How the County is Spending Your Money: Part Two

Susan Heavilin
Mar 20
2 min read

Have you ever heard of OPM? It stands for "Other People's Money". When you're using OPM, you might do things differently than if you were spending your own money.

Things are progressing down on the east end of San Miguel Road. I returned on March 19, 2025 and they were one day away from completing the work.

I'm not sure that this is a County project or a Game & Wildlife project. I called both but neither have returned my call. Technically, it's Game land but the County has been involved with several failed projects there (see "How the County is Spending Your Money: Part One")

Initially when asked "¿hablo inglés?" the workers replied "nada, nada". I wasn't too concerned because I was with my trusty bi-lingual compadre, Jeff Hunt, who had them rolling in the aisles immediately. Amazingly their English improved and we were soon conversing in my native language. I asked the workers who had hired them. They didn't seem to know or maybe they just didn't want me to know.

Jeff Hunt had already befriended them when he dug a trench across the road from the water meter to their project on the other side. Once on the west side of San Miguel, the pipe would remain on top of the land.

If you look closely, you can see the little plant. The workers did not create wells around the seedlings or even smooth out the ground. So locating these tiny plants might be equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack. You might need to click on the images to enlarge them.

The PVC pipe is above ground and the sprinklers stick out several feet above the ground. This will be a job for hand weeding only. No machinery can get in there without breaking it all up.

The ground is a nice greenish tint already as the weeds are enjoying all the unexpected water. It will be interesting to see what grows taller, the plants or the weeds.

They planted hundreds of plants of different varieties.

The sprinklers on the back row were spraying immense amounts of water the entire time I was on the site. I wouldn't want to be paying that water bill! Or maybe I am.

The water is on a temporary hookup to the water meter. The connector sticks way out, almost into the roadway. But have no fear, there is a substantial orange cone protecting the connector from any wayward cars traveling down the bumpy road.

The numbers on the dial were whipping around. One if the workers turned off the water by hand before the team departed. I guess watering is not anticipated to be a long term endeavor.