more in this environment."
John Sullivan, the Franks' representative in negotiations with the school district, said he has urged the school district to get together with the CSD about providing the school's water, calling it the "best idea," and a way to save money. He has made the same recommendation at CSD committee and board meetings, which he attends as the representative of Murieta West, a development plan that includes the Frank property.
Sullivan is a longtime Murietan who has served on the CSD and Rancho Murieta Association boards.
The way Sullivan sees it, the CSD service area could be expanded to include the school site and the two bottom parcels of the Frank property as well. This would provide CSD services for the Community Church and development planned as part of Murieta West.
Sullivan said he thinks Paul Frank would "reluctantly accept" a purchase offer from the school district if the CSD provided all the water for the school.
A previous proposal would have had the CSD providing water for inside use only and getting well water from the school district in return under what's called a wheeling agreement.
"We told the school district the wheeling arrangement is a way for us to give you service so that if you want water by ‘x' deadline, absent waiting until our water rights get approved, if it ever gets approved. And they said, all well and good," Crouse recalled.
Now, said Myers, "We couldn't wheel if we're destroying people's wells."